Somewhere I heard/read a description of the states through which the customer must move to realize a sale. I recall Awareness, Interest, Desire, and Action or similar synonyms. These focus on marketing and sales. I would add Oblivious at the beginning and Satisfaction at the end to round out the complete business process.
Oblivious is a given. In the beginning the customer may not know your product exists or is even possible and definitely does not know that you exist. The customer Profile is a tool for analyzing the different aspects of your customer. Where your customer is. What he reads, watches, and browses. What he wants, values, and needs. How he can be motivated to buy. I suppose we could coin the 6 W’s of the customer- who, what, when, where, why, and how.
Awareness is a preliminary requirement. The customer needs to become aware. This may be a result of a few of the P’s of marketing. Promotion, Placement, Packaging, Publishing, Page-rank can all play a role in making the customer aware of your product. Promotion covers the range of awareness generating activities. Packaging can be promotional at the point of sale or in a more viral fashion if a potential consumer notices your packaging somewhere else. Page-rank comes into play if the customer is aware of the general type of product or can find you by indirect searches- such as cold and flu symptoms to find a cold remedy. Awareness is often closely coupled with interest if the product/value is compelling, but it is possible for a customer to be aware of something for a long time without becoming interested and learning more.
A key challenge in generating awareness is the strong resistance most people have developed to anything that remotely resembles advertising. Ad clicks on web pages can be a few per ten thousand views. I know I’ve developed an unconscious ability to defocus my eyes when I see something that might be advertising.
Interest may be developed slowly with an incremental awareness building campaign, or in the best case may come directly from the same promotion which creates the initial awareness. Generally interest begins when a customer relates your product to some need or value.
Desire is when the customer wants the product. The features/benefits/value have been accepted. Desire does not equal purchase. There are millions who desire the latest big screen TV or smartphone who fail to act.
Action is the tipping point where the perceived value emotional or otherwise exceeds the price resistance, spousal disapproval, and other disincentives and the customer actually buys.
I notice- in keeping with the newer product life cycle management and concurrent business models Satisfaction now appears in some lists. I see this as a critical addition. It can encompass the entire production and fulfillment cycle through to actual customer satisfaction.
Satisfaction is the point at which the value has been delivered and the customer is and remains satisfied. All aspects of product manufacture, quality, delivery, performance, support, and warranty can factor in customer satisfaction.
It is useful to consider how actions taken in a marketing or product plan contribute to moving the customer through these states. If you use the 31 P’s of marketing each of the selected P’s and activities implemented under that P should have a clear connection to advancing through the states.
