Finding the wedding guest dress jumpsuit: Part 2
If you haven’t already, you should head over to part 1 for a funny (and somewhat informative) start to the story…but long story short: I left myself a week to get a wedding guest dress, there was lots of panic, and making the difficult decision of which brand to buy from – all through the scope of the consumer decision journey. After coming up with my initial consideration set and whittling this down to the brands I could visit in-store on my lunch break (at this point, it was 4 days until the wedding), I was left with the following:
Active Evaluation
Whilst my initial consideration set was automatically narrowed down by the limitations of my situation, it was now time to actively evaluate the brands within my vicinity. It is worth noting that from a marketing perspective there is still a chance for brands to disrupt the decision journey at this that may not have made the initial consideration set. Therefore, whilst awareness is crucial in becoming a ‘go-to’ brand for consumers – it is important to maintain a presence throughout by actively and frequently promoting to target audiences along relevant touchpoints*.
*see part 1 ‘The Consideration Set’ for more info
For me, however, it was a little late to be adding alternative brands into the mix so instead the perusal of shops began to find initial ideas and hope that I would actually find something I liked. In this instance, Debenhams and M&S were knocked out of the running. There were not any choices in my local stores that really caught my eye (plus, a little pricey for my budget) and with 3 stores remaining the moment of purchase was fast approaching (breathes small sigh of relief).
Moment of Purchase
Now normally, the moment of purchase means the evaluation of brands has finished and you start the process of evaluating the product or service you actually bought…but I did this a little differently. With time pressures and blind panic, it resulted in 2 purchases, one from TKmaxx and the other from New Look. Essentially, I had made the first purchase and continued looking elsewhere to ensure I had made the right decision. As it turns out, I actually wore the second purchase to the wedding (which was great, after all that panic). Thankfully, I had my graduation ceremony a month later and got to make the most of both of them – so all’s well that ends well.
The lessons learnt from all of this?
DO NOT leave a purchase like this to the last week, it’s super stressful panicky really not a good idea.
Although, the consumer decision journey was initially presented as a funnel and then later, a loop, it is far more complicated than that. Providing an opportunity for marketeers to reach their target audiences at multiple stages across various platforms.
My small changes to the loop below highlight how the ‘loyalty loop’ feeds into the initial consideration set and vice versa – continuously introducing familiar brands into the mix whilst adding new ones that have left a positive post-purchase experience.
Alternatively, the moment of purchase may not mean the end of evaluating alternative brands and products – leaving the potential for buying both or even returning the purchase in favour of another.
Lastly, to remember that, although brands included in the initial set are three times more likely to be chosen at the moment of purchase – there are many marketing touchpoints along the way that can put you into the active evaluation stage and ultimately, the brand of choice. Something of course, we can help you with.