Decoding The Customer Purchase Path in Marketing
Written By: Zenobia Harris
Photo by The Nix Company on Unsplash
As consumers, many of our daily purchases have evolved into habits. We pick up milk in the grocery store without giving much thought to the brand. Milk is seen as simply a grocery staple. On the other hand, when you’re deciding where to buy a car, that large purchase may require more research. Despite the drastically different buyer considerations, each purchase entails a comparable buying process.
From the moment a potential customer recognizes that they need a product all the way to their post-purchase evaluation, each step in this journey is an opportunity for businesses to influence the consumers’ decisions.
This process is known as the Customer’s Buying Journey, and understanding it can greatly benefit brands and marketing professionals looking to connect with a business’s target audience.
These steps can help advertisers, marketers, brand managers, creative professionals, and even small-business owners more effectively guide consumers down the sales funnel.
What is the Customer’s Buying Journey?
The consumer buying process is the consumer’s steps towards making a purchase. This journey typically consists of six key stages. These six stages occur before, during, and after making a purchase:
Problem Recognition
Search for Information
Evaluating the Alternatives
Purchase Decision
The Purchase
Post-Purchase Evaluation
Each stage offers unique opportunities for marketers to engage with consumers and develop useful marketing strategies for different buying stages.
1. Problem Recognition
Problem recognition is the step at which consumers recognize their need or desire for a product or service. Businesses and marketing professionals can perform a bit of a consumer behavior analysis to understand this stage of the buying decision process. Problem recognition may stem from internal or external stimuli. Internal stimuli are needs that exist within—physiological or emotional—like hunger, sadness, thirst, etc. External stimuli are things within our environment that trigger a need/want, like the smell of coffee, encountering a sale ad from your favorite boutique, etc. A fundamental necessity, like needing milk from the store, can be triggered by the internal stimuli of hunger or thirst. On the other hand, the desire to own a trendy pair of shoes could be triggered by external stimuli, like seeing other students wearing them at school.
Tackling Problem Recognition in Advertising
Step one of the customer buying journey presents the best time for a business to introduce a problem that their product solves for the consumer. As a part of the marketing strategy, the ad content should explain why the consumer needs a particular product or service and how it will improve their life.
Let’s take a fictional company, like Jerry’s Mops, for example.
The Problem: Most people use mops at home for spills and messes. Thus, ad copy for Jerry’s Mops should present the problem and demonstrate/explain how Jerry’s Mops solves the problem, i.e., how well their mops clean up spills and messes.
Audio Ad Example:
ANNOUNCER: When life gives you messes…
SFX [1.00 SECONDS]: Cup falling
MAN 1: Oops!
ANNOUNCER: Jerry’s Mops is there to clean it up. Our mop heads are made with special microfiber technology fifteen times more absorbent than cotton used by other leading brands. Find Jerry’s Mops at your local superstore.
But what if there isn’t a palpable need for a product or service? If there isn’t an obvious need for a product, create one. Not every business solves a tangible problem for consumers. Focus on the target audience’s wants and desires. Let’s take another fictional company like Bob’s Ice Cream Shoppe. Does the average consumer truly need a gallon of chocolate fudge ice cream? Maybe not, but good marketing will convince consumers that their life would be better with Bob’s chocolate fudge ice cream, anyway.
Here’s how an ad for Bob’s Ice Cream Shoppe could focus on a want or create a need:
The Problem (Want): A consumer wants to satisfy their sweet tooth, or maybe they’re planning a birthday party or get-together. An ad addressing consumers at this stage should demonstrate how Bob’s Ice Cream satisfies cravings or mention how it is the perfect pairing for a birthday cake or a girls’ night in.
2. The Search for Information
Now that the consumer realizes they have a problem, they’ll begin searching for a solution. They may even start to reach out to friends and family for their opinions. Has Aunt Janice tried Bob’s Ice Cream Shoppe? Did she like it? Consumers will often conduct their own research and gather opinions from real-life customers.
Addressing The Search for Information
Step two is the perfect time to solidify the business’s reputation. One way to do that is by incorporating testimonials into the brand marketing strategy. Influencer/celebrity sponsorships and ad partnerships can also give a company the visibility and credibility it needs to move consumers to the next stage of the buying process. Ads that meet consumers at the research stage should explain what the product or service offers and present it as a viable option for the consumers’ purchasing needs. This is why testimonials from tried and true customers work. If one satisfied customer or celebrity endorser enjoys Bob’s Ice Cream Shoppe, it sends the message that maybe other consumers will too.
3. Evaluating the Alternatives
There are many businesses out there that offer the same services and products. The consumer has to figure out which company is worth their time and money and whose product/service can improve their life the most. The consumer may consider several other factors when evaluating alternatives based on the industry (healthcare, retail, etc.). The main point is that the business has to communicate that they’re the experts — the only people who can get the job done right.
