The purchase or purchasing funnel is a consumer

Consumer

Consumer is a broad label for any individuals or households that use goods generated within the economy. The concept of a consumer occurs in different contexts, so that the usage and significance of the term may vary.-Economics and marketing:...

 focused marketing

Marketing

Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...

 model which illustrates the theoretical customer

Customer

A customer is usually used to refer to a current or potential buyer or user of the products of an individual or organization, called the supplier, seller, or vendor. This is typically through purchasing or renting goods or services...

 journey towards the purchase of a product or service.

In 1898, St Elmo Lewis

E. St. Elmo Lewis

E. St. Elmo Lewis was an American advertising advocate—he wrote and spoke prolifically about the potential of advertising to educate the public. He was the co-founder/first president of the Association of National Advertisers...

 developed a model which mapped a theoretical customer journey from the moment a brand or product attracted consumer attention to the point of action or purchase. St Elmo Lewis’ idea is often referred to as the AIDA model - an acronym which stands for Awareness, Interest, Desire, and Action. This staged process is summarised below:

• AWARENESS – the customer is aware of the existence of a product or service
• INTEREST – actively expressing an interest in a product group
• DESIRE – aspiring to a particular brand or product
• ACTION – taking the next step towards purchasing the chosen product

This early model has been evolved by marketing consultants and academics to cater for the modern customer and is now referred to in marketing as the purchase funnel. Many different consumer purchase models exist in marketing today, but it is generally accepted that the modern purchase funnel has more stages, considers repurchase intent and takes into account new technologies and changes in consumer purchase behaviour .

The purchase funnel concept is used in marketing to guide promotional campaigns targeting different stages of the customer journey, and also as a basis for customer relationship management

Customer relationship management

Customer relationship management is a widely implemented strategy for managing a company’s interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes—principally sales activities, but also those for marketing,...

 (CRM) programmes.

See also

• Defining Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Results (DAGMAR marketing
  DAGMAR marketing
  DAGMAR advertising model was proposed by Russel H. Colley in 1961Term DAGMAR is an acronym of Defining Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Results.According to DAGMAR, before purchase prospect goes through 4 steps:1. Awareness2. Comprehension...
  
  )
• Sales tunnel
• Customer Relationship Management
  Customer relationship management
  Customer relationship management is a widely implemented strategy for managing a company’s interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes—principally sales activities, but also those for marketing,...
  
  
• Customer Lifecycle Management
  Customer lifecycle management
  Customer Lifecycle Management, or CLM is the measurement of multiple customer related metrics, which, when analyzed for a period of time, indicate performance of a business...
  
  *ROI of Social Media