According to the classic 4P marketing mix, a marketing strategy has four main variables. Correctly setting these variables allows the business to achieve the desired results. 4P marketing mix includes Product, Price, Promotion, Place. This concept was proposed in 1960 by professor E.J. McCarthy in his book Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach. This basic model has been developed. Robert F. Lotherborn in 1990 proposed the 4C concept. Many marketers now regard it as the foundation for building a marketing strategy.
4C is the Cost, Customer needs, Convenience, Communication. Our opinion is that this concept does not replace the old one, but complements it. Let’s explain. Not only the price is important, but the costs. For example, keep in mind that the client estimates how much time purchase incur due to poor logistics. Not only the product is important, but also the needs of the client. The time has passed when a product was released only because this niche was not yet occupied. Now it is necessary to satisfy the needs of the client, to improve his quality of life. The focus has shifted from promotion to communication. Customers want dialogue. Market relations shifted from a vertical plane to a horizontal one. Anyone can now directly ask the brand questions. And the last one from P to C transformation is not only place matters, but convenience. Note that virtual space can also be convenient or not.
Any marketing strategy should serve to achieve business goals. The goals should be specific, achievable, measurable, have a clear time frame. The goals should be divided into main and secondary. The main goals should solve the main problem (for example, increase sales). Secondary goals should focus on working with the components of the main goal. This leads to the logical conclusion that the good main goal should be described by a formula with measurable components. Each component is task for a secondary goal.
Before marketing strategy creation, a competitive analysis should be done. Competitive analysis is aimed at realizing what your unique offer is. First you need to find out who your competitors are. Note that competitors can be from other product categories or even industries. For example, the main competitor of Coca-Cola is Pepsi. This seems like an obvious fact. However, with the increasing demand for healthy food, water has become the main competitor for both Coca-Cola and Pepsi. We are advised from all sides to drink more water. Marketers enrich it with mythical nanoparticles (which, by the way, are toxic in most cases), etc. As a result, Coca-Cola has released a drink without the classic sugar.
You should study what channels the competitor uses, what offers he has, how the customer goes through the competitive sales funnel. You should do the following types of analysis: competitor strengths and weaknesses and competitors’ traffic sources. The first analysis helps to understand your starting position in the market. The second analysis helps to classify competitors in terms of marketing maturity. For example, a large proportion of direct traffic means that competitor A has a strong brand. The fight for the market with the competitor will be serious.
And finally, realize what points of contact you have with clients. Points of contact are advertising, website, service center, feedback on marketplaces and etc. Points of contact need to be known. They are different in importance. There are positive and negative points of contact. Positive points are a subscription or repost in the client’s social network. Negative points are the points that made clients leave (for example, a captcha with fire guards). These points need to be managed. You should become aware of the problems and barriers at the point, leave the main points and remove unnecessary ones.
