Digital Marketing and Metrics (30 maart)
Lecture 1
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• Explain the concepts of customer journeys, touchpoints, channels, and ZMOT, with
relevant examples
• Perform a customer journey analysis: identify key stages that customers go through
and key touchpoints
• Describe customer segments based on patterns in their customer journeys
• Explain the impact of mobile devices, omnichannel shopping, and physical stores for
customer journeys
• Understand how relationships between product satisfaction, journey satisfaction, customer
inspiration, and customer loyalty may vary across the different customer journey segments
Digital Marketing and Customer Journey
DIGITAL MARKETING
Digital marketing is an adaptive and technology-enabled PROCESS by which firms
collaborate with customers and partners to create, communicate, deliver, and sustain value
for all stakeholders. (Kannan & Li, 2017)
DIGITAL MARKETING
The impact of digital technologies is reflected in:
• More information channels and ways to interact
• More personalization of advertising
• Changing buying patterns and consumer needs
• The rise of digital platforms
• Increasing competition
• Increasing marketing expenditures and need for accountability
Good metrics inform good management.
There are new platforms that are changing how digital marketing works.
TODAY’S CUSTOMERS MOVE FLUIDLY ACROSS CHANNELS
And everything starts with a search.
Video: Google Search Matalan journey
-> marketing wasn´t aligned with customer behavior. The marketing was very traditional.
-> similar to HEMA. Traditional offline stores and they had to change
They say that customer behavior is not only focused on off-line stores. Mobile ads are based
on location and are an add-on. People search on their phones for things, and they see
somewhere nearby me. The mobile channel was the single biggest influence for people
to come into the store.
,In the Google Search Matalan example, the company discovered that its marketing
strategy was not aligned with how customers actually behaved.
Originally, Matalan operated mainly as a traditional offline retailer. Their marketing
approach focused on:
● Physical stores
● Traditional advertising (e.g., TV, print)
● Promotions centered around store visits
However, customers were already behaving differently. Many people:
● Started their journey with an online search
● Looked for store locations, opening hours, or product availability
● Compared prices and products online before visiting a store
This meant that customers were moving between online and offline channels, but the
company’s marketing strategy was still designed for a single-channel retail model.
To adapt, Matalan needed to shift toward a more omnichannel strategy, where online and
offline channels work together. This included:
● Improving visibility in search results
● Making product and store information easily accessible online
● Ensuring a consistent experience across digital platforms and physical stores
A similar situation occurred with companies like HEMA, which traditionally relied heavily on
physical stores. As consumer behavior changed, these retailers had to invest more in:
● E-commerce
● Mobile experiences
● Digital marketing
● Integration between online and offline shopping
The main lesson is that customer behavior changed faster than many companies’
marketing strategies. Businesses that succeed today align their marketing with how
consumers actually move across channels—starting with search and digital information
gathering, even when the final purchase happens in a physical store.
CUSTOMER JOURNEY
• A customer journey is the process a customer goes through, across all stages and touch
points, that makes up the customer experience.
• Touch points are interactions between customers and firms that involve any transactional or
informational exchange, online and offline, including customer-to-customer interactions,
occurring at distinct points in the customer journey.
• Owned, Paid, Earned classification
Exercise: Think about a recent experience (e.g., buying coffee, booking a trip, online
shopping, etc.). Describe the customer journey and identify the most important touchpoints
you encountered.
,Customer journey example: buying coffee
Pre-purchase stage
On my way to class in the morning, I felt like having coffee. I opened Google Maps and
searched for “coffee near me.” I compared a few nearby cafés, looked at their ratings and
photos, and chose the one with the best reviews, and that was closest to my route. The most
important touchpoints here were the search results, online reviews, and the location
information.
Purchase stage
I walked into the café, looked at the menu board, and ordered a cappuccino from the barista.
The key touchpoints during this stage were the store environment, the menu, the interaction
with the staff, and the payment process when I paid with my card.
Post-purchase stage
After receiving the coffee, I drank it on the way to class and evaluated the experience.
Because the coffee tasted good and the service was quick, I remembered the café as a
good option for the future. The main touchpoints here were the product quality, the overall
experience in the café, and the possibility of leaving or reading reviews online.
Mobile devices, omnichannel shopping, and physical stores each play distinct but
interconnected roles in shaping today’s customer journeys:
Mobile Devices:
- Mobile usage in customer journeys has grown sharply from 2013 to 2016, especially
among multiple touchpoint shoppers and extensive online shoppers.
