Understanding How People Buy: From Four A’s to Five A’s

Technology is not only revolutionizing the way industry players in ASEAN conduct business, it is
also changing the pattern of its customers’ decision-making process. In the pre-connectivity era,
a customer’s journey to buying a product or service was relatively simpler and shorter, which could
be described with the 4A process: Aware, Attitude, Act, and Act Again. This funnel-shaped
process demarcates the various points in customer journey, as he becomes aware of a brand,
develop an attitude towards it – of like or dislike, based on which they decide to purchase it and
also consider if it’s worth a repeat purchase. The funnel shape is on account of the fact that the
number of customers keep on declining as they move from one stage to another.
Moreover, customer preference to digital transaction encourages companies to shift their platforms
to digital marketing. At the moment, customers search for more information, learn about products,
purchase or shop by online. Customers have become increasingly mobile and channel-agnostic.
They move from one channel to another, from online to offline. That customer path is sometimes
even spiral.
According to Kotler et al. (2017), with the increase of mobility and connectivity, companies should
map customer path to purchase, understand customer touch points across the path and intervene in
selecting touch points that matter. The customer path should be written in the five A’s: aware,
appeal, ask, act, and advocate. In the aware phase, customers are passively exposed to brands from
their past experience, marketing communication and/or the advocacy of others. The appeal phase
is showing a condition after the customers are aware of several brands based on their experience
or they are being reminded by their friends, family, media or directly by the brands. Next stage is
ask. The ask phase is when the customers search for information by online and offline, such as
calling friends, searching for product reviews by online or contacting call center or sales agent.
After being convinced by the information, the customers will do the act by buying the product.
Then the last is advocate phase where the customers spontaneously recommend the brands.

Source:https://www.thejakartapost.com/academia/2017/03/29/the-new-customer-path-in-digital-
era.html; Review of Integrative Business and Economics Research, Vol. 7, Supplementary Issue 1,
2018
 Understanding How People Buy: From Four A’s to Five A’s
Teknologi tidak hanya merevolusi cara pelaku industri di ASEAN menjalankan bisnis, tetapi juga
mengubah pola proses pengambilan keputusan pelanggannya. Di era pra-konektivitas,
perjalanan pelanggan untuk membeli produk atau layanan relatif lebih sederhana dan lebih singkat,
yang dapat digambarkan dengan proses 4A: Aware, Attitude, Act, dan Act Again. Proses
berbentuk corong ini membatasi berbagai titik dalam perjalanan pelanggan, saat ia menjadi sadar
akan suatu merek, mengembangkan sikap terhadapnya – suka atau tidak suka, berdasarkan apa
yang mereka putuskan untuk membelinya dan juga mempertimbangkan apakah itu layak untuk
pembelian berulang. Bentuk corong adalah karena fakta bahwa jumlah pelanggan terus menurun
saat mereka berpindah dari satu tahap ke tahap lainnya.
Selain itu, preferensi pelanggan terhadap transaksi digital mendorong perusahaan untuk
mengalihkan platform mereka ke pemasaran digital. Saat ini, pelanggan mencari informasi lebih
lanjut, mempelajari produk, membeli atau berbelanja secara online. Pelanggan menjadi semakin
mobile dan channel-agnostic. Mereka berpindah dari satu saluran ke saluran lainnya, dari online
ke offline. Jalur pelanggan itu terkadang bahkan spiral.
Menurut Kotler dkk. (2017), dengan peningkatan mobilitas dan konektivitas, perusahaan harus
memetakan jalur pelanggan untuk membeli, memahami titik sentuh pelanggan di seluruh jalur dan
campur tangan dalam memilih titik sentuh yang penting. Jalur pelanggan harus ditulis dalam lima
A: Aware, Appeal, Ask, Act, and Advocate. Pada Fase Aware, pelanggan secara pasif terpapar
merek dari pengalaman masa lalu mereka, komunikasi pemasaran dan/atau advokasi orang lain.
Fase Appeal menunjukkan suatu kondisi setelah pelanggan mengetahui beberapa merek
berdasarkan pengalaman mereka atau diingatkan oleh teman, keluarga, media atau langsung oleh
merek. Tahap selanjutnya adalah Ask. Fase Ask adalah ketika pelanggan mencari informasi secara
online dan offline, seperti menelepon teman, mencari review produk secara online atau
menghubungi call center atau agen penjualan. Setelah yakin dengan informasi tersebut, konsumen
akan melakukan tindakan (Act) dengan membeli produk tersebut. Kemudian yang terakhir adalah
fase advokat di mana pelanggan secara spontan merekomendasikan merek.

Source:https://www.thejakartapost.com/academia/2017/03/29/the-new-customer-path-in-digital-
era.html; Review of Integrative Business and Economics Research, Vol. 7, Supplementary Issue 1,
2018