The World Wide Web has drastically changed how consumers engage with brands. It is single-handedly transforming the old way of marketing and making many of the traditional strategies and functions obsolete. It has become extremely un-sustainable for marketers to utilize the old approach.Not long ago, someone looking to purchase a vehicle would instinctively compare all his/her available choices until he/she found the more suitable option. The car dealer would reel him in and make the sale. The relationship between the buyer, dealer and manufacturer would traditionally fade after the sale. Today is a lot different as consumers are more involved in their brand relationships. They generally
connect with myriad brands—through new media channels beyond the manufacturer’s and the retailer’s control and knowledge—which leads the consumer to evaluate an array of options, expanding the pool of choices before narrowing it. After a purchase is made the consumer tends to stay engaged, publicly promoting the product they purchase through word of mouth advertising.
Consumers still want a clear brand promise that offers them value. In the past, marketing strategies that put an extensive amount of their resources into brand awareness and moving straight to the point of purchase worked quite well. But the relationship has changed in a sense that marketing strategy and budget has shifted to where consumers spend their time.
In the past, companies have used paid-media push marketing to point out well-defined points along the marketing funnel to build awareness and drive consideration, to ultimately inspire a purchase.
The consumers journey usually begin with the top-of-mind consideration set: products or brands put together through exposure to advertisements or store displays or word of mouth stimuli.
Within the funnel model, the consideration stage consists of the largest number of brands, today’s consumers are constantly targeted by media which increases the amount of choices and reduces the number of products they consider at the outset.
Evaluate.
The initial consideration set frequently expands as consumers will seek input from friends or relatives, reviews,
retailers and competitors.
Consumers will typically add new brands to the set of choices and
discard some of the original brands as they learn more and their perceptions shift. The Consumers generally reach out to marketers and alternative sources of information which have a much stronger effect in shaping their choices than the persuasive approach from marketers.
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