The document discusses the evolution of brand-building strategies, emphasizing the importance of the customer experience throughout their journey rather than traditional metrics like share of mind, wallet, and voice. It outlines the phases of the buyer journey, including exploration, validation, choosing, using, and sharing, and the pivotal points influencing each stage. Additionally, it highlights the need for brands to adapt their marketing strategies to effectively engage consumers in a dynamic and information-rich environment.

1. Buyer Journey 101

2. How are the best brands created?
1. Share of mind?
2. Share of wallet?
3. Share of voice?
These are all good singular
measures, but they are one-
dimensional. Great brands
need to think bigger!

3. They have realized that the customer’s experience with
their brand is what will create the most enduring
relationship
It’s all about the Share of Experience

4. The game has changed
But the fundamentals are the same
Awareness
Consideration
Preference
Purchase
Loyalty
Advocacy
The marketing funnel is dead due to the
24/7 availability of information today
Remember: Consumers are informed
and empowered with information!

5. The journey is dynamic
Experience
Impetus
Exploring
Top of Mind
Brands
Choosing
Sharing and
Using
Validating

6. Create a great brand
experience by:
1. Understanding the Journey
2. Identifying the Pivotal Points
3. Activating the Journey

7. Pre During Post
Action Plan
Top–of–mind Brands Validating
Choosing
Using
SharingImpetus Exploring
Impetus The events that trigger a desire or need
TOM Brands Those brands that are Top Of Mind for
the consumer when the impetus occurs
Exploring The actions taken to review the options
in the TOM list. At this time, additional brands are
also entering the consideration set.
Validating Now that this list is narrowed to a few
options, the final research is conducted to ensure
the choice is the right one
Choosing Selecting the final choice and making the
purchase
Using The entire brand experience when the
customer uses or experiences the product or service
Sharing How the experience is shared with others
What is a journey?

8. • During each phase, a consumer is interacting with a variety of channels and sources to move throughout the phases. It
may be a website or a sales person or even seeing a news story. It is important to combine these channels with the
pivotal points throughout the journey to determine your marketing messages.
• Important questions to consider as you map your journey and the activation plan:
• Where can you interrupt the journey and get your brand in front of the consumer?
• Is your brand showing up during those pivotal points when decisions are being made?
• Do you know how to best message your clients with the right content through the right channels?
Pre During Post
Action Plan
Top–of–mind Brands Validating
Choosing
Using
SharingImpetus Exploring
Journey Phases & Pivotal Points

9. Jennifer
• 39 • No kids• Married
Jennifer is a sales execu5ve for a healthcare firm and o; en travels for business across the U.S. Even
though business travel is not glamorous, she tries to make the most of it by finding fun, bou5que
type hotels. She appreciates the service, and given she o; en visits many of the same ci5es mul5ple
5mes, these smaller hotels get to know her and create a more personalized experience, which is
important to her. Jennifer loves great food and wine and staying fit is also important to her. The
latest technologies are integrated into her lifestyle, and her tablet and smartphone are never out of
reach. She rarely skips a day without some use of social media. And it is during these trips that she
also finds her inspira5on for where to travel when it is purely for fun and relaxa5on.
. . .decides to book a vaca5on
Travel Customer Journey – summary version
Pre During Post
ExploringTop of MindImpetus Valida5ng Choosing Using Sharing
Concerned Excitement Engaged ReliefThrilled Happy
• Weather
• Time of year
• Stress/mood
• Lapse of 5me
• Money
• Friend/family event
• Des5na5on event
• Award points
• Business trip
• Adver5sing
• Award points
• Places I’ve been
• Visit family/friends
• Beach/relax
• City
• Adventure
• Sport
• Volunteer
• Cruise
• Price checks
• Weather reports
• Travel sites – Fodors,
Travel Channel
• Magazines – Conde
Naste Traveler, Travel
+ Leisure
• Review sites- Trip
Advisor, Yelp
• Hotel sites
• Friends’ feedback
• Traveler reviews-
likes/dislikes,
likelihood to return
• Pricing- compare
across sites
• Travel book to help
plan the trip
• Book air, lodging,
car
• I5nerary planning
• Download apps
• Pack
• Go
• Experiencing the
loca5on
• Problem resolu5on
• Facebook
• Twi er
• Instagram
• Yelp reviews
• Trip Advisor
reviews
• Retro postcards
Pink = Pivotal Points. The ac5vi5es that most influence her hotel choice. Concentrate your efforts here.
STAGES
FEELING
THINKING
& DOING
BRAND
ALIGNMENT Nailed It
Not So Much
Brand A ributes
Ø Personal
Ø Quirky
Ø Cool
Pre During Post
RECOMMENDATIONS
Pre During Post
Quirkiness was low in the pre-
stage. Incorporate be er visuals
that reflect the brand into the
website and introduce unique
offers other than generic,
“roman5c weekend, etc.”
Leverage social media throughout
the guest’s stay by asking for her
Twi er handle during check-in.
Then Tweet her during her trip.
She’ll feel special and a perfect
way to show off the brand.
Promote the personaliza5on
features and room requests. If
guests don’t know about these,
you’re missing an opportunity to
bond with them and showcase
your brand as a perfect fit.
OK
An example of a journey summary
Brand
performance on
their key
attributes
The journey steps.
Can be paragraphs
or bullets. We use
both- sentences in
the detailed
journey and bullets
in this summary.
The emotion felt
during that stage
A little info on
the target
audience for this
journey
Ways to activate
on the journey
learnings. The
summary page
only includes a
few.

10. Activation • The journey steps, Pivotal Points, and brand performance tell
you where to emphasize the activation
• Choose appropriate messaging through paid, owned and
earned channels to get the most bang for your buck

11. The brand story your clients think they have may not be the same one that their customers are thinking. This is
where Long and Short of It can help. We use insights based solutions to provide clear strategic direction.
Branding
Brand elements connect the internal vision with the external
brand expression.
Strategic Planning
Measurable objectives, insights, strategy and tactics to achieve
the desired outcome.
Ideation
Structured brainstorming yielding many ideas and then
distilled into a short list to be tested.
Innovation
Design thinking process, tools, and methodologies to help create
new products, system, or solutions.
Customer Insights
Research to determine what customers are thinking, feeling
and doing.
Research
The cornerstone of everything; we employ all qualitative and
quantitative methods.
Sue Stabe / sue@lasoi.com / 330.730.5648
Let’s Chat
Dean Ilijasic / dean@lasoi.com / 216.570.1719