The Buying Journey

Grant Leboff: Bryony, one of the things I wanted to ask you was, in order to get your marketing right you’ve obviously got to understand the buying journey of the customer. From a standing start, how does someone start to do that?

Bryony Thomas: Yeah. It’s a great question and it’s obviously one of the first places you’d start, as a marketer. I’d say the first thing to think about is to put yourself in the shoes of the person who’s buying, obviously. I’d say the first thing to think about is whether it is an impulse purchase, or a considered purchase … I think we all have those I had to have it moments, the see it buy it. There’s not much of a journey there. ‘See it, buy it’. For me, it’s Karen Millen dresses, don’t know what it is for you.

Grant Leboff: Whiskey, probably.

Bryony Thomas: Whiskey. Yeah, yeah. Guitars. You know? Those sorts of things, everyone has one. At the other end, there’s a considered purchase and there are various things that come together to kind of, slow that down. There’s, whether it’s an amount of money they could afford to lose, whether there’s a lot of time going to be involved, once they make the decision to implement on it, the opinions of other people… The more of those things come into play, the slower the journey becomes.

I’d say, the first thing around buying journeys to think is, is it a ‘see it buy it’, or is it a ‘see it, think about it, forget about it, come to it, see it, think about it’..? The further it is towards that considered, the longer the journey’s going to be. Then, from there I would say, it’s about walking through the process through their eyes, so planning it out in the direction that they would travel. If I were doing this I’d have a Post-it note wall, I’m sure you’re a big fan on Post-it notes. Map it out, think about where they’d look, what they would do, but then build it backwards, so that you have that full path to purchase.

Grant Leboff: You’ve got your Post-it wall, you’re putting all your different ideas and parts of the journey on that wall, are there definite ways of kind of, understanding it, in terms of a process?

Bryony Thomas: Yeah. Absolutely. There are lots of tried and tested marketing models out there. Pick whichever one you like. I tend to use the Philip Kotler model, which is the … He calls it the model of rational decision making. I agree it’s a model of decision making, I’m not entirely with him on the rational bit. That’s a six step model that goes from awareness through to loyalty, with stages on the way.

I tend to use that to anchor the thoughts and then, at each stage in the journey I get people to first all think, what’s going on in their minds? Which would be the messaging. What are the key driving thoughts? Then, how much time do they have? How much time are they going to give to this stage in the process? Then, who are the third parties they would consult, whilst they were there? The six steps and then three questions. What? How? Who?

Grant Leboff: Are one of the considerations, what’s going to take them to the next step?

Bryony Thomas: Of course. Absolutely. In each of those steps you’re doing … you’re kind of, putting yourself in their position. You’re looking, what’s going on in their head? How much time, where are they? The kind of, context and who. Then, what do I have to tick, in each of those what, how, who, in order to move somebody on to the next step? Or, invite them to leave the process, if it’s not for them, of course. That’s also very important.

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