The sales funnel is dead. Or is it?
Although the principle is valid, the "funnel" moniker is a total misnomer. Which is why personally, I much prefer the term "customer journey", writes Nick Kavanagh, head of integrated strategy and planning at Havas Media Group.
The venerable brand strategist, Richard Huntington, recently wrote about the threat of orthodoxy; how perceived wisdom and best practice – the accepted way of doing things – can stifle the creation of brands that are truly distinctive.
Which is why I was so interested by Darren Woolley’s article last week on the marketing funnel. An advertising model developed by American, Elias St. Elmo, in 1898.
Elias’ model described the process a salesperson needed to follow in order to navigate a potential customer through to a sale. This being Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. The fact we’re still using a model developed before the invention of mass media [let alone digital attribution] blows my mind.
Darren’s article focused on the debate around balancing upper and lower funnel investment [AKA brand vs. performance], however the main outtake was how important this piece of advertising orthodoxy actually is. And I totally agree.
I’ll preface this by saying I’ve never met Darren, but he seems like a very decent chap [with hair I can only dream of]. But we approach this industry from slightly different perspectives. Whilst he runs pitches, I’m one of the lucky devils existing on pizza and strong flat whites trying to win them.
So, I thought I’d give the agency perspective on the matter. Afterall, Darren did say how discussing this area always gets a reaction from people.
Firstly, as he rightly points out, although the principle is valid, the ‘funnel’ moniker is a total misnomer. Not only does it conjure-up images of stag-party drinking rituals – that may just be me – and chemistry exams, but it doesn’t truly reflect how communications work. A liquid enters a funnel at the top and comes out the bottom, but consumer behaviour isn’t as simple. Some will have bought you or your competitor’s product previously, others won’t have a clue who you are or what you stand for [let alone understand your finely honed brand purpose]. Many may not even be considering making a purchase yet.
Which is why personally, I much prefer the term “customer journey”.
Think of a weekend away with friends. Although everyone will be heading to the same destination, people will leave at different times, or take different routes based on where they’re coming from. Take the analogy further, and some will use Google Maps to get there, others will use previous experiences to decide the best route.
And It’s the same for communications. Some consumers will know your category well and are just seeking the best offer [solved via performance media], others start their journey not knowing anything about your category and therefore need more brand-building, educational comms before you can hit them with the sell.
So, less funnels, more journeys please.
The basic principle of the customer journey is that it visualises the stages/phases of the path to purchase, from a passive relationship with the category through to brand advocacy and everything in between, and the key marketing inputs. Who are we targeting at each stage? What’s the barrier we need to address to navigate them towards a sale? What channels and content will be most effective at each stage? What message will be most effective?
Relatively basic stuff.
But plotting all this out – combining data and planning experience to determine all the strategic inputs at every stage of the journey – ensures all stakeholders are aligned. Not just within the agency, but also without. Clients and agencies can rally around a clear, structured, and measurable marketing experience. Media, Advertising, PR, CX and e-commerce disciplines can genuinely integrate around common goals. Ideas and tactics assessed on whether they’re satisfying the strategic requirements. And rather than stifling creativity, I genuinely believe customer journeys catalyse more effective work.
The other important aspect of the customer journey relates to measurement. As all forms of media become ever more digitised, the data signals related to a campaign have grown exponentially. But just because you can measure something, does that necessarily mean it’s pertinent to the task at hand?
By being clear on the objective and role for communications at each state of the journey, you can then determine the brand health metrics and corollary campaign performance KPI’s that will determine success. The challenge is being disciplined with what is measured at each stage of the journey. There’s still more work to be done, but via modelling and real-time data analysis we’re starting to understand the relationship between media metrics and brand-health indicators at every stage of the journey.
So, although we should always be questioning perceived industry orthodoxy – challenging the status quo in order to produce marketing that’s not just progressive but also effective and culture shaping – like the work of Binet, Field and Sharpe, the detailed mapping and measurement of the customer journey isn’t one of those. It’s the cornerstone of what we do.
Nick Kavanagh, head of integrated strategy and planning at Havas Media Group.
The funnel is dead, long live the funnel! Like any management tool, a key value of the tool is in having a common language and getting stuff done. Funnels were never an exact representation of individual decision-making, but a collective summary of some key measures. Like Nick points out, where value and insight can be added is in defining the funnel to better reflect the type of communication context we are targeting. Where it falls apart is when we mistake the funnel for a person. We should never mistake a map for the place.
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Funnels, roads, cycles and journeys sound a bit outdated now that the digital meta highway is up and running- remaining end to end requires deeper transformation than just BOFU/MOFU/TOFU (if you think thats a new tasting menu at Juicy Bao, well its not). For me the best new way to make a paid search reco look strategic is with an urbn safari- unlike roads and funnels, a safari is about observing a species up close in its native habitat.That could be at the Shopping Town bus depot, Makeup gauntlet at David Jones or a local RSL.. Armed with this first party data a proper end-to-end solution can be constructed to deliver best in class results beyond expectations.
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