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The consumer decision journey.

14 min read Understanding the consumer decision journey – and working with what you learn – can help your marketing efforts, customer support teams, and product rollouts thrive. Here’s everything you need to know…

Author:  Adam Bunker

Subject Matter Expert: Dave Pabley

What is the consumer decision journey?

The ‘consumer decision journey’ is the name given to a framework that deconstructs and explores the myriad factors that go into customer purchases. In other words: it’s the way we make sense of the consumer decision-making process.

Did you know that 70% of buyers fully define their own purchasing needs before they engage with sales people? If not, you might need to rethink what your customer decision journeys look like, and how you work to manage them.

Every time a customer buys something from a brand, it’s the result of a complicated set of processes and influences that –   often – they’ve experienced in a nonlinear fashion. The consumer decision journey is a means to map and understand that path, with a view to try and meet potential future customers at every touchpoint along the way.

Understanding how and why new and previous customers make purchases is the holy grail of every marketing department in the world. And if you can actually influence those factors with your CX and marketing strategy? Even better. Doing that means unpicking the complicated rationale and stop-start nature of today’s buying journeys.

Understanding the consumer decision journey is really about asking a few key questions:

• How can you meet your customers at important touchpoints?
• How can you maximize each interaction?
• What goes into each purchase decision?

If you have answers to those questions, you’ll go a long way toward ensuring you have the right processes, resources, and technology in place to help your business grow its customer base. You’ll know how and when to upsell, how to convert prospects, and what influences each and every purchase.

That’s a complicated task, but digging into customer analysis can really pay off – in some pretty meaningful ways.

Free course: Elevate your customer journey management today

‘Customer managed’ journey versus a ‘managed customer’ journey

Today’s customer is increasingly empowered in their decision-making, since they have access to much more choice, information, and branded content across a range of channels.

As such, it’s important that brands understand their role in the decision-making process. In most instances, things can’t be controlled in a streamlined way on the brand side – it’s the customer in control. That means organizations need to be adaptable, responsive, and able to meet the customer where they are, rather than the other way round.

While you might map out a perfect, best-case journey for your customer personas – a managed customer journey – things may not pan out that way. This gives rise to the idea of the ‘customer managed’ journey instead – one where your customers call the shots in terms of how they make their decisions, and you cater as best you can to their preferences.

Why is the consumer decision journey important?

Customer interactions and the journeys they create are more complicated, nonlinear, and omnichannel than ever. But that presents an opportunity: the brands that can leverage the tools at their disposal to unpick that complicated knot stand a great chance at winning over more customers than their competitors.

Today’s customers aren’t easily influenced or led down a specific path. Whereas in decades gone by you might easily nurture a customer down the sales funnel with a compelling TV ad and then an in-store salesperson, things are different now. In fact, even if you manage to get customers into your physical store, some 71% of them will still be using their phones to look up reviews or even to make their purchases.

95% of consumers read online reviews before making purchases, which can take the wind out of any marketing efforts’ sails if there’s no real strategy in place to maximize other customer journey touchpoints. In fact, chances are that by the time a customer speaks to a representative, they’re already most of the way along the buying process.

That means meeting your customers where they are – like online influencer accounts, for example, which 55% of 18-24-year-olds rely on.

Whatever the case, it’s important to understand the factors that influence buying decisions because that lets you personalize and tailor those experiences as best you can to capture more interest.

Beyond this though, getting to grips with the consumer decision journey means understanding that the journey doesn’t end with a purchase – that’s just part of a cyclical experience.

So let’s explore how that works…

Understanding how consumers make decisions

In the traditional purchasing funnel, customers move along the stages from awareness to purchasing and customer loyalty linearly, beginning with a widely cast net of possible brands, and ending with just one. But that model’s now outdated.

Today, customers move from touchpoint to touchpoint in a way that makes it impossible to put importance on any one part of the funnel over any other. Instead, the decision journey is cyclical – and capturing attention needs to be handled as part of a two-way conversation at every stage.

McKinsey’s research , involving some 20,000 consumers, has resulted in a new framework for the decision journey that it describes as having four interlinked phases:

“The decision-making process is a more circular journey, with four primary phases representing potential battlegrounds where marketers can win or lose: initial consideration; active evaluation, or the process of researching potential purchases; closure, when consumers buy brands; and postpurchase, when consumers experience them.”

Image credit: McKinsey.com

In fact, the journey here is more of a spiral than a circle; it’s in that fourth, post-purchase stage where the decision journey becomes a ‘loyalty loop’ that can repeat itself forever. McKinsey puts forward the following roadmap for those latter stages:

• Purchasing: After initial consideration, the customer makes a purchase
• Experiencing: The customer forms opinions on the product or service
• Advocating: The customer spreads the word
• Bonding: The customer becomes a loyal customer who makes repeat purchases

Tools and processes for enhancing customer journeys

Understanding the modern customer journey and adapting to it are two very different things. Customers expect more than ever before from their brands in terms of personalization , relevance, and the ability to meet them where they are, on the channels they care about.

That means that customer experience and marketing teams need to employ processes that can make every touchpoint work harder. Usually, that means using a mix of surveys , customer experience analytics software , and behavioral data to finetune every channel and provide more powerful, personal and adaptable experiences.

Let’s take a look at some of the methods, tools and processes you can use to do exactly that, across three key areas:

1. Omnichannel engagement

Your customers are moving between channels and platforms in search of the information they need to make informed purchasing decisions. You need to be where they are.

