As mentioned in the previous post, based on the Customer Experience Pathway, we can graph the conversion rates for each stage of the 5A Framework (Awareness, Appeal, Inquiry, Action, Advocacy), and there are four main pathway forms that are commonly seen. This comprehensive information is a very useful tool to help us quickly understand an industry and determine the appropriate marketing approach. Here is a summary of what the common path forms are and the insights they may give us.
The doorknob type is the most common. That is to say, there are many customers at the stage of cognition and demand (high brand awareness), few at the stage of inquiry (lack of curiosity), many customers who buy (indicating that customers tend to skip the inquiry), and few who advocate. This type is often seen in consumer packaged goods, the product price is low customers do not tend to shop around, and because of frequent purchase is easy to develop a fixed preference, but at the same time will not be recommended to each other. As mentioned in the previous article, the ideal state would be the bow-tie type, and in practice, we should also compare ourselves with the bow-tie type. Therefore, the doorknob type of industry should focus on increasing the conversion rate from purchasing to advocating, that is, to increase the affinity of the brand and enhance the loyalty. Common practices include launching reward point collection activities, and dividing the reward among member levels.
The second type is the goldfish type. The goldfish type of customer is curious and is more likely to be in the inquiry stage than the request stage, which is common in B2B companies, or in industries such as tourism, where customers spend a lot of money but there is a lot of homogeneous competition. Customers tend to seek out advice before making a purchase, and advertising is rarely effective. The most difficult aspect of this type of business is differentiation, as competition is fierce and customers like to make a lot of comparisons, so building a relationship with the customer is usually the top priority.
The third type is the flapper, often found in premium brands. In this type of industry, customers are willing to advocate without even purchasing, and are attracted by the brand's word-of-mouth. As long as they don't lower their aspirations and increase access and customer affordability, they can be very effective.
The fourth type is the funnel type, which is the most traditional type. Customers tend to go through the entire decision-making process and make planned purchases, often on durable products. The overall customer experience is the key to this type of marketing because customers will go through all the touch points, but it is common for customers to develop a sense of loyalty.
As we can see from the above analysis, the type of industry makes a big difference. For example, a trumpet-type industry is inherently more likely to have a leading firm with high ownership, while a doorknob-type industry is inherently less likely to have an owner due to the nature of the commodity. But it's a bit difficult to find out the conversion rate at all stages. Is there a faster way to determine the characteristics of an industry? Yes, there is.
To understand the characteristics of an industry, we can also start by simply counting the brand ownership rate of each brand in the industry. The distribution, and median, of brand ownership can give us a deeper understanding of an industry.
For example, if the median is high, we can think of it as meaning that most customers are more willing to recommend the brands in this industry. If the median is high, and the distribution is wide, it means that word-of-mouth is very important, and we need to emphasize on brand management and brand positioning development. If we fall into the latter part of the class, there will be a big gap between the loss of supporters and the competitors in front of us. If the distribution range is narrow, it means that customers are very willing to recommend but the ownership rate of each brand is more or less the same, which means a high degree of segmentation. In this case, if you can increase the number of sales channels and make the product more accessible, the number of advocates will increase.
If the median is low, it means that most customers do not recommend the brand, which means that the brand reputation does not exist much, and the quality of the product itself may be similar. But if the distribution range is still very wide, that the leading brand is still recommended, the goal is to become the leading brand, service management is very important, will be the key to become the leading brand. If the distribution range is still very narrow, it is really competitive business is difficult to do, can only rely on sales staff to push, so we must pay attention to the management of sales staff.
The analysis of industry types and marketing applications is very dynamic and unlikely to be static. Although we have looked at some simple directions for analysis here, the actual operation still requires more experience and observation to judge and learn. Today, here is a simple organization of the application of the available skills.
Article Series
- Marketing 4.0 (Part 1: Theoretical Framework)
- Marketing 4.0 (Part 2: Industry Types and Marketing Applications Based on the 5A Framework)
- After Reading "Marketing 4.0" (Part 3: Marketing Tactics in the Digital Age)
Thank you for reading this post. If you like my post, please follow up withFacebook Fan Specialist,Twitter,IGThe
