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