One of the things that really bothers me is that I keep reading that the funnel isn’t relevant anymore in marketing. Because it totally is!

People need to separate two things from each other. Behaviour vs. mindset. Yes, people’s behaviours have radically changed. But they’re still human beings.

Let’s imagine a random person and what their potential state-of-mind about a trip to Machu Picchu.

NOT IN THE FUNNEL – this person has never heard of Machu Picchu
AWARENESS – this person knows about it but has no real interest in visiting (yet)
CONSIDERATION – this person would like to visit one day but has no concrete plans. It’s on the shortlist
INTENT – this person is planning a trip in the near future
PURCHASE – this person has booked
EXPERIENCE – this person is visiting
EVALUATE – this person has an opinion about the experience

You can also use AIDA or whatever other process you like but it boils down to the same thing.

This process can’t change. It’s where people are at in their head. Either you know about a place or you don’t. Either you have it on your shortlist or not. You’re planning a trip or you don’t. It’s also very likely that their are always more people AWARE of a destination than CONSIDER visiting. Hence the shape of a funnel. At Tourism BC we used a curve but it boils down to the same thing.

What has completely changed is how people become aware and how the move through the funnel. Their behaviour of moving through the funnel is now influenced by many more things than before. Word-of-mouth and social media in particular help drive people through the funnel. In that sense you could call it a process and at Think! we illustrate that with the diagram below.

The process isn’t linear either and it never was. If you’re intending to visit but realize it’s too expensive it goes back up on the shortlist and you go somewhere else. But to suggest that the funnel isn’t relevant anymore is complicating your marketing strategy unnecessarily.