- Mobile devices act as complementary search tools rather than standalone channels,
enabling broader exploration and richer journeys across touchpoints.
- Mobile usage expands the number and variety of touchpoints a customer uses, increasing
search depth and journey complexity.
- There is no distinct "mobile-only" segment; mobile is embedded within existing segments’
shopping behaviors.
- Retailers should integrate mobile as part of a seamless omnichannel experience,
optimizing it for quick access and smooth transitions.
Omnichannel Shopping:
- Five distinct omnichannel journey segments exist: store-focused, pragmatic online,
extensive online, multiple touchpoint, and online-to-offline shoppers.
- Multiple touchpoint shoppers show the highest usage of various touchpoints and mobile
devices, often mixing online, offline, competitor, and additional channels.
- Successful omnichannel management involves orchestrating all touchpoints to deliver
seamless, satisfying, and inspiring experiences, particularly for multiple touchpoint shoppers
who form a high-spending segment.
- Touchpoints used, channel preferences, and loyalty drivers differ widely by segment,
emphasizing the need for segment-specific strategies.
, Physical Stores:
- Physical stores remain critical, especially for store-focused and online-to-offline
(webrooming) shoppers.
- Store-focused shoppers rely almost exclusively on physical stores for search and
purchase, rarely using mobile or digital touchpoints; their loyalty is driven strongly by product
satisfaction and in-store inspiration.
- Online-to-offline shoppers search extensively online but complete purchases in the physical
store, valuing both product quality and a satisfying online-to-offline journey.
- The feared "showrooming" segment (search offline, buy online elsewhere) was not found,
suggesting that physical stores continue to be powerful conversion touchpoints.
- Physical stores serve as important sources of customer inspiration via sensory
engagement, product trials, and staff interaction.
In short, mobile devices enrich customer journeys, especially in complex omnichannel
segments; omnichannel shopping requires tailored journey management depending on
segment usage patterns; and physical stores continue to play a pivotal role both as search
and purchase touchpoints, especially for offline and webrooming shoppers.
The main idea from the figure is that there are three stages, and that their are are set of
experiences before each stage.
Current customer experiences cause future decisions.
CUSTOMER JOURNEY FRAMEWORK: LEMON & VERHOEF (2016)
Lecture 1
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• Explain the concepts of customer journeys, touchpoints, channels, and ZMOT, with
relevant examples
• Perform a customer journey analysis: identify key stages that customers go through
and key touchpoints
• Describe customer segments based on patterns in their customer journeys
• Explain the impact of mobile devices, omnichannel shopping, and physical stores for
customer journeys
• Understand how relationships between product satisfaction, journey satisfaction, customer
inspiration, and customer loyalty may vary across the different customer journey segments
Digital Marketing and Customer Journey
DIGITAL MARKETING
Digital marketing is an adaptive and technology-enabled PROCESS by which firms
collaborate with customers and partners to create, communicate, deliver, and sustain value
for all stakeholders. (Kannan & Li, 2017)
DIGITAL MARKETING
The impact of digital technologies is reflected in:
• More information channels and ways to interact
• More personalization of advertising
• Changing buying patterns and consumer needs
• The rise of digital platforms
• Increasing competition
• Increasing marketing expenditures and need for accountability
Good metrics inform good management.
There are new platforms that are changing how digital marketing works.
TODAY’S CUSTOMERS MOVE FLUIDLY ACROSS CHANNELS
And everything starts with a search.
Video: Google Search Matalan journey
-> marketing wasn´t aligned with customer behavior. The marketing was very traditional.
-> similar to HEMA. Traditional offline stores and they had to change
They say that customer behavior is not only focused on off-line stores. Mobile ads are based
on location and are an add-on. People search on their phones for things, and they see
somewhere nearby me. The mobile channel was the single biggest influence for people
to come into the store.
,In the Google Search Matalan example, the company discovered that its marketing
strategy was not aligned with how customers actually behaved.
Originally, Matalan operated mainly as a traditional offline retailer. Their marketing
approach focused on:
● Physical stores
● Traditional advertising (e.g., TV, print)
● Promotions centered around store visits
However, customers were already behaving differently. Many people:
● Started their journey with an online search
● Looked for store locations, opening hours, or product availability
● Compared prices and products online before visiting a store
This meant that customers were moving between online and offline channels, but the
company’s marketing strategy was still designed for a single-channel retail model.
