The Future of Marketing: Strategies from 15 Leading Brands on How Authenticity, Relevance, and Transparency Will Help You Survive the Age of the Customer

2. What Is a Customer Journey, and Why Does It Matter?

“The funnel—the classic linear progression in which customers narrow their buying options as they advance from product awareness to purchase—is becoming a lot less relevant because customers are engaging in a much more iterative and dynamic decision journey.”¹

—“Marketing’s Age of Relevance,” McKinsey on Marketing and Sales

Until recently, customer relationships with brands tended to be described using a “funnel” metaphor, in which people’s various touchpoints with a brand were designed to push them farther down a funnel until they popped out of the bottom as customers.

Over the course of the last decade, that analogy has been superseded by the “customer journey.” A customer journey is a ...