JAMS Award-Winning Article Featuring
Sudbury-Riley, L., Hunter-Jones, P., Al-Abdin, A. et al. When the road is rocky: Investigating the role of vulnerability in consumer journeys. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. 52, 1045–1068 (2024).
We interviewed the authors of the JAMS article recognized with the AMA-EBSCO-RRBM Award for Responsible Research in Marketing at the 2025 AMA Summer Academic Conference.
What first inspired you to study vulnerability in consumer journeys, particularly in the setting of end-of-life care?
The research began a decade ago when a hospice approached us with a small grant, inviting us to explore their service provision in depth. Our initial aim was to capture the entire customer experience, so we naturally turned to the journey model as our starting point. However, we quickly discovered that the conventional process model—comprising prepurchase, purchase, and postpurchase stages with a feedback loop—was ill-suited to the hospice context.
We also found that standard market research techniques were inadequate for capturing the full scope of consumer experiences. These involved a complex array of touchpoints—physical, emotional, and even spiritual. Many participants were too ill to complete questionnaires or attend focus groups. The nature of this journey—long, emotionally intense, and deeply personal—made traditional depth interviews difficult to conduct systematically. Some service users were extremely fatigued, others unable to speak, and many were overwhelmed by grief and fear. It became clear that we were dealing with a unique form of vulnerability: physical and emotional, certainly, but also a kind that stemmed from being thrust into an unfamiliar and often frightening situation. This vulnerability was compounded by the need to navigate a fragmented, complex, and largely unwanted service system.
To address these challenges, we turned to design science research and developed the Trajectory Touchpoint Technique (TTT) - a picture-based tool designed to capture the full experience from the consumer’s own perspective. Participants could select, omit, or even add touchpoints to narrate their story in a way that was authentic to them. The TTT eliminated the need for pre-designed questions, allowing people to use touchpoint images as prompts to tell their story. This approach enabled us to gather rich, detailed data in a systematic and respectful way.
The initial project was well-received by the hospice, and word quickly spread. We subsequently expanded the research to include several other hospices and hospital-based end-of-life care units and services.
How does your idea of traveling companions change our understanding of marketing in complex services?
We quickly realized that these journeys were rarely undertaken alone. Social others, especially family members, played a central role in shaping the experience. While the patient’s illness influenced the duration of the journey, its structure - navigating various providers such as family doctors, hospital referrals, and end-of-life care services - was often orchestrated by the traveling companion rather than the primary service user.
Marketing has long acknowledged the influence of social others and the decision-making unit. Yet, these figures are conspicuously absent from many customer journey models, which typically assume a single, agentic consumer with prior experience and the freedom to choose. In complex services like end-of-life care, this assumption falls short.
We needed to challenge this paradigm and reposition traveling companions at the heart of the service experience. Their role is not peripheral - they are often the ones interpreting information, making decisions, coordinating care, and emotionally supporting the patient. Recognizing their centrality reshapes how we understand consumer behavior in complex, emotionally charged, and fragmented service systems.
If there is one key takeaway you hope readers (academics, practitioners, or policy makers) remember from your article, what would it be?
Not all customer journeys involve individuals who are alone, in control, and consuming something they want or understand. In other words, not every journey is like subscribing to Spotify!
Many journeys—especially in complex, emotionally charged services like end-of-life care—are navigated by people who are vulnerable, overwhelmed, and supported (or sometimes led) by others. These journeys are shaped by fear, uncertainty, and fragmented systems, not by choice or convenience. Recognizing these challenges conventional marketing assumptions and calls for models that reflect the realities of shared, non-linear, and emotionally intense consumer experiences.
