We hear it every day. Decision-makers are finally in tune with the concept of “mapping the customer journey” or the “customer path-to-purchase.”

These are hot topics and good concepts, and it is important to clarify with the business decision-maker what, exactly, they mean and how they can best be used.

I’ve also heard business owners say many times, “Marketing is so different today. Marketing has really changed.”

But has marketing changed? Or have these people been hearing from someone who is trying to convince them that marketing has changed so they can be sold on the latest shiny thing?

I would argue that the concept of marketing has really not changed.

Isn’t marketing truly the art and science of trying to place the right message in front of the right consumer across the right channels at the right time?

Hooking that puzzle together will improve results.

What has changed is the “customer journey” or the “path-to-purchase.”

The consumers of today will typically have done a lot more research (because they can). And they become more informed when they are ready to engage a retailer in the actually buying process.

With that said, it’s not uncommon to hear a business owner say, “My biggest problem and my biggest pain point is determining how I’m going to spend my marketing dollars.” A great opportunity presents itself when this happens.

What we hope is marketing decision-makers will come to realise that marketing hasn’t really changed. Rather, the consumer path to purchase has. And our team’s understanding of how the consumer journey is ever-evolving is of great benefit to them.

To help illustrate this, we bring together the story of the consumer path-to-purchase and how the target consumer consumes media and information as he typically goes about his day.

Integrating these views results in an opportunity to get the right message in front of the right target audience at the right time using the right mix of channels. This is our chance to justify how and where the business should be spending its marketing dollars.

On the evolving customer path-to-purchase, marketing is still marketing!

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