marketing strategies

Many people who have taken a marketing course have learned about the "4 P's" of marketing. Are Product, Price, Place and Promotion elements of this marketing formula something from the past?
Bob Lauterborn, professor of advertising at the University of North Carolina has tracked the success of new products introduced into the U.S. According to Bob, 80 percent of new products fail each year. With such a high failure rate, Bob notes that something isn't working with our "mindset". He wants to replace the Four P's with his Four C's:
Consumer wants and needs (vs. Products)
You can't develop products and then try to sell them to a mass market. You have to study consumer wants and needs and then attract consumers one by one with something each one wants. Author of the movie Field of Dreams, J.P. Cancilla may have exclusive rights to the phrase "build it and they will come". In most cases, you have to find out what people want and then "build" it for them, their way.
Cost to satisfy (vs. Price)
You have to realize that price - measured in dollars - is one part of the cost to satisfy. If you sell hamburgers, for example, you have to consider the cost of driving to your restaurant, the cost of conscience of eating meat, etc. One of the most difficult places to be in the business world is the retailer selling at the lowest price. If you rely strictly on price to compete you are vulnerable to competition - in the long term.
Convenience to buy (vs. Place)
You must think of convenience to buy instead of place. You have to know how each subset of the market prefers to buy - on the Internet, from a catalogue, on the phone, using credit cards, etc. Lands End clothing, Amazon Books and Dell Computers are just a few businesses who do very well over the Internet.
Communication (vs. Promotion)
You have to consider the communication instead of promotion. Promotion is manipulative (ouch!) - it’s from the seller. Communication requires a give and take between the buyer and seller (that's nicer). Be creative and you can make any advertising "interactive". Use phone numbers, your web site address, etc. to help here. And listen to your customers when they are "with" you.
Developing a brand takes into account these considerations. Developing a brand is developing a promise. When you take into consideration the "4 C’s" noted above you begin the process of developing a brand!
Custom Fit Communications follows the "4 C's" approach when developing strategy for our clients.

The four C's of marketing have replaced the four P's

It is no longer about the Product... but instead about CONSUMER needs and wants.
It is no longer about the Price... but the bum fun COST to satisfy consumers
It is no longer about the Place...but about the CONVENIENCE to buy
I is no longer about Promotion... but about COMMUNICATION

Marketing mix

The term "marketing mix" was coined in 1953 by Neil Borden in his American Marketing Association presidential address. However, this was actually a reformulation of an earlier idea by his associate, James Culliton, who in 1948 described the role of the marketing manager as a "mixer of ingredients", who sometimes follows recipes prepared by others, sometimes prepares his own recipe as he goes along, sometimes adapts a recipe from immediately available ingredients, and at other times invents new ingredients no one else has tried. A prominent marketer, E. Jerome McCarthy, proposed a Four P classification in 1960, which has seen wide use.

Four P's

Elements of the marketing mix are often referred to as the "Four P's", a phrase first coined by Chris Lloyd in 1997:

• Product - It is a tangible object or an intangible service that is mass produced or manufactured on a large scale with a specific volume of units. Intangible products are service based like the tourism industry & the hotel industry or codes-based products like cellphone load and credits. Typical examples of a mass produced tangible object are the motor car and the disposable razor. A less obvious but ubiquitous mass produced service is a computer operating system. Packaging also needs to be taken into consideration. Every product is subject to a life-cycle including a growth phase followed by an eventual period of decline as the product approaches market saturation. To retain its competitiveness in the market, product differentiation is required and is one of the strategies to differentiate a product from its competitors.

• Price – The price is the amount a customer pays for the product. The business may increase or decrease the price of product if other stores have the same product.
• Place – Place represents the location where a product can be purchased. It is often referred to as the distribution channel. It can include any physical store as well as virtual stores on the Internet.
• Promotion represents all of the communications that a marketeer may use in the marketplace. Promotion has four distinct elements: advertising, public relations, personal selling and sales promotion. A certain amount of crossover occurs when promotion uses the four principal elements together, which is common in film promotion. Advertising covers any communication that is paid for, from cinema commercials, radio and Internet adverts through print media and billboards. Public relations are where the communication is not directly paid for and includes press releases, sponsorship deals, exhibitions, conferences, seminars or trade fairs and events. Word of mouth is any apparently informal communication about the product by ordinary individuals, satisfied customers or people specifically engaged to create word of mouth momentum. Sales staff often plays an important role in word of mouth and Public Relations (see Product above).

Any organization, before introducing its products or services into the market; conducts a market survey. The sequence of all 'P's as above is very much important in every stage of product life cycle Introduction, Growth, Maturity and Decline.

Extended Marketing Mix (3 P's)

More recently, three more Ps have been added to the marketing mix namely People, Process and Physical Evidence. This marketing mix is known as Extended Marketing Mix.

• People: All people involved with consumption of a service are important. For example workers, management, consumers etc. It also defines the market segmentation, mainly demographic segmentation. It addresses particular class of people for whom the product or service is made available.
• Process: Procedure, mechanism and flow of activities by which services are used. Also the 'Procedure' how the product will reach the end user.
• Physical Evidence: The marketing strategy should include effectively communicating their satisfaction to potential customers.

Four Cs

Robert F. Lauterborn proposed a four Cs classification in 1993.The Four Cs model is more consumer-oriented and attempts to better fit the movement from mass marketing to niche marketing. The Product part of the Four Ps model is replaced by Consumer or Consumer Models, shifting the focus to satisfying the consumer needs. Another C replacement for Product is Capable. By defining offerings as individual capabilities that when combined and focused to a specific industry, creates a custom solution rather than pigeon-holing a customer into a product. Pricing is replaced by Cost reflecting the total cost of ownership. Many factors affect Cost, including but not limited to the customer's cost to change or implement the new product or service and the customer's cost for not selecting a competitor's product or service. Placement is replaced by Convenience. With the rise of internet and hybrid models of purchasing, Place is becoming less relevant. Convenience takes into account the ease of buying the product, finding the product, finding information about the product, and several other factors. Finally, the Promotions feature is replaced by Communication which represents a broader focus than simply Promotions. Communications can include advertising, public relations, personal selling, viral advertising, and any form of communication between the firm and the consumer.