Lectures Summary: Digital Marketing
& Metrics
Rik Smits – 2023/2024
,Lecture 1
In a customer journey analysis, firms focus on how customers interact with multiple touch points,
moving from consideration, search, and purchase, to post- purchase, consumption, and future
engagement or repurchase.
Customer journey framework (Lemon & Verhoef, 2016):
Brand owned touch points
Partner owned touch points
Customer owned touch points
Social/external touch points
Channels are the mediums through which the customer and brand interact. Excludes one-way
interactions.
Touchpoints: All types of one-way or two-way interactions between customers and firms that involve any
transactional or informational exchange, including customer-to-customer interactions.
Owned media (website & brand’s socials)
Paid media (online ads)
Earned media (reviews)
, Firm-Initiated communication (FIC): ads, emails.
Customer-Initiated communication (CIC): search, referrals.
Moving from FIC to CIC indicates progress in the purchase decision process.
Moments of truth: Critical touch points throughout the customer journey that have the most significant
influence on key customer outcomes.
Zero moment of truth (ZMOT): Moments between seeing a marketing stimulus and going to the
store/point of sale to gather more information, look for discounts, or compare brands.
The effect a touch point has on the customer journey is influenced by:
When it occurs in the customer journey.
The type of product.
The type of consumer.
Herhausen et al. (2019) identified customer segments based on the touchpoint used in their customer
journey:
Store-focused shoppers: Prefer physical stores for both searching and purchasing.
Pragmatic online shoppers: Primarily use online stores for searching and purchasing, with
minimal engagement with other touchpoints.
Extensive online shoppers: Engage with multiple online touchpoints, such as websites, reviews,
and social media, for thorough research before making a purchase.
Multiple touchpoint shoppers: Use a wide range of touchpoints, both online and offline,
throughout their shopping journey, including online stores, physical stores, mobile apps, and
social media.
Online-to-offline shoppers: Search for products online but prefer to make the final purchase in
physical stores.
Herhausen et al. (2019) also explored how the following factors influence customer loyalty differently per
customer segment:
Product satisfaction
Journey satisfaction
Customer inspiration
Their key findings are:
No "showrooming" segment (browsing in-store, purchasing online).
Mobile devices complement other touchpoints: Physical stores remain important.
Different levers needed to increase loyalty across segments.