Updating the AIDA Model: Is it still a great fit?

Marketing has evolved more in the 21st century than ever since its inception. The AIDA (attention, interest, desire, and action) model is ingrained in all marketers, and it’s a tool most trust to guide marketing strategy. Nevertheless, it has a few disadvantages and difficulty keeping pace with quickly-evolving marketing practices. The execution of the AIDA model has been impacted by the dominance of social media in current marketing practices. This evolution has made brands pivot their communications to being people-first versus product-first. Brands need to appeal to the ego and fill a need (or perceived need).

Brand Ownership

Consumers hold great power over brands and can make or break them. Therefore, brands should be genuinely engaging consumers online and offline. Engaging consumers is not having a social presence to blast ads. Instead, it means doing more listening than talking; it means connecting where the consumers are engaging and presenting messaging that is not only relevant but helpful. The goal should not just satisfy a need but to keep the consumer happy and create a resonating relationship where the brand can create a synergy that benefits both the consumer and the brand. I call this synergy resonance.

Adding Resonance

Adding an R for resonance is one possible way to update the AIDA model. Resonance would cover actions and experiences after purchase or conversion. For example, is the consumer sharing word of mouth? Is the social media brand building or detracting from the brand? How is the brand elevating the consumer experience?

AIDAR is nothing new; the R stands for retention. However, the retention approach is more focused on loyalty and repeated purchases with a brand-first approach. My proposed AIDAR model keeps retention as a goal but instead shines the light on the consumer with the purpose of retention through affinity, positive experiences, and social SEO. The goal is to build social brand equity through the consumers’ positive experience and leverage it to further feed the funnel through referrals, word of mouth, reviews, and user-generated content. The following graph shows what questions the brands should answer at each stage of the AIDAR model.

Applying Resonance

In my current position leading Social Media for Florida International University, I apply resonance in multiple ways:

Highlighting alumna and graduate success
Elevate the work being done by our researchers
Instilling and building student affinity through giveaways, student-first content
Connecting offline with students and showcasing those experiences on digital channels, if they shine, then we do too

As our content transcends our Miami followers, we often get comments from out-of-state prospects showing interest and eventually applying because they see how others shine. Therefore, consider a consumer-first approach for your brand. The retention route may work best! However, if your social media brand equity could be better, this approach will echo negative sentiment further. Have systems in place to make resonance work, as it is a hands-on approach that can’t be as easily automated as the other stages of the model.