Customer touchpoint analysis

Take stock of every touchpoint in which customers can interact with your brand. That’s everything from your website to your customer service portal, as well as TV ads, social media channels and third-party review sites.

Your first step here is to lean into digital analytics to understand your share of voice, your conversion rate on call-to-action links, and anywhere you’re underrepresenting yourself. This stage is an audit, in effect – are you meeting people where they already are?

Omnichannel customer engagement

Once you understand every touch point, you need to think about how you can tie them together. Customers may jump from one touchpoint to the next in any order, so you need to be able to offer them a consistent experience that’s channel-agnostic.

That’s as important in marketing as it is in customer service – both rely on being able to track customer movements and proactively engage with people.

Customer journey optimization

Journey optimization starts with customer journey mapping exercises, in which you use customer data and your own insight to map out potential routes your customers take toward purchase. How can those journeys be tightened and streamlined? Hypothesize around this, make changes, and then test to see whether things improved.

2. Behavioral analysis

How well do you understand what makes your customers tick? With the right software, you’ll be able to glean invaluable insights from the actions your customers do and don’t take.

Consumer behavior analysis

Understanding customer behavior allows you to adapt things to suit them – and identify where pain points and areas of friction lie. You’ll achieve this by using customer experience analytics suites capable of understanding behavioral heuristics.

These tools can identify patterns, show you how different audience segments act, and how purchasing decisions act as part of a wider whole.

Behavioral targeting strategies

Imagine if you knew that a specific customer always shops for a certain kind of product at certain times of the year, that they’re much more likely to make a purchase if there’s a discount with their name on it, or if bundling two items together will make them much more appealing than the sum of their parts.

These are examples of behavioral targeting strategies that require a rock-solid understanding of each and every customer – and customer segment. Tools like Experience ID can help you gather that understanding, and tailor your efforts accordingly.

Refining the purchase decision process

It’s important to understand areas of your customer experience that are letting things down – and negatively impacting the customer buying process. If you can track customers as they move through your owned digital properties, you’ll have a clear idea of where people are dropping off, and why shopping carts are being left abandoned.

With that information, you can make proactive changes to the user experience in order to refine that initial consideration stage and better influence consumer purchasing behavior.

Learn more about customer behavior analysis

3. Postpurchase excellence

Once a customer has made a purchase, they’ll move into that inner ‘loyalty loop’ track of the consumer decision journey. This is your chance to wow them with postpurchase excellence – and generate real loyalty .

Customer experience analytics

Customer experience analytics is the process of collecting and analyzing customer data so that you can better understand customer needs, viewpoints, and experiences. This will help you to increase customer engagement and customer loyalty at every part of their journey – not just after making a purchase.

If you can understand the experience as it stands for existing customers, you’ll be able to direct your internal teams to take action on issues that are affecting satisfaction and loyalty.

Curating the customer engagement journey

Customer service is a huge part of postpurchase (repeat) purchase decisions. If a customer has had a positive customer support experience, they’re much more likely to buy from you again. So it’s important that this side of the customer experience is being monitored and managed.

Contact center management tools with AI and natural language processing can help here, by scanning and understanding every interaction every customer has with your business and proactively suggesting where things can be improved. That could be through trends that a bunch of different customers all mention, or by spotting opportunities for support agent coaching.

Customer lifecycle management

To keep customers coming back, you need to be able to keep a good eye on their behavior and ensure that if they have feedback, you’re able to close the loop by making the changes they want to see.

That’s alongside continually delighting them with proactive, personalized offers and communications. Keeping customers for the long haul means fostering a human-centric approach that uses software, surveys and analytics to help you show just how much you value their business.

Delivering customer-driven journeys

The consumer decision journey represents a complex, ever-evolving landscape that demands a really nuanced and adaptive approach from businesses. In an era where digital platforms dominate and consumer behaviors shift rapidly, understanding journeys from a scientific perspective is not just beneficial – it’s imperative for sustained success.

By embracing journey insights, businesses can position themselves at critical touchpoints, offering personalized solutions that resonate with consumers’ needs and preferences at the right moments. Integrating advanced analytics, omnichannel strategies and customer-centric thinking is what’ll help you exceed the expectations of today’s savvy consumers.

In other words? As you navigate this dynamic terrain, the key to unlocking customer loyalty and driving business growth lies in the ability to continuously adapt, innovate, and deliver exceptional experiences at every stage of the consumer decision journey.

Ready to transform your understanding of the consumer decision journey? With Qualtrics® Customer Journey Optimizer , you can take your customers where they want to go—in the fastest and most profitable way.

Elevate your customer journey management today

Related resources

Customer Journey

Customer Journey Orchestration 12 min read

Customer journey management 14 min read, customer journey stages 12 min read, buyer's journey 16 min read, customer journey analytics 13 min read, how to create a customer journey map 22 min read, b2b customer journey 13 min read, request demo.

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When making purchasing decisions, consumers go on a “consumer decision journey” comprised of four stages: consider a selection of brands; evaluate by seeking input from peers, reviewers, and others; buy; and enjoy, advocate, bond. This journey replaces the famous funnel metaphor.

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Consumer Decision Journey: What it is + Free Guide

Talking about a consumer decision journey is essential for any sales, marketing, and customer experience strategy . More and more customers are skipping the established schemes in the classic funnels and making decisions based on new factors in the match.

If you want to get to know this concept in-depth, in this article, you will find what it consists of, its main stages, and how to generate a successful journey for your clients.

Content Index

What is the consumer decision journey?

