Introduction
During the marketing of products, different stores use different methods of advertisement. Similarly, different customers understand the targeted adverts differently. One of the methods used by marketers is the use of infographics. Infographics can be said to be graphics or illustrations which communicate information visually. They are vital during the marketing of products or services since they deliver information to the target precisely and quickly. The use of these infographics has been used by different firms like John Lewis stores. The stores of John Lewis mainly deal with the retailing of electronic commodities from television and mobile phones to even electric households and clothes, among other specialities. Therefore, the article below aims to reveal how infographics in John Lewis stores demonstrate the moves of a customer in the market segment of retail. Firstly, the paper has created a report on the demographics of the customer, which includes their gender, age, and income. After that, it has also touched on psychographics, which provides for secondary factors, including the preferences and personality type of the customer. Lastly, the article has made a report on the behaviour of the customer, which includes sports, hobbies, likes, and dislikes, which will help in the formulation of the infographics. The last part of the paper consists of infographics, which are accompanied by an explanation.
Explanation Of The Customer Journey
Just as explained above, there is a variation on a cluster of the customer profile. This includes primary, secondary and tertiary features. For example, for primary needs, it can depend on gender and age, secondary needs depend on preferences and personalities, on tertiary needs depend on factors like sports and hobbies. However, the main aim of every marketer is to reach every potential customer. Therefore, to make this happen, one has to have a systematic way of winning these customers, and it is through an understanding of the customer’s journey. The customer journey is the systematic guidance of the customer from the creation of awareness, which creates interest in the product to the client, to making the customer purchase the commodities and having the anxiety of re-purchase. In some instances, creation and poor understanding of the customer journey can lead to a “customer grave.” Therefore, to avoid such cases, it is important to have supportive data and ensure that one identifies and understands strong elements of the customer and the areas which need to be improved.
Identification Of Elements Of The Customer Journey
The company John Lewis has tried to maintain its standards of the customer journey. This is whereby it has given a clear outline to the customer on how to search for products till they make their purchase. Since it is an online purchase company, it needs a lot of care in guiding its customers and winning their surety that those commodities will be delivered. Therefore, below are some of the elements highlighted by the company’s customer journey.
Search
Above all, the company offers its customers the chance to search for their preferred commodities. Firstly, this makes work easier for their customers. In addition to that, much of the scrolling causes the action to look dull, which can be a factor in chasing potential customers from buying commodities (Lemon, 2016). Using this strategy, the company has been capable of making more sales than the companies, even in some cases making much worth that of the producers of the products. In addition to that, according to research, it is evident that most of the customers who embark on shopping with John Lewis do so because of the natural looking of products. This is because online customers are believed to be in a rush hence having the search element tries to save their time.
Ad
As just stated in the explanation of the customer’s journey advertisement is in part of the Customer journey, the company of Lewis has tried to advertise its services and products. This has been evident through the use of ad trumps Apple’s. Through this, the company has been in a better position to advertise some of its products and also make its customers understand that it offers free delivery services. Therefore it means that this element of advertisement is vital in the customer journey. This is because it can remind or introduce the particular product to the customer. On the other hand, it can be a way of giving the customer an understanding of after-sale services he or she can have, like free delivery.
Landing Page
Using a landing page, it is whereby the company ensures that the client gets to the page of the product when he clicks on an ad. This is important as some of the companies; landing pages are not relevant to the attached advertisement. According to research, this makes the customer bored and maybe might not buy the product. If one ensures that the landing page is relevant to the advert, the chances of making more sales are higher.
Product Page
Ensuring that the company has an active product page on the website has made sales incline. It is apparent that the product page of the company is apparently such that the prices are transparent and have a zooming option. This means that it is fit for different customers, like the long-sighted or the short-sighted, since it has the zooming opportunity. In addition to that, under this element, the company has made delivery options.
Basket
Under this element, the customers have the chance to confirm their exclusive products. In addition to that, there are payment options and confirmation of the delivery options. According to me, this element of the customer journey is essential since one has the chance to confirm the kind of products picked. Therefore, it means that if there was any problem in loading the products into the baskets, one would have the opportunity to re-pick, which ensures that there is Maximus selling.
