The Five Stages of the Purchase Cycle?


I was just reading an article over on Searchengine land (courtesy of Marketing Profs' email) about tailoring your ad copy to people at different stages of the purchase process. These five stages (Stage 1: Awareness. Stage 2: Information Search. Stage 3: Alternative Evaluation. 4: Purchase Decision. Stage 5: Post-Purchase Behavior.) are fairly common in marketing publications and in research studies designed to measure the impact of of communications and other initiatives. Unfortunately, they don't apply universally in today's world.


As consumers have taken more control of the buying cycle the traditional buying process has been thrown out the window in many cases. What used to be linear now could take on any sort of shape. For that reason its important to map out the decision process of today for your products and services before any campaign or research project is launched and confirm it with your findings. People may be buying differently than you expect and your strategies need to adjust accordingly!


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