Diagram Library

Start here. The conventional funnel summarizes the stages in a business's process. Drawn upright, as it usually is, it shows customers entering at the top and moving down in order. Most fall out along the way, and a few reach a purchase. That is a useful summary of the company's process. But the funnel doesn't show what is happening. What customers do is more complex: movement, loops, and choices made outside the funnel.

The same funnel, turned on its side so the motion can be seen. The customer arrives already moving, passes through the company's stages, reaches the purchase, and keeps going. Left to right is time. The stages are the company's, and a real customer may skip one, repeat one, or leave. The funnel still records where the customer is in that process.

Now the marketing messages. The customer is the straight line, already in motion. A marketing message moves around that customer: far out at first, drawing closer as trust, relevance, and timing align, and still there after the purchase. That moving message is the Helix. The funnel tracks the process; the Helix shows what the marketing is doing around the customer inside it. This is one illustrative path that ends in a purchase. It does not say every customer buys.

Most marketing messages drift past. The customer is the straight line, moving left to right, and most of what is aimed at that customer passes by and keeps going. One message is pulled closer. The crowd is an illustration, not a count: it does not claim a ratio, and passing near a customer is not the same as being noticed. The line ahead is dashed because what the customer does next is not decided.

Many customers, each a straight line moving forward. One brand message sits at a different distance from each of them: far from one, close to another. It stands for the brand's signal, not for one identical ad reaching everyone. Audiences, exposure and category all differ. No customer travels the orbit.

A company can put out a flood of marketing: ads, search results, social posts, email, video, reviews, referrals, press. Making a hundred videos does not mean anyone sees them. Paid, earned, or organic, none of it is attention until the customer looks. Color only tells the kinds apart, and each kind is also named. Blue is kept for the message that is noticed.

The customer is moving. Something shakes them. It gets their attention. It hooks them. Most marketing messages pass without that; one is noticed, and only from that point can trust, relevance, and timing matter. Being noticed is not being chosen.

Being noticed is not being chosen. Once a message is noticed, trust is the first test, and trust, relevance, and timing shape whether the message draws closer or drifts away. These are two possibilities, not the only outcomes.

Trust, relevance, and timing each come and go on their own schedule. In this example the message is closest to the customer while all three hold at the same moment. The three are conditions that affect response. They are not shown to be necessary or sufficient for every purchase.

Each condition has its own track and its own scale. What matters is the stretch of time in which all three are favorable at once, not any point where three values are equal. It does not last, because all three keep changing. The shapes are stylized. Nothing here is measured.

One scenario: the message has not changed, and what the customer needs has moved. Alignment is lost at the marked point, and nothing broke.

Where credible signals reinforce one another, the orbit can contract and the message moves from distant awareness toward active consideration. Closeness here is a picture of alignment, not a measured distance, and nothing requires the stages to arrive in this order.

One possible path. Credible interactions can build on each other, and they do not all add the same: some add a lot, some add little. A poor experience can take back more than the last gain. Nothing here says every interaction adds more than the one before.

One scenario: past the last reinforcement, the message can drift wider with every turn. Silence can weaken a signal. It does not always: memory, habit and good delivery can hold a brand in place for a long time without new messages.

The same messages, aimed at no one in particular or aimed at where this customer is now.

One scenario: a clear message draws closer. The same message, crowded by competing and inconsistent ones, is lost.

An example of timing: the customer's readiness rises to a peak and falls, and a message that arrives before or after the window misses it. Real windows vary. Some are long, some repeat, some never open, and many depend on events outside the brand's control.

The same example with three messages at three moments. Only the one inside the window makes contact. As above, one narrow peak is an illustration, not a rule for every purchase.

Paid media places more of the company's marketing messages in front of the customer. That is what it buys: delivery. In this picture every message, paid or not, still passes by. Nothing here has been noticed or chosen yet.

Four different things along one customer's path: delivered, noticed, considered, purchased. A placement can be bought. Attention, consideration and the decision are earned. Each is measured separately, because a strong number in one says little about the next.

One scenario, shown twice. The same paid placement reaches the same customer. With trust, relevance and timing it is pulled closer. Without them it is delivered and drifts past, and buying more delivery repeats the result. Advertising can build familiarity and interest; it cannot guarantee them.

Two possible examples of what follows when paid spend stops. If trust was built while it ran, the marketing message can stay close for a while. If only the placements were holding it, the message can drift away. Real cases fall between, and other things, such as habit, delivery and reputation, also hold a customer.

The funnel in this picture ends at the purchase. The customer keeps moving and the message stays close. A review or a referral is the customer's own act, not a brand message, and it can reach the next customers. It is a possibility, not a guarantee, and it cannot be manufactured.

Three possible examples of what follows a sale. One customer says nothing. One is unhappy and tells people. One is happy and tells people, and some of them pass it on. Real customers fall anywhere between, most tell few people or no one, and saying nothing does not mean the experience had no effect.