The classic marketing funnel finally died in 2025, and the only people still clinging to it are consultants stuck in the past. Consumers no longer trickle neatly from awareness to interest to purchase like water flowing through a pipe. Instead, they jump from one touchpoint to another in unpredictable and chaotic ways. Someone might watch a short-form video, immediately join a niche Discord group, hear a product recommendation in a WhatsApp chat, and then disappear for months before suddenly buying.
There is no single funnel; there are only ecosystems. Consumer journeys are fragmented across platforms, communities, and conversations that marketers cannot fully track. This reality exposes the weakness of funnel-based thinking: it assumes predictability where none exists. The brands that thrive in 2025 will not waste time drawing funnels on PowerPoint slides.
They will create ecosystems of experiences where consumers can enter, explore, and reappear at their own pace. Marketing has evolved from a funnel into a network, and only those who adapt to this nonlinear truth will survive.