The consumer decision journey PART II
Aligning marketing with the consumer decision journey
Developing a deep
knowledge of how consumers make decisions is the first step. For most
marketers, the difficult part is focusing strategies and spending on the most
influential touch points. In some cases, the marketing effort’s direction must
change, perhaps from focusing brand advertising on the initial-consideration
phase to developing Internet properties that help consumers gain a better understanding
of the brand when they actively evaluate it. Other marketers may need to retool
their loyalty programs by focusing on active rather than passive loyalists or
to spend money on in-store activities or word-of-mouth programs. The
increasing complexity of the consumer decision
journey will force
virtually all companies to adopt new ways of measuring consumer attitudes,
brand performance, and the effectiveness of marketing expenditures across the
whole process.
Without such a
realignment of spending, marketers face two risks. First, they could waste
money: at a time when revenue growth is critical and funding tight, advertising
and other investments will be less effective because consumers aren’t getting
the right information at the right time. Second, marketers could seem out of
touch—for instance, by trying to push products on customers rather than
providing them with the information, support, and experience they want to reach
decisions themselves.
Four kinds of
activities can help marketers address the new realities of the consumer
decision journey.
Prioritize objectives and spending
In the past, most
marketers consciously chose to focus on either end of the marketing
funnel—building awareness or generating loyalty among current customers. Our
research reveals 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. By looking just at the traditional marketing funnel’s
front or back end, companies could miss exciting opportunities not only to
focus investments on the most important points of the decision journey but also
to target the right customers.
In the skin care
industry, for example, we found that some brands are much stronger in the
initial-consideration phase than in active evaluation or closure. For them, our
research suggests a need to shift focus from overall brand positioning—already
powerful enough to ensure that they get considered—to efforts that make
consumers act or to investments in packaging and in-store activities targeted
at the moment of purchase.
Tailor messaging
For some companies, new
messaging is required to win in whatever part of the consumer journey offers
the greatest revenue opportunity. A general message cutting across all stages
may have to be replaced by one addressing weaknesses at a specific point, such
as initial consideration or active evaluation.
Take the automotive
industry. A number of brands in it could grow if consumers took them into
consideration. Hyundai, the South Korean car manufacturer, tackled precisely
this problem by adopting a marketing campaign built around protecting consumers
financially by allowing them to return their vehicles if they lose their jobs.
This provocative message, tied to something very real for Americans, became a
major factor in helping Hyundai break into the initial-consideration set of
many new consumers. In a poor automotive market, the company’s market share is
growing.
Invest in consumer-driven marketing
To look beyond
funnel-inspired push marketing, companies must invest in vehicles that let
marketers interact with consumers as they learn about brands. The epicenter of
consumer-driven marketing is the Internet, crucial during the active-evaluation
phase as consumers seek information, reviews, and recommendations. Strong
performance at this point in the decision journey requires a mind-set shift
from buying media to developing properties that attract consumers: digital
assets such as Web sites about products, programs to foster word-of-mouth, and
systems that customize advertising by viewing the context and the consumer.
Many organizations face the difficult and, at times, risky venture of shifting
money to fundamentally new properties, much as P&G invested to gain radio
exposure in the 1930s and television exposure in the 1950s.
Broadband connectivity,
for example, lets marketers provide rich applications to consumers learning
about products. Simple, dynamic tools that help consumers decide which products
make sense for them are now essential elements of an online arsenal. American
Express’s card finder and Ford’s car configurator, for example, rapidly and
visually sort options with each click, making life easier for consumers at
every stage of the decision journey. Marketers can influence online
word-of-mouth by using tools that spot online conversations about brands,
analyze what’s being said, and allow marketers to post their own comments.
Finally,
content-management systems and online targeting engines let marketers create
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. For instance, many airlines manage and
relentlessly optimize thousands of combinations of offers, prices, creative
content, and formats to ensure that potential travelers see the most relevant
opportunities. Digital marketing has long promised this kind of targeting. Now
we finally have the tools to make it more accurate and
to manage it cost effectively.
Win the in-store battle
Our research found that
one consequence of the new world of marketing complexity is that more consumers
hold off their final purchase decision until they’re in a store. Merchandising
and packaging have therefore become very important selling factors, a point
that’s not widely understood. Consumers want to look at a product in action and
are highly influenced by the visual dimension: up to 40 percent of them change
their minds because of something they see, learn, or do at this point—say,
packaging, placement, or interactions with salespeople.
In skin care, for
example, some brands that are fairly unlikely to be in a consumer’s
initial-consideration set nonetheless win at the point of purchase with
attractive packages and on-shelf messaging. Such elements have now become
essential selling tools because consumers of these products are still in play
when they enter a store. That’s also true in some consumer electronics
segments, which explains those impressive rows of high-definition TVs in
stores.
Sometimes it takes a
combination of approaches—great packaging, a favorable shelf position, forceful
fixtures, informative signage—to attract consumers who enter a store with a strong attachment to
their initial-consideration set. Our research shows that in-store touch points
provide a significant opportunity for other brands.
Integrating all customer-facing activities
In many companies,
different parts of the organization undertake specific customer-facing
activities—including informational Web sites, PR, and loyalty programs. Funding
is opaque. A number of executives are responsible for each element, and they
don’t coordinate their work or even communicate. These activities must be
integrated and given appropriate leadership.
The necessary changes
are profound. A comprehensive view of all customer-facing activities is as
important for business unit heads as for CEOs and chief marketing officers. But
the full scope of the consumer decision journey goes beyond the traditional
role of CMOs, who in many companies focus on brand building, advertisements,
and perhaps market research. These responsibilities aren’t going away. What’s
now required of CMOs is a broader role that realigns marketing with the current
realities of consumer decision making, intensifies efforts to shape the public
profiles of companies, and builds new marketing capabilities.
Consider the range of
skills needed to manage the customer experience in the automotive-insurance
industry, in which some companies have many passive loyalists who can be pried
away by rivals. Increasing the percentage of active loyalists requires not only
integrating customer-facing activities into the marketing organization but also
more subtle forms of organizational cooperation. These include identifying
active loyalists through customer research, as well as understanding what drives
that loyalty and how to harness it with word-of-mouth programs. Companies need
an integrated, organization-wide “voice of the customer,” with skills from
advertising to public relations, product development, market research, and data
management. It’s hard but necessary to unify these activities, and the CMO is
the natural candidate to do so.
Marketers have long
been aware of profound changes in the way consumers research and buy products.
Yet a failure to change the focus of marketing to match that evolution has
undermined the core goal of reaching customers at the moments that most
influence their purchases. The shift in consumer decision making means that
marketers need to adjust their spending and to view the change not as a loss of
power over consumers but as an opportunity to be in the right place at the
right time, giving them the information and support they need to make the right
decisions.
By David Court, Dave
Elzinga, Susan Mulder, and Ole Jørgen Vetvik
https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/the-consumer-decision-journey?cid=other-eml-cls-mkq-mck-oth-1804&hlkid=efe00d647b97430592dbfbbcedfd19c1&hctky=1627601&hdpid=260c2ff4-82f2-4d0a-a91f-6c71612bb264
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