Is it a habit from the mass advertising era, or does human thinking just naturally gravitate that way? When it comes to planning, I often see cases where people immediately start thinking about what information companies should provide before consumers buy a product.
But how do we actually behave in real life?
Content that repeatedly confirms the feeling of "I'm glad I bought this" is crucial
During a recent discussion on the marketing model "DECAX," when we reached the "X = Experience" part, the room lit up with relatable anecdotes.
For example, there was a family who recently bought a machine that easily makes sorbet from frozen fruit. After buying it, strawberry sorbet lasted for five days straight, and everyone got tired of it. So, the wife searched online for different ways to use the machine. She discovered that users and the official website shared information about using it with tomatoes or avocados. As a result, she discovered many more uses beyond just sorbet. She felt relieved, thinking, "I got tired of strawberry and thought it was a failure after just five days, but that wasn't the case at all. I'm glad I bought it." Not only that, but she started recommending it to friends, saying things like, "Oh, you can use it this way, or that way."
This story taught me how crucial it is to provide content that repeatedly confirms that feeling of "I'm glad I bought this."
Similar experiences likely occur after trips, movies, or events.
You might want to learn more about a famous spot you visited, revisit the routes and places you went on a map, or look up shops you visited online. After a moving movie or event, your sensitivity to information spikes, and you crave episodes, behind-the-scenes stories, and even insider tales not found in official sources.
Content needs born from various "after" moments. Here lies great potential!
The same applies after trying something new. After struggling with windsurfing for the first time, you might search for tips on how to do it better. Or, after playing futsal weekly, you might look up those shoes you've been wanting.
In this digital age, with apps and in-game purchases, the ways to enjoy something after buying it have diversified. Mechanisms designed to make you buy more after your initial purchase have become commonplace. The fact that content demand exists in these various "after" moments means huge potential lies here.
Post-purchase content isn't just reviews or word-of-mouth. By enriching the "after" experience with something more enjoyable and different from before, users might grow to like the brand even more. They might buy again. They might buy other products.
Or, depending on how it's planned, "post-purchase" content could spark new users' interest, making them think, "If there's so much to enjoy after buying," or "If everyone raves about it that much." I believe that potential exists.
"The post-purchase experience is crucial, right?" "Word-of-mouth matters, right?" We say these things, yet when we actually start planning communication, we tend to focus on acquiring large numbers of new users. Consequently, when planning content, we often fixate solely on goals like "getting them to buy," "making them like us," or "getting them to visit," pushing "the post-purchase experience" to the back burner.
But we're entering an era of declining birthrates and an aging population. The era of digital natives. As the population shrinks, repeat customers become more important than new ones. And when digital natives make up the majority of the population, it will become much more common to gather information about the "after" before making a purchase.
Think about the "after" first. I believe the next content hint lies here.
From the Front Lines of Content Marketing [25]
