Canadian Marketing Blog

C-Level Marketing

It used to be critical for every marketer to understand and apply the 4 P's of marketing. They are Product, Price, Place (Distribution) and Promotion. Seems a bit out of sync these days given the new world of marketing and the evolution of consumer interaction in the digital space.

I'm not suggesting we forget about the 4 P's, not at all. However, I propose we move up the alphabet and expand out. I believe we are now faced with 7 C’s of Digital Marketing. They are Content, Community, Conversation, Creative, Campaigns, Conversion and Commerce.

All play a very significant role together in today's ever changing marketing landscape. As search, social media, social networks, online video, virtual worlds, widgets, mobile and a host of other areas and elements gain in popularity, marketers must continually reformulate the way they approach and engage their audience. Today context is vital along with utility and, to a certain degree, entertainment. And, we can't forget about measurement. The need to quantify the effectiveness of our efforts is greater today (and I'd argue more attainable) than ever before.

Understanding how the 7 C's overlap, intertwine and are used in combination is just as important as the foundation set with the 4 P's. Change is good.

Hi,
Read your nice C-Level Marketing article, and would like to comment as follows;

I'm currently watching many new marketing mix theories, and still wondering would todays Marketing Plan in the practical world cancel the 4 P's and replace the C-Level Marketing or other theories?

Also would appreciate if you could send me links to read more about the C-Level and all new marketing mix techniques.

Cheers,
Khaled

Change is not only good, it is essential. In order for marketers to compete with today's technologies, they must indeed recognize the importance of these 7 Cs, and perhaps even an 8th: Collaboration. With the growing popularity of interactive marketing, choiceboards and collaborative filtering, consumers are moving from the more passive role as recipients to a more active buying role. Harveys was perhaps the first to recognize this consumer desire for choice in the most basic way with the creation of the custom combo, and it was not long before every other fast food chain jumped on that bandwagon. How much greater then is this need for collaboration in the digital market?

Your suggestion that digital marketing is more measurable than traditional marketing is intriguing. In this results-driven world, marketers (and in particular PR practitioners) are suffering from unattainable measurements. Sure general consumer marketing can be measured by fluctuations in sales, but how can we accurately link these sales to the individual participants of the promotional mix and how is measuring digital marketing any more attainable?

Being new to the PR industry, we learn that measuring impressions, advertising equivalency and more recently MRPs are becoming noticeably insubstantial. So how can we really quantify the effectiveness of any particular promotional tool—be it public relations, advertising, sales promotion, etc.—if we can’t pinpoint what drives a consumer to the cash register? Albeit, social media is allowing us to go into the minds of our audiences and dig out opinions that may validate some sort of effectiveness in our marketing campaigns, but the overarching numbers are still assumed.

With digital marketing we can quantify results with counted hits and clicked links that perhaps lead to an online retailer. A digitally traced path may be our only savior. But again, how can we assume that every hit or clicked link (which often is done blind) is an effect of what we have done?

Thanks for all your great comments. I am going to post more about this over at my blog, www.theclientsideblog.com as I have much more to say on this subject.

Look for it sometime soon.

I completely agree with your post. The world is changing vastly which in turn means that the way communication and understanding among individuals is changing as well. Social media is becoming more and more present everyday. The would today is so different then the world 10 years ago. The 7 C's bring about change. Change is necessary to move forward. I think though that the 7 C's can effectively work in collaboration with the 4 P's. The more ways we have to measure the better. Digital marketing is the world of the future. We need to realize this.

Whew, that's a lot of alliteration. Good marketing strategy, ha ha.

I enjoyed your article Michael, though for me it brings to mind the most intriguing aspect of the new changes our industry is going through with the advent of online marketing, and that is that with limitless possibilities comes limitless varieties of business strategy. Not to say that your 7 Cs are irrelevant (no more so than the 4 Ps) it only seems that the doors of company and brand promotion have been flung wide open.

While the 7 Cs may not be adopted as strategy by every company out there the important point is that they should all be considered - absolutely!

Thanks!