The Consumer Decision Journey

The prime goal of marketing is to reach consumers at the right time to be able to influence
their decision. With wide variety of product choices, digital channels and well-informed
consumers, the environment has become less linear and more complex than suggested by the
funnel approach in which a consumer has a wide range of potential brands in mind in the
beginning but reduces down to one brand in the end. Hence, a more sophisticated approach
was developed based on a research that showed that proliferation of media and products
requires marketers to find ways to get their included in the initial-consideration set that
consumers develop as they begin their decision journey. This approach is known as the
Consumer Decision Journey. Aligning all elements of marketing with the journey that
consumers undertake when they make purchasing decisions and integrating them increases
the chances of reaching the consumers in the right place at the right time with the right
message.

The decision-making process is a circular journey with four primary phases. First is the
potential battleground where the brands win or lose for initial consideration. Second is the
active evaluation or process of researching potential purchases. Third is the closure phase
when consumers buy the product and fourth is the postpurchase when the consumers
experience the product. In the active evaluation phase, brands may enter consideration and
force the exit of rivals and the brands added in later stages differ by industry. Hence, this
creates opportunities for marketers. In today’s consumer-driven marketing two-thirds of the
touch points during the active-evaluation phase involve consumer-driven marketing activities,
such as Internet reviews, word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and family, in-store
interactions, and recollections of past experiences. Only one-third of the touch points are
company-driven marketing.

In today’s competitive world there are two kinds of loyalty. First are the active loyalists who
not only stick with the brand but also recommend it. Second are the passive loyalists who
stay with a brand without committing to it and are open to messages from competitors who
give them a reason to switch. Hence, marketers should make expanding the base of active
loyalists a priority.

With increasing consumer decision journey, virtually all companies need to adopt new ways
of measuring consumer attitudes, brand performance, and the effectiveness of marketing
expenditure across the whole process. Some of the ways could be focusing brand
advertisement on the initial consideration phase to developing internet properties that help
consumers gain a better understanding of the brand when they actively evaluate it, retooling
their loyalty programs by focusing on active rather than passive loyalists or to spend money
on in-store activities or word-of-mouth programs. Without such a realignment of spending,
marketers could either waste money or could seem out of touch. There is also a need to be
much more specific about the touch points used to influence consumers as they move through
initial consideration to active evaluation to closure and to also target the right customers.

A general message should be replaced by a message addressing the weakness at a particular

point like Hyundai adopting a marketing campaign built around protecting consumers
financially by allowing them to return their vehicles if they lost their jobs helped Hyundai to
break into the initial consideration set and the company’s market share is growing.

In the active evaluation phase, consumers seek reviews and recommendations on the Internet.
Hence Internet is the epicenter of consumer-driven marketing. Therefore, investment should
be made in buying media to attract consumers like digital assets such as websites about
products, programs to foster word-of-mouth and systems that customize advertising by
viewing context and the consumer. Content-management systems and online targeting
engines can be used for hundreds of variations on an advertisement taking into account the
context where it appears, the past behavior of viewers, and a real-time inventory of what an
organization needs to promote.

In-store touch points provide a significant opportunity for other brands as consumers are
highly influenced by the visual dimension. Hence, merchandising, packaging, placement,
interaction with the salespeople, on-shelf messaging have become very important selling
factors.

Companies need an integrated organization-wide “voice of the customer,” with skills from
advertising to public relations, product development, market research, data management and
loyalty programs.

Hence with all these measures companies may reach consumers at the time when they can
influence their decision to buy their products.