Customer Journey Mapping Tool as a Marketing Strategy
Marketing is a social and managerial process by which individuals and businesses obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging value with others.(Kotler & Armstrong, 2019, p.5)
Kotler and Armstrong (2019), aptly describe the essence of marketing and the importance of using marketing as a tool in order to gain customers and obtain business growth. Marketing is used as a medium in order to engage with current- as well as future- customers, gain insights into the customers’ buying behaviour and market-place through research, and develop effective and efficient means (marketing strategies) to absorb potential consumers and create loyalty within your brand.
While creating new marketing strategies, one should look at sustaining long-term customers however, it is important to remember that the new activities should not affect your current customers and the new strategies should be available to the existing clientele. (Bajrami & Fejza, 2019)
The Marketing mix is always imperative to review, the Four P’s- Product, Price, Promotion, Place-of marketing assist in the guidance of your marketing strategies.
Businesses take on different philosophies in order to determine their marketing strategies, these include “production, product, selling, marketing and societal marketing concepts.” (Kotler & Armstrong, 2019, p.9) The marketing concept- which emphasises the target market’s needs and wants which then results in customer satisfaction better than that of their competitors- and societal marketing concept-which core values lie in the consumers’ and society’s long term interests and the firm’s requirements. (Kotler & Armstrong, 2019)
Another marketing concept is that of the customer journey mapping. This is a mapping tool which will demonstrate the channels that your customer will take to purchase and receive your product.
I implemented the customer journey mapping in my own organisation’s online platform as a customer buying on the ecommerce platform.
By analysing the sequential stages of the journey of motivation, searches the website, browse the site, evaluate products, pay and receives product- it is easy for a business to determine which touchpoints the customers would experience.
It is often difficult to be objective when we are involved in the business itself, so perhaps a more effective use would be to survey some customers in order to best determine their experiences and touchpoints for improvements in the process of buying the business’ ecommerce platform.
The customer journey mapping allows a business to reorientate themselves towards the customer and the customers’ satisfaction. The visual steps also indicates where the business is doing well or have achieved better satisfaction than other competitors. After all, businesses need to achieve a better customer satisfaction in order to maintain their customers loyalty and remain profitable.
Reference List
Bajrami, H., & Fejza, V. (2019). Role of Marketing and Business Approach on SME Development. Ekonomika / Economics, 98(2), 76–84. http://10.0.60.28/Ekon.2019.2.5
Kotler, P., & Armstrong, G. (2019). Principles of Marketing (A. Lamb (ed.); Third). Pratt, Juanita.
Sales, C. (2019). Coastland Sales. Coastland Sales. https://coastlandsales.co.za/