Importance of the consumer decision journey, stages of the consumer decision journey, how to guide a good customer decision journey, create your successful consumer decision journey with questionpro.

The consumer decision journey is a model of the customer buying process that describes how consumers make their decisions throughout their experience or relationship with the brand. This model evaluates how it can influence the customer’s purchase decision process by recognizing key touchpoints and customer interactions.

The consumer’s decision journey is not a linear model, so the actions they describe overlap and repeat until the purchase decision. The importance of factors such as customer loyalty and post-sale strategies is highlighted.

LEARN ABOUT: Perfect Customer-First Strategy

Understanding the consumer decision journey is vital because it can help a business understand how and when to engage with customers throughout their journey, from brand discovery to post-purchase and beyond.

This framework helps marketers better understand the key customer touchpoints where the right message to the right consumer can change their behavior.

The consumer decision journey model can help companies make continual improvements to customer lifetime value experience and lifecycle, fueling brand loyalty for years to come.

LEARN ABOUT: Customer Lifecycle

The consumer decision journey (CDJ) is an important part of brand marketing, marketing campaign, and figuring out how people act. It’s the process people go through when deciding what to buy, from realizing they need or want something to weighing their options to the experience they have after buying something. 

From the following points of view, you can see how important the consumer decision journey is:

Understanding consumer behavior

The CDJ gives useful information about what people think, feel, and do during buying. By looking at the different steps of the CDJ, marketers can learn more about consumer purchasing behavior and what drives consumers, what their preferences are, and what makes them make decisions. This helps businesses change their marketing strategies and messages so they can connect with customers at each stage of their trip.

Strategic marketing planning

By making a map of how a consumer makes a decision, marketers can find the key touchpoints and interactions where that can affect a consumer’s choice. Businesses can make the most of their marketing resources by strategically allocating them to touchpoints like online research, social media interaction, and in-store experiences. It lets marketers build targeted marketing campaigns and personalized experiences that resonate with customers at every stage of their journey.

Customer engagement and relationship building

The CDJ knows that a consumer’s trip doesn’t end when they buy something. It talks about how important the experience after a purchase is and how it can create loyal customers and company advocates. Businesses can build long-term relationships with their customers by focusing on giving great customer service, asking for feedback, and staying in touch. This can lead to repeat purchases and good word-of-mouth recommendations.

Adaptability and flexibility

The path a consumer takes to make a choice is not a straight line. Today’s consumers have access to a wide range of channels, platforms, and information sources that can affect their decisions at any point. By understanding that the CDJ is always changing, companies can change their marketing plans to keep up with consumer behavior and preferences changes. This ability to change helps businesses stay relevant and connect with customers in a digital world that is always changing.

Competitive advantage

Knowing and improving the consumer decision journey can give a business an edge over its competitors. By looking at how people act and what they like, businesses can find holes or pain points in the market and come up with new goods, services, or marketing plans to fill them. By giving customers a smooth and personalized experience, companies can set themselves apart from their competitors and give customers a positive and memorable experience.

Build your own Customer Journey Map .

The consumer decision journey consists of 5 main stages:

• The trigger
• The search for information
• The evaluation of alternatives
• The purchase
• The post-sale experience

Now we will detail each one.

1. Discovery

A stimulus or trigger starts the customer journey when an individual realizes they have a problem and need a company product or service to solve it.

The first step of the consumer’s decision journey is recognizing the need for a service or product.

LEARN ABOUT: Customer Journey Mapping Tools

2. Familiarization with the solution

When considering a purchase, a person reflects on a set of initial consideration or brands that immediately come to mind due to their level of brand awareness .

When researching their options, consumers will again rely on internal and external factors and previous interactions with a product or brand, both positive and negative.

Consumers can search for options in a physical place or consult online resources such as Google My Business Reviews and their degree of recommendation on various brands in the information or familiarization stage.

3. Consideration

Consumers gather information by searching multiple sources and reading reviews to decide which brand has what they want or need.

Alternatives can come in the form of lower prices, additional product benefits, immediate availability, or something as personal as color or style choices.

4. Purchase

Once the consumer filters their options based on the information they have gathered in the evaluation phase, they choose a brand and begin the purchase.

Once they have gathered all the data, including comments from previous customers, consumers must come to a logical conclusion about the product or service to buy.

5. Post-sale experience and loyalty

This part of the consumer decision journey involves both the consumer and the seller reflecting on the post-sale experience as part of the process.

As a seller, you should try to assess whether the purchase met the consumer’s identified need, whether the customer is delighted with the purchase, and how you can continue the relationship to ensure customer retention and loyalty.

LEARN ABOUT: Employee Experience Framework

Now that you know what the customer decision journey consists of, we will present you with five ways to guide your customers to ensure a smooth process that guarantees the satisfaction of their needs and your sales success.

Boost your company’s brand awareness

The first step to creating a successful consumer decision journey is to develop a comprehensive brand advertising campaign to build brand awareness. This way, existing customers will be able to think of you as part of the first options that come to mind when they think of you.

You want consumers to know and trust you. And more importantly, you want them to feel like they have a problem that only you can solve. 

Map your consumer decision journey

Building Customer Journey Maps are critical to comprehend the client’s key moments and pain points to which you must pay special attention to guarantee a smooth experience.

Knowing how to map customer journeys is a skill that your Customer Experience team must have or develop as soon as possible to offer potential customers access to the information they need at the right time so that they decide to buy your product or service.

Creating a funnel and planning the types of content that people may need is also advisable. Present yourself as a trusted source of knowledge and information, and include consumer-generated content such as customer reviews or case studies of your solutions on your website. 

