Marketing Funnel in Marketing Fundamentals

There are three stages an individual goes through before becoming a consumer. These three stages are together called the ‘consumer purchase funnel’. The three stages are as follows:

1. Awareness: When a user becomes aware of the need. (From a business side, the user becomes aware of the brand) 

2. Consideration: When the user considers various options to buy from. (From a business side, the user engages with and considers your brand)

3. Purchase/Decision: The user buys the product. (From a business side, the user makes a decision about purchasing your product)

Let’s look at how the consumer journey has changed in the shift from offline to online.

Offline Purchase

Consider a person going through an offline purchase funnel.

• Imagine a user comes across a Nikon DSLR's ad in a newspaper and plans on buying it.
• They will contact a seller who sells the camera through the contact provided below the ad. The seller will understand their requirement and accordingly inform the user about the available products' prices and features.
• The user may also reach out to other sellers to compare prices at which they are selling the same product. For reviews of the product, the user may enquire their friends and family.
• Eventually, they will decide whether to buy the DSLR from one of the sellers or not.
• Having bought the camera, if the customer faces any issue with the functioning, they might go back to the seller to get it resolved.

For a user who is going through an online purchase funnel, on the other hand, the scenario is different.

Online Purchase

There are a lot more avenues available for a marketer to reach out to the customers.

• For instance, imagine the user here sees an ad of DSLR on YouTube and, after clicking on the ad, they land on an ecommerce website or Nikon's website.
• They will then check out camera's prices and other features. 
• For comparison, they might read blogs and visit websites that compare Nikon with other companies that offer similar products. They can check for reviews on social media and ecommerce sites as well.
• The entire consideration stage is an excellent opportunity for a marketer to interact more effectively with the prospective customer.
• The user ends up purchasing the camera from the company website or e-commerce website.
• After the purchase, if the customer faces any issue, they will contact the ecommerce firm via itS website or Nikon via its website to get the issue resolved.