The Clock Model
How to use this document
Welcome to the Clock Model. In this framework, we’ll help you bring your brand to life at every
touch point along the customer journey.
Before you jump in, a few logistics. Here’s a breakdown of what’s included in this document:
1. Model at a glance
2. Pre-purchase
3. Purchase
4. Post-purchase
5. Apply the clock model
We’ve included visual cues to help you navigate. When you see a 🧠, read the description to learn
the framework. When you see a , it’s time to complete an exercise. Let’s jump in!
STRATEGY FRAMEWORK • 1
The Clock Model
🧠 1. Model at a glance
Business is built upon the architecture, identity, and associations with brand. Your brand implies
value to customers. It should also serve as a guiding light for every strategic decision your firm
makes.
The Clock Model is a brand strategy framework that will help you make decisions, decide
investments, and develop your brand effectively – the clock is a metaphor for all of the touch points
that a consumer has with your brand.
The Clock Model has three phases.
Pre-purchase – 12am - 4pm on the clock.
Purchase – 4pm - 8pm on the clock.
Post-purchase – 8pm - 12am on the clock.
After you understand the different segments of the clock, you’ll put it all together and apply the
clock model to your own brand.
STRATEGY FRAMEWORK • 2
The Clock Model
🧠 2. Pre-purchase
Before a customer gets to the point of purchase, your brand has to develop awareness to drive
customer intent. This happens in the pre-purchase section of the clock, from 12am - 4pm.
Advertising is the most obvious example of pre-purchase branding. But pre-purchase includes
other levers such as trade shows, events, sponsorships, social media, and PR – anything that a
brand does to influence consumers before they’re at the point of purchase.
Who’s great at pre-purchase branding?
● Nike. Nike may be the best communicator in the world of corporate branding, unlocking
innovation and brand excellence through athletes. Nike is fantastic at creating desire,
awareness, and intent through pre-purchase advertising and sponsorships.
● Tesla. Tesla utilizes road shows and product reveals to dominate headlines, spike PR, and
drive pre-purchase consumer demand through media.
STRATEGY FRAMEWORK • 3
The Clock Model
🖊 Exercise: Identify your pre-purchase touchpoints
Directions: List your current pre-purchase touchpoints, and be holistic in your thinking – capture
every moment a customer may engage with your brand pre-purchase.
Pre-purchase touchpoints
●
●
●
●
●
Best-in-class competitor touchpoints
●
●
●
●
●
STRATEGY FRAMEWORK • 4
The Clock Model
🧠 3. Purchase
Next on the clock is purchase, from 4pm to 8pm. This includes distribution, packaging, store
design, user reviews, user-generated content about your product, financing packages — any
touchpoint during the purchase experience where the consumer interacts with your brand.
Who’s great at branding during purchase?
● The Gap. When Gap was starting out, Levi’s was best-in-class in terms of advertising.
Instead of competing in the pre-purchase segment, Gap took the fight to Levi’s in the
purchase segment: building beautiful stores with oversized dressing rooms, signature store
scents, great playlists, and real estate in the nicest neighborhoods.
● Prose. Prose Haircare takes the idea of personalization to the next level in their purchase
experience. Clicking on one of their products takes you to a personalization flow where you
answer questions to receive a custom formula, helping set their products apart from a
crowded field of legacy, one-size-fits-all brands.
STRATEGY FRAMEWORK • 5
The Clock Model
🖊 Exercise: Identify your purchase touchpoints
Directions: List your current purchase touchpoints, and be holistic in your thinking – capture every
moment a customer may engage with your brand during purchase. Then, identify competitors who
have invested in best-in-class purchase experiences.
Purchase touchpoints
●
●
●
●
Best-in-class competitor touchpoints
●
●
●
●
●
STRATEGY FRAMEWORK • 6
The Clock Model
🧠 4. Post-purchase
Last on the clock is post-purchase, from 8pm to 12am. Think through every touchpoint that builds
your brand post-purchase – including customer service, loyalty programs, and warranties.
Who’s great at post-purchase branding?
● Fedex. FedEx broke new ground by realizing the anxiety that came along with spending to
ensure next-day delivery revolved around the uncertainty of not knowing where your
package was. To solve this they invested in package tracking to give you the sense of
security of knowing the status of your order – unlocking huge brand value along the way.
● Hyundai. The South Korean car market is crowded, and Hyundai doesn’t have
differentiated design or dealerships. What they do have is the first seven-year unconditional
full warranty for a car – a signal for the strength of the product that builds confidence in the
market.
STRATEGY FRAMEWORK • 7
The Clock Model
🖊 Exercise: Identify your post-purchase touchpoints
Directions: List your current post-purchase touchpoints, and be holistic in your thinking – capture
every moment a customer may engage with your brand post-purchase. Then, identify competitors
who have invested in best-in-class purchase experiences.
Purchase touchpoints
●
●
●
●
●
Best-in-class competitor touchpoints
●
●
●
●
●
STRATEGY FRAMEWORK • 8
The Clock Model
🧠 5. Apply the clock model
To recap: brand building is so much more than just advertising — it occurs anywhere your
customer interacts with your brand during pre-purchase, purchase, or post-purchase. But for most
firms it’s impossible to invest in all three parts of the clock – the best firms pick one area to stand
out in and double down.
🖊 Exercise: Apply the clock model
Now that you’ve brainstormed your customer and competitor touchpoints around the entire clock,
it’s time to put it all together and apply the clock model to your brand.
Because we recommend pushing your brand to be best-in-class in just one segment, you’ll have to
identify where you can excel (double down), where you need to improve to get to parity within
your category (table stakes), and where you can keep doing what you’re doing (maintain).
Directions: List your touchpoints and your competitor touchpoints from the previous exercises.
Then, grade each segment with one of the following:
● Double Down
● Table Stakes
● Maintain
For the segment that you designated as Table Stakes, create a plan to improve your brand to
match your competitors. For the segment that you designated as Maintain, keep doing what you’re
doing. And for the segment that you designated as Double Down - it’s time to turbocharge. Finally,
use Next Steps to plan out a short term and a long term initiative to meet your goals.
Pre-purchase touchpoints Jump to
● table
●
●
●
●
Pre-purchase competitor touchpoints
●
●
●
●
●
Grade: Add grade here
STRATEGY FRAMEWORK • 9
The Clock Model
Next Steps:
● Short term initiative:
● Long term initiative:
Purchase touchpoints Jump to
● table
●
●
●
●
Purchase competitor touchpoints
●
●
●
●
●
Grade: Add grade here
Next Steps:
● Short term initiative:
● Long term initiative:
Post-purchase touchpoints Jump to
● table
●
●
●
●
Post-purchase competitor touchpoints
●
●
●
●
●
Grade: Add grade here
Next Steps:
● Short term initiative:
● Long term initiative:
STRATEGY FRAMEWORK • 10
The Clock Model
Want to use AI to deepen your work? Check out the accompanying Prompt Pack in the Resource
library. Members, if you’d like to learn more about how to build your brand, check out the Brand
Strategy sprint with Scott Galloway. Join us for a live course or take the course on-demand.
STRATEGY FRAMEWORK • 11
