The purchase funnel concept is over 120 years old.
The consumer journey concept is nearly 25 years old.
Isn’t it time we update how we define shopping behavior?
The purchasing funnel and the consumer journey are both portrayed as orderly processes that provide a neat framework for building consumer experiences. They are tidy and easy to digest. Both deliver an assurance that, if you get the previous step right, the consumer will move to the next step. If the consumer doesn’t proceed or abandons, it was something you did wrong in one or more of the previous steps.
But these assumptions are not supported by observable, measurable reality; they simply explain the small segment of a consumer’s behaviors and motivations that we can see. They simplify a complex process for ease of digestion.
What is needed for today’s marketer is a new way to embrace and visualize the consumer journey and the purchasing funnel, which will help frame more accurately the consumer’s real experience. Updating this understanding makes the strategies and tactics needed to drive your business and build lasting relationships with your consumers more apparent.
The “Path to Purchase” Isn’t a Path At All. Can We Stop Pretending It Is?
The Consumer Intention Cube is a concept we will illustrate in an upcoming digital whitepaper that will be available for download in Q3 2021. We will go deep into our description of a new way to visualize consumer behavior patterns that drive pretty much everything they do in their normal day: Finding a restaurant, selecting their preferred political candidate, seeking out new music to stream, or buying something online. The abiding principle at work here is that marketers look to data to tell them where consumers are in their journeys. Instead, marketers need to look at the data inputs, or sources, to discover where consumers are in their decision-making.
Marketers long to know exactly what a consumer is thinking, and going to do next, at any given point in time, but this is a futile exercise. The good news is it is also unnecessary.
To stay informed about the white paper and how you can receive a copy, please join the Future Shopping Newsletter list. As we get closer to our publication date we’ll share the various ways you can obtain a copy.