Know your competition and surpass it

Your sales, marketing, and customer service strategies should convince consumers that your product is superior to alternatives.

For this, you must prepare to overcome any objection; for example, on sales calls or post-calls , get to know your competitors so you can answer questions and compare benefits.

Evaluate the experience throughout the consumer decision journey

Having reliable data in real-time is one of the best ways to evaluate the consumer decision journey to take improvement actions at critical points.

To do this, you can use various customer experiences metrics such as CSAT , CES, NPS , and the Things Gone Wrong index to understand the most essential moments and the most appropriate strategies for each point of the customer journey.

Keep your commitment to the client

Make sure your customer continues to have a positive experience with your products. Post-purchase customer engagement can include follow-up emails, discount coupons, and newsletters to entice the customer to make an additional purchase.

One way to ensure a successful consumer decision journey is to develop loyalty strategies that help you promote long-term customer interaction and word-of-mouth recommendations.

Suppose you want to go further and offer a wow experience. In that case, you can create a community of customers and invite them to actively participate to earn rewards, interact with other customers, and develop new business ideas.

LEARN ABOUT: Buying behavior

The consumer decision journey involves various business areas, from digital marketing strategy to generating attraction in the discovery stage to the customer service and experience team to complete post-sale and loyalty successfully.

For a successful customer satisfaction journey, you’ll need tools that help you measure every moment in real-time, see your metrics, automate processes, and connect the organization so your team can make decisions to resolve any friction instantly. If you would be interested in having all these tools in the same solution, remember that with QuestionPro CX you can have them at your fingertips at any time. Request a free demo or write to us in our online chat for more information!

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A Guide to the Consumer Decision Making Process

table of contents

Understanding how your customer thinks is not just beneficial—it's critical. The consumer decision-making process is the roadmap, the playbook, the secret sauce. It's the journey a consumer takes, from recognizing a need to purchasing and beyond.

We'll cover everything from the psychology of decision-making to the impact of current technology. You'll discover why understanding the consumer decision-making process is beneficial and vital in today's complex market. Ready? Let's get started.

Setting the stage - Why you should care

We're living in the age of the customer. Digital transformation has shifted power from brands to consumers and presented customers with endless choices. That's great for them, but not always so great for businesses competing for attention. Understand your customer, and you'll win their attention, loyalty, and advocacy.

The real cost of ignoring the consumer decision-making process

Data doesn't lie. Studies indicate consumers are willing to pay more for a better customer experience. In contrast, even a single negative experience can drive away potential lifetime customers. It's clear: understanding the consumer decision-making process isn't optional; it's mission-critical. Ignorance isn't bliss; it's a direct path to obscurity in a marketplace that waits for no one.

The psychology behind decision-making

The emotional vs rational mind: the internal battle.

We like to believe we're logical beings, but the fact is, emotion is often the driver while logic rides shotgun. Marketers can use psychological principles like urgency, scarcity, and the 'halo effect' to appeal to the emotional brain. Understanding the emotional psychology behind purchases can guide you in creating irresistible marketing campaigns.

Social influences: How friends and family impact decisions

If you think peer pressure is just for teenagers, think again. Whether word-of-mouth or influencer reviews, social proof is a powerful driver of consumer behavior. In fact, social proof is so impactful that according to various studies, product reviews are 12 times more trusted than product descriptions from manufacturers. Clearly, it's not just what you say about your product; it's what others say, too.

Behavioral economics: Why we're predictably irrational

Daniel Kahneman's "Thinking, Fast and Slow" takes us on a mind tour, revealing two systems that drive our thoughts. One is fast, intuitive, and emotional; the other is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. This explains why we can be incredibly smart and simultaneously make decisions against our best interest. As a business, you can apply behavioral economics to nudge customers in the direction that benefits both parties—emphasis on both.

A detailed look into the consumer decision-making model

Traditional vs. modern models: what's changed.

Traditional decision-making models presumed a linear journey: a customer realizes a need, searches for information, compares options, makes a purchase, and then evaluates their decision. Thanks to the internet, social media, and mobile devices, the process is less linear and more dynamic in today's digital ecosystem. Businesses need to adapt to this multifaceted consumer decision-making environment to stay relevant.

The 5 key stages of the consumer decision-making process

A comprehensive understanding of the consumer decision-making process involves knowing the five stages a consumer typically goes through. These are Problem Recognition, Information Search, Evaluation of Alternatives, Purchase Decision, and Post-Purchase Behavior. Understanding these stages in detail is like having a playbook for consumer engagement. You'll know when to push when to nurture, and when to sit back and let the consumer come to you.

Stage One - Problem Recognition

Pinpointing the need: how consumers realize they want something.

In this initial stage, consumers realize they have a need that must be satisfied. These needs can vary from the very basic, like hunger, to more complex needs, like buying new software for project management. Regardless of the need, it triggers the consumer decision-making process. Companies that effectively stimulate problem recognition have the upper hand from the get-go.

The triggers: External vs internal stimuli

Problem recognition can arise from both internal and external triggers. Internal triggers are spontaneous and often emerge from emotional states or thoughts—like feeling hungry or bored. External triggers are prompted by outside influences, like advertising or word-of-mouth. A smart blend of focusing on both can give you a winning edge.

Stage Two - Information Search

The modern consumer's toolkit: how we search for information.

Once a consumer realizes a need, the search for information begins. In our hyper-connected world, consumers use multiple channels—social media, search engines, friends, blogs—to find their ideal product or service. This stage is a goldmine for companies that invest in content marketing, SEO, and social listening.

