Let’s talk about the consumer journey

What is the consumer journey? This article introduces this concept in detail. If you don’t know, you can learn about it.

The consumer journey, also known as the customer journey, refers to the entire process and each link that consumers go through when purchasing a product or service, including the entire process from becoming aware of their own needs, analyzing and comparing options through information collection, making decisions and purchasing behaviors, using products and services, and sharing ratings and feedback.

1. The development history of the concept of consumer journey

Originally, the consumer journey was called the consumer’s information processing process, which corresponds to the well-known AIDA law.

AIDA is an abbreviation composed of the initials of Attention, Interest, Desire and Action, which refers to the information processing process of customers when consuming a product or service.

As the times change, the terminology of the marketing industry is also constantly changing. The simple AIDA rule in the past is difficult to fully reflect the consumer's information processing process in the current cyber society with a wide variety of optional products, extremely complex media environment, and extremely fast information dissemination. Therefore, its concept has been expanded and called the consumer journey.

In the past, backward productivity limited the variety of product supply, and the media forms and communication methods were relatively simple, so the marketing and promotion process of enterprises and the consumption decision-making process of consumers were also very simple. This is the background for the AIDA rule to be proposed.

Companies use high-volume advertising campaigns to spread their messages to consumers in the hope of capturing their minds. After receiving the advertising information, consumers will complete the decision-making process according to the AIDA rule. If they really have a need and like the company's products, they will buy the products. This is a simple consumer journey.

In the simple business and communication environment at the time, companies could easily control relevant information such as their products, services and brands by relying on a simple consumer journey to complete effective marketing work.

However, as productivity develops and commodity supply becomes increasingly abundant, the rapid development of the Internet, mobile Internet, smart phones, etc. has led to tremendous changes in the way information is disseminated. Consumers' information processing has also become more complicated, and companies need to build more complex consumer decision-making process models.

In particular, the advent of the Internet has made customers no longer passive. In an era where customers can actively spread information, the contact points between customers and products, services and brands have become diverse and complex. Unless companies view the process of customers transmitting information through digital media such as social media, blogs and emails as a series of behaviors and fully consider the contact and interaction between consumers and the surrounding environment and other objects, they will not be able to correctly understand today's customer journey.

2. What is the consumer journey like now?

First, let us understand a basic consumer journey model - 5A, which was innovatively proposed by marketing guru Kotler based on the marketing environment.

5A describes consumer shopping behavior as a continuous process, including five stages: Aware, Appeal, Ask, Act, and Advocate.

Specifically:

• Awareness stage: consumers begin to notice the existence of the product or service;
• Appeal stage: consumers become interested in the product or service and are attracted by its unique selling point or brand image.
• In the Ask stage, consumers begin to actively obtain more information about products or services, perhaps through searching, consulting friends, etc.
• In the Act stage, consumers decide to purchase products or services and complete the transaction.
• In the Advocate stage, consumers become loyal fans of the brand and may recommend the product or service to others.

The 5A consumer journey basic model fully considers the consumer's decision-making process, covering all links from cognition to interest, from interest to purchase, and from purchase to loyalty. It emphasizes the interaction and communication between brands and consumers, helping companies better understand and meet consumer needs, thereby optimizing marketing strategies and enhancing brand influence and market competitiveness.

In addition, it should be noted that when drawing the consumer journey, it is necessary to consider the premise of customer portrait. The two are complementary to each other. Different customer portraits mean different customer journeys.

The consumer portrait is an abstract description of characteristics with universal significance based on previous research and business goals, which is used to guide actual work; while the consumer journey is a comprehensive display of the interaction process between consumers and products or services based on the consumer portrait.

When combining consumer personas with the consumer journey, companies can gain a deeper understanding of consumers’ purchasing motivations, desired solutions, purchase barriers and resistance, and reference points along the buying journey.

• Purchase motivation: Through consumer portraits, companies can understand the needs and preferences of target consumers and infer their purchase motivations. For example, if the target consumers are a group of health-conscious fitness enthusiasts, their purchase motivation may be to find high-quality sports equipment and healthy food.
• Expected solutions: Combining consumer portraits and consumer journeys, companies can understand the solutions consumers expect during the purchase process. For example, they may expect a convenient and fast shopping experience, high-quality after-sales service, personalized product recommendations, etc.
• Purchase barriers and resistance: By analyzing the consumer journey, companies can identify barriers and resistance that consumers may encounter during the purchase process. These barriers may include high prices, products that do not meet expectations, and complicated purchase processes. Understanding these barriers can help companies improve their products and services and increase purchase conversion rates.
• Reference criteria in the purchase journey: Consumers use some reference criteria to evaluate the value of products and services during the purchase journey. Through consumer portraits, companies can understand the reference criteria that target consumers value, such as product quality, brand reputation, price, word of mouth, etc. These reference criteria can guide companies to adjust their marketing strategies to better meet consumer expectations.

Businesses can then describe and analyze the consumer journey.

The consumer journey can be described in words but can also be supplemented with images, cartoons, and videos to visualize the information and make it more illustrative.

We use the Consumer Journey Map to describe and analyze the consumer journey.

A consumer journey map generally includes the following elements:

1. Customer role:

In the consumer journey map, the main user groups need to be identified first. For different customer groups, their needs, expectations and pain points need to be described in detail, which will help the design of products or services to be closer to the actual needs of users.

