I recently noticed that my coffee maker was not brewing as crisp of a cup as it used to. Without going into the gory details of what happened next, I’ll leave you with one piece of advice: Do not ever look inside your coffee maker! That said, I was in the market for a new coffee maker. Being a Digital Marketer, I thought it would be interesting to plot out my journey to purchase. According to Google, consumers consult an average of 10.4 sources before making a purchase decision. Let’s see where I stack up.
Touchpoint #1: Google Search: “best coffee makers”
From here I notice shopping ads, paid search ads, a featured snippet with top coffee makers and a “Best Coffee Makers of 2020” Consumer Reports list. This piqued my interest.
Touchpoint #2: Consumer Report’s Best Coffee Makers of 2020
This article was particularly helpful as I noticed that a lot of the top coffee makers of the year were single serve, and I wanted a machine that I could brew a whole pot of coffee in. In addition, I thought a thermal carafe would be a nice feature and I also got re-familiarized with some of the top brands in coffee machines.
Touchpoint #3: Word of Mouth
Although not a measurable touchpoint via digital, it’s an important one. I consulted with coworkers on the coffee makers they use as well as brands they like. Cuisinart, Keurig and Ninja were among those discussed.
Touchpoint #4: Facebook Post
During this research process, I began following a few of the top coffee maker brands on social media. The below post popped up in my feed.
Touchpoint #5: Amazon search “coffee makers”
As you can see, Cuisinart’s prime ad placement really grabs your attention. It almost looks like all the products below should be Cuisinart. I went on to read reviews of various Cuisinart coffee makers and decided on a specific model based on reviews, price and features.
Touchpoint #6: I went back to Google search to compare prices on my coffee maker of choice: Cuisinart Stainless Steel 12 Cup Thermal Coffeemaker. The shopping ads were particularly helpful here as they displayed the price by retailer.
Touchpoint #7, #8 and #9: Purchase – I went directly to the Cuisinart website to see the retailers that sell the coffee maker and ended up clicking through and buying my new Cuisinart Coffee maker on Amazon for ease of purchase, free shipping and best price. However, that wasn’t before researching prices/shipping at 2 other retailers.
Throughout this journey I interacted with a variety of brands through various sources and mediums (not quite 10.4, but pretty close). From the initial “best coffee makers” search to the end decision to purchase, I interacted with Cuisinart each step of the way. This should be a takeaway for marketers. It’s not enough to simply be in one channel and expect sales. With accessibility at our fingertips (literally, through our mobile devices), consumers have the ability to do research on the fly, ask social media communities for recommendations and make decisions rather quickly. Visibility is key!
Very often clients come to us with interest in growing their business and tunnel vision interest in paid search for its bottom of the funnel nature. However, in this instance, if Cuisinart was only running paid search, they likely would not have gotten my purchase. Their full funnel, multi-channel digital strategy certainly played a role in my purchase decision.
And I repeat, do not ever look inside your coffee maker!
