The internet has flourished the landscape of consumer and brand engagement. The old and
traditional strategies and structure of doing business is unsustainable. Consumers connect with
myriad brands through new media channels beyond the manufacturers and the retailer’s control
or knowledge. Consumers want a clear brand promise and offerings they value. However,
consumer touch points have changed in both number and nature and requires a major
adjustment to realign marketers’ strategy and budgets.
Block That Metaphor
The funnel metaphor fails to capture the shifting nature of consumer engagement. Far from
systematically narrowing their choices, today’s consumers take much more iterative and less
reductive journey of four stages: consider, evaluate, buy, and enjoy, advocate, bond. The
journey begins with consumers’ top of mind consideration and this stage contains the largest
number of brands. In evaluation consumers outreach and seek reviews and inputs that shape
their choices. In the buying stage, point of purchase is a powerful touch point. Finally, in enjoy,
advocate, bond stage, a deeper connection begins as the consumer interacts with the product
and with new online touch points with potential to enter in a loop.
The Journey in Practice
In marketing, two implications of the consumer decision journey for marketing stand out. The
first is that instead of focusing on how to allocate spending across traditional media, marketers
should target stages in the decision journey. The second is, marketers’ budgets are constructed
to meet the needs of a strategy that is outdated. Marketers must consider owned media and a
portion of the budget must go to nonworking spend.
Launching a Pilot
The shift to a CDJ-driven strategy has three parts: understanding your consumers’ decision
journey; determining which touch points are priorities and how to leverage them; and allocating
resources accordingly.
A Customer Experience Plan
A Customer Experience Plan can make the customer’s experience coherent and extend the
boundaries of the brand itself and vary from company to company. (a customer experience plan
will vary according to the company’s products, target segments, campaign strategy, and media
mix)
New Roles for Marketing
Developing and executing a CDJ-centric strategy driving an integrated customer experience
requires marketing to take on new or expanded roles. Three roles expected to become important
are: orchestrator, Publisher and “content supply chain” manager, and Marketplace intelligence
leader. The orchestrator can be a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) who can maintain traditional
and digital marketing communications along with added responsibilities. The Publisher and
“content supply chain” manager can manage the ever-escalating content supply chain by
rationalizing the creation and flow of product related content so that consumers develop a
clearer sense of the brand and have a coherent experience. The Marketplace intelligence leader
drives controls the marketing data and builds better experiences.
Starting the Journey
A company must capture processes, successes, and failures when it launches a pilot. A key
consideration is that, although the basic architecture of a CDJ strategy may remain intact as it
is expanded, specific tactics may vary from one market and product to another. The changes
buffeting marketers in the digital era are not incremental-they are fundamental. The
phenomenal reach, speed, and interactivity of digital touch points makes close attention to the
brand experience essential. Now, CMOs can seize the opportunity to take on a leadership role,
establish a stronger position in the executive suite and make the consumers’ brand experience
central to enterprise strategy