Over the past 5 years, research into the increasingly technological and promotional environment has greatly evolved as customers paths to purchase have changed dramatically. While some researchers continue to model the customer journey based on the purchase funnel several new models have been developed based on the increased need for customer engagement in the rapidly evolving technology-based society we currently live in. The environment of customer engagement is even more segregated when studying sales that require a visit to a brick and mortar location opposed to an online purchase. This paper reviews four articles that research the customer journey and how the funnel has advanced to match current customer trends. Earlier research dives into the impact of traditional advertising and product placement as it affects the funnel (Seiler & Yao, 2017). More recent research identifies why the traditional sales funnel is dead (Lieberman, 2019), the use of artificial intelligence in funnels (Paschen, et al., 2020) and how digital marketing attracts customers to the funnel (Teixeira, et al., 2020). It is apparent through these articles that the traditional funnel and customer journey is being disrupted.
What are the major themes that researchers are finding in this area?
While historically, the purchase decision normally came between 4 and 6 steps (Teixeira, et al., 2020) it has now moved to a model more resembling an eight cycle “cyclone” (Lieberman, 2019). Traditional funnels work on initiation of customer awareness of a product or service through an advertisement, either organic or paid. A study from 2017 found that advertising had a low impact at the top end of the funnel but had a 10% increase in sales at the lower end of the funnel (Seiler & Yao, 2017). Overall, this study focused on grocery store advertising which requires an in person visit to the store and the customer to actively seek the product being advertised. The advertising was effective when the customer was seeking a type of product and recognized a specific brand or price point when already making the intent to purchase that item.
Fast-forward to 2019 and the new customer journey is categorized into that of a cyclonic buyer (Lieberman, 2019). These buyers can exit the cyclone and move to another stage at any point in the cyclone. For example, while shopping for an item in a store the customer may have awareness of a brand and be seeking it but evaluate other brands in the aisle resulting in a purchase of a different brand. This is more readily exercised in online shopping when similar items are compared side-by-side and they buyer can evaluate several items from the global market in seconds.
This leads into the most recent articles analyzed for this paper. Both of these articles relate to ensuring effective strategies to drive dep lasting customer engagement to better guide the buyer in staying with the brand throughout the customer journey. The purpose of digital marketing is to attract niche customers to the top of the funnel. This allows the company to nurture potential buyers resulting in increased sales and reduced acquisition costs (Teixeira, et al., 2020). This same process can be built on with an artificial intelligence sales funnel to streamline the human based sales process resulting in better value creation also (Paschen, et al., 2020).
What specifically do they recommend to explore further?
In the review of the older of the four articles it is suggested that rather than focusing on advertising across categories or products, advertisers should focus on increasing sales of a specific product (Seiler & Yao, 2017). However, as is seen in the later articles, a buyer shopping for a specific item may experience a shift or change in buying direction if they are not loyally tied to a product or brand.
Companies that adopted the cyclonic buyer journey in 2018 have seen a 25 percent increase in qualified marketing leads, a 10 percent increase in all sales opportunities and a 100 percent increase in closing rates (Lieberman, 2019). While these results are still in their infancy it is worth the exploration into the cyclonic buyer journey model to build a business strategy.
Digital marketing and artificial intelligence will enhance the sales process but will not replace it. Utilizing the inputs and analysis of the various data points required for these tools will allow for better proposals, customer interaction and relationship building. Humans still hold the upper hand in using intuition to deal with contradictory information (Paschen, et al., 2020) while the creation of personas and interaction channels make the customer interactions more strategic (Teixeira, et al., 2020).
The time has come to challenge the funnel and test the market with new and unique models that have been constructed to meet the changing dynamics of buyers in this decade.
References
Lieberman, M. (2019). How ‘the new customer buyer’s journey’ is reshaping the way you strategically manage your brand. Journal of BRAND STRATEGY, 8(1), 76-85.
Paschen, J., Wilson, M., & Ferreira, J. J. (2020). Collaborative intelligence: How human and artificial intelligence create value along the B2B sales funnel. Business Horizons, 63(3), 403-414.
Seiler, S., & Yao, S. (2017). The impact of advertising along the conversion funnel. Quantitative Marketing and Economics, 15(3), 241-278.
Teixeira, J.M., Bendet, G.V., & Velasco, J.L. (2020). LEMME-X: an agile approach applied in the creation of personas, sales funnel and customer journey in the company MAKING. e-Revista Logo Journal, 9(1), 01-21.
