Whether you are the CEO, CMO, the guy in the lesser cubicle or the marketing guy down the hall, if you work for a company that sells a product or a service you must understand your consumer’s buying process, the relative importance of each step and how, what you do, impacts it. You may not be taking course changing decision for your firm, but you still have the power to impact consumers choice of brand they finally purchase! Now that makes you more impactful within the organisation than you probably thought you were.
A consumer’s buying process is easily understood as a five step process - felt need, leading to consideration of brands, to active evaluation, to actual purchase and finally post purchase experience. This is basic. However, correctly understanding the relative importance of each step in the context of your industry and brand and then aligning your marketing efforts and resources to it appropriately can have a growth trajectory changing impact on your business.
The very important goal for every brand is to figure in the initial consideration set. The route to get here varies by brands and class of products. If you are a frequently purchased brand with a low consumer involvement then it might be important to continue to keep shouting from roof tops and every shelf in the store that you exist in and be in every store possible to be top of mind. A P&G needs to do this but for others like Harley Davidson or Ducati this step is of lesser importance.
Today, consumers are deeply connected via the internet and forever getting cheaper smartphones. When consumers move to active evaluation stage,  your advertising, digital or otherwise begins to play a smaller role. There is tons of user generated content out there that is influencing consumer decision every second.
Think of this in terms of blogs, product reviews, comments from actual users, forums, twitter feeds and more. At this stage your consumer is all ears and highly perceptive. You need to ensure that your brand is talked about positively and that you are available at most of these touch points where the consumer is seeking information. If you are a large corporation with deep pockets a digital war room is the need of the hour. Larger corporations are doing this where every online mention gets tracked and evaluated. If you are not that big yet, spend your dollars monitoring top forums, bloggers and addressing any negative user comments on your Fb page, twitter handle or review sites like Zomato, if relevant. Money spent here will also deliver a stronger punch if your brand requires deeper pre-purchase research like for IT products. Google refers to this all important step as the zero moment of truth where opinions are made and possibly decisions taken.
As per one research 40% of the consumers change their decision on the shop floor. In other words 40% of your effort in bringing the customer to the shop floor just got wasted! Well, you still have a chance. Think automobiles and electronics. Suddenly the shop floor environment gains tremendous importance in the buying process and the marketing dollars are well utilised when spent on product displays, POS material, demonstrations and trained staff. Importance of understanding the consumer’s journey that is unique to you cannot be overstated.
So by now hopefully you have done everything right, money is in the till, sale done. Great job. Congratulations, now begins your journey!
Your brand ambassador just walked out that door.! One look from this perspective changes everything.
Take a pause and think - is my product or service going to deliver the experience that the consumer came looking for? Have I released a brand ambassador or detractor in the market place. Well, if you understood the relative importance of each step and aligned your resources to create the right information flow and company structures then your are in a happy place. If you thought that post purchase your consumer passed into her after life then I am sorry,  your next generation did that too! Many a automobile brands have lost on this this aspect when entering new markets and outsourcing after sales to incumbent ‘differently segmented’ players. If you are an ecommerce marketplace proud of the long tail of products on your website and best deals but fall short on product delivery, returns and refunds then you need to think about your spend mix. If you identify post purchase satisfaction as a significant step in the consumer’s buying process that leads her back to you, then invest in tools to monitor post purchase experience and then take action to fix any anomalies. This might be the elixir you always needed and not the larger spend in customer acquisition activities.
Consumer buying process in not a one way street. She will come back to you or go to your competitor sooner than later. No matter how big or small you are, resources are finite. End goal is to create a set of loyal customers and brand ambassadors for sustained growth and profitability. To do that understand your consumer’s buying journey, align your marketing dollars to the relative importance of every step and consumers will come knocking.