The Four C's of Marketing

I have had the privilege for a number of years to train sales representatives from various organizations of the basic principles of Marketing. As an experienced educator, I always test for understanding before I start any topic. If I am teaching Color Management, I always ask the class "what three things do you need to have color?" I receive a wide range of answers which help me to understand how to approach the material I have to teach.

In Marketing Classes I always ask "What are the four P's of Marketing?" It is surprising to find out how little Sales People actually know about the principles of Marketing. The Four "P's" of Marketing were developed by E. Jerome McCarthy in his 1960 marketing classic Basic Marketing. I asked myself if these principles were still valid today and while on a long walk with my canine buddy "Deuce" decided that they were still valid in that the four P's describe the universe of Marketing in the same way that gravity describes our world.

• Product (or Service)
• Price (and costs)
• Promotion
• Place (Distribution)

Some pundits have added other "P's" to put their own flavor on it. Some have added Profitability, but that is really part of price determination. In order to understand how to price you need to understand the costs, profitability expectations and market conditions. Some have added People, but don't you need people for all of the four P's? No matter how you try to spin it, the four P's describe what Marketing is.

Is that all there IS?

Sales students are always disappointed by this since while this may describe Marketing to them, it doesn't help Sales People navigate the marketing maze within their customer base. Modern sales people sell into the Printing and Publishing communities in a consultative manor. They must be able to identify and navigate the marketing maze within their customers. They need more than just a description of Marketing; they need some tool to help them understand the marketing environment of their customer and their customer's clients.

When I first entered the Marketing Arena I though all that I need to do was develop clever promotional ideas. It was a rude awakening when I realized that Marketing Communications was a relatively small part of the job and often delegated to agencies and other communications specialists. Although I always helped to develop the message, the majority of my time was spent on the other P's of Marketing and I quickly had to learn the arts of Product Development, Pricing and Finance to keep my job. I also had to quickly learn project management skills and communication skills that are a key for all salesmen to learn to implement the Four "C's" of marketing.

The Basic Assumption of the fours "C's"

Why do projects fail? It is a question we ask all classes and we always get a variety of answers. However, if you dissect the answers they all have a basic underlying cause-Poor Communications. The poor communications may vary form industry to industry, but improper information or the lack of it is always the bottom line.

• Improper Specifications to Manufacturing or End Users

• Misunderstanding on Profit and Costs

• Misunderstanding on How to sell it

• The wrong Application for the Product

• Miscommunication on Inventory, turnover, regulatory requirements

This is not just my opinion; search the subject on the Internet and you will find a lot of consultants in a lot of industries saying the same thing. This list is from Eric Rosenfeld of Adaptive Consulting Partners, LLC

• Poor User Input
• Stakeholder Conflicts
• Vague Requirements
• Poor Cost and Schedule Estimation
• Skills that Do Not Match the Job
• Hidden Costs of Going "Lean and Mean"
• Failure to Plan
• Communication Breakdowns
• Poor Architecture
• Late Failure Warning Signals

All of these, with the exception possibly of Poor Architecture are a result of improper communication, lack of data or improper data.

The Four "C's" of Marketing

Burke's Corollary to the four P's of Marketing is a rule of thumb that is designed to make people think about making projects successful. McCarthy's rule is still valid for describing the Universe, but if we want to be successful in Marketing Projects we have to consider our communications.

The Four "C's" of Marketing

• Communication to stake holders
• Communications to internal organizations like customer service, inventory
• Communications to Sales
• Communications to Customers

This may seem pretty basic and simple to you and while it is simple in concept, it is not always easy to do. The complexity is derived from a couple of simple assumptions:

• Each Audience requires information at a different time
• Each Audience has different communication needs

A good example is Pricing. Customer service personnel need to know the price, discounts but do not need to know costs or product profitability. Financial personnel need to know selling price but also costs broken into familiar fixed and variable costs categories. All the information from each "P" needs to be tailored for each specific audience.

Companies try to minimize communication costs and tend to communicate to multiple audiences through a single communication and often a single media. Lets see what each audience requires and when.

Developers and Stake Holders

These are the people that need to approve a project before it proceeds and therefore need to be communicated to before the release of a project internally. It is different in all business situations. In some case a committee containing finance, product management and marketing control the release of products in service. In others it may be a CTO/CEO/COO or a VP of Manufacturing. I put them all together due to the approval and pre-release nature of their requirement.

Depending on the project there may be different requirements. Developers of a Technical Product certainly need to know targeted customer applications so they can test these prior to release. The CEO does not need to know this level of detail but needs to understand the over all message and "spin" of the product or service within the target market. These are the sorts of things that stakeholders need to know prior to release.

Some Things Stakeholders May Want

· Costs and profitability

· Start up costs required

· Inventory requirements

· Regulatory requirements

· Distribution plan

· Product spin and promotional plan

· Business Development plan

Internal Audiences

Once the Product is released by the Stakeholders, it is released for internal audiences and they require a totally different view than stakeholders or customers. Internal audiences include customer service, inventory planning, internal marketing, finance, etc. These audiences need a much more detailed view than the stakeholder and development executives. They need to know the technical details, financial details, applications, target markets etc.

Some Things Internal Audiences May Want

· Product description

· Target Markets

· Marketing Plan

· Storage and inventory requirements

· Regulatory requirements

· SKU's, pricing and discounts

· Policies and procedures

Sales

Sales professionals are still an internal customer but they require different information than other Internal Audiences. They need to receive communications post release and pre-launch. They need everything the rest of the internal audiences need but also need detailed information on competitive products and training on how to sell the new product or service.

Sales Professionals also need to see what the end user and customer will see. If TV and Radio promotions are used they need to have access before end users so they can prepare for questions and to use the information to further a sales process.

Some Things Sales Professionals May Want

· Product description

· Target Markets

· Marketing Plan

· Storage and inventory requirements

· Regulatory requirements

· SKU's, pricing and discounts

· Policies and procedures

· Competition

· How to Sell it

Customer

Most companies only do this sort of communication. It is cheaper and takes less time. These are brochures, TV Ads, radio ads, web sites, training seminars and all the Marketing Communications that companies create for customers. This is the sizzle. Most companies use this content for all types of communications. However, it is really only suitable for customers and doesn't provide the specific details that others require for successful projects. These communications are created for selling the product or service to the end user, not for communications of details.

Some Things Customers May Want

· What it is

· What it does

· How much it costs

· How much will it generate (cost savings or new business)

· How it's better than the competition.

So why is this Important?

We spend a lot of time analyzing customer workflows, auditing skills, evaluating ROI but we need to spend more timeline looking at how our customers communicate and how we communicate to external and internal customers.

Projects fail due to poor communication; sales are lost due to the same. If you spend some time analyzing what people need and communicate effectively within the correct time frame you will have a better chance to improve project management. Nothing can be worse than distributing information first to the end user and then communicate to sales and internal customers. It is a sure way to have a failure.

It is important to distinguish between the internal release and the launch of the product or service. It is also important to distinguish between internal customers and end users. Most project fail due to poor communication. It is important to understand during the development phase what each audience needs and when they need it. Providing targeted communications prior to release and launch may cost a little more, but the benefit is more successful projects.