Demystifying the Consumer Journey

ESTABLISHING A CONSUMER-CENTRIC MARKETING STRATEGY

 The paradox of choice

Consumer-centric marketing has taken hold: Marketers are

striving to establish one fluid conversation with consumers over
multiple experiences to build relationships and influence sales.
In practice, this is more difficult than it appears as technological
advances and evolving consumer behaviors present marketers
with an ever-increasing number of choices to make.

Only 25% of marketers are confident that their

resources are properly aligned to orchestrate a
seamless consumer experience

While choice breeds opportunity, too many choices often

reduce confidence that the right decision has been made.
Marketers need a solution to the paralyzing effect of this
paradox of choice: Simplicity.

Source: Millward Brown Digitals Getting Digital Right Study, 2015 MILLWARD BROWN DIGITAL: DEMYSTIFYING THE CONSUMER JOURNEY 2
We need to apply actual customer
behavior insights to drive our
marketing mix.
Marketing VP, Telecommunications

Source: Millward Brown Digitals Getting Digital Right Study, 2015 MILLWARD BROWN DIGITAL: DEMYSTIFYING THE CONSUMER JOURNEY 3
 Unraveling the complexity
Simplicity requires uncovering what type of information consumers are
looking for as well as which touchpoints they are turning to at each stage
CONSUMER
Demographics of their decision-making process. But due to the diversity of consumer
Geographics
Psychographics behaviors, preferences, and needs, there is no single path to purchase for
(personality/lifestyle)
any given category. Marketers need to isolate high-value purchase paths in
RELATIONSHIP
WITH CATEGORY
order to focus their efforts on those with the largest potential.

RELATIONSHIP
WITH BRAND Marketers identified planning across consumer
RELATIONSHIP touchpoints as their #1 pain point in 2015
WITH TOUCHPOINTS

The ability to isolate purchase paths with the highest opportunity begins by
establishing a firm grasp on the dynamics of consumers relationship with:

1) The product category

2) Brands within the product category

3) Communication touchpoints (e.g. search, brand sites, retail

channels, advertising, content marketing, etc.)

Source: Millward Brown Digitals Getting Digital Right Study, 2015 MILLWARD BROWN DIGITAL: DEMYSTIFYING THE CONSUMER JOURNEY 4
Relationship with the Category
Consumers willingness to invest time in the purchase process depends
on their level of category involvement. The buying process varies across a
continuum of low-involvement or routine purchases to those that require
more highly-involved research.

Yet even within a single product category, engagement and purchase

patterns can be vastly different between individual consumers even in what
are traditionally lowinvolvement categories. Each consumer is driven by a
personalized set of interests, needs, and circumstances.
 Category involvement influences time investment
Routine purchases (such as food and personal care products) typically have short purchase paths compared to larger
ticket items that are purchased less often (such as insurance or cars). Unsurprisingly, consumers invest more time in
purchases that carry the greatest risk as risks may be associated with financial loss or personal safety.

While this may seem like common sense, it has vast implications for marketers. Its critical for a brand to understand the
length of its consumers purchase journey in order to best optimize it. Given that it takes consumers over ten times longer
to buy a car than it does to purchase alcohol, marketing strategies for these categories will vary widely.

LENGTH OF PURCHASE JOURNEY

Number of days from start of journey to purchase for each category
60
AVG. JOURNEY LENGTH (DAYS)

50
48.1
43.7
40

30

20
19.0
17.1
13.6
10 10.7
9.0
4.3 5.9
0
CREDIT LAPTOP/
ALCOHOL BEAUTY APPAREL AIR LINES WIRELESS INSURANCE AUTO
CARDS TABLET

LOW-INVOLVEMENT CATEGORY HIGH-INVOLVEMENT CATEGORY

Source: The Compete Panel MILLWARD BROWN DIGITAL: DEMYSTIFYING THE CONSUMER JOURNEY 6
 There is no one path to purchase
Differing opinions, interests, and actions lead consumers to be open to influence from brands at different times and in different ways.
Marketers are challenged to streamline an infinite number of journeys into digestible (and actionable) information.

To illustrate ways to cut through the consumer noise, a cosmetics company found interesting differences in online research habits.
Two consumer segments purchased cosmetics in-store with the same frequency, but one group remained consistently engaged with
the category online while the other showed only slight increases in engagement just the week before purchase. Understanding these
differences in category engagement is critical for reaching each segment at the right time to influence purchase.

INTERACTION WITH TOUCHPOINTS LEADING UP TO ONLINE PURCHASE1

Example of two segments touchpoint engagement for cosmetics company

50 HIGH-ENGAGEMENT SEGMENT 50 LOW-ENGAGEMENT SEGMENT

PERCENT OF TOUCHPOINT INTERACTION

PERCENT OF TOUCHPOINT INTERACTION

40 40

30 30

20 20

10 10

0 0
DAY OF 2-8 DAYS 9-15 DAYS 16-22 DAYS 23-30 DAYS DAY OF 2-8 DAYS 9-15 DAYS 16-22 DAYS 23-30 DAYS

STYLE NEWS / MAGAZINES RETAILERS SEARCH

Source: The Compete Panel

1. Clickstream Analysis Window = 30 days leading up to offline purchase MILLWARD BROWN DIGITAL: DEMYSTIFYING THE CONSUMER JOURNEY 7
Relationship with the Brand
Consumers decision-making processes become less complicated as their
brand affinity toward a particular brand grows. The decision-making process
for a brand loyalist is significantly simpler than that of a consumer who is
considering several brands at once.

