Purchase journeys are complex and non-linear.  They typically involve multiple touchpoints, influences, and actions. When attempting to understand how consumers and professionals navigate this process, it’s easy to overlook components that ultimately provide a deep understanding of the “why” behind these actions.

Below we outline 5 often overlooked components of successful purchase journey research:

Inertia is a powerful force. It can prevent consumers from acting or lock them into an existing purchase cycle. Therefore, understanding what specifically inspires a person to act is so important when evaluating a journey.

Additionally, understanding the type of trigger event will have important implications for a brand.  For example:

Understanding emotion and consumer mindset across the journey can have a major impact on the tone of advertising and communications as well as salesperson-purchaser interactions.

We find that positive emotions are predominant in most journeys, across most phases, however this is not always the case.  Some possible examples of negative emotions include:

Each of these examples will require a different approach at a range of touchpoints to ensure success is moving consumers down the purchase funnel.

It’s important to note that emotions will often change throughout the journey – what can start negative often turns positive by the end of the journey, or consumers can experience ups and downs as they navigate the path-to-purchase.

Journey research often solely focuses on why category products or services are purchased rather than understanding the need they fulfill.

Determining needs help to understand the underlying reason for entering the category and the scope of their potential solution set, as certain needs will have solutions that span multiple categories (e.g., transportation solutions can include rental cars, ride-hailing services, or public transportation).

It’s important to note that a specific need may be expressed in a rational or emotional way. When thinking about televisions, an example could be:

How the need is expressed often requires distinct approaches for marketing and sales.

Ideally, qualitative or other field research can identify the range of needs, then quantitative research can prioritize the needs.

Journey research often stops at the purchase event.  However, what happens after a product or service purchase presents important information that can inform journey touchpoints.  It’s therefore vital to understand what happens post-purchase:

Understanding these actions and providing purchasers the tools to spread positive word of mouth can unlock brand growth.

Purchase journeys will often differ based on the goals and needs of purchasers.  Developing personas and journey maps on the persona level will be more actionable for organizations by pinpointing audiences which present the greatest opportunity and can be most effectively targeted.

When understanding each of the five topics outlined above, qualitative exploratory research is an excellent way to identify the universe of trigger events, emotions, needs, and post-purchase actions, while quantitative research will size personas and the prevalence of each individual factor.

Contact us to learn more about our approach to incorporating these key elements in purchase journey research.