Prospect-to-Customer Transition

I'm mulling over two contradictory arguments about how to manage the experience when a prospect becomes a customer - there seems to be some merit to each approach.

One argument favors a consistency of experience, on the reasonable assertion that when a prospect makes a purchase and becomes a customer, the experience he had during the buying process sets expectations that must be met in the period of ownership.   Any difference between the two results in cognitive dissonance, though if the customer experience is better than the prospect experience, it is a pleasant surprise rather than a disappointment.

Another argument suggests an evolution of experience, on the likewise reasonable assertion that a person who is considering purchase is experiencing different emotions (anticipation) and considering different factors (cost) than a person who has already purchased the product.  As such, there must be an evolution of the experience to be appropriate to the situation in which the prospect-then-customer finds himself.

I have generally leaned toward the argument in favor of consistency.  It seems sensible and far more practical to have a unified sense of a brand that appeals both before and after the purchase event - and especially considering that a customer who has purchased is a prospect for another sale (a cross-sell or a restock), it seems sensible to court that state of mind consistently.  But I can't deny the sensibility of the second argument, especially since the period of ownership is longer (depending on the good in question) than the period of anticipation prior to ownership, and is likewise different in its nature.

It is also more likely that a prospect-specific appeal, as opposed to the consistent appeal, is more adaptable.   That is, if you have a consistent experience, you likely make the assumption (and possibly the mistake) that the same things that cause a person who has experience with your brand or product will be appealing to a person who has no experience with it - the reason they make the purchase is to transition themselves to the happy end-state in which a current consumer exists.

Meanwhile, you are limited to appealing to a specific market segment - that which matches the customers you already have - and relying on the body of prospects to reason for themselves that consumership is a desired end-state to achieve.   If you instead consider the prospect to be different to the customer, you can have a singular ownership experience, but tailor appeals to the specific interests of prospects, who may bring different desires or expectation than your present customers - and moreover, once they have purchased the product and experienced ownership or consumption, it is likely that the expectations of prospects will align to those of consumers.

I don't think there can be a full resolution - though I suspect that there are certain areas of overlap.  That is, some expectations are exclusive to the prospect, others are exclusive to the experienced consumer, and a third set is common to both groups.   So long as the area of overlap is sufficient, it is likely that this will enable prospects to transition into consumers, shedding prospect-exclusive interests and adopting consumer-exclusive ones, with the common factors to facilitate their evolution from one to the other.

All of this seems abstract, and in attempting to concretize it by way of an example has done nothing to resolve the differences - what I've arrived at is the notion that it depends on the idiosyncrasies of a product and the manner in which it is used by a given customer segment.   Some products seem to lend themselves to the consistent strategy, others to the evolutionary strategy.

The only generalization I feel safe making at this point is that the duration of ownership experience is likely a factor.   For products that are consumed quickly (food items, for example) consistency of the prospect and consumer experiences seems to be the better course because the short duration of ownership does not provide ample time for the prospect/consumer to change his expectations, whereas products with a longer period of ownership (an automobile or major appliance) provide, and perhaps even require, a transition to be made because the product will remain in the owner's experience long after the experience he had as a prospect is forgotten.