The purchase funnel has become a Ferris wheel in restless times when the end is not forever

Normally, the goal for marketers is to take people on the consumer journey, from awareness all the way to purchase and loyalty. The classic purchase funnel, often used in strategic planning, is most times describes either as a downwards funnel, or like this: 

But the problem is that in today´s market clutter there is no monogamy any more, no fairy tales where a consumer and a brand "lives happily ever after". You can be loyal one day, but the next you feel like changing. And the poor marketing manager needs to get back on it, trying to allure you again. 

I believe the 2011 consumer journey instead looks like this, as a "Purchase Circle": 

Once loyal, we then get bored... Unless we get entertained, we will strive and crave for something new - another dream, another Man, another Life. Re-start! New beginnings! It´s like the Ferris wheel - you need to buy a new ticket if you want to go on another ride.

A restless culture will not stop with loyalty. Today, a brand needs to win us over again and again for us not to stray with private labels and other brands. A ring on a finger doesn´t automatically mean "forever"... 

Your brand strategy needs to think in circles, coming with the consumer round and around. The best way to do this is to connect on an emotional level to get a deeper type of loyalty. That´s how you increase sales.

Let me explain: Our brain contains of three parts - the reptile brain, the limbic system and the neocortex. The emotional brain, developed 200 million years ago, is the biggest and strongest part, and it makes the decisions for us. The younger neocortex has only been around for 100,000 years and is the one that stops our impulses and controls our feelings. It tells us you already have enough pair of jeans and don´t need another one. It tells you not to yell at the boss because you might lose your job. In some sense it´s a decision maker. But it´s a reaction to a decision, not the decision in its pure form. That basic "yes" or "no" comes from the emotional brain, that doesn´t understand words, but is instead a sucker for sensory tickels and messages that makes us feel.  

To get to the point where the emotional brain is involved you need to work with visuals, triggers, smell, associations and all sorts of channels to the subconscious part of people. Telling them won´t do. Be creative! 

How does your brand get there? Do you have a circle strategy? Or do you simply say purchase is enough? 

What do you think? Do you agree?