Search engines vs social proof: The battle for credibility

Trust plays a huge role at this stage. Consumers cross-reference product information with reviews, friends' opinions, and expert advice. Being visible on search engines is crucial, but good reviews and testimonials can be your secret weapon.

Information overload: How too many options can be a bad thing

The paradox of choice is real. When consumers face too many options, they often suffer from analysis paralysis, delaying or avoiding decision-making altogether. Simplicity sells; therefore, keep choices and product options streamlined when possible.

Stage Three - Evaluation of Alternatives

Brand loyalty vs price sensitivity: what really matters.

During this stage, consumers use their personalized criteria to evaluate different options. Some are loyal to brands they trust; others are sensitive to price and seek the most cost-effective solution. Knowing which type of customer you're dealing with is essential for targeting your offerings.

The Evaluation Criteria: Features, Benefits, and Reviews

Consumers have their unique criteria for evaluation, usually revolving around features, benefits, and reviews. Features are the product's attributes, benefits are how those features solve a problem, and reviews are the social proof. As a marketer, you should excel in presenting all three aspects compellingly.

Stage Four - Purchase Decision

Cart abandonment: why consumers get cold feet.

The cart abandonment rate averages around 70%, a massive blow to potential revenue. This usually occurs due to unexpected costs, complicated checkouts, or second thoughts. Mitigating these barriers can help ensure that a decision to purchase translates into a successful transaction.

The power of discounts and offers: How to seal the deal

Price reductions, coupon codes, and limited-time offers can tip the balance in your favor when a consumer is on the fence. These tactics create a sense of urgency and can expedite the decision-making process. But use them wisely; you don't want to deteriorate your brand value.

The role of timing: Why now is better than later

Urgency is a compelling motivator. Terms like "limited-time offer" or "while supplies last" can drive a consumer to act fast. Use these phrases carefully and thoughtfully; the overuse can lead to consumer skepticism.

Stage Five - Post-Purchase Behavior

Satisfaction vs regret: the emotional aftermath.

Once the purchase is made, the consumer enters a stage of evaluation and emotional reconciliation. This stage is your chance to turn a one-time buyer into a loyal customer. High-quality customer service, easy return policies, and solid warranties can tip the scales in your favor.

How consumer reviews shape future buying decisions

A happy customer is likely to leave a positive review, and these reviews play a significant role in future purchasing decisions for other consumers. Encourage satisfied customers to share their positive experiences, as it could be a determining factor for potential customers on the fence.

Customer retention: Turning one-time buyers into loyal customers

Retaining a customer is more cost-effective than acquiring a new one. Offering loyalty programs, sending thoughtful post-purchase follow-ups, and listening to customer feedback are some ways to nurture the relationship.

How businesses can influence the consumer decision-making process

Personalization and targeting.

With machine learning algorithms and data analytics, personalization has become more sophisticated than ever. The payoff is huge; personalized emails have 6x higher transaction rates. If you're not already personalizing, now's the time to start.

Customer Experience

A Harvard Business Review study showed that customers with great experiences spent 140% more than those with poor experiences. So, the math is simple: invest in customer experience.

Understanding and anticipating customer needs

Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, and other tools offer actionable insights. These insights allow you to not just understand consumer behavior but also to predict future actions. In other words, it's like having a crystal ball, but one that's backed by data.

Ethical considerations: The line between influence and manipulation

Imagine knowing what your customer wants before they even realize it. Machine learning and AI algorithms can make this a reality. Early adopters of these technologies are already reaping the benefits, positioning themselves ahead of the curve.

As we increasingly leverage data and psychology to influence consumer decisions, it's crucial to remember the ethical implications. Your brand's long-term success is built not just on profits but also on trust. And in today's world, trust is more fragile than ever.

Understanding the consumer decision-making process is not just a strategy; it's an essential toolkit for long-term success. Businesses and marketers who ignore this fundamental aspect of consumer psychology do so at their own peril. Apply what you've learned and adapt as you go. Your customers — and your bottom line — will thank you.

Discover more

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Customer journey vs customer journey map

What are the 7 steps of the customer journey map?

Collecting customer feedback: methods and techniques

Buyer journey vs customer journey

Benefits of customer journey mapping

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• Customer Decision Journey

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Abbreviated as CDJ, customer decision journey is a model that describes the process customers undergo before making any purchase decisions. It is believed that there is no such thing as an impulse buy. New businesses always develop marketing strategies without considering the decision-making process by assuming that customers are always prepared to make a purchase. Every purchase customers make is a decision journey, involving interactions with different brands from initial contact to the point where they make a purchase.

Customer decision journey concept has been in existence for many years. However, the actual route that customers take to arrive at a purchase decision has changed over time and has made many companies modify their marketing strategies to fit the best model. Traditionally, companies used a linear approach to customer decision journey which was later modified to a more circular approach (McKinsey model).

The Old Approach

Some companies are still attached to the old model since the new model lacks sufficient evidence to support its effectiveness. The old approach simplifies this process into four steps.

• Awareness – the customers know nothing about the company or its products. Also, they do not know their needs. Customers discover the products through advertisements or recommendations.
• Selection – customers start analyzing information given to them about the product. At this point, they believe that their needs can be fulfilled.
• Preference – they have assessed all the information and compared all possible solutions. They can now make a decision.
• Purchase – they purchase the product they have selected hence becoming customers.

This approach only considers the pre-purchase decision and neglects to design the experience gained as customers use the product.

