Today, adapting my business’s Customer Journey to new digital trends becomes a top-level necessity. The time that consumers spend considering and evaluating a brand is becoming insufficient, and it is increasingly challenging to concentrate.
Consumers, when exposed to a lot of information both offline and online, choose to ignore most of it and focus on more reliable sources of information, which in this case happens to be their social circle, family, and friends.
That is why the premise is that we must investigate the different stages that our customers go through before making a purchase. But before continuing with this topic… What is the Customer Journey exactly?
Customer Journey and its importance
Customer Journey or consumer journey is a model that allows us to monitor the behavior, problems, and needs of our potential customers during the purchase process. This has undergone some changes since we entered the internet era, as explained by Google with the Zero Moment of Truth presented in 2011, and it continues to change rapidly. To try to explain it, I will use the model that Philip Kotler (the Father of Marketing) used in his book Marketing 4.0, which I highly recommend.
The AIDA Model
One of the most well-known models is the AIDA model (Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action). As you can see, the initials form a reminder list that was useful for marketing executives and advertisers when facing each of their objectives. The idea is to use this list to tailor marketing campaigns for each of these steps until reaching the action or in this case the purchase. As you can observe, this model is fully identified with the sales funnel.
Then this working model had a slight modification offered by Derek Rucker, from the Kellogg School of Management, which he called the 4’A’s: attention, attitude, action, and additional action. As you can see, the ‘interest’ and ‘desire’ phases are simplified into ‘attitude’ and a new ‘additional action’ phase is added. This change aims to offer a follow-up to the post-sale process and evaluate retention
The Era of Pre-Connectivity and Connectivity
Adapting the Customer Journey of my Business to the new digital trends means that the AIDA model and its modifications are becoming a bit outdated in the era of pre-connectivity. In the era of connectivity, there are new circumstances that we must take into account. Nowadays, consumers seek advice and offer opinions before taking action. For them, it is very important to know about other consumers’ experiences with the brand they want to buy. In the new customer journey, this contact between consumers will also need to be reflected.
Today, consumers ask for advice from their social circle, family, and friends, and finally, if the recommendations they received have convinced them, they decide to take action.
The 5 A’s Model
The new consumer journey as defined by Philip Kotler’s book Marketing 4.0 is the 5 A’s model: attention, attraction, aspiration, action, and advocacy.
Attention: In this new model, during the ‘attention’ phase, consumers are passively exposed to a long list of brands, marketing campaigns, and recommendations from others. In this particular phase, it is important to work on brand awareness.
Attraction: Once we have captured the consumer’s attention, they will selectively process our messages, creating short-term memories. They will be attracted to us and a limited list of brands that have also managed to capture their attention.
Inquiry: At this point, the consumer, driven by curiosity, begins the active process of inquiry. Once they are attracted to a brand, they will communicate with their social circle, family, and friends. If they decide to dig deeper into this brand, after receiving recommendations, they will start searching for reviews and ratings online and finally want to visit a physical store.
“Action: If the information obtained by the customer in the inquiry phase convinced them, they decide to take action. But let’s remember that we are not only looking for a purchase action. At this moment, we need the consumer to interact with the brand and have a positive experience. At this point, after-sales service plays a very important role, being attentive to any complaint and making sure to provide solutions to the customer.
Advocacy: Over time, our customer develops a strong sense of loyalty to the brand, reflected in their continued patronage, repeat purchases, and word-of-mouth referrals to other potential customers. This customer becomes an active advocate for the brand, sharing their positive experiences with others and becoming a brand ambassador.
It’s important to keep in mind that the 5 A’s phases don’t always happen in a linear way.
Remember, if you have any questions about this topic, you can write to me at alvaro@trippin.marketing, and if you want to learn about our solutions, you can check out this link: https://trippin.marketing/solutions/
I’m also attentive to your comments on this post! 🔥