Addressing the Evaluation Stage
A good marketing strategy will highlight what makes one brand better or more unique than the rest and sell that idea to consumers. Some clients may already know the answer to this question, while others might require a bit of help from professional creatives and marketing teams to discover their unique selling proposition. They can help businesses do a bit of soul searching to find a unique angle to use for marketing and advertising purposes. Creativity is essential because even if the client has a ton of competition, an ad that is memorable or elicits emotion is more likely to sway potential buyers to purchase. Think about how saturated the ice cream market is. How can Bob’s Ice Cream Shoppe set itself apart from the rest? Is unicorn glitter the secret ingredient that makes Bob’s triple fudge ice cream taste so good? Consumers need to know!
STAT BREAK
Do you remember the 1984 Wendy’s ad “Where’s the beef?” According to Forbes, the popularity of the Where’s the Beef ad led to a 31% increase in sales worldwide for Wendy’s. That’s a lot of beef!
Photo by Joshua Kantarges on Unsplash
4. Purchase Decision
During this stage, the consumer must decide whether to proceed with the purchase. This is where brands reassure them that this business is the right one for them.
Addressing the Purchase Decision
The best way to approach this step is to circle back to the problem presented in step one. Provide as much detail about the product/service as possible, and assure the consumer that this product is time and money well-spent. Let’s say we’re writing about Bob’s Ice Cream Shoppe. Our job is to provide as much detail about the product and business as possible in an engaging way. It might be worth mentioning that Bob’s Ice Cream Shoppe offers a satisfaction guarantee to seal the deal. It provides the consumer with a sense of security, so they feel like Bob is genuinely invested in delivering high-quality ice cream.
5. The Purchase
In the “purchase” phase, the consumer is committed to buying a product/service from a particular company. They’ve decided that Bob’s Ice Cream Shoppe is the only one for them and are ready to give Bob’s all their hard-earned money. The success or failure of this stage will come down to how easy it will be for the consumer to follow through with their purchase.
Addressing the Purchasing Stage
Can you order Bob’s Ice Cream Shoppe online and pick it up in-store at your convenience? Is there some sort of special discount or free gift that can be attached to a purchase? What about a review to reassure customers that they’re making the right choice? A good marketing strategy at this stage will focus on seeing the customer through the buying stage and turning them into a repeat customer.
6. The Post-Purchase Evaluation
The post-purchase evaluation is when the consumer decides if steps 1–5 were worth it. Whether the product or service left a good, memorable impression or not will determine how likely they are to purchase from a business in the future. Was Bob’s triple fudge ice cream worth it in the end?
Tackling Post-Purchase Strategy
Yes, there’s a job to do at this stage, too. As a consumer yourself, chances are you’ve received a customer survey after completing a purchase. Many companies use surveys and other post-purchase evaluations to see what is working or not working and incorporate good reviews in future advertisements. If Bob’s Ice Cream Shoppe wanted to run an ad or campaign highlighting the brand’s success, they might use testimonials, information on how long Bob’s Ice Cream Shoppe has been around, etc., to convey to current and future customers that Bob’s Ice Cream Shoppe is a dependable brand that leaves customers satisfied. Reviewing customer feedback and insights is critical to developing a post-purchase strategy that keeps customers coming back for more.
Did you know? According to Power Reviews, 74% of buyers use ratings and reviews to learn about products they’d consider purchasing.
Other Helpful Tips to Get You Started
Identify the Target Audience: Buyer Persona
One of the most helpful ways to develop a marketing strategy around the consumer journey is to start by identifying who the ideal customer is. This is what we call the "buyer persona" - a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data. By clearly defining this persona, you can tailor your content and messaging to resonate with their specific needs, pain points, and interests.
Here are some things you should gather to complete your buyer persona and identify factors influencing consumer choices:
What is the age, gender, and income level of your ideal customer?
What’s their job title? What industry do they work in?
What are their goals and challenges as it relates to your product or service?
Where do they do most of their browsing: social media platforms, websites, in person, etc.?
Creating a buyer persona can also help you identify any gaps in your current marketing strategy and find new opportunities for growth. It allows you to understand the motivations behind your target audience's purchasing decisions and how best to reach them with your messaging.
By keeping this ideal customer in mind when creating content for Bob’s Ice Cream Shoppe, we can ensure that we understand the ideal customer’s buyer journey. Then, we can tailor the messaging to meet their needs and interests, increasing the likelihood of converting them into satisfied customers.
Buyer’s Journey Mapping
Once a business discovers its target audience through developing a buyer persona, it can start mapping the customer journey through the sales process to create more effective content.
What is a customer journey map?
The customer journey map outlines each stage of the ideal customer’s journey, you can tailor your messaging and content to address specific pain points and needs at each stage.
Conclusion
The key to successful ad campaigns requires brands to understand the ideal customer (buyer persona) and their purchase path ( buyer’s journey). With this information, businesses can build marketing strategies that meet consumers where they are at each stage of the buyer journey. It will ensure that their content is targeted and impactful, leading to higher conversions.