This has important implications for marketers, as they need to determine

how loyal their consumer base is and how to ensure they put the right
message in front of the right consumer at the right part of the consumer
journey to influence those that are not loyal.
 Brand loyalty creates shortcuts in the path to purchase

CONSUMER SEGMENTATION BASED ON BRAND LOYALTY

Example for consumer electronics manufacturer

BRAND LOYAL SEMI-LOYAL NON-LOYAL

Number of brands considered 1.0 2.3 3.5
Length of journey 3.9 weeks 8.4 weeks 11.8 weeks
Number of active research days 2.7 days 7.9 days 15.1 days
Average number of steps in journey 8.5 17.2 35.4
PERCENT PURCHASED BRAND 100% 34% 11%

Illustrating how brand loyalty impacts the path to purchase, a consumer electronics company determined that consumers
with a pre-disposition toward its brand had greatly reduced journey lengths and less complex paths. While continuing to
focus on long-term strategies to build brand affinity, the company also focused on capturing a greater share of semi-loyalists
along their specific purchase paths.

Source: The Compete Panel MILLWARD BROWN DIGITAL: DEMYSTIFYING THE CONSUMER JOURNEY 9
Relationship with the Touchpoints
While the concepts of reach and engagement are well understood in
communication planning, the greatest value in mapping the path to
purchase comes from understanding each touchpoints individual role in
the purchase journey, and the impact of multiple touchpoint interactions on
the final purchase.

This insight allows marketers to allocate resources toward those

touchpoints that will have the strongest impact on purchase.
 Individual touchpoints play specific roles
A smartphone company wanted to pinpoint the touchpoints and stages that had the most influence on a purchase of a
competitors brand. By mapping the sequence of consumer interaction with various touchpoints and applying an attribution
model, it found that a brand needed to have a prominent presence on a carrier or retailers site at the start of the journey in
order to be included in the consideration set at all.

The chart below displays a purchase path from one segment of smartphone shoppers, with the most influential touchpoints and
their position in the path highlighted.

INFLUENCE OF TOUCHPOINTS DURING PURCHASE JOURNEY

Example of one segments purchase path for smartphone manufacturer

COMPETITIVE
JOURNEY C $ CB BRAND
START PURCHASE
COMPETITOR CLIENT BRAND

Source: The Compete Panel MILLWARD BROWN DIGITAL: DEMYSTIFYING THE CONSUMER JOURNEY 11
We need to shift focus to channels where
consumers are most engaged and what
can impact the purchase process.
Marketing VP, Consumer Goods

Source: Millward Brown Digitals Getting Digital Right Study, 2015 MILLWARD BROWN DIGITAL: DEMYSTIFYING THE CONSUMER JOURNEY 12
Establishing a consumer-centric marketing
strategy
Faced with an overwhelming number of choices, many marketers take a marketer-centric approach to budget and resource
allocation. This approach may stem from the need for greater control and can lead to over-investment in owned media, while
the budget-conscious may allocate too much time and energy into earned media.

MARKETER-CENTRIC MARKETING CONSUMER-CENTRIC MARKETING

Allocating resources based on what has worked historically, or what is Providing the right information to the consumer at the right time and place to
controllable, measureable, and/or cheaper develop relationships and drive a purchase

MARKETER
Consumer CONSUMER
Consumer
CENTRIC CENTRIC

By distilling the multitude of consumer paths into a few key areas of focus, marketers can minimize the number of choices
to make, allowing them to execute a consumer-centric marketing strategy. This requires an understanding of consumers
relationship with the category, brands within the category, and the communication touchpoints.

By placing the consumer at the center of attention, marketers can tailor their spend and efforts against touchpoints that will
drive real consumer action.

MILLWARD BROWN DIGITAL: DEMYSTIFYING THE CONSUMER JOURNEY 13

 Conclusion and takeaways
There is no single path to purchase
Not all purchase journeys are created
equal, focus your attention on the
high-value paths
Tailor your resources toward
touchpoints that drive real action in
critical purchase journeys
MILLWARD BROWN DIGITAL: DEMYSTIFYING THE CONSUMER JOURNEY
Each consumer has a different path to purchase resulting in a
paralyzing number of choices for marketers to make to optimize the
consumer journey. Marketers need to understand the consumers
relationship with their category and brand as a foundation to a
successful marketing strategy.
Analyzing consumer behaviors allows marketers to uncover
similarities in consumer purchase paths. With this approach, high-
value or at-risk segments can be identified reducing the complexity
of the consumer journey and the seemingly infinite paths.
Once the most important segments are identified, critical
touchpoints and their roles within those journeys can be found.
This allows marketers to minimize the number of choices to fully
realize a consumer-driven marketing strategy.
14
 About Millward Brown Digital
Millward Brown Digital is the worlds leading digital expert in
helping clients grow great brands. Millward Brown Digital delivers
comprehensive digital solutions to help advertisers, agencies
and publishers increase marketing effectiveness and drive brand
growth. Integrated behavioral and attitudinal solutions help
marketers identify, understand and engage consumers, plan and
optimize media and increase total brand performance. Millward
Brown Digital operates within Millward Brown North America and is
part of Kantar, WPPs data investment management division.

For more information please visit www.millwardbrowndigital.com

or contact us at digitalsolutions@millwardbrown.com.

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MILLWARD BROWN DIGITAL: DEMYSTIFYING THE CONSUMER JOURNEY 15