AMB330 Week 3 Lecture — Digital Audit (II): Comprehensive Exam Notes

Lecture Overview

• Week #3 focus: Digital Audit (II) within AMB330 – Digital Optimisation.
• Five core segments discussed:
  • Follow-up on previous audit requirements.
  • Research on consumers’ media-consumption patterns.
  • Development of Customer Personas (incl. Consumer Insight).
  • Deep dive into Consumer Insight writing.
  • Product & Competitor Overview requirements.

Follow-up: Clarifying Assessment Criteria

• Each audit subsection must be distinct yet connected; avoid content repetition:
  • Audience, feature & content optimisation for every platform.
  • Tactics mapped to customer-journey stages.
  • Alignment with organisational voice & brand personality.
  • Application of dialogic principles (two-way engagement).
  • Separate “tactic analysis” field: specify journey stage + aim of content.
• Tip: For public-sector organisations, objectives may shift from purchase to policy compliance, service uptake, education, etc.

Consumers’ Media-Consumption Research

• Multi-Screening (Dias 2016):
  • Digital consumers typically rely on ≥ 2 screen devices simultaneously for social interaction, information & entertainment.
  • Four profiles:
  • Content Grazing – entertainment driven.
  • Investigative Spider-Webbing – need additional info.
  • Social Spider-Webbing – search for belonging.
  • Quantum – utilitarian, efficiency oriented.
  • TV often acts as the trigger; smartphone interactions are brief & attention reverts to TV (Smith & Boyles 2012).
• Web 2.0 Information Reliance (Cheong & Park 2015): Social-media users still rely on traditional media for credibility.
• Uses & Gratifications Theory (Katz et al. 1973):
  • People choose media that satisfy cognitive, affective, personal-integrative, social-integrative, tension-release needs.
  • Modern studies (e.g., Sustainability journal) apply U&G to social media & sustainability behaviours.

PESO Model – Paid, Earned, Shared, Owned Media

• Visual matrix showing tactics per quadrant (Robinson 2016).
• Paid examples: Google Ads, Outbrain, Facebook Sponsored Posts, Twitter Cards, Brand Ambassadors, Native Ads.
• Earned examples: Publicity, media relations, influencer relations.
• Shared examples: Social-media community, partnerships, charity tie-ins, detractor management.
• Owned examples: Corporate blog, webinars, podcasts, employee/customer stories.
• Pros & Cons Summary (table):
  • Paid: \text{Scalable}, \text{Reliable}, fast; drawbacks include \text{Low Trust} & cost.
  • Earned: Authoritative, long-term SEO; cons = unreliable, hard to scale.
  • Shared: Low cost amplification; cons = uncertain virality.
  • Owned: Low risk, evergreen asset; cons = slow audience build, needs other media.

Customer Journey Foundations

• Definition (Norton & Pine 2013): Sequence of events customers go through to learn, purchase, interact with offerings.
• Key channel decisions: optimal mix, migration to cost-effective channels, integration of disparate touch-points.
• McKinsey Consumer Decision Journey (Court et al. 2009):
  • Trigger → Initial Consideration → Active Evaluation → Moment of Purchase → Post-purchase Loyalty Loop.
  • Graphic metrics:
  • Automotive: Initial brands considered 63\%; brands added 30\%; average brands initially 3.8 → drops to 2.2.
  • Auto insurance: Loyalty loop highest (78\% share of purchases).
  • Touch-point influence (% effectiveness):
  • Initial: Traditional ads 39\%, past experience 28\%.
  • Active: Online research 43\%, WOM 37\%.
  • Closure: In-store experience 26\%, salesperson 22\%.

Omnichannel Fashion Retailing (Lynch & Barnes 2020)

• Shoppers engage multiple channels/devices; expect seamless, synergistic brand presence.
• Clothing = high-risk category → need risk mitigation info across stages.
• Pre-purchase new micro-stages: Inspiration, Research, Comparison.
• Post-purchase expanded stages: Delivery, Returns, Show & Share.
• Consistency demanded in: fonts, filters, artwork, logos, brand messages.
• Emotional outcomes tracked (+ve: excitement, love; –ve: stress, fatigue).

Customer-Journey Typologies (Wolny & Charoensuksai 2014)

• Impulsive Journeys
  • Minimal info search; rely on mood, prior experience, product trial.
  • Info overload can push toward emotional decisions.
• Balanced Journeys
  • Triggered by friends/bloggers/celebs ➜ extended search & cross-channel validation.
• Considered Journeys
  • Long pre-shopping “storage” phase; accumulation of info until need arises.
• ORCA/Shopping 3.0 concept: non-linear, many inter-connected touch-points.
• Cosmetics case study (Table 1): channel usage by stage (e.g., orientation via friends/blogs; purchase mostly physical store).

In-Class Reflection Questions

• Q1: “Path to purchase” when choosing QUT; most important touch-point?
• Q2: Impact of Generative AI on personal decision journeys.
• Additional: Reasons your age group engages/does not engage with govt information.