The McKinsey Model

Due to marketing evolution, customers have also evolved as well as the buying process. The McKinsey consulting company designed a model for customer decision journey consisting of four steps.

• Consideration – customers consider several brands in the hope that they can fulfil their needs.
• Active evaluation – they evaluate the brands considered by accessing several information databases. The number of brands is reduced depending on their pros and cons.
• Buy – customers decide to go for the one brand that meets their needs and make a purchase.
• Post-purchase experience – this stage explains what happens after the customers execute the purchase. At this point, the customers can use the product and gather experience. If they are fully satisfied, they may rate and recommend the product to others. This is word-of-mouth marketing which forms the core of the loop in McKinsey’s CDJ. Positive or negative feedback affects the evaluation phase and purchase decisions that customers make.

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The AIDA Model: A Proven Framework for Converting Strangers Into Customers

Updated: February 04, 2022

Published: July 22, 2021

In the digital age, brands have based their entire marketing strategy on the AIDA model. AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. Each term represents a stage of a consumer's buying journey. 

Before we cover how you can apply the AIDA model to your own content marketing strategy, let’s go over what it is and why it works.

The AIDA Model

The AIDA model describes the four stages a consumer goes through before making a purchasing decision. The stages are Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action (AIDA). During these four stages, your content will ideally attract attention to your brand, generate interest in your product or service, stimulate a desire for it, and spur action to try or buy it.

Brands use the AIDA model to determine the way they should craft and distribute marketing messages to their target audience at each stage of the buyer’s journey .

The AIDA model is considered a hierarchy of effects model, which means consumers must move through each stage of the model to complete the desired action. Just like a typical marketing funnel , each stage has fewer consumers than the previous one.

AIDA Model History

In 1898, Elias St. Elmo Lewis , an eventual inductee of the Advertising Hall of Fame, anonymously wrote a column about three advertising principles he found useful throughout his career in a printing magazine called The Inland Printer , one of the most influential American magazines of the 19th century .

In his column, he states that a successful advertisement should always follow a specific formula.

“The mission of an advertisement is to attract a reader, so that he will look at the advertisement and start to read it; then to interest him, so that he will continue to read it; then to convince him, so that when he has read it he will believe it. If an advertisement contains these three qualities of success, it is a successful advertisement.”

In other words, copy is only good if it attracts attention, generates interest, and creates conviction, in that order.

Over a century later, Lewis’ principles still ring true. They’re expressed as an acronym, AIDA, and widely used in the advertising industry.

Free AIDA Model Template

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How to apply the aida model to your marketing.

By creating campaigns and structuring your website with the AIDA model in mind, you can get more control over your prospects' paths to a purchasing decision.

In theory, as they progress through each stage of the model, consumers who learn about your brand will develop certain feelings or emotions about your product or service, which is what ultimately compels them to act.

Here's what you can do to implement AIDA.

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Attract Attention

If your content can grab their attention and deeply engage them , your target audience will start to become curious about what your company actually does.

In this stage, the consumer is asking, "What is it?"

In order to get to this stage, you must first get your content in front of them. This comes with increased brand awareness and effective messaging.

Effective content marketing is one method of attracting visitors to your website. If you create content that solves their problems and focuses on their passions, you'll be able to draw them in and provide a solution. When executed effectively, your target audience should be able to discover your content through Google, social media, and other channels.

Wistia does this well with their content marketing, producing not just educational blog posts that drive traffic but also entertaining or inspiring "shows." This tactic allows them to not just address the pains their prospects have but also go above and beyond to make solving that problem easier (and, in some cases, entertaining). Leaning into video as a medium instead of just blogging ties into their product and mission, keeping Wistia's solutions top of mind as prospects consume this content.

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Generate Interest

Once your target audience is interested in your product or service, they’ll want to learn more about your brand, the benefits of your solution , and your potential fit with them.

In this stage, the goal is to get them to think, "I like it."

In order to get to this stage, your content must be persuasive and engaging. While the first stage of AIDA is capturing their attention, this stage is about holding it. You can do this with a hook.

Let's say your content marketing was effective in drawing them to the website to learn about a pain, problem, or need they have. You might then "hook" them with engaging storytelling that demonstrates the why behind your solution.

Stories resonate with humans, and it's a simple way to convey information in a way that stimulates empathy and curiosity.

To generate enough excitement in your prospects to compel them to act, you need to make sure their affinity for your brand hits a certain threshold. The more aligned you are with their needs and values, the more likely you are to achieve success.

Below the Fold is a service that delivers relevant news articles to its users. It generates interest with its hook: "Stories that don't make it to the front page." The intrigue in this line opens up a loop ( What have I been missing without this service? ) while highlighting their value proposition of surfacing stories that aren't getting coverage but are still important.

Stimulate Desire

People do business with those they know, like, and trust. The first two stages of the AIDA model establish the know and the like .

The goal of this stage is to change "I like it" to "I want it."

And that's done by cementing in the final piece of the puzzle: Trust.

To do this, keep serving them content. Make sure they subscribe to your blog, follow you on social media, and download your offers . The more prospects interact with your brand, the more they’ll trust you, boosting the chances they’ll eventually buy your product or service.

The prospects you’re most likely to close are the consumers who envision a future with you -- they already enjoy consuming your content and think your product or service will be even better.

For this reason, you must institute a gap between where they are and where they could be with your solution. At the same time, you must establish social proof with case studies and testimonials.

