Behavioral science experts The Behavioral Architects and Google studied the underlying processes behind users' online purchasing and investigated the mechanisms underlying human reasoning that determine their final choices.
From the marketing funnel to the messy middle
In the vast universe of the internet, so rich in stimuli and information, making decisions seems like a rather complex choice.
The user – and has been for many years now – is no longer a flaneur who wanders distractedly in search of something to buy, but is a person who makes informed and targeted purchasing decisions.
Digital marketing places it within a funnel, called the sales funnel , which is central for those who use online advertising. The model of this funnel sees the awareness phase at the top – the moment in which the user becomes aware of the product – and the moment of purchase at the bottom , that is, the phase in which the customer becomes effective and buys the product.
In the middle is the evaluation , that is, the moment in which the user learns about the product he intends to purchase.
However, things are no longer that simple and Google, as early as July 2020, theorized a new model called messy middle.
Messy middle: The information processing that determines purchasing decisions
The way people make decisions is chaotic and complex, and it's no longer enough to simply talk about funnels. Or rather, it's time to integrate the core digital marketing model into a more comprehensive and comprehensive vision of the online purchasing process.
In this regard, we know some key points regarding purchasing behavior and we can define them as follows: between the first trigger, that is, the first stimulus that starts the funnel, and the final purchase decision, numerous touchpoints occur that vary from person to person.
But do we know how users process all the information they encounter along this journey?
Given the vast amount of information available online, the cycle of exploration and evaluation seems destined to repeat itself endlessly: there will always be a new product or a new review that can change the mind of someone about to purchase. This is where biases and cognitive shortcuts come into play, which consumers use to escape the Messy Middle. This type of reasoning is very common and used subconsciously to make decisions quickly and effectively, without weighing all the possible options every time a choice is made.
This is how Google theorizes this process and illustrates the main phases that move the user along this path.
The issue is also particularly pertinent, considering that the COVID-19 emergency has only accelerated online shopping and increased the need for digital marketers to understand the mechanisms that fuel this process.
Behavioral science applied to the purchasing decision-making process
Behavioral Architects, the group that harnesses new insights from behavioral science, and behavioral economics in particular, has developed a theory to understand how consumers decide what to buy.
Given the infinite options and abundance of information available to users, it has been found that people exploit deeply rooted cognitive biases , or cognitive distortions, to deal with and manage complex concepts to a large extent.
Biases, simply put, shape people's purchasing behavior and influence how they choose one product or service over another.
cognitive biases
Specifically, six have been identified:
- Category heuristics: short descriptions of key product information that can somehow make purchasing decisions easier.
- Power of immediacyThere is a desire to purchase a product as quickly as possible. This increases the intention to purchase it.
- Social Proof: Tips and reviews can be very effective.
- Scarcity bias: a product becomes more desirable if its availability decreases.
- Authority biasIf I listen to an expert's opinion, I am more likely to purchase that product/service.
- Power of free will: if there is a gift alongside the purchase, this is an excellent incentive to purchase.
All this therefore serves, on the one hand, to help marketers understand how to implement an operational strategy that brings excellent results and, on the other, to make users even more aware of the processes that determine their purchasing choices.
Antonella Izzo
Sitography:
- https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/it-it/tendenze-e-insight/customer-journey/capire-percorso-acquisto-consumatori/?mc_cid=38c427c772&mc_eid=b64ba553b5
- https://webranking.it/blog/messy-middle-il-nuovo-framework-dalla-teoria-alla-pratica/
