Rethinking the customer journey

This relies on data to see where each member of this audience is at each juncture.

However, for agencies and brands it’s important to remember that potential customers are more than a series of data points. They play different roles throughout each and every day, so a data-centric approach doesn’t account for the emotive state of the audience. Adopting a Moments-based customer journey strategy to advertising campaigns, allows advertisers and agencies to reflect the need to match a brand with the emotion it stands within.

Flipping the model

Flipping the dynamic, however, allows advertisers to turn a purely ‘who, when and where’ approach into a more circumstance-driven, emotionally-focused model. This has the potential to resonate better and optimise a campaign budget.

This flip involves putting the brand in the centre of an experience the audience is moving into – that Moment which aligns to the emotional or rational state of the audience you’re looking to drive a brand connection with.

Identifying the journey

The reframed customer journey must fundamentally centre on how a target audience moves through their day – and indeed through their week – and subsequently understand when they’re in the zone your brand belongs.

Imagine a young, married couple in their new house. At lunch during the working week, while (hopefully), away from their desk they may well be off email but they’re still in an essentially practical frame of mind, as they stream the news. An insurance brand will resonate here, in a rational Moment, in a way that a consumer lifestyle brand might not.

However, at 8pm that evening, they may be planning a much-needed weekend getaway, and watching travel documentaries for inspiration. This is a prime opportunity for holiday and hospitality brands through bringing ideas to life in a Moment where the audience is looking for inspiration.

Turning insight into action

A strategic advertising approach needs to consider individual customer touch-points and knit them together as a whole journey for the collective audience.

As an example of this, a European luxury fashion brand chose Rakuten Viber to connect with an audience of female shoppers in new territories within Eastern Europe. Leveraging non-intrusive native and video ad formats and the high market penetration of the Rakuten Viber platform, the luxury fashion brand was able to successfully reach consumers in the region and generate brand awareness.

In repositioning the customer journey to one which is mind-frame-first, brands align at the right time, in the right place. Crucially, across Rakuten Advertising platforms, they do so in brand-safe environments whilst becoming part of the Moment the audience is experience.

If we revisit the young couple above, a demographic-only model ignores the fact that each of them are different people at different points of the day. Through repositioning the customer journey to account for this couple being individuals who experience multiple ‘Moments‘, budgets are more effective, and wastage is minimised.

Need more information? Download the latest guide from Rakuten Advertising ‘Connecting in the Moment: A guide to key media ‘Moments’ and how advertisers can use them’.