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Consumer Journey Mapping

The purpose of consumer journey mapping is to provide a clear and detailed understanding of that path that consumers take from awareness to interaction with a product or brand.

Key touch points are identified and at each point of the journey, with an overlay of the emotions attached to better understand the consumer experience and identify pain points / opportunities for improvement. 

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When is consumer journey mapping useful?

How consumers interact and shop brands constantly evolves and never has this been more true than in the time of COVID-19. Consumer Journey Mapping is useful in that it allows businesses to see their brand from the consumer’s perspective and understand the true moments that matter (MTM). With that viewpoint they can understand how to optimize the experience, influence consumer decision and, ultimately, grow the brand.  

  1. When you need to understand the entire consumer journey.

    Running a consumer journey mapping project helps you determine each step taken by consumers within their journey. This includes trigger of need, awareness, consideration, acquisition, usage and re-purchase/loyalty.  

  2. When you need to understand which touch points are most influential.

    Not only will consumer journey mapping help you identify where to spend time optimizing your marketing, it'll show you where the brand is gaining and losing shoppers along the path, allowing your team to prioritize their efforts. 

  3. When you need to understand the 'why' behind consumer decisions.

    This type of analysis provides an understanding of consumers’ emotions, considerations, and the 'why' behind decisions made at each step in the process. 

  4. When you need to size influences & barriers at key touch points.

    The research will help you sizes influences, motivations and barriers at those touch points that matter most, providing the insight needed to optimize the consumer experience and ultimately influence their decision. 

We take a two-phased approach to consumer journey mapping

Discovery

Using a combination of mobile shop-alongs or diaries and follow-up in-depth interviews, we observe consumers path to purchase “in-the-moment.” Though loosely guided with specific exercises / prompts, no sequence of events is assumed; the path is observed as it naturally unfolds.  Findings from this phase of research form the foundation of the consumer journey map.

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Validation

A robust online survey effort is then used to validate the order of steps, and size the influences, motivations, and barriers identified in qualitative discovery. 

Additional lines of questioning may also be included to test hypotheses developed in response to findings from qualitative discovery.  

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