Abstract

ABSTRACTThe ubiquity of digital communication channels such as social media platforms, video sites, and mobile apps has transformed the relational experience between audiences and brand entities. Whether engaging within a consumer goods market, a professional services industry, or a news and infotainment source, audiences and brand entities have inhabited a new ecosystem that has challenged the acceptance of the classic purchase funnel model pioneered by Elias St. Elmo Lewis. This article reviews the conception of a postpurchase funnel media environment and seeks to moralize its transaction-driven expediency in 3 ways. First, it explores the legitimacy of an audience-centric ecosystem as a theoretical substitute for the purchase funnel model. Second, it introduces MacIntyre’s concept of virtue ethics as a grounding moral philosophy in the postpurchase funnel environment. Finally, it reviews two cases of postpurchase funnel marketing abuses and recommends strategies that commit brand entities to a bilatera...