The Customer Journey

The customer journey has to do with the path to purchase. By this we mean all the various touch points considered or used by consumers before a purchase is made. Digital has changed the way people purchase, sell, approve, disapprove and general business operations. Customers go through different touch points or paths when making a purchase and the user experience may vary from consumer to consumer or from product to product. An example of a user experience for a phone purchase could be online research- compare- reviews- in store - purchase and another user experience could be reviews- research- online purchase.

Customer journeys are mainly categorized into impulse, habitual and research depending on the way and product we are buying. Impulse buying is unplanned, on things such as on gum, sweets or toothpaste and is deemed a low risk purchase or not a waste of money. 

While, habitual buying is on brands consumers have already bought into, and may not care about. These are products on the consumer list of purchase but can be substituted because the consumer knows what to expect from the product. To illustrate, a customer may switch Nescafe for Keno coffee when making a purchase.

Research purchase is used when spending large amounts of money. For instance, houses, holidays, electronics or cars. A customer journey also varies by time frame, for instance wanting to buy a car in a couple of months may change when the time arrives, Customers may want a deal car instead or the sales man may change their minds, etc. Therefore, for effective marketing, Brands need to understand the customer journey and time frames they operate on. These journeys are shaped by 5 drivers: Contacts, Consumer, Culture, Category and Context. Contacts- Consideration touch, RS touch points, final decision, Purchase point.

In consumers attitudes, the traditional marketing funnel includes- Awareness, familiarity, consideration, purchase, loyalty. However digital marketing has reshaped the journey and before digital marketing we listen to peer reviews and conduct research, but with digital marketing customers go to trip advisor, booking.com, and lastminute.com to view reviews from people they don’t know, browsing through good and bad reviews. Consumers use multi-channel journeys, for instance, TV, Online, print media, friends & family, brick & mortar stores to make a purchase. 

The shopper just wants to buy the best product, so brands need to understand the customer journey to effectively relate with its consumers on all marketing platforms.