Highly Recommended: Harnessing the Power of Word of Mouth and Social Media to Build Your Brand and Your Business

CHAPTER 4A Whole New Model for a Whole New World

Long before advertising’s Mad Men era, an American marketing executive named E. St. Elmo Lewis concocted a model to illustrate a customer’s journey from the moment a brand or product attracts his or her attention all the way to the point of action or purchase.

Lewis’s approach is often referred to as the AIDA model, an acronym for Awareness, Interest, Desire, and Action. It’s a pretty straightforward approach:

Awareness. The customer is aware of the existence of a product or service.

Interest. The ...