Avoiding digital marketing analytics myopia: revisiting the customer decision journey as a strategic marketing framework

Abstract

The use of analytics data in digital marketing has had a profound impact on the way marketers create consumer relationships and how firms make decisions. However, the marketing analytics literature offers little guidance on how digital marketing analytics tools should be selected and leveraged in service to the firm’s overall strategy. Foundational marketing theory and research concerning the origin of consumer value and the primary importance of the consumer decision journey to strategy formation offer a pathway to evaluating digital marketing tools and analysis in a strategic and theoretically sound manner. This paper builds on seminal marketing thought to propose a conceptual framework that places use of digital marketing analytics tools and channels in the context of a firm’s marketing plan. The framework has diverse applications across many industries and platforms and can help markers avoid falling victim to digital marketing analytics myopia, even as evolving technologies and broader societal forces like the response to Covid-19 accelerate the digitalization of marketing.