Purpose—In the age of digital media, customers have access to vast digital information sources, within and outside a company’s direct control. Yet managers lack a metric to capture customers’ cross-media exposure and its ramifications for individual customer journeys. To solve this issue, this article introduces media entropy as a new metric for assessing cross-media exposure on the individual customer level and illustrates its effect on consumers’ purchase decisions. Design/Methodology/Approach—Building on information and signaling theory, this study proposes the entropy of company-controlled and peer-driven media sources as a measure of cross-media exposure. A probit model analyses individual-level customer journey data across more than 25,000 digital and traditional media touchpoints. Findings—Cross-media exposure, measured as the entropy of information sources in a customer journey, drives purchase decisions. The positive effect is particularly pronounced for (i) digital (online) vs. traditional (offline) media environments, (ii) customers who currently do not own the brand, and (iii) brands that customers perceive as weak. Practical Implications—The proposed metric of cross-media exposure can help managers understand customers’ information structures in pre-purchase phases. Assessing the consequences of customers’ cross-media exposure is especially relevant for service companies that seek to support customers’ information search efforts. Marketing agencies, consultancies, and platform providers also need actionable customer journey metrics, particularly in early stages of the journey. Originality/Value—Service managers and marketers can integrate the media entropy metric into their marketing dashboards and use it to steer their investments in different media types. Researchers can include the metric in empirical models to explore customers’ omni-channel journeys.

中文翻译：

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数字媒体中的客户旅程分析：探索跨媒体曝光对客户购买决策的影响

目的-在数字媒体时代，客户可以访问公司直接控制范围内外的大量数字信息源。然而，管理人员缺乏衡量客户跨媒体曝光率及其对单个客户旅程的影响的指标。为解决此问题，本文介绍了媒体熵作为评估单个客户级别跨媒体曝光率的新指标，并说明了它对消费者购买决策的影响。设计/方法论/方法-基于信息和信号理论，本研究提出了公司控制和同伴驱动的媒体源的熵，作为衡量跨媒体曝光率的一种方法。概率模型分析了超过25,000个数字和传统媒体接触点的个人级别客户旅程数据。调查结果-跨媒体曝光，衡量客户旅程中信息源的熵，从而决定购买决策。对于（i）数字（在线）与传统（离线）媒体环境，（ii）当前不拥有该品牌的客户，以及（iii）被客户视为弱者的品牌，这种积极影响尤其明显。实际意义-拟议的跨媒体曝光度指标可帮助经理在购买前阶段了解客户的信息结构。评估客户跨媒体曝光的后果对于寻求支持客户信息搜索工作的服务公司尤其重要。营销机构，咨询公司和平台提供商也需要可操作的客户旅程指标，尤其是在旅程的早期阶段。原创性/价值-服务经理和营销人员可以将媒体熵指标整合到他们的营销仪表板中，并使用它来指导他们对不同媒体类型的投资。研究人员可以将指标纳入经验模型中，以探索客户的全渠道旅程。