2. Timeline:

The timeline is a way to sort the entire process of the consumer journey, which can help us understand the customer's experience in the process of using a product or service. This can be divided into time units or according to user behavior, such as customer browsing behavior, purchasing behavior, repurchase behavior, etc.

3. Sentiment Index:

The sentiment index is used to describe the emotional changes of customers in the process of using products or services. This can help us understand customer satisfaction and the effect of customer experience. For example, customers may feel confused when using a certain function, which will be reflected in the sentiment index.

4. Key nodes:

Key nodes refer to the key behaviors of customers in the consumption process. These behaviors are usually important nodes for customer decision-making, such as online payment, form submission, etc. Understanding these key nodes can help us optimize the design of products or services to increase customer conversion rates.

5. Usage scenarios:

The usage scenario describes the environment in which customers interact with a product or service. This may include different platforms and environments such as websites and mobile clients. Understanding the user's usage scenario can help us better design products and services and improve customer experience.

The process of drawing a customer journey map is as follows:

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1. Understand your customers

Before drawing a customer journey map, conducting customer research is a crucial step.

By consulting relevant user research materials, you can gain a deeper understanding of user needs, behaviors, and expectations, thus providing strong support for the drawing of the map. These materials can include user research reports, survey data, user behavior analysis, etc., which can help you better understand the user's psychology and needs. If you cannot directly obtain ready-made materials, you can conduct user interviews, check user complaint records, ask customer service, check user reviews on social media, and research related competitive products: research competitors' products or services.

2. Create a character model

The purpose of creating a customer portrait is to better define the main target users of the product and accurately describe their needs. First, categorize the users. Each category should have common characteristics, which may be based on factors such as age, occupation, geographic location, behavior patterns, etc. The next step is to create a role model or customer portrait for each category, which describes the basic information of the user in detail, including their needs, expectations and pain points.

For example, one persona may reveal that they prefer a simple and intuitive user interface, while another persona may place more emphasis on product performance or specific features. Each persona will correspond to a specific customer journey map, which can more accurately show the needs of different types of customers, thereby improving the overall user satisfaction and effectiveness of the product.

3. Key nodes

Key nodes refer to those touchpoints or events that have a significant impact on the consumer's consumption process, such as: first contact with the product, usage experience, registration/login process (paid purchase), function usage, customer service interaction, upgrade/renewal/repurchase, recommendation to others, etc.

The qualification criteria of key nodes mainly include two aspects: objectivity and comprehensiveness. A qualified key node must be based on objective facts, not subjective assumptions. This means that it should be based on actual user behavior and data, not the subjective ideas of the design team. At the same time, a qualified key node needs to fully reflect the user's feelings and needs.

It cannot focus on just one aspect, but must take into account the various emotions and expectations of users during the experience process. In this process, empathy mapping is an effective tool that can help the team generate key nodes that meet the above standards. Empathy mapping can provide a deep understanding of the user's real experience and feelings by comprehensively describing what the user sees, thinks, hears, and says in a given environment. It can clearly show the user's pain points and changes in expectations, helping the team to understand the user more comprehensively.

Empathy map, from the Internet, please delete if it infringes

In addition to the common key nodes mentioned above, new key nodes can be discovered through brainstorming. Brainstorming is a method of collective thinking and idea generation that invites team members to actively participate and propose potential key nodes based on product features and user needs. For example, brainstorming may reveal new key nodes in social interaction, personalized customization, recommendation systems, etc. during the user's use of the product. These new key nodes can help discover innovative opportunities to improve consumer experience, further optimize product design and improve user satisfaction.

Brainstorming diagram, from the Internet, please contact us if there is any infringement

4. Start mapping your customer journey

You can follow the steps below:

(1) Write down the basic information of the user role, including needs, expectations, and pain points.

(2) Create a timeline. The shape and units of the timeline can be flexibly designed according to actual needs. You can choose whether it is a straight line, a circle, or a spiral. The units on the timeline can be arranged according to date or user behavior, providing a basis for the subsequent arrangement of key nodes.

(3) Add key nodes to the timeline. These nodes are derived from user research and empathy map analysis and represent important moments in the user's experience with the product or service. Each key node corresponds to a specific user experience and usage scenario, which can provide a more comprehensive understanding of the user's experience at each node.

(4) Draw the emotional index. The emotional index corresponds to the key actions one by one and can reflect the emotional changes of users during the experience. It is generally represented by a curve chart or a line chart, which can intuitively show the emotional state of users at each key node.

5. Optimize and improve the consumer journey map

After the initial consumer journey map is drawn, it needs to be optimized and improved. This can be done through team discussions, customer feedback, etc. Team members can have in-depth discussions on the key nodes and emotional changes on the consumer journey map to find possible improvement points. At the same time, the accuracy of the consumer journey map can also be verified through user feedback, and corresponding adjustments can be made based on the feedback.

Ultimately, a complete customer journey map should be able to clearly show the needs and pain points of users in the process of using a product or service, as well as the performance of the product or service in meeting these needs and solving these pain points. This map can serve as an important reference for product or service design and optimization, helping the team create a better customer experience.

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Author: Chen Hao; WeChat public account: Brand Market Relativity (ID: Brand-Marketing)