4 C’s Of Marketing Mix

Consumer wants and needs

According to the 4Cs of marketing, companies should only sell products that the
consumer wants to buy. Thus, you should research consumer wants and needs. The
most effective way to do this is using Jobs to be Done and outcome-driven customer
research. Once this is clear, focus your efforts on attracting consumers one-by-one with
an irresistible offer.
The product is at the core of any marketing effort. And if you work in a software
company, it can become the main marketing vehicle. Though, the reality is that it’s just
one piece of the puzzle. The product must solve a customer need or pain to be
desirable, and to eliminate the competition it must be unique.
The most lucrative way to do this is to unlock an untapped market and develop the
product for the market. This is far more effective than trying to drop a ready-made
product into a market that might want it. The aim is to understand the value that the
product delivers to the customer both through the eyes of the developer and the
consumer.

Cost
The price is only a small part of the total cost to satisfy a product that a consumer wants
or needs. The cost reflects the total cost of ownership, not just the price the consumer
pays for the goods. Price becomes just one of many elements within the total cost of
satisfying the customer’s need.
Cost could be influenced by the time spent acquiring the product or service, the cost of
conscience when it comes to consuming the product and the cost of change or
implementation. It could even include the cost of the buyer not selecting a competitor’s
product or service.
Many marketers mistakenly believe that the main motivation for purchasing a product is
price. Positioning is far more important, as it directly influences perceived value. Price
can be used as a positioning vehicle to deliver results. However, in the long term, it’s
likely to cause more harm than good. This is particularly true if the price is lower than
the cost of acquiring customers later in the product lifecycle.
A focus on cost to satisfy the customer will ensure that more factors than just the
purchase price are being considered. It drives a relentless focus on the customers’
experience. This stacks value well beyond the value your product delivers, and enables
you to increase prices because value exchange happens sooner.

Communication
Promotion suggests that the relationship is one-way, but with the rise of social media
and the internet, “communication” is a better description. It represents a much broader
focus on the entire buying experience. This is driven by the consumer of a product. It
indicates that it’s a cooperative process that’s led by the buyer.
The 4Ps Marketing Mix uses promotion as a vehicle to put information about the product
or service in front of the consumer. While these methods remain effective, limited funds
or a product that solves a very specific problem needs a more nuanced approach to
reaching the target audience.
 In that regard, the 4Cs of Marketing work towards establishing a dialogue with
prospects. This is based on their needs and challenges. Your communications must be
designed to build meaningful relationships because there’s more give-and-take between
you and your buyer. It includes any form of advertising, public relations, viral marketing,
or any other communication between you and your prospective buyer.

Convenience

Consumers aren’t limited to a just few places to satisfy their needs and wants. In a
world where there’s too much choice, you must understand how the target market
prefers to buy. Once you understand, you have to adapt.
A customer is not bound to buying your product or service from a physical location.
Convenience focuses on the ease of buying the product. You must build buying
experiences that delight your ideal buyer.
The Place element in the 4P model focuses on the traditional process of getting your
product into the hands of your buyer. On the contrary, the convenience segment in the
4Cs of marketing framework focuses on the quality of the buying experience. This is
exceptionally important for the modern buyer.

Bases of Market Segmentation

Definition: The Market Segmentation means dividing the entire consumer market into the
subgroups, such that the customers in each group share the common set of needs and wants and
have more or less similar or related characteristics.

1. Geographical Segmentation: Here, the segmentation is done on the basis of the

geographical location of the customers. The geographical segmentation is based on the
premise that people living in one area have different purchasing or buying habits than
those living in other areas of the country.

For example, the banking needs of people living in rural and urban areas are different
and. Therefore, different banking products and services are designed keeping in mind
the different preferences of each customer group. Also, the factors like climatic zone,
state, region, constitutes geographic segmentation.

2. Demographic Segmentation: The demographic segmentation means dividing the

customer market on the basis of several variables such as age, sex, gender,
occupation, income, education, marital status, family size, community, social status, etc.
Such segmentation is based on the premise, that customer’s buying behavior is very
much influenced by his demographics, and moreover, these variables can be measured
easily as compared to the other factors.
3. Psychographic Segmentation: The psychographic segmentation relates to the
personality, lifestyle, and attitude of the individual. It is believed that the consumer
buying behavior can be determined by his personality and lifestyle. The personality
refers to the traits, attitudes and habits of an individual and the market is segmented
 according to the personal traits such as introvert, extrovert, ambitious, aggressiveness,
etc.

The lifestyle means the way a person lives his life and do the expenditures. Here the
companies segment the market on the basis of interest, activities, beliefs and opinions
of the individuals.

4. Behavioral Segmentation: Here, the marketer segments the market on the basis of
the individual’s knowledge about the product and his attitude towards the usage of the
product. Several behavioral variables are occasions, benefits, user status, usage rate,
buyer readiness stage, loyalty status and the attitude.

The buyers can be classified as those who buy the product or services occasionally, or
who buy only those products from which they derive some sort of benefits. Also, there
are buyers who can be called as ex-users, potential users, first-time users and regular
users; the marketers can segment the market on this classification. Often, the market is
segmented on the basis of the usage rate of the customers, such as light, medium and
heavy users.

Thus, market segmentation helps the companies to divide the prospective customers
into small groups who have similar needs and plan the marketing strategies accordingly.
This enables a firm to concentrate more on a specific group and earn more profits rather
than catering to the needs of the entire market who have different needs and desires.