Digital Marketing:

Strategic
Planning &
Integration
2nd edition
© Annmarie Hanlon
 Chapter 2
The digital consumer
Learning objectives

• Understand digital consumer behaviour

• Apply the Technology Acceptance Model
• Analyse the digital customer experience
• Evaluate the sharing economy
• Create an online customer journey

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Digital consumer behaviour

• Consumer power
• Second screening
• Showrooming and webrooming
• Liquid and solid consumption

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Webrooming and showrooming

• Showrooming: Search in store, buy online

– “Shoppers now frequently search for information in the
store and simultaneously search on their mobile device to
get more information about offers and may find more
attractive prices” (Verhoef, Kannan and Inman, 2015).
• Webrooming: Search online, buy in store
– “The opposite of showrooming also occurs, which is now
referred to as webrooming, where shoppers seek
information online and buy offline. In the past, this was
found to be a dominant form of research shopping.”
(Verhoef, Kannan and Inman, 2015).

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Types of showroomers

• Conservative showroomers
• Loyal showroomers
• Comfort-oriented economic showroomers
• Mobile economic showroomers

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Figure 2.1 Framework of the different
elements in the sharing economy

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Types of sharers or collaborative
consumers
• Committed: Conscious of ecological issues and seeking
ways to reduce consumption
• Pragmatist: Take a practical approach and like the ease of
using the platforms
• Intermittent: Busy people who sometimes use the platforms
• Sceptical: Don’t see the need and prefer traditional
consumption

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Types of touch points

• Brand-owned: Managed by the brand such as its website or

advertising.
• Partner-owned: Jointly owned by the brand and a partner,
such as appearing on an affiliate or other website.
• Customer-owned: Actions controlled by the customer, such
as their choice of payment (credit card, Apple Pay, PayPal)
or the device used to access the website or app.
• Social / external touch points: Content appearing across
social media or other external sites such as review
platforms.

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Customer service encounters

• Pre-core service encounter – the time before the main

service where the customer engages with the firm and
seeks information such as online reviews.
• Core service encounter – the time at which the primary
service is provided.
• Post-core service encounter – the time after the service has
been received where the consumer reflects, assesses the
service and may complete online feedback.

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Table 2.1 How the customer journey
has changed
Customer journey Touch points Traditional consumer Digital consumer
stage
Pre-purchase Search High street or shopping mall,  We search online for products
items in magazines  We use voice search and ask our devices to search for
us
 We explore products our friends recommend on social
media

Pre-purchase Selection Examine products in real life  We compare delivery times, costs, overall costs
and decide whether to buy  We check reviews and ratings
Pre-purchase Decision Decision making with fixed  Based on ratings and ease of purchase we decide and
making and store times choose
choice  We save items for later with ‘wish lists’
Purchase Shopping Physical visits to stores  We use branded websites and comparison websites to
shop online
 We use store apps for instant shopping
 We buy during live video streaming (LVS)

Purchase Purchase Involves queuing to pay  One-click delivery systems, next day delivery, delivery
to lockers
Purchase Gift Requires additional effort to  Automatic gift options and reminders, purchase from
take away, wrap, pack and one address and delivery to another address
post
Purchase Rental Physically visit a store to  We rent music, properties, cars and more, at the click
organise a rental agreement of a mouse

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Figure 2.2 Example of a customer
journey map

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Table 2.2 Digital persona elements
PERSONA WHAT THIS MEANS DATA SOURCE
ELEMENT
Demographics Age, gender, income, education, ethnicity, Mintel, Keynote, government data,
marital status, household (or business) sales data, in-house metrics and
size, geographical location, occupation. shopping statistics
Psychographics Personality and emotionally based Mintel, Keynote, government data
behaviour linked to buying habits, showing hobbies and interests
purchase choices, attitudes, beliefs,
lifestyle, hobbies, holidays, values.
Webographics Internet usage, social media usage, Online data sources such as
websites visited, browsers used, devices Statistica, Pew Internet, Google
and systems used, time of day and Analytics or offsite analytics,
duration online, action on site (downloads, interviews and observation
comments, likes) other media used. sessions with existing and potential
users, user testing sessions
Figure 2.3 Technology acceptance
model (TAM)

TAM was created to assess attitudes to technology – at

the time it was a move to using email (electronic mail)

Source: Davis, Bagozzi and Warshaw (1989)

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Summary

• Chapter 2 has explored

– How changing digital behaviour affects marketing.
– The characteristics of the sharing economy
– The difference between customer experience and
customer journeys
– How to create a digital persona
– How the technology acceptance model can be applied.

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References
• Davis, F. D., Bagozzi, R. P. and Warshaw, P. R. (1989) ‘User Acceptance of Computer
Technology: a Comparison of Two Theoretical Models.’, Management Science, 35(8),
pp. 982–1003. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.35.8.982.
• Hanlon, A. (2022). Digital Marketing: Strategic Planning & Integration (2nd ed.). SAGE
Publications Ltd
• Lemon, K. N., & Verhoef, P. C. (2016). Understanding Customer Experience Throughout
the Customer Journey. Journal of Marketing, 80(6), 69–96.
https://doi.org/10.1509/jm.15.0420
• Schneider, P. J., & Zielke, S. (2020). Searching offline and buying online – An analysis
of showrooming forms and segments. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services,
52(June 2019), 101919. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2019.101919
• Verhoef, P. C., Kannan, P. K. and Inman, J. J. (2015) ‘From Multi-Channel Retailing to
Omni-Channel Retailing ☆: Introduction to the Special Issue on Multi-Channel
Retailing’, Journal of Retailing, 91(Rigby 2011), pp. 174–181. doi:
10.1016/j.jretai.2015.02.005.
• Voorhees, C. M., Fombelle, P. W., Gregoire, Y., Bone, S., Gustafsson, A., Sousa, R., &
Walkowiak, T. (2016). Service encounters, experiences and the customer journey:
Defining the field and a call to expand our lens. Journal of Business Research,
79(November), 269–280. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.04.014
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Reading for next week

• Chapter 3: Hanlon, A. (2022). Digital Marketing: Strategic

Planning & Integration (2nd ed.). SAGE Publications Ltd

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Next Week:

Email, Websites, SEO and Paid Search

Chapter 3