Moment of Truth

By definition, moment of truth or MOT is the moment when a customer/user interacts with a brand, product or service to form or change an impression about that particular brand, product or service. The first version of MOT in a Consumer's Decision Journey (CDJ) was coined in 2005 by A.G. Lafley Chairman,President & CEO of Procter & Gamble. As per this version, CDJ was expressed as two moments of truth - FMOT and SMOT.

1.) First Moment of Truth (FMOT) - This is the moment when the consumer is confronted with the brands for the first time. This can also be called as a battle ground for brands. At this moment, the consumer is having an in-store experience. This can be either online or offline.

2.) Second Moment of Truth (SMOT) - This is the post purchase experience. In this moment, the customer asks the question if the product which they bought is living upto the expectation.

A third moment of truth (TMOT) was introduced later, thus making it a 3-step marketing model.

3.) Third Moment of Truth (TMOT) - This moment deals with customer feedback and post sales service to the user. In this moment, it becomes clear if the user is going to be the advocate of that particular brand or not. This is where "word of mouth" comes into the play.

Almost 6 years after the original 3-step model of marketing was introduced by P&G, Google came up with an enhancement in 2011, by inserting ZMOT as the second step after stimulus in the very same model of marketing. It is also interesting to note that between these two theories, we also saw a shift from 3rd digital epoch to the 4th one. ZMOT indeed emerged as a very critical moment. The recognition of this moment was a game changer because the advent digital had become inevitable.

4.) Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT) - This moment is defined as the "pre-shopping" experience wherein the user gets involved in their research. In other words, they start collect information and indulge into conversations. The research became handy with smartphones and internet. This phase became very critical and important for marketing analysts because internet was empowering users with vast ocean of information and enabling them to make an informed decision.

Here is the flow chart of MOT -

I strongly feel that ZMOT has made the model of marketing better. I have analysed it separately for buyers and marketers -

1.) More power to consumers - New-age consumer is not just engaging with the media via print, television or radio. It has rather extended its access to the vast world of the Internet which in turn allows access to more opinions and choices. That's where the ZMOT kicks in and makes it all the more relevant. The information available on the internet lands the consumer in a place where he/she can make a very informed decision. Digital makes ZMOT more relevant and powerful.

2.) Opportunity for marketers - Getting consumers on digital, also makes it more useful for the marketers to target them precisely while the consumer is making a decision to buy a product/service. With a lot of data in place, marketers get an upper hand to persuade the right user during the ZMOT. Marketers can also optimise their brand's ZMOT through various means like answering the questions that people generally ask about their product on the internet, leverage the insights in building more focussed marketing campaigns etc.