Customer Persona Requirements (Assessment A1 Sec 2.0)

• Use academic + industry data (ABS, IBISWorld) + current digital tactics.
• Provide one detailed persona (existing or new market).
• Template fields:
  • Picture, name, gender, age, income, marital status, location.
  • Communication channels.
  • 3 reasons to engage vs 3 reasons not to engage with brand info.
  • Pain points, values/personality, interests/lifestyles.
  • Consumer Insight: 1–3 first-person sentences (Situation + Frustration + Future Desire).
• Evaluation rubric highlights creative, well-justified personas tied to sources (5 pts).

Constructed Stakeholder Personas & Journey Mapping

• Personas: fictional archetypes grounded in real data points (Ortbal et al. 2016).
• Need consistency but not exhaustive representation of every individual.
• Journey mapping visualises interactions; touch-points form its backbone.
• Best practice: collect rich primary data (video, mystery shopper, focus groups).
• Example Persona “Blessing – Smallholder Farmer” incl. daily life, motivations, design criteria.
• Stakeholder Journey Map template: stages (Awareness → After-Sales), actions, feelings, pain-points, insights.

Writing Powerful Consumer Insights

• Insight = hidden tension between current reality & desired future.
• Three-sentence structure (Dalton 2017):
  1. Situation – objective context.
  2. Frustration – 1st-person emotional barrier.
  3. Future Desire – articulated wish (no jargon).
• Good insight must be: emotional, specific, actionable.
• Example (smoking cessation):
  • Situation: “I know I should quit.”
  • Frustration: “I’m grouchy & out of control when I try.”
  • Future Desire: “I wish quitting didn’t unleash a monster in me.”
• Process to uncover insights (EdgePlus):
  1. Find trigger moments.
  2. Deep research on triggers.
  3. Capture hints & themes.
  4. Select high-value insight.
  5. Bring tension to life.
  6. Probe deeper motivations/emotions.

Pain Points – Definition & Classification

• Pain point = specific problem customer experiences.
• Categories (Shewan 2022): Financial, Productivity, Process, Support.
• 8 frequent pain points: 1) product unclear, 2) benefits unclear, 3) poor quality, 4) unoptimised checkout, 5) slow response, 6) poor omnichannel, 7) lack of knowledge, 8) rude support.
• Identification methods (Dubey 2025): qualitative research, customer listening, live chat, sales-team feedback, competitor lessons, social listening.
• Solutions best practices: prioritise low-effort fixes, analyse feedback, case studies, make customers feel heard, follow up.

Product & Competitor Overview Guidelines (Assessment A1 Sec 3.0)

• Create table comparing Client vs Competitor A vs Competitor B across:
  • Products/Services.
  • Digital offerings (list every platform + metrics e.g., followers, engagement rate, traffic sources).
  • Key differentiators.
• Brief content audit for each competitor’s digital assets.
• Follow-up paragraph: analyse client’s competitive advantage & how to maintain via digital tactics—must reference persona/insight.
• Marking rubric: up to 5 pts for thorough differentiators + creative, useful recommendations.

Competitor Analysis Concepts

• Purposes in non-profit context (Bennett 2003): persuade change, improve marketing, assess strengths/weaknesses, generate ideas, benchmark, predict behaviour.
• McLeish 2011 strategic questions: position vs competitors, sustainable advantage, future industry landscape.
• Ashton 2018 template: include org size, reach, programs, impact, differentiators.
• Digital-marketing specifics (Zhukova 2023; O’Brien 2023):
  • Metrics: traffic volumes, channel breakdowns, engagement, social metrics, email KPIs, conversion rates.
  • SEO competitive analysis: compare page speed, keyword gaps, backlink profile, top pages.
  • Monitor landscape dynamics over time to spot rising ‘players to watch’.

Numerical & Statistical References (selected)

• Multi-Screening typologies = 4.
• Automotive share of purchases within loyalty loop 63\% initial consideration, 63\% active, 30\% loyalty.
• Average brands considered in autos: initial 3.8 → final 2.2.
• Auto-insurance loyalty loop share 78\%.
• Influential touch-points (initial consideration): Traditional ads 39\%, Past experience 28\%.
• Retail consistency requirement: fonts, filters, logos, etc. (no numeric value but emphasised across all channels).

Ethical, Philosophical & Practical Implications

• Ensuring respectful acknowledgement of First Nations custodians sets ethical tone for marketing discourse.
• Privacy & data ethics arise when collecting detailed persona data; primary research must safeguard participant wellbeing.
• Omnichannel expectations elevate responsibility for consistent, truthful communication; discrepancies may erode trust.
• Pain-point exploitation vs solution orientation: ethical duty to solve rather than manipulate frustrations.

Real-World Relevance & Connections

• Generative AI reshapes information search & evaluation (e.g., ChatGPT as touch-point).
• Public-sector digital audits shift KPIs toward engagement, education, service uptake rather than sales.
• PESO orchestration critical for SMEs with limited budgets—leveraging shared/earned to offset paid spend.

Study Checklist

• Recall definitions: customer journey, consumer insight, persona.
• Be able to map PESO tactics to journey stages.
• Memorise 3-sentence insight formula (+ example).
• Understand difference between impulsive vs considered journeys.
• Prepare to justify persona fields with data.
• Know major digital competitor metrics & SEO gap-analysis steps.