Anyone who ever stood in a physical checkout line and made an impulse purchase, because something was right under their nose, will understand that there is no customer journey. Not even in the 1970’s would consumers go through a sequential journey, from TV ad exposure to WOM to in-store purchase.
It is probably more realistic to think of a (large) number of touch points where a brand needs to be both mentally as well as physically available.
These touch points can be far away from a point of transaction, or very close. And consumers can arrive at these points by chance or on purpose, from a random place or another brand touch point.
The art of marketing is to understand which message to pass through which touch point at what time, in order to capitalize on the target’s receptivity (relative to their distance from the point of transaction).
That’s not a journey, but a mesh-network of entry- and exit points.
