I have recently been helping an organisation in reviewing its products, customers and markets, as well as its channels, with the aim of gaining clarity on upcoming products and promotions for the year, and ensuring ownership, accountability, and focus on campaign-style operations to track team activities on a monthly and weekly basis.

Here are some useful models….

The “Four Ps of Marketing,”

Also known as the marketing mix, are fundamental elements that businesses use to develop and execute marketing strategies.

Product: This refers to the tangible or intangible goods or services that a company offers to its customers. It involves decisions regarding product design, features, quality, branding, packaging, and after-sales support. The goal is to create a product that meets customer needs and wants, differentiates itself from competitors, and provides value.
Price: Price represents the amount of money customers are willing to pay for a product or service. Setting the right price involves considering factors such as production costs, competition, market demand, pricing objectives, and perceived value by customers. Pricing strategies can vary from cost-based pricing to value-based pricing or skimming and penetration pricing.
Place: Also referred to as distribution, place involves determining the most effective channels and methods to make the product available to customers. This includes decisions about distribution channels (e.g., direct sales, retailers, online platforms), logistics, inventory management, warehousing, and transportation. The goal is to ensure that the product reaches the target market efficiently and conveniently.
Promotion: Promotion encompasses all the activities aimed at communicating the value of the product or service to potential customers and persuading them to make a purchase. This includes advertising, personal selling, sales promotions, public relations, direct marketing, and digital marketing tactics. The key is to create awareness, generate interest, stimulate desire, and encourage action among the target audience.

Overall, the Four Ps framework provides a structured approach for businesses to analyze, plan, and implement their marketing strategies effectively, ensuring that they meet customer needs, achieve competitive advantage, and drive business success.

The “Four Cs.” focus from the company’s perspective.

Customer Needs and Wants: This corresponds to the “Product” element in the Four Ps. Understanding customer needs and wants is crucial for businesses to develop products or services that satisfy their target market. It involves researching and analyzing customer preferences, pain points, and desires to create offerings that provide value and address specific customer demands.
Cost to the Customer: Instead of focusing solely on the price of the product (as in the Four Ps), the Four Cs consider the overall cost to the customer, including monetary cost as well as non-monetary costs such as time, effort, and inconvenience. Businesses need to ensure that the perceived value of the product outweighs the total cost to the customer to encourage purchase decisions.
Convenience: This corresponds to the “Place” element in the Four Ps. Convenience refers to the ease and accessibility of obtaining the product or service. It involves considering factors such as distribution channels, location, availability, and accessibility. Businesses strive to make their offerings readily available and convenient for customers to purchase.
Communication: Communication encompasses the promotional efforts aimed at reaching and engaging with customers. It includes advertising, branding, public relations, social media, and other communication channels. However, unlike the traditional “Promotion” element in the Four Ps, the Four Cs framework emphasizes building meaningful relationships with customers through effective communication that addresses their needs and concerns.

Overall, the Four Cs framework provides a customer-centric approach to understanding and analyzing markets, helping businesses tailor their strategies to better meet customer needs, enhance value proposition, and foster long-term relationships with their target audience.

The “Four Cs of Social Media Marketing.”

Content: Content is at the heart of social media marketing. It refers to the information, media, and messages shared by a brand on social media platforms. Effective social media content is engaging, valuable, relevant to the target audience, and aligned with the brand’s goals and values. Content can take various forms, including text, images, videos, infographics, polls, and user-generated content.
Conversation: Social media is inherently interactive, allowing brands to engage in conversations with their audience. Conversation involves actively listening to what your audience is saying, responding to comments and messages, asking questions, soliciting feedback, and fostering two-way communication. Building meaningful relationships and connections with your audience through dialogue is essential for successful social media marketing.
Community: Social media platforms facilitate the formation of communities around shared interests, values, or experiences. Building and nurturing a community around your brand involves creating a sense of belonging, fostering user-generated content and discussions, and facilitating interactions between community members. Engaging with your audience as part of a community can lead to increased brand loyalty, advocacy, and word-of-mouth promotion.
Conversion: Conversion refers to the desired actions that you want your audience to take as a result of your social media efforts. This could include making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, downloading a resource, or sharing content with their networks. Effective social media marketing involves strategically guiding your audience through the conversion funnel by providing compelling calls-to-action, optimizing landing pages, and tracking and analyzing conversion metrics.

By focusing on these Four Cs – content, conversation, community, and conversion – businesses can evaluate and optimize their social media marketing strategies to effectively engage with their audience, build brand awareness, drive meaningful interactions, and ultimately achieve their business objectives.

Tim HJ Rogers
Consult | CoCreate | Deliver

I support people and teams to grow, perform and succeed unlocking potential as a partner Consultant, Coach, Project and Change Manager. Together we can deliver projects and change, and improve the confidence, capacity, drive and desire of the people I work with.