In marketing, a touchpoint describes any instance where a consumer interacts with an organisation's brand or image. This can include traditional advertising or company-owned resources such as a website, public exposure, and personal recommendations.
A brand touchpoint, also known as a brand encounter, is formed when a consumer is exposed to a brand. This exposure can occur in many different forms, such as an advertisement featured on television, radio, in a newspaper, or in a magazine. Other forms of advertising could include a display on a billboard located on the roadside, discussions regarding the product on talkback radio, a product in a window display, or a verbal discussion between friends and family, all giving exposure to the brand. All of these touchpoints create a "brand experience" for the consumer.
Touchpoints are the first association that a consumer has with a product or service offered by a company or individual and are the contact points between a consumer and said provider of services. The touchpoint offers a link between the consumer and the service, acting as a go-between for what the consumer wants and what the service provider is offering, providing a central service in the communication between customer and supplier (2011: 16). A touchpoint is the first interaction that a customer has with a company and that interaction is considered as the starting point of a customer journey (2011:15). The customer journey/experience is the full involvement that a customer has with a particular brand, starting at the first connection between customer and service, and ending with the purchasing of a product or service and the advocacy of said product or service to others (Richardson, 2010). Touchpoints provide the basis and foundations for information gathering techniques used by customers.
Within modern marketing, business, and service providing, there is a focus on the experiences of the customer base during the customer-supplier interaction (Voss and Zomerdijk, 2007). The customer journey perspective in marketing highlights the importance of multiple components that interact with each other and the customer, with the visual, audio, and social aspects of a marketing strategy being crucial for a successful customer journey (2007: 2). The strong importance placed on the customer experience over pure product has been established due to the increasingly competitive marketplace in which products and services exist (Khanna, Jacob, Yadav, 2014). Touchpoints make up an important and effective means of interacting with a customer base and build a notion and image of a brand within the memory of a customer. Successful businesses utilise touchpoints to build an image of what they can offer to customers, straightforward communication between parties, and value that comes with the purchase of products or services (Hogan, Almiquist, & Glynn, 2005).
In consumer decision-making
The consumer decision-making process is influenced by brand touchpoints; touchpoints influence the pre-purchase, purchase, and post-purchase stages of the decision-making process. This is because brands are constantly in contact with consumers by way of experiences (touchpoints) with the brand or service, advertising (all forms), contact with employees, social media, and many other ways.Kotler, P., Burton, S., Deans, K., Brown, L., & Armstrong, G. (2013). Marketing (9th ed.). NSW: Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd. Each stage of the decision-making process is also an opportunity for the brand to influence the consumer's decisions, regardless of whether or not the consumer has made a decision to purchase.
There are many ways in which touchpoints can influence the pre-purchase stage of the consumer decision-making process. The pre-purchase stage is said to be one of the most important stages of the consumer decision-making process, as it includes the point where the consumer recognizes that they have a need for a product or service. It is at this point of realization that pre-purchase touchpoints are crucial because this triggers the consumer to actively search for information about a certain product. Such searches for information can be actively conducted via searching in advertising, social media, internet search, or word-of-mouth and finding out family and friend’s experiences, etc.Verma, H. V. (2012). Services Marketing: Text and Cases (2nd ed.). India: Pearson Education India. It is important that during this stage, in order for consumers to consider purchasing from a brand, that the brand creates relevant touchpoints that increase their appeal. Modern consumers have access to multiple electronic devices such as smartphones, laptops, tablets, and televisions and are sometimes connected simultaneously to all devices. As a result, brands may not acquire the desired amount of exposure because of the consumer's tendency to frequently switch from one device to another and from one task to another task. Therefore, brands must create short and engaging advertisements to capture the attention of the consumer during the pre-purchase stage of his or her decision-making process. Such action will ensure that the consumer will be able to relate to a brand and will instill the belief that the brand has their interests at heart. Brands or companies cannot precisely manage the touchpoints at the pre-purchase stage to work in their favor. They can only do so much to make sure they monitor the channels by which consumers search for product/service information to make sure they are readily accessible.
Touchpoints for the "purchase" stage of the decision-making process are somewhat more direct. In this stage, the consumer evaluates the information they have searched for in the pre-purchase stage. Evaluation in this sense is when the consumer has selected a set of brands from their information search and compared them to one another. At this point of the consumer decision-making process, brand touchpoints become the difference between a decision to buy and a decision not to buy. Touchpoints during the purchase stage are more direct than the pre-purchase stage because touchpoints during the purchase stage can be found in the store (or office if looking for a service) as the store layout, through the sales team and staff, the point of sale, and in many other elements. The store layout is a whole touchpoint in itself as it includes all types of atmospherics that help influence consumers. Such atmospherics involve using the senses to relate to consumers on a more personal level through the use of store scents, visual appearance, music, and the ability to touch products. This can be further explained using the concept of "The Consumer’s Culture" where the psychological core of the consumer determines the effectiveness of brand touchpoints and influence.Hoyer, W. D., & MacInnis, D. J. (2008). Consumer Behaviour (5th ed.). United States of America: Cengage Learning. When consumers are exposed to such elements of a brand, it is at that point where they make the decision to buy or even the decision not to buy. To reduce the chance of having the consumer turning away from buying a particular brand, companies ensure their staff are properly trained in product knowledge and interpersonal skills. Effective staff are important since customer touchpoints with staff are a physical and human representation of the brand. Therefore, it is important for customers to have a sense of trust in the brand or the company, and the staff need to build rapport with the customer to retain such trust. This trust and rapport can be strengthened at the point of sale, where the customer purchases a product and feels that the product they have chosen may serve their needs.
Finally, the post-purchase stage of the decision-making process is vital for the brand to retain their customers. Interactions between the brand and consumer after the purchase still count as touchpoints. Examples of post-purchase touch points are customer satisfaction surveys, product services, post-purchase customer service and support, loyalty programs, and even billing processes. All such touchpoints enable brands or companies to nurture the relationship between consumer and brand and, if successful, retain the customer. These touchpoints also provide brands with a sense of being able to control the post-purchase element of a consumer's decision-making process in a more effective manner.Ozuem, W., & Bowen, G. (2016). Competitive Social Media Marketing Strategies. United States of America: Business Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global). Companies hope to maintain a positive perception of the brand, that customers will relate to the brand on a positive level through these touchpoints. Post-purchase touchpoints are especially important for brands to be seen as readily available to, and accessible, by customers for the customer to remain trusting of the brand. Otherwise, the customer may perceive the brand treating them as a quick opportunity to make a sale with no post-purchase care.
Usage in everyday business communications
Businesses that offer products or services directly to customers use touchpoints in order to improve the relationship with the consumer and create brand recognition (Roll, 2015). Companies that offer services such as transport, mobile phone packages, flights, and rental cars create awareness of themselves through the intensive or minimal, targeted or broad use of touchpoints (Hogan, et al., 2005), which portray certain positive aspects of their company to prospective clients and customers. The choosing of (a) suitable touchpoint/s send messages to the customers about what values the company holds in high esteem. This is particularly important in the marketing of products in heavily filled marketplaces such as telecommunications, with companies producing tech-information services to retain customers in a competitive marketplace (Ojiako, Chipulu and Graesser, 2012).