Omnichannel Customer Journeys - Fragments of a Never-Ending Story?
(A2022-107453)

AUTHORS

Alina Both, Department of Management / Aarhus University / Aarhus BSS; Sascha Steinmann, Aarhus University, Department of Management; Polymeros Chrysochou, Aarhus University

ABSTRACT

While the potential of storytelling to create emotional and memorable connections to a brand has long been realised, today's omnichannel brands face the challenge of telling their story across a multitude of touchpoints and channels, forming a multi-associative network for customers to navigate and make sense of. With an increasingly blurry boundary between content and commerce, fuelled by new technologies and digital channels emerging and evolving rapidly within the current economic climate, the need for approaches that span the entirety of touchpoints at marketers’ disposal has grown. By proposing a framework and research agenda of customer touchpoints as narrative fragments, this project strives to generate a customer-based understanding of meaning co-creation along the customer journey. Additionally, it represents an endeavour to contribute insights into new and emergent channels. As such, the approach presented herein will contribute to retail– and omnichannel marketing literature as well as retail branding theory and practice.