Page 51 - MYM 2015

a huge budget to sway customer to their direction with appealing marketing communications. In industries with the door knob pattern, it is all about branding wars. Brand switching is very common in such industries.
The third pattern is the trumpet pattern, found mostly in luxury categories. The
uniqueness of this pattern is in the customer’s willingness to advocate brands even if they do not buy and use those brands. The level of advocacy is higher than the level of purchase.
in the brand should eventually purchase it (‘Act’). The number of customer who ‘Ask’ should not exceed those who like and purchase the brand, re ecting a clear positioning and the right level of curiosity. These outcomes are what marketers should aim for.
The fourth pattern is
the traditional funnel,
in which customers go
through each step in
customer path. They
asked questions only
about the brands they like
and eventually purchase
the brands if they like
what they hear from the
conversation. It is found
mostly in commodity
businesses, where the
main consideration is only
functional and brand names do not really matter.
customer path should be considered a touch point.
In ‘Aware’ stage, key touch point maybe a moment when a customer reads newspapers and stumbles across a print advertisement. In ‘Appeal’ stage, key touch point maybe a moment when a customer see a brand in a mall exhibition and become attracted to it.
In ‘Ask’ stage, it maybe a moment when a customer asks followers on Twitter and gets advocacy on a certain brand. In ‘Act’, it maybe a moment when a customer meets a salesperson and becomes convinced to purchase the brand. Note that not all customers
go through all touch points. In fact, only a few have interaction with all touch points. Company intervention must be made on the right touch point: the one that really matter for customer in each stage.
Knowing what touch points to intervene with is the important rst step. The next will be to compete and focus necessary resources to that particular touch point. The goal is to create WOW!
The new customer path re ects new market demands. Customers now ‘protect’ themselves against brands. They ‘protect’ themselves with the help of their communities of friends and family. People consult with
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Each of these patterns has inherent weaknesses. The ideal pattern of customer path, we believe, should
be shaped like a bow tie (See Exhibit 5). Brands with
A brand focusing on product and service features will likely get an ‘OK’ approval from customers. But to get to ‘AHA’, the brand must deliver appealing customer experience on top of the product and service features. To get to the ultimate ‘WOW!’, a brand must engage with customer personally!
Creating the ‘Wow!’ Factor
To navigate through the customer path productively and achieve higher BAR, companies need to understand and intervene with key touch point in each stage. Possibilities are plenty and largely depend on the industry and company characteristics.
Companies in a particular industry must rst identify all possible touch points across the 5A’s. Every direct and indirect customer interaction with a brand and/or other customers in relation to the brand throughout the
Exhibit 5: Striving to Get the Ideal ‘Bow Tie’ Pattern
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Aware Appeal Ask Act Advocate
ATTRACTION CURIOSITY COMMITMENT AFFINITY
gold sh, door knob, trumpet, and funnel patterns should strive to reach a bow tie pattern, albeit only philosophically.
The theoretical bow tie customer path pattern depicts that the people who are ‘Aware’ of a brand should eventually ‘Advocate’ the brand. Likewise, it also shows that the number of people who are interested (‘Appeal’)
marketing