The Purchase Funnel
Above is the classic Purchase Funnel diagram that marketers have been using for years. It has been a tried and true model of the decision making process of the buying consumer.
Not any more.
The "old" purchase funnel diagram does not take into account the influence of the Internet.
The change to the model is happening in the middle tiers of Opinion and Consideration.
Search and the social aspects of the web are making the the center of the funnel bulge. Time to re-stack the funnel or maybe even throw it away, because when using search, the user gets to the tier that says "One make/One model intention" and the funnel comes apart.
Why?
Because brand search is category driven. (I'll address this in tomorrows blog)
What happens now is that when someone searches on the web, their consideration set goes from one to many, as many brands are introduced on the web search. So the funnel gets MUCH wider in the middle.
Maybe we need to start calling it something different:
The Purchase Droplet
See you tomorrow.
Steve
All material is © Copyright 2012, Steve Cissel