Outdoor Influential in Customers' Journey to Purchase

The Customer Journey is a study conducted by the Outdoor Media Centre (OMC) in the UK to understand consumers and their journey to purchase. They first identified 4 stages of the customer journey by speaking to media agencies beforehand, and these were used as a framework to understand the path to purchase in the research: 1. Absorbing 2. Planning 3. Obtaining 4. Sharing There were 2 parts to the research, the first of which was an online study which sought to establish people’s claimed behaviour (ie. the sort of media/non-media sources used to make a buying decision). The 2nd phase was to capture behaviour ‘in the moment’ by having respondents use a mobile phone diary, enabling records of real-life movements in their paths to purchase. One of the key findings was that audiences most exposed to and most responsive to Outdoor are affluent, connected and urban commuters. Consumers also respond positively to Outdoor by investigating, searching online and purchasing after seeing an OOH advertisement. These findings demonstrate that the Out-of-Home media is influential in moving customers along the path of purchase. Overall the research provided a better understanding of the 'how, why, when and where' of buying decisions in the UK, and the specific role of advertising, including Outdoor.