In a very interesting blog post, Fast Company’s Lynne Johnson suggests that the Marketing’s 4 P’s (product, place, price and promotion) are gone. Instead, the 4 C’s rule the world:
“Long gone are the 4Ps of marketing, these are the days of the 4Cs, a customer centric approach that includes the customer’s wants and needs; the cost to satisfy the customer; the convenience; and communication.”
I respectfully disagree – while the 4 C’s are important ingredients to the 4 P’s, or in the case of communication maybe a replacement of promotion, you cannot launch a product or service on the 4 C’s alone. Maybe Steve Jobs could pull off a sale of a gold-plated iPhone for $100,000 to 100,000 customers – most marketeers could not. If your price is not right (a $100,000 iPhone), customers will not buy no matter how convenient your product is or how much it fulfills their needs. Similarly, you can drum up a lot of need for your product, but you will not be able to sell one single copy if you cannot overcome distribution issues. So don’t be fooled that all you need is slick C’s and no substance – in the long run, you will fail. Do your homework on the 4 P’s, then test against the 4 C’s and chances are your product or service will succeed.
Veit Irtenkauf – Chief Product Officer – FlyMiwok, Inc.
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