The sales funnel is dead. Or is it?
Although the principle is valid, the “funnel” moniker is a total misnomer. Which is why personally, I much prefer the term “customer journey”, writes Nick Kavanagh, head of integrated strategy and planning at Havas Media Group.
The venerable brand strategist, Richard Huntington, recently wrote about the threat of orthodoxy; how perceived wisdom and best practice – the accepted way of doing things – can stifle the creation of brands that are truly distinctive.
Which is why I was so interested by Darren Woolley’s article last week on the marketing funnel. An advertising model developed by American, Elias St. Elmo, in 1898.
Elias’ model described the process a salesperson needed to follow in order to navigate a potential customer through to a sale. This being Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. The fact we’re still using a model developed before the invention of mass media [let alone digital attribution] blows my mind.
The funnel is dead, long live the funnel! Like any management tool, a key value of the tool is in having a common language and getting stuff done. Funnels were never an exact representation of individual decision-making, but a collective summary of some key measures. Like Nick points out, where value and insight can be added is in defining the funnel to better reflect the type of communication context we are targeting. Where it falls apart is when we mistake the funnel for a person. We should never mistake a map for the place.
Funnels, roads, cycles and journeys sound a bit outdated now that the digital meta highway is up and running- remaining end to end requires deeper transformation than just BOFU/MOFU/TOFU (if you think thats a new tasting menu at Juicy Bao, well its not). For me the best new way to make a paid search reco look strategic is with an urbn safari- unlike roads and funnels, a safari is about observing a species up close in its native habitat.That could be at the Shopping Town bus depot, Makeup gauntlet at David Jones or a local RSL.. Armed with this first party data a proper end-to-end solution can be constructed to deliver best in class results beyond expectations.