From the course: Marketing Foundations: The Marketing Funnel

Rethinking the funnel

From the course: Marketing Foundations: The Marketing Funnel

Start my 1-month free trial

Rethinking the funnel

“

- People aren't really linear. And we've come to agree that a buyer won't move throughout your funnel in a linear fashion. With the multitude of distractions in their way, there's no real predictable path to how they'll navigate your offering. The funnel that we looked at today follows a simplistic approach. A, I, D, A, L, a consumer hears about your business, they check it out as well as similar companies, they decide they want to learn more. They then decide to make a purchase and then they can choose to be loyal or not. McKinsey and company, a major consulting firm suggests a different model, a circular one. They feel it better reflects today's consumer journey. The model they developed comprises the buyer's journey from this either approach to shorter periods of consideration and evaluation, followed by purchasing and two critical new components, bonding, and advocacy. From a consumer perspective, bonding with a brand or business is influenced by positive or negative experiences with the product or service, following that purchase. A positive bonding experience, leads to consumer advocacy. The entire process is called a loyalty loop because of the loyalty inspired from purchase to advocacy, and the loop created when they become dedicated consumers and promote your products via word of mouth. The loop in action, might look like this. A consumer learns about you, visit your store, views a product, and then they go out and check out similar products. They then make a purchase, receive a post-purchase benefit, but they have to reach out to customer service to solve a problem. Well they enjoy that customer service experience, so they share about it on social media. From there, they decide to learn more about your company and your initiatives. Now that this customer is bonded, they share those experiences with friends. Now for the most part, the circle model doesn't change the reality that a buyer moves through distinct mental changes. It's just another way that you can think about the consumer behavior. What the McKinsey model does a good job on, is driving additional awareness to how loyalty differs. McKinsey segments loyalty into active and passive. So buyer could say, I'll only be buying your product or I'm open to purchasing yours, but other products as well. Today, loyalty is predominantly passive, companies mistake passive loyalty for active loyalty all the time however, and they're really not the same. It doesn't matter what model you choose to use, use whatever tool you agree with most and leverage it to tailor your marketing to the very journeys that buyers are going through.

Contents