Stages of online customer research cycle

There are 3 main online customer research stages for medium to high involvement purchases.

1- Product specification research
2- Brand or product validation
3- Product short listing

Sticking with the example of a flat screen TV, bear in mind that is regardless of the product or service, these 3 phases hold true. In certain cases, products become more expensive, additional stages will apply, the segmentation becomes increasingly complex and the time factor has more importance. Understanding your customers’ research cycle is fundamental to targeted and effective online communication and online marketing mix strategy.

 
Stage 1: Product specification and product research:

Still using the example of Flat screen televisions products. Most customers are not tech geeks, they do not know the difference between 1080p and 1080i, most customers do not know why a 100mhz TV is better than 60mzh (clearer picture during action scenes, screen refreshes faster…), then you have contrast ratios, connectivity, color management engines, power consumption, weight, etc, and that is just for the TV. What about the right size of screen for your living room: Sitting distance for a 37inch screen is 2.5 meters away, 40 inches is 3 to 3.5 meters and so on… Product specifications research and education phase is just this.
Brand exposure at this level is Low to Medium. Well get back to this in a later post.

Types of websites used at this point of the customer research cycle: General electronics / gadget blogs, technology guides and reference sites: CNet TV guide, Tesco Buying guide and niche sites such as Home Cinema choice. Then specific component or technology questions arise, like what is HDMI? Answered using sites such as: About.com, or How stuff works. Comparison sites and brand sites can appear at this stage but carry less weight depending on the educational content they hold.

End result of Stage 1:
Core product specifications and requirements are pretty much set. Brand selection and chosen retailer is by no means set at this point.

Stage 2: Mapping products and brands to specifications:

In Stage 2, customers have defined the required key features and specifications of the product or service they want to buy. Customers have seen tons of products and brands advertised during the initial research stage 1. Stage2 is the time to start finding which one of the products and brands matches the selected requirements. At this point some of the products and brands that have come across during phase 1 will somewhat influence stage 2 but the consumer will not be limited to those.

3 types of websites will be used in the mapping stages:
A- Review site: consumer reviews of various products meeting the key shortlisted requirements
B- Meta engines and comparison websites
C- Branded websites

The final list will yield a combination of definitive products that need to appear in his shortlist, others that should or could appear, and a small list of alternate products. At this stage brand and pricing are still secondary, influential but secondary due to the “Stage 2 break”. Lets not forget that budget has in fact had an influence, but budgets are flexible, that is why we rarely buy the bottom of the range products or the cheapest no name brand TV.

What is the “stage 2 break”? This is a fundamental part of the research cycle. We all have it. It can be short or last forever, but it is the time that separates stages 2 and 3. It is the Spike Lee phase of “doin’ the right thing”. During this break and it is an actual break in the time continuum, your potential buyer will digest his list before he shortlist by:

A- Taking time off the search to think about his list, it can last the time of cigarette break to weeks
B- Validate his list and requirements with friends that have had a similar purchase experience
C- Talks to family members that influence financial decisions or that are effected by the expense
D- Use offline material to back up his online selection such as magazines
E- Search for additional reviews and advice

Stage 3- Product and brand short listing

After the stage 2 break a selection of 2 to 3 products will be made. Pricing and brand are enormous at this stage in getting to the final 3. To reach the winning podium, for similar or equivalent products the strength of the “top of mind” position is critical. Being top of mind means being the supplier or brand that comes first to mind. We will have a separate post on “making the top of mind” at a later date.

The key sites used here at stage 3:
1- Branded websites. Remember that it does not mean that the actual brand site will be used for the purchase. But it is a validation of the choice, benchmark for pricing and getting peripheral information such as manufactures standard guarantees, etc.
2- Search engines with an increased role of PPC
3- Comparison engines. laying the role of both retailer search and price validation
Yes, search engines where used in prior stages, but it is in this stage that the likes of Pay Per Click advertising has its greatest effect and its highest return. In the prior stages natural search results, synonym to unbiased results, took precedent over paid for ads in search results. In stage 3 PPC click through rates are far greater and ROI shoots through the roof.

Now the actual purchase is around the corner. Often it will happen within stage 3, but in more complex products such as travel another break will occur, a last phone call to the wife to make sure that the final decision is the right one.