The consumer decision-making process can be broken down into five stages. For organizations selling high-engagement products, these processes are more pronounced (Chaffey and Smith, 2017). The first stage involves recognizing the need for a purchase, and it is entirely based on the buyer’s wishes. For example, constant image advertisements for cars or the latest news from home developers keep brands heard and kept buyers informed of new offers (Kim and Chao, 2019). This type of advertising is found both on television and radio and in contextual advertising within social networks.
As soon as a person has recognized the need, they proceed to search for information. It is worth noting that on the second stage when searching for high-engagement products, aggregators and services for buying real estate or cars are fighting for the first lines, rather than the brands themselves. For example, Aalto and Zillow are popular sites for the sale and purchase of real estate in the United States, while direct advertising for residential complexes is usually outdoor and rarely distributed on the Internet (Manko, 2021). By comparison, Unilever’s household chemicals are low-engagement products that use digital marketing (often television) for high brand repetition and retention; and often employ emotional arguments that are primarily excluded when buying, for example, real estate (Murphy and Murphy, 2018). In this regard, SEO, social media, in general, are excellent digital marketing tools for spreading information, including high-engagement products; however, in part, they are on the shoulders of aggregators more than companies.
Considering a specific car brand or developer, the company needs to be listed at the very beginning of the search results in a direct search. To do this, they often use the paid traffic mechanism of search engines – SEM (Ardiansyah and Sarwoko, 2020). Returning to the purchase process – having received the necessary market data, the user considers alternatives.
At the third stage, digital marketing is aimed at keeping the user on their site. First, the availability of characteristics, product and company reviews, coupled with a friendly interface that allows comparing products and quick answers to questions that arise, is the key to the company’s success (Kingsnorth, 2019). Second, a client who is going to spend money should immediately express gratitude and, if he leaves the site, politely ask him to leave contacts (Tseng, 2019). Depending on the type of contact requested, usually e-mail, SMS, or social network, the company opens up another marketing channel (Smith and Zook, 2019). Here the company needs to choose a not too annoying plan for returning the client to its site.
The fourth stage of the direct purchase of the product can also create obstacles for the customer to pay. When purchasing a product, the fundamental rule for organizations is not to distract the customers from the purchase; otherwise, many aggravating factors can return them to the research stage (Smith, 2019). Here, the organization should not focus on digital marketing, and more attention should be paid to the terms of delivery, possible returns, and other useful information.
At the final stage after the purchase, especially in the case of products with high engagement, the company needs to provide the customer with support for the new product and, if available, loyalty program bonuses (Santandreu & Shurden, 2017). It is also advisable to keep in touch with current and partnership offers, and promotions unobtrusively may also be of interest to a person who has already bought a car or house. However, this option still should be considered as a limitation in digital marketing since, for example, a too frequent irritant car dealer will discourage any desire to turn to him again. Such purchases are made by people quite rarely; however, if customers again have an opportunity or need, they should not have any questions about where they will want to turn again.
Reference List
Ardiansyah, F., & Sarwoko, E. (2020) ‘How social media marketing influences consumers purchase decision: A mediation analysis of brand awareness’, JEMA: Jurnal Ilmiah Bidang Akuntansi Dan Manajemen, 17(2), pp. 156-168. DOI: 10.31106/jema.v17i2.6916.
Chaffey, D., & Smith, P. R. (2017) Digital marketing excellence: planning, optimizing and integrating online marketing. London: Routledge.
Kim, R. B., & Chao, Y. (2019) ‘Effects of brand experience, brand image and brand trust on brand building process: The case of Chinese millennial generation consumers’, Journal of International Studies, 12(3). DOI: :10.14254/2071-8330.2019/12-3/1.
Kingsnorth, S. (2019) Digital Marketing Strategy: An integrated approach to online marketing, 2nd Edition. London: Kogan Page Publishers.
Manko, B. A. (2021) ‘Teaching user-friendly web design: A case study on Zillow.com in the real estate industry’, Journal of Information Technology Teaching Cases. DOI: 10.1177/20438869211002201.
Murphy, P. E., & Murphy, C. E. (2018) ‘Sustainable Living: Unilever’ In Progressive Business Models (pp. 263-286). London: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Santandreu, J., & Shurden, M. C. (2017) ‘Purchase decisions for high involvement products: the new generation of buyers’, Journal of Marketing Development and Competitiveness, 11(2), pp. 88-92.
Smith, K. T. (2019) ‘Mobile advertising to Digital Natives: preferences on content, style, personalization, and functionality’, Journal of Strategic Marketing, 27(1), pp. 67-80. DOI: 10.1080/0965254X.2017.1384043
Smith, P. R., & Zook, Z. (2019) Marketing communications: Integrating online and offline, customer engagement and digital technologies. London: Kogan Page Publishers.
Tseng, L.-M. (2019) ‘How customer orientation leads to customer satisfaction: Mediating mechanisms of service workers’ etiquette and creativity’, International Journal of Bank Marketing, 37(1), pp. 210-225. DOI: 10.1108/IJBM-10-2017-0222