To adapt, Matalan needed to shift toward a more omnichannel strategy, where online and
offline channels work together. This included:
● Improving visibility in search results
● Making product and store information easily accessible online
● Ensuring a consistent experience across digital platforms and physical stores
A similar situation occurred with companies like HEMA, which traditionally relied heavily on
physical stores. As consumer behavior changed, these retailers had to invest more in:
● E-commerce
● Mobile experiences
● Digital marketing
● Integration between online and offline shopping
The main lesson is that customer behavior changed faster than many companies’
marketing strategies. Businesses that succeed today align their marketing with how
consumers actually move across channels—starting with search and digital information
gathering, even when the final purchase happens in a physical store.
CUSTOMER JOURNEY
• A customer journey is the process a customer goes through, across all stages and touch
points, that makes up the customer experience.
• Touch points are interactions between customers and firms that involve any transactional or
informational exchange, online and offline, including customer-to-customer interactions,
occurring at distinct points in the customer journey.
• Owned, Paid, Earned classification
Exercise: Think about a recent experience (e.g., buying coffee, booking a trip, online
shopping, etc.). Describe the customer journey and identify the most important touchpoints
you encountered.
,Customer journey example: buying coffee
Pre-purchase stage
On my way to class in the morning, I felt like having coffee. I opened Google Maps and
searched for “coffee near me.” I compared a few nearby cafés, looked at their ratings and
photos, and chose the one with the best reviews, and that was closest to my route. The most
important touchpoints here were the search results, online reviews, and the location
information.
Purchase stage
I walked into the café, looked at the menu board, and ordered a cappuccino from the barista.
The key touchpoints during this stage were the store environment, the menu, the interaction
with the staff, and the payment process when I paid with my card.
Post-purchase stage
After receiving the coffee, I drank it on the way to class and evaluated the experience.
Because the coffee tasted good and the service was quick, I remembered the café as a
good option for the future. The main touchpoints here were the product quality, the overall
experience in the café, and the possibility of leaving or reading reviews online.
Mobile devices, omnichannel shopping, and physical stores each play distinct but
interconnected roles in shaping today’s customer journeys:
Mobile Devices:
- Mobile usage in customer journeys has grown sharply from 2013 to 2016, especially
among multiple touchpoint shoppers and extensive online shoppers.
- Mobile devices act as complementary search tools rather than standalone channels,
enabling broader exploration and richer journeys across touchpoints.
- Mobile usage expands the number and variety of touchpoints a customer uses, increasing
search depth and journey complexity.
- There is no distinct "mobile-only" segment; mobile is embedded within existing segments’
shopping behaviors.
- Retailers should integrate mobile as part of a seamless omnichannel experience,
optimizing it for quick access and smooth transitions.
Omnichannel Shopping:
- Five distinct omnichannel journey segments exist: store-focused, pragmatic online,
extensive online, multiple touchpoint, and online-to-offline shoppers.
- Multiple touchpoint shoppers show the highest usage of various touchpoints and mobile
devices, often mixing online, offline, competitor, and additional channels.
- Successful omnichannel management involves orchestrating all touchpoints to deliver
seamless, satisfying, and inspiring experiences, particularly for multiple touchpoint shoppers
who form a high-spending segment.
- Touchpoints used, channel preferences, and loyalty drivers differ widely by segment,
emphasizing the need for segment-specific strategies.
, Physical Stores:
- Physical stores remain critical, especially for store-focused and online-to-offline
(webrooming) shoppers.
- Store-focused shoppers rely almost exclusively on physical stores for search and
purchase, rarely using mobile or digital touchpoints; their loyalty is driven strongly by product
satisfaction and in-store inspiration.
- Online-to-offline shoppers search extensively online but complete purchases in the physical
store, valuing both product quality and a satisfying online-to-offline journey.
- The feared "showrooming" segment (search offline, buy online elsewhere) was not found,
suggesting that physical stores continue to be powerful conversion touchpoints.
- Physical stores serve as important sources of customer inspiration via sensory
engagement, product trials, and staff interaction.
In short, mobile devices enrich customer journeys, especially in complex omnichannel
segments; omnichannel shopping requires tailored journey management depending on
segment usage patterns; and physical stores continue to play a pivotal role both as search
and purchase touchpoints, especially for offline and webrooming shoppers.
The main idea from the figure is that there are three stages, and that their are are set of
experiences before each stage.
Current customer experiences cause future decisions.
CUSTOMER JOURNEY FRAMEWORK: LEMON & VERHOEF (2016)
