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The marketing mix is a business tool used in marketing and by marketing professionals. The marketing mix is often crucial when determining a product or brand's offer, and is often synonymous with the four Ps: price, product, promotion, and place; in service marketing, however, the four Ps have been expanded to the Seven Ps or eight Ps to address the different nature of services.

In recent times, the concept of four Cs has been introduced as a more customer-driven replacement of four Ps.^[1] And there are two four Cs theories today. One is Lauterborn's four Cs (consumer, cost, communication, convenience), another is Shimizu's four Cs (commodity, cost, communication, channel).

History[edit]

In his paper "The Concept of the Marketing Mix", Neil Borden reconstructed the history of the term "marketing mix". ^[2][3] He started teaching the term after an associate, James Culliton, described the role of the marketing manager in 1948 as a "mixer of ingredients"; one 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.^[4]

McCarthy's Four Ps[edit]

The marketer E. Jerome McCarthy proposed a four Ps classification in 1960, which has since been used by marketers throughout the world.^[1]

The seven Ps is an additional marketing model that refers to the already mentioned four Ps, plus 'Physical evidence', 'People', and 'Process':^[6]

These latter three factors are not cited nearly as often as the first four.

Lauterborn's Four Cs[edit]

Robert F. Lauterborn proposed a four Cs classification in 1990^[7] which is a more consumer-oriented version of the four Ps^[8] that attempts to better fit the movement from mass marketing to niche marketing^{[citation needed]}:

Four Cs: in the Seven Cs Compass Model[edit]

(Corporation and consumer -oriented model)

After Koichi Shimizu proposed a four Cs classification in 1973, this was expanded to the Seven Cs Compass Model to provide a more complete picture of the nature of marketing in 1981. It attempts to explain the success or failure of a firm within a market and is somewhat analogous to Michael Porter's diamond model, which tries to explain the success and failure of different countries economically.^[11][12][13]

The Seven Cs Compass Model are:

• (C1)Corporation – The core of four Cs is corporation ( company and non profit organization). C-O-S (Organization, Competitor, Stakeholder) within the Corporation. The company has to think of compliance and accountability as important. The competition in the areas in which the company competes with other firms in its industry.

The four elements in the Seven Cs Compass Model are:

• A formal approach to this customer-focused marketing mix is known as Four Cs (Commodity, Cost, Communication, Channel) in “the Seven Cs Compass Model. The four CsModel provides a demand/customer centric version alternative to the well-known four Ps supply side model (product, price, promotion, place) of marketing management.^[14]
  • Product → Commodity
  • Price → Cost
  • Promotion → Communication
  • Place → Channel

The compass of consumers and Circumstances (environment) are:

• (C6)Consumer – (Needle of compass to Consumer)

The factors related to consumers can be explained by the first character of four directions marked on the compass model. These can be remembered by the cardinal directions, hence the name compass model:

• • N = Needs
  • W = Wants
  • S = Security
  • E = Education:(consumer education)
• (C7)Circumstances – (Needle of compass to Circumstances )

In addition to the consumer, there are various uncontrollable external environmental factors encircling the companies. Here it can also be explained by the first character of the four directions marked on the compass model:

• • N = National and International(Political, legal and ethical)environment
  • W = Weather
  • S = Social and Cultural
  • E = Economic

These can also be remembered by the cardinal directions marked on a compass. The Seven Cs Compass Model is a framework in Co-marketing (Symbiotic marketing). It has been criticized for being little more than the four Ps with different points of emphasis. In particular, the seven Cs inclusion of consumers in the marketing mix is criticized, since they are a target of marketing, while the other elements of the marketing mix are tactics. The seven Cs also include numerous strategies for product development, distribution, and pricing, while assuming that consumers want two-way communications with companies.

An alternative approach has been suggested in a book called 'Service 7' by Australian Author, Peter Bowman. Bowman suggests a values based approach to service marketing activities. Bowman suggests implementing seven service marketing principles which include value, business development, reputation, customer service and service design. Service 7 has been widely distributed within Australia.

See also[edit]

• Marketing activation
• Real-time marketing
• Co-marketing
• Integrated marketing communications

References[edit]

External links[edit]

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Marketing

• Marketing Mix (bitesize 4P's), British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Schools
• Professor Koichi Shimizu's 7 Cs Compass model (1979)
• Four P’s, Four C’s And The Consumer Revolution
• [1], Service 7 Transform the way you think about marketing your service business