'Living Looking Buying' framework for Content and Story Planning

By: Colin Cather | Creative Director

Full disclosure, we didn’t invent ‘Living, Looking, Buying’. We have @juliancole to thank (although Julian admits he didn’t invent it, either.)

And there are lots of other ways to label the customer journey, like Avinash Kaushik who prefers ‘See, Think, Do.’

And lots of others who would argue (quite compellingly) that it’s not really a linear journey at all. 

For us, it doesn’t matter, not really. And we rarely expect the stories and content we create to be followed in such a joined-up journey. 

It’s more about recognising that most of the brands we work with have twin objectives. To (long term) build the brand, and to (shorter term) deliver sales performance. Of course, brand owners might split the balance of these objectives into channels that other agencies are driving. Like giving most of the brand building effort to the ATL agency. That’s probably another article for another day.

And, that for most of those brands, their brand-building job means reaching audiences that are not in-market, might not know or care much about your brand (yet) and might not even be aware of your category’s relevance to them. 

So we’re devoting, for our clients, a solid chunk of their brand stories aimed at people who are simply ‘Living’. We have to take our stories to them, and connect with the things they do care about. 

We like ‘Living, Looking, Buying’ as labels. It’s simple, and it has the right sort of humility. Reminds us that most people, most of the time, are getting on with their lives, until they’re tipped into actively looking. 

Here’s a quick look at the framework in action: