http://www.mitsue.co.jp/english/case/marketing/02.html
AIDMA Law
The Attention, Interest, Desire, Memory, and Action (AIDMA) Law is a
hypothesis on the process of "consumption behavior" advocated by Roland
Hall of the United States. It represents the process from when a
consumer finds out about a given product up until when they take action
to purchase that product. It also describes the way in which consumers
respond to communication.
This process is broken up into three stages
- Cognition, Affect, and Action. Over these three stages the consumer
first pays attention to the service or product in the Cognition Stage, then becomes interested in the product, wants the product and remembers the product in the Affect Stage, finally taking action to purchase the product in the Action Stage.
The
AIDMA Law is characteristically taken from the standpoint of the buyer.
If we look at it from the seller's perspective, the result is as shown
below. However, it is only natural that individual consumers will have
different values, expectations, and levels of knowledge that affect
communication. Therefore consumers will respond in different ways to an
identical message. In AIDMA-inspired communication, it is important to
clearly identify the objective of that communication in terms of whether
it is supposed to influence consumers in the Cognition Stage or the
Affect Stage. Identifying the target to establish who the communication
is aimed at - a fundamental marketing concept - is also a critical
factor.
How can this be used in implementing your Internet strategy?
The interactive and personalized nature of the Internet makes it an
excellent tool for executing AIDMA-style communication aimed at
individuals, who will respond to that communication in different ways
according to their own values and knowledge levels.
Let's take a look at how this can be utilized in the following examples.
1. Common knowledge levels - the foundation of recognition.
The "Attention" phase of the Cognition Stage describes the process in which a potential customer comes to know about a new product or service. However, even if a person finds out about a particular product or service, if they think it is of no relevance to them, they will quickly forget about it. This deciding factor-whether or not the product is relevant to the individual or not-is controlled by the consumer's knowledge level, interest, and awareness at that point in time. For example, a woman who is careful about her skin might not know that Vitamin C is good for the skin. If this is the case, she might not pay that much attention to a particular supplement even if she finds out that it is rich in Vitamin C. Thus, when a particular individual comes to know about a service or product, they are really determining whether or not that service or product is relevant to them. They need to be informed of how the product relates to them. So to attract attention to your product or service and boost recognition, websites should not just function merely as a product or service catalog, but must also provide supplementary information in the form of feature columns and actual examples (see examples of recipe or clothing websites) and the like that make it easy for the customer to identify with the product or service. Then, serial columns and regular issues of mail magazines can be used to convert the attention of that customer into interest.
2. People tend to want what other people buy
People, interestingly enough, tend to rely on judgments made by other people. They tend to show interest in the same things that other people are interested in, just as they want those things that are selling well in the market. While the opinions of the professionals-the sellers-are important, people listen more carefully to the opinions of other buyers-their peers-who are in the same position as them as buyers and users of services and products. These opinions are based on similar perspectives to their own and are therefore easier to relate to their own life. So to stimulate a customer's interest in, desire for, and memory of a product or service, presenting positive opinions from other customers proves effective. Including the opinions, comments and feelings of customers who have purchased or used products and services, featuring communication between customers in online communities and communication between customers and the company, and including best-seller lists and the like are effect ways to motivate customers in the Affect Stage towards taking action.
3. Making and developing a place for loyal customers
As was also explained in the section about the Pareto Law, it is often the case that purchases by the top 20% of customers account for 80% of total sales. Thus, if you want to efficiently promote an expansion in sales, the key is to develop customers in this top 20% into loyal customers, who are the least likely to defect. Also, by communicating with these very loyal customers and by finding out factors that influence their expectations and satisfaction with products and services, you can then provide products and services that exceed these expectations and that offer a high degree of satisfaction. This also provides hints useful for sourcing potential customers. In this way, the importance of loyal customers goes well beyond mere sales considerations alone. They are extremely important in boosting the brand value of products and services and in brand building. Brand building refers to the process by which the information provided to certain customers is continuously changed through repetition of the AIDMA process. Providing loyal customers with added value and communicating with them online are extremely important factors in brand building. This can involve providing value to customers in real-time by using online forums to give them the brand history and show them the brand value, and by providing positive communication that gives both sides a better understanding of one another.
4. Boost convenience to increase the proportion of repeat customers
In the Action Stage, where customers have already decided to buy the product or want to ask some questions about the product or service, what people want is more convenient service. If once they have finally decided to purchase, the customer then can't find out where they can buy the product or can't get onto anyone about their questions, then this will prevent them from taking action, and they probably won't be moved to take any further action. Not only is it important to make provisions online for tools that will make the purchasing process (Action Stage) more convenient for customers and to increase customer satisfaction; it is also important to improve site usability to help customers find those tools. This will cut out areas that generate customer dissatisfaction. Increasing customer satisfaction is believed to work to increase the proportion of repeat customers.
Therefore, keeping the AIDMA Law in mind not only gives you a clearer insight into the methodology, but will also help you to come up with ideas.
By: Hiroki Tanahashi
Producer, Direction Group