A Brand’s Love Story: How Customers Fall in Love with a Brand (3/5)
By Levina Kusumadjaja
Chapter 3: Conversion
We have arrived at the 3rd chapter of the customer journey. This is the stage where customers begin to take concrete actions in response to their perception about the brand. In the first (awareness) and second (consideration) chapters, the customers haven’t taken any action that speaks of their love for the brand. Everything is still mostly inside their minds. Even if they are quite convinced that the brand is a good and reliable brand, they still haven’t sealed the deal.
In the analogy of human relationship, it’s like that phase before getting engaged— you like the person, perhaps even love the person, but you haven’t agreed to spending the rest of your life with them. You are seeing them, but it stays there. Once you are ready to take action, you will propose to the person to express your desire for long term commitment. For a customer, this action is a step to enter their third stage: conversion.
In conversion, the customer will take actions that reflect their desire to commit with the brand, such as through purchase.
Long story short: now the customers will buy from the brand. When a customer levels up from consideration to conversion, the one signal that will take place is purchase. The customer isn’t fully loyal and committed yet like in a marriage, but they are quite convinced that they want to spend a long time with the brand. So for the customer, it’s getting serious. It’s not just dating now, but not married yet. It’s that engagement period where you publicly declare that you are planning to be committed with this person for a long time, but you’re not there yet. The customer here is making their relationship with the brand official. They are willing to be associated with the brand and to be seen with the brand.
Did you catch that?
In conversion, customers have decided that they believe they are a great match with the brand.
The customers believe they are a great match with the brand. It’s still a belief, not yet an identity. They believe they are a great match, but there is still a level of uncertainty. The customers are still going back and forth whether this is really the brand they want to commit to. There is still a part of them that is testing the waters, to see whether their perception about the brand will be proven through their experience with the brand.
For all brand strategists reading this, you need to keep in mind that as wonderful as it is for customers to get to conversion, this is only halfway of the relationship journey. While one or two purchases prove the interest of a longer term commitment, they still don’t prove loyalty yet. The brand’s job to communicate and connect with the customers is still far from done. Let’s keep going.
Third stage complete. Up next - Chapter 4: Relationship.
Cheers!
Levina
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About the author:
Levina is a writer based in Indonesia. Because of Melinda Livsey, she recognized the power of brand strategy for every creative. She is sharing about her learnings as she goes to help creatives have fun in their growth and journey of building brands. Connect with her on LinkedIn and say hi!