customer journey map

You will conduct a consumer interview to 1) explore the “lived” consumer experience and 2) examine a consumer behavior phenomenon through a psychological lens.  The in-depth interview should focus on purchase decisions for any product/service. You will gather and analyze the key findings, apply theoretical concepts, ascribe meaning to the purchase experience, and managerial insights if applicable.   Managerial insights may include how management reacts to customer feedback. After completing the interview, you will create a consumer journey map for your interviewee’s purchase.  Guidelines Select a consumer with whom to conduct the decision-making interview.  Ask them about the following: what they bought, when they made the purchase, others that may have participated in the purchase decision with them, and their motivation for the purchase.  Focus on their motivational factions, influence of cognition, and social influences.  Examples of purchase contexts: Purchase of a product or service under $100 Purchase of a product or service over $100 Impulse purchase of a product or service Unisex purchase of a product or service Conspicuous consumption (consumers who buy expensive items to display wealth and income rather than to cover the real needs of the consumer) The interview will likely take between 15-60 minutes. Your goal is to use the interview format to learn everything you can about the consumer’s decision-making process that led to the actual purchase itself, and any subsequent actions and thoughts. It is important that this interview be treated professionally. Your interview should be a thorough exploration of the consumer’s experience. Please keep in mind the following:  You should avoid overstepping the mark and leading them in directions that they would otherwise not have gone to avoid providing answers that are not attributable to their actual decision-making. Begin by asking the consumer to describe the product or service and then to recount, in their own words, the “story” of their purchase from knowing nothing about the purchase to the experiences of using it after the purchase has been made. Try to continually keep the consumer grounded in the actual experience of the purchase. Try to avoid leading them into generalizations and ambiguity. One way of doing this is to explore questions like “How did it feel…” or “What was it like to…” Ideally, you would like the consumer to simply discuss their purchase in a detailed manner while you take notes. In reality, the interviewee will stop talking or say either something you do not understand or that you think needs more elaboration. You need to elicit the information and understanding without leading the consumer. Create a consumer journey map of the psychological process that describes the purchase event as told by the consumer and interpreted by you. Refer to the Supplemental Materials in Module 5 for resources on mapping the consumer journey. Based on your interpretation of the decision-making event, explicitly identify and interpret the various emotional influences in this particular consumer decision-making context. Describe one way in which social media might undermine the interviewee’s decision-making process in the future for the same or similar purchase.  Submit the following by Sunday, 11:59 p.m. ET, end of Module 5: Customer journey map with any supporting documentation (#3) Write-up of your interpretation of the consumer’s process based on the interview (#4) Write-up of whether or not social media played a role (#5) Note: the total submission should be 2-3 single-spaced pages.