Chewing Gum and the Purchase Funnel

I had a good question posed to me a few days ago - which actually coincides with a pitch we’re working on here. The question was; how do you use online media to drive people down the purchase funnel of a low involvement purchase? That is to say, a low involvement or impulse buy that doesn’t have many unique attributes, lets say chewing gum, doesn’t call for many online actions to help make the purchase. Compare that to a high involvement buy, like a car or computer, in which users are almost certain to visit sites for information, comparisons, or purchases online.

Well, I think one obvious answer to that question would be some type of contest or promotion that draws people into buying a product and registering online to win something. But those have a limited longevity, a few months or so in my experience. The promotions peak due to the initial buzz created and soon after begin their slide down the steep curve towards obscurity. To be honest, I sometimes doubt the ROI on online promotions is worthwhile but that depends on a mess of stuff that’s usually (thankfully) beyond my scope.

The way I’m handling the pitch we’re working on, which is for a product that’s a similar low involvement purchase, is by focusing more on creating online interaction that is almost completely about the lifestyle around the brand rather than the product itself. Yes, we’ll be talking about the actual product… somewhere, but the majority of the site will be about getting visitors to interact with a damn funny lifestyle concept we’ve come up with.

The lifestyle brand isn’t a new idea in communications, but I don’t think it gets applied to online as much as it should. I think that more often than not, when brand managers or web developers are given the option to present a lot of information or background about their product they take it.

So, my answer on how to drive people down the funnel of this kind of buy is to look around, or beyond the brand and not at it. Develop an interesting, or funny, or ‘sticky’ interaction focused on the lifestyle of the brand that will stay with someone the next time they’re standing in line at the cashier and that impulse hits them.

The Purchase Path – Part 2

One of the major problems I’ve found with that standard purchase path model I showed earlier is that it’s so linear. Seemingly as a result, post purchase behavior as something that’s traditionally the realm of simple marketing actions like warranties, help desks, call centres, or email Bacn’. As I mentioned before however, I think there is so much more potential in that one aspect of marketing that can be leveraged within online.

Anyway, I started thinking about this new model while developing an online rewards program for an instant coffee pitch. I originally looped post purchase behavior back in on the purchase process reflecting what we wanted to make happen with the website – specifically offline purchases leading to online interactions... eventually leading back to offline purchases.



I looked it again more recently from a different perspective, not focusing on purchases as much as general ‘actions’; defined as info searches, site visits, downloads, or online dialogues between brands and consumers or even between consumers themselves. All of these actions, before and after the purchase, create and make visible user interactions with the brand or product to new clients and encourage a need recognition among them. As well, post purchase interactions have the possibility of being most visible - I'm thinking in terms of the branded shareware downloads, RSS’d podcasts, or even contests I mentioned in my previous blog.

The trick for a brand in this case is creating spaces for those post purchase online interactions, and that requires thinking not about what to do to make a sale, but what to do with the customer after he or she makes a purchase.

The Purchase Path for Online - Part 1

One of the textbook models of consumer buying behaviour is the purchase path. It’s one of the most straightforward explanations of the mental stages and physical interactions a potential buyer will have before making a purchase.



I recently had to do some benchmarking as part of the dozen or so projects I’m working on right now (read: my excuse for not blogging more). I based some of my research in the standard purchase path and found that there is an abundance of sites that hit just one or two points on that path and/or aren’t moving people well along it. All of them seem more than adequate in providing detailed information about the product assisting in the information search and evaluation of alternatives sections of the path. A select number of sites actually go one step further by getting customers to that purchase decision through online purchasing options.

All that makes sense if you think about it. Traditionally the internet is best used as a source of information, a place to research and compare brand features, be it cars, cruises, apartments, or sushi shaped USB keychains on eBay. However, information gathering or making the purchase are neither the first, last, or most important stages of the purchase path. Need recognition and post purchase behaviour are however, and a lot of sites fail at hitting on that. Worse, some sites treat the purchase as the final stage in the process. Why is that so bad? Well, the general consensus is that finding new consumers or clients is the costliest part of marketing, while convincing old ones to stay with your brand is quite possibly the most difficult but most rewarding.

Here’s an example of how I would try to touch on those two ultra important steps. Assuming my client is Cannon and the product is their new brand of Digital Rebel cameras. Buying a camera isn’t an end of itself, taking and sharing photos is what’s important. I would aim to build Cannon’s digital presence in such a way that makes it more valuable for the user to involve the brand in those post purchase processes. Here are two simple ideas of how to do that:

• Cannon shareware that edits, downloads, burns or uploads my photos to a website. Even those who have access to Photoshop can benefit from simplified uploading to Facebook etc.
• A regularly updated, RSS’d video podcast section on the Cannon site with shooting tips and articles ‘from the field’. Something that is current and of interest to a market wanting to shoot better, more high-end photography.

Creating valuable online interactions for customers after their purchase gets them interacting with and talking about the brand in return - talking to those who haven’t necessarily realized they want or need the product. This is where the strategy comes full circle and pays off big time in creating awareness and that sought after need recognition, be it real or perceived, among potential new buyers. With online communications having the possibility to be highly targeted and the long tail’s ability to diffuse any brand interactions or ‘discussions’ with consumers, online is the perfect place to hit these two uber-important stages of the purchase path.

Nick Hornby vs The Superbowl

So one of the reasons for me not posting last week, apart from putting in 12 hour days at the office, was because last weekend I bought the book High Fidelity by Nick Hornby and have been at least partially buried in it all week. The movie version, which I also own, came out about 7 years ago and has become a cult classic. It ranks as one of my favourites. Incidentally, I also have the soundtrack on my iPod.

What does this say about me? Well, firstly I’d like to think it says that I have a finely tuned ear for good music and cult/pop culture. But sadly, I know too many people (much cooler than me) who would be right to disagree with that.

Apart from that, it’s an interesting testament to the power of fringe markets. It underlines something Godin said in Purple Cow “the mainstream doesn’t buy products, the fringes do”. Man, do they! Well, kind of. They don’t buy products, they buy brands, a big difference but my point still stands.

From my point of view, marketing a brand to a niche market becomes so much more easier online than through massive media. While massive media can give a brand message great reach it becomes very difficult to target those communications to a specific target or niche. Online and interactive has exactly the opposite problem. The reach of online communications will never be as great as that of television, but, those that you do reach will most definitely be a lot closer to your niche target.

I guess those points were really underlined for me this weekend as I was watching the Superbowl and the multi-million dollar advertising productions that accompany it.

I also began to think that in a time of worrying about a possible recession and financial problems in the year to come, how it makes so much more sense to use less expensive targeted online and digital experiences to reach those specific niche markets than those entertaining but generic multimillion dollar 30 second Superbowl spots.