"Before and After" style content is a great example of how to stimulate desire while gaining trust. Check out the headline on this case study by Calendly : "Convert 60% more PPC leads into bookings using Black Propeller's secret weapon." This helps a prospect envision a future with this product ( What would my life be like if I achieved similar results? ). The "before" is them at their current stage, and the "after" is the vision of them with a 60% increase in conversions. Then, if they read the full case study, they get exposed to social proof from a customer just like them.

Spur Into Action

After you generate enough desire for your product or service, give your prospects the chance to act on it. After all, what’s the point of creating content and building deep relationships with prospects if there isn’t a clear next step?

The goal is to get them to decide, "I'm getting it."

No matter what the "next step" is, you should compel them to respond with low-friction but high-incentive calls to action.

Whether they're far away or close to a purchasing decision, the next step that you present should be "high-value." In other words, it must help them in some way.

If they understand what the outcome of your offer is and find it valuable to them, they'll be more likely to act (since they aren't simply committing to a sales call or sales content).

Consider exactly how you can provide that value while motivating them to engage with you.

The CTA for this "next step" or offer should be prominent, clear, and uncomplicated. Perhaps it's a button or banner that spells out what action they must take and what they get if they do. By eliminating friction in the process, you increase your likelihood of success.

Nerdwallet , a personal finance site that provides resources on everything from credit to mortgages, has such a CTA. The idea is that they can engage their audience and compel them to action by offering a comparison tool. They highlight this tool directly on their homepage with a grabby headline and value-driven subheadline along with a high-contrast button. The setup is uncomplicated and friction-free. Nerdwallet is simultaneously able to generate leads while empowering and delighting those leads with high-value information.

AIDA Drawbacks

Now that you are familiar with the AIDA framework and how it operates, you should also consider some of its limitations:

1. It doesn't take into account non-linear buyer's journeys.

AIDA does a fantastic job of describing a linear thought process for a purchasing decision. However, not all purchasing decisions are linear.

A prospective customer might get their interest peaked but ultimately choose a different solution, only coming back to the original provider if their needs aren't met.

More commonly, someone might have a desire for a solution before being aware of it and taking action to find it (thus experiencing the Desire and Action before the Attention and Interest).

2. It doesn't take into account impulse purchases or super short sales cycles.

In addition to a non-linear journey, a prospective customer might cycle through multiple stages of AIDA at the same time — all four for an impulse buy or emergency purchase.

3. It's only a small piece of a holistic business strategy.

AIDA is also limited to first-time purchases. Some organizations try to align their strategy around marketing funnels like AIDA, but this is a mistake. Funnels have customers as an output when they should be at the center of a growth strategy . After all, it's easier to retain and/or upsell an existing customer than acquire a new one. In addition, with a little customer delight , you can earn testimonials and referrals, generating more attention, interest, and (therefore) customers.

AIDA doesn't accommodate for this, which is why other models — like the flywheel — are more appropriate for holistic business strategy.

4. Focusing on one AIDA element per marketing tactic may not be effective.

Even when using a funnel for one particular aspect of your business rather than a holistic strategy, it can still be easy to fall into the trap of segmenting out the four letters of AIDA and applying one letter per each tactic in your marketing strategy. For example, you might think, "This blog post is to get their attention," and only focus on that. However, a blog post should ideally attract awareness and generate interest... and at least get them to take some kind of action before they leave your site.

In other words, marketing should be able to cycle a prospect through multiple stages of AIDA. An effective ad, for example, might prompt three or four stages of AIDA, spurring a potential buyer to action.

5. It's almost too simple.

AIDA might also be effective in conceptualizing the buying process in a consumer's mind when they are faced with an ad or other piece of marketing collateral. However, AIDA may be too simplistic to describe the stages of a buying process, particularly for decisions that are more involved or nuanced. Today's buyers have more resources at their disposal to research, comparison shop, etc.

Using the AIDA Framework

Despite its drawbacks, the AIDA model is a sturdy framework for guiding your audience through the buyer’s journey and spurring them to act. And if you apply it to your content marketing, you’ll be leveraging a proven formula that can consistently engage, persuade, and convert an audience into customers. However, it starts with knowing your customer journey.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in October 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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How to Create a Realistic Customer Journey Map

By: Mark Rosenbaum, Mauricio Losada Otalora, German Contreras Ramirez

Although many articles discuss customer journey mapping (CJM), both academics and practitioners still question the best ways to model the consumer decision journey. We contend that most customer…

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Although many articles discuss customer journey mapping (CJM), both academics and practitioners still question the best ways to model the consumer decision journey. We contend that most customer journey maps are critically flawed. They assume all customers of a particular organization experience the same organizational touchpoints and view these touchpoints as equally important. Furthermore, management lacks an understanding of how to use CJM as a cross-functional, strategic tool that promotes service innovation. This article proposes a solution to the unwieldy complexity of CJM by linking customer research to the CJM process and by showing managers how to develop a customer journey map that improves a customer's experience at each touchpoint. Using the case of an actual retail mall, we show that common CJM assumptions about the equal importance of all touchpoints are fundamentally wrong, and how easy it is for retail managers and strategic planners to make incorrect judgements about customer experience. This article demonstrates through a case study how customer research helped a mall's strategic management team understand which touchpoints were more or less critical to customer experience. It also shows key strategic initiatives at each touchpoint, resulting in cross-functional input aimed to advance service innovation at the mall.

