Articles

Awareness
During the awareness stage, a customer may come across a brand story or message that is of interest but they may not have a need to purchase at that time. They subconsciously store this information for a later date.

Involvement
During this stage, the customer researches a range of brands within a certain category. They may talk to friends for their advice or recommendations, assess advertisements, read magazine articles, blogs or websites. They are comparing the offerings and stories around the brands to make an informed assessment, finding out what resonates with them.

Trial
Once the customer has made a short list of their preferred brands, they will venture into a store, office or showroom and trial a product or service to see if the brand is true to its values and story. The customer is now forming a preference. The whole story of the brand rings true and trust is building.

Commitment
From here, if the customer is unhappy with the experience they will go back to trialing other brands or they will start to regularly purchase the brand. Through their continuous positive brand experience they develop a commitment to the product or service. They form an emotional attachment to the brand and start building a sense of loyalty and passion.

Referral
This passion builds to a point they want to share the experience with others. The customer becomes a brand advocate and will pass on their story - how this product or service has changed or enhanced their life in some way.

The iphone customer experience

I have come across many people who are passionate and strong advocates of the iphone. They talk about their user experience, the ease of use, the cool functionality, the great look and feel. They proudly demonstrate how easy it is to navigate through all their cool applications and show off their photos. Their excitement, passion and story around the product and brand is contagious. This is evident in the huge demand and long waiting list for an iphone. Apple can’t keep up with the demand.