Micro-Moments and the Consumer Journey for the Transformational CMO

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Even though I have been in the marketing world for five years now, it never stops intriguing me. While pursuing my PhD in Astrophysics, I spent years studying galaxies and used huge data sets to understand how they were formed.

The traditional scientific method is a clear, beautiful process and is easily followed because of the simplicity of studying matter instead of people. The laws of physics always hold up.

What makes solving marketing problems so interesting is the layer of unpredictability that comes with human nature. We have data, and data, and data, and people still can tend to do whatever they want. It is fascinating and frustrating finding patterns, and answers.

Millennium Alliance is a great collision of really smart marketers from all varieties of industries. But, we all have the same root to our problems: What will consumers do next?

It is not new to talk about the idea of the traditional marketing funnel collapsing. Many brands are seeing evidence of this. There are less and less questions about what channel should be at the start of my marketing funnel, and more questions about the best way to use each channel.

At Millennium Alliance there was a common conversation about the collapsing funnel, and maybe even an inverse funnel for budget allocation – spend more money on those ready to convert, and less on awareness. That has not always been the case.

During Warren Douglas’s presentation at Millennium Alliance, we covered micro-moments, which fit into the concept of a fragmented consumer journey. The digital revolution has changed human behavior. People look to their phones throughout their entire day as their personal assistant. Whether it is a moment of panic, indecision, planning, or curiosity, your digital devices are there for you.

What this has done is allow brands to be there for consumers at relevant moments, because we are constantly communicating with the online universe about how we feel and what we’re doing. Why market to the masses to convince the few potential consumers when you have the opportunity to narrow down to your potential audience?

The brands at Millennium Alliance were a great representation of how brands are starting to understand their consumers so much better than just demographic buckets. They are thinking about what kind of messaging is relevant on what channel at what moment.

That is a bigger question than just, “who is my audience demographically?” Their passion to be there for their consumer when relevant, and adapt with them, was evident.

Trying to solve all these problems is hard, if not impossible. Brands and agencies getting together to talk about their problems and solutions in such an honest way is how progress is made. No one left Millennium Alliance without a new idea, or new perspective.

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