Jan 1, 2017

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• Frontiers in Neuroergonomics
• Consumer Neuroergonomics
• Research Topics

NeuroJourney: decoding customer behavior through brain pathways

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Understanding the nuances of consumer behavior throughout the customer journey is a fundamental step in marketing. Traditional analysis marketing methods often do not capture the complexity of the customer decision-making processes. The growing field of Consumer Neuroscience, or Neuromarketing, bridges this gap by employing neuroscience tools to examine consumer decisions' neuropsychological underpinnings. This Research Topic explores the efficacy of integrating decision neuroscience tools to assess decision-making processes, enhancing our understanding at every stage of the customer journey—from pre-purchase anticipation to post-purchase satisfaction. By merging these tools with traditional research methods, this collection seeks to offer a comprehensive overview of how consumers interact with various marketing stimuli across both digital and physical spaces. Pre-purchase Phase: Neuroscience tools, like electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), can provide insights into the cognitive and emotional dynamics that guide consumer preferences and help identify key influences on product consideration. Purchase Phase: Techniques like heart rate monitoring (HRV), galvanic skin response (GSR), and facial expression analysis (FEA) reveal the psychophysiological responses that can predict purchase decisions. This phase focuses on how different touchpoints affect buyer behaviour and the role of emotional and cognitive engagement in these interactions. Post-purchase Phase: Evaluation after the purchase using consumer neuroscience tools can shed light on factors like customer satisfaction and loyalty. This means understanding the emotional and cognitive aspects of consumer interactions with brands and services after the purchase, aiding in optimising customer retention strategies. Contributions to this Research Topic may include empirical research, case studies, or theoretical models that combine neuroscience tools with traditional methods to map out the customer journey informing on customers’ decision-making process referring to, but not limited to, the following: ● customer experience ● customer engagement ● customer satisfaction and loyalty ● customer centricity and customer focus ● service quality We encourage transdisciplinary submissions adopting cognitive and behavioral indices to measure consumer interactions at various touchpoints to enhance customer experience and business performance. We welcome insights from fields such as marketing, psychology, neuroscience, and human-computer interaction, fostering a deeper understanding of the dynamic consumer landscape.

Keywords : decision-making, neuromarketing, psychology, consumer neuroscience, customer behavior, fMRI, HRV, GSR, FEA, cognitive indices, human-computer interaction

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Ten years on the consumer decision journey: Where are we today?

From left, Dave Elzinga, a partner, and Bo Finneman, an associate partner, both in the Marketing & Sales Practice, present new insights from the consumer decision journey at ad:tech New York in November. This wraps up a busy fall season of sharing these findings at events including Kellogg’s Marketing Leadership Summit in Chicago, the ECI Summit in Barcelona, and Forum McKinsey in São Paulo.

November 17, 2017 In the age of digital shopping—where the competitor is a click, swipe, or tap away—how consumers make purchase decisions has radically changed. Marketers have, therefore, become laser-focused on understanding what drives consumer decisions and influencing that journey.

McKinsey experts saw this growing need to better understand shifting consumer behavior nearly ten years ago, when we proposed a new approach called the consumer decision journey . It was a significant change in thinking that challenged the long-held concept of the sales funnel, where the decision path narrows in a linear way, from starting with awareness to ending with loyalty. The journey, instead, reflects a more complex reality of shifting choices, decision criteria, and triggers.

Today, after almost a decade, we have a database that covers more than 125,000 consumer decision journeys—used to help marketers influence consumers and drive growth—across 350 brands in 30 different industries. So, stepping back, the next big question our experts wanted to answer was how consumer behavior had changed over this time.

What did they find?

The bad news for brands is, Loyalty is now more elusive than ever, explains Bo Finneman , an associate partner in our Marketing & Sales Practice. Ninety percent of the categories the team studied showed no customer loyalty. And despite the explosion of loyalty programs, engagement in them is dropping.

With easy access to information today, consumers feel almost obligated to shop around, says Dave Elzinga, a partner also in our Marketing & Sales Practice. The proliferation of sophisticated sites and technologies has made it much easier for consumers to compare brands. And social media has created greater transparency into what influencers (for example, friends, family, celebrities) are buying and thinking, adds Bo. It’s continuously reminding consumers that multiple choices exist for a purchase, and the choices are constantly evolving, making each purchase cycle feel like new.

What I find remarkable is that so many people have more trust in what they read from total strangers than what companies tell them, says Dave. That shows us that brands need to win back the trust of consumers.

So what’s the good news? Every purchase is up for grabs today, says Dave. In fact, more than half of customers—58 percent—change brands from one purchase cycle to the next. While this has been seen as a challenge by marketers, it also greatly increases the number of opportunities for a brand to be considered.

And getting into the initial consideration set of brands early on in the decision-making process is critical. Nearly 70 percent of brand choices are made at this point—the beginning of the journey—when a consumer is first triggered to shop.

What we can see now based on our decision-journey data is the link between early consideration and a brand’s growth, explains Dave. This ultimately led to the creation of a new predictive metric this year—the customer growth indicator —that provides a simple score showing the growth potential of a product.

Once a brand knows its growth indicator score, it can easily compare itself to competitors and take effective action. If you’re at the bottom, you’ll want to innovate to make sure you can move up, says Dave. And if you’re at the top, you may need to reinforce your innovation and customer experience as a way of protecting your position. The growth indicator can help brands zero in on which customers to target for early consideration as well as determine how budgets are allocated across various marketing tactics.

The key takeaway: brands need to find ways to get into consumers’ consideration early and then continue to stay on the journey with them afterward when they’re triggered to make their next purchase. It used to be that you could win over a consumer and then gain loyalty for the longer term, says Bo. But today, consumers are more enamored with what’s new and continuously top of mind.

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