I was recently asked to speak at a Westminster eforum event on the impact of mobile and social on marketing today. I took the opportunity to share some thoughts on how digital has changed the conventional purchase funnel and the way we view and plan marketing as a result.

A purchase funnel, or consumer decision journey, is something we've used for years to plot the way people move from awareness through to considering a product, evaluating it versus alternatives, ultimately then to go on to purchase, and hopefully to become loyal customers and start recommending. We've been able to plot people's progression through different touch points, different channels - and assign roles to those channels - and ultimately to plot consumer journeys through those channels. You may see a television ad which then drives you to a website for further research, you then go to an e-shop to purchase and maybe sign up for email.

If you look at the way mobile and social plots against that very conventional purchase journey, actually you see things have changed. There's far more opportunity to interact, far more expectations from brands and consumers on getting a richer experience at every single touch point within that journey. In fact there's no linear route. 

What we are really seeing is that at every point within that journey there's an opportunity to allow people to share, to search for content, to consume content, to shop and buy, then also share through social. We have had some great examples of where that's been applied. Things I've seen recently which have stuck in my mind are NFC being used on bar taps where you can buy a drink but also then start exchanging data and getting involved with promotional activity. Digital content throughout the purchase journey in retail from catwalk, to in-store.

Some recent numbers that came out of some recent Deloitte research really brought home for me the impact of mobile and the use of mobile in store. Over the last 12 months the influence of mobile on in-store sales has increased 45% and not only are people using mobile more likely to purchase, their basket value, the value of their transaction, will increase as well. 

There's also some interesting nuggets that came out of the Media Democracy Survey Deloitte published in 2013. We are seeing the use of social and the demographics around the use of social fundamentally shifting. We found that if you are over 25 years old, predominantly your internet journeys start with search but if you are under 25 it starts with social. 

Looking at the consumer decision journey in silos, separating an organisation's marketing, sales and customer service functions, actually doesn't really work anymore. 

So, a few thoughts and questions on the implications of all this, and it is something that is summarised by what we call the Digital Operating Model.

  • With increasingly connected and always-on expectations from our customers, how do we connect the organisational silos of marketing, sales and service? And indeed, are they still relevant?
  • What does getting online right mean for your offline business? If you look at the role of mobile in store, it fundamentally changes the way that we should present our products online. 
  • What do the blurred boundaries between marketing, sales and service mean for the skill-set of today's marketer?

All these considerations, be it organisation, people, process, tools or technologies, are things that need to be considered and are fundamental to the shift of moving from getting digital marketing right to starting to be able to operate a truly digital business.

Tom Jefferies
Tom is a Senior Manager in Deloitte's Marketing & Insight practice. His experience spans consulting and client side digital leadership roles across a range of brands and businesses, having previously held senior roles at Mars, Bacardi and Samsung. Tom specialises in digital marketing with experience in everything from CRM technology implementations through to managing high profile integrated communications campaigns.

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