Chronic illness medication compliance: a liminal and contextual consumer journey

The consumer journey has drawn interest from marketers as an avenue to strengthen sales through managing touchpoints. However, a firm-centric view has produced limited models of the journey, particularly on consumers’ usage experiences over extended periods in everyday settings. We attempt to redress this limitation by studying the situated experiences of disadvantaged consumers endeavoring to comply with medication therapies for chronic hypertension. Our broad aim is to understand more fully the influences on and nature of the journey. We find that compliance is a liminal state of provisional actions shaped contextually by life spheres of meso-structural conditions, micro-individual factors, and interpretive sense-making practices. We contribute a novel, integrated, and nuanced journey framework beyond the detached, steadily progressive model predominant in the literature. Our paper ends with practice, theory, and policy implications for marketing and healthcare, including touchpoint strategies.