Checkout
This is the last essential element of the company’s customer journey. Clicking on this element, the company of John Lewis directly gives you a place to feed your email. After that, they offer the option of creating an account, which, according to me, is a healthy move to make after the purchase but not before (Alpay, 2009). It is because it may be the offered making of account as most of the companies do, the customer will feel pissed off and change his/her plan of shopping which is a way of losing sales. In addition to that, the move of choosing delivery options will be like a way of saving time in areas where one will have to feed the address where it is not essential.
What Could Be Improved And Recommendations?
Although the company has tried to keep the elements of the customer journey to the best standards, there are areas in which it has not been well polished. Firstly, the company has not given the aspect of viewing available offers. This is important as it is like a way of motivating the customers. Therefore, it means that as a company, they should separate the products with offers from those without and create an element, hence trying to improve sales. The other place to develop is the mode of delivery. From this kind of look, the delivery options of the company seem to be relatively slow. Since it is apparent that online shoppers are ever in a rush, this can be a pothole in weaving customers away; therefore, it requires ratification.
The Infographics
Infographics vary with the kind of customers they are targeted to. They depend on the gender, age, hobbies, interests or personality of the customer. However, they are essential as they help in making a quick understanding of the customer and passing information. Therefore, below are some of the infographics used by the company of John Lewis.
Image 1: The above image is an illustration of John Lewis’ UEFA infographic
Source: Sports marketing (TV, 2014).
The above infographic was used by the company to communicate about the UEFA football championship. Firstly, the infographic has been targeted to a specific sport, which is football. Therefore it means that the targeted customer is a football fan. According to the infographic, it is an advert on television. Using the infographic above, it is evident that the company is capable of advertising its TVS on sale more accessible and clearly. In addition to that, the advert is not gendered choosy as both males and females watch football. In addition to that, it does not age fussy as young and aged watch football. However, it is based on the hobby of the customer, which is watching and sports-centred, which is football-generated.
Conclusion
The paper above discussed customer journeys and the use of infographics. Therefore John Lewis Retail Company has been used in making the report. The company has various elements which have been used in making their customer journey useful. They include search, ad, landing page, product page, basket and checkout, as discussed above. However, there are areas in which the company has to improve. This includes the addition of the element of offers available and improving the mode of delivery. Lastly, the paper has discussed infographics, whereby, in this case, the UEFA infographic was used by the company in advertising television sales.
Bibliographies
Alpay, L., Verhoef, J., Xie, B., Te’eni, D. and Zwetsloot-Schonk, J.H.M. (2009). Current challenge in consumer health informatics: Bridging the gap between access to information and information understanding. Biomedical informatics insights, 2, pp.BII-S2223.
Lemon, K.N. and Verhoef, P.C. (2016). Understanding customer experience throughout the customer journey. Journal of Marketing, 80(6), pp.69-96.
Lewis, A. J., Bertino, M. D., Robertson, N., Knight, T., & Toumbourou, J. W. (2012). Consumer feedback following participation in a family-based intervention for youth mental health. Depression research and treatment, 2012.
Lieb, R. (2013). Defining and mapping the native advertising landscape. Altimeter Research.
Nenonen, S., Rasila, H., Junnonen, J.M. and Kärnä, S. (2008). Customer Journey–a method to investigate user experience. In Proceedings of the Euro FM Conference Manchester (pp. 54-63).
Parker, S. and Heapy, J. (2006). The journey to the interface. London: Demos.
TV, G.M., Foxx, T.L., Bashi, B., Bearman, E., Stylez, S., Crosby, R., Course, R.S.G., Taniya, S.M., Stairlifts, C.C., Halıcı, N. and Roosevelt, C. (2014). Sports marketing.
Treichler, D., Carmichael, R., Kusmanoff, A., Lewis, J. and Berthiez, G., (2002). Design for Six Sigma: 15 lessons learned. Quality Progress, 35(1), p.33.
Appendix
- Infographics is the use of illustrations or graphics in advertising visually.
- The customer journey is the process from advertisement to end purchase of a customer, especially in online retail.
- John Lewis Company has a systematic customer journey.
- The company also uses infographics in advertising as one of its advertisements for televisions using UEFA.
