¿How to create an outstanding marketing plan? The different strategies 4Ps, 7Ps,4cs

A good marketing plan, well elaborated and structured, is essential to be successful by how small your business is. Getting the right strategy to follow is the key to avoiding taking steps in false. To help you draw your roadmap, we’re going to talk about the different methodologies to your reach, and we will give you some examples of companies that, thanks to having good planning, they’ve managed to achieve their goals.

What should an effective marketing plan contain?

To prepare this document that will collect the market studies carried out by your company, its internal analysis, the delimitation of short and long-term objectives, the timing of actions to be taken, and its economic viability, it’s important to know the strategies that you can follow.

It is convenient for you to know that this guide must be adjusted to your needs specific and must be valid for one year since it is essential to measure the results obtained, evaluate the evolution of the sector and adapt to the new changes that occur.

The evolution from the 4Ps to the 4Cs in today’s marketing-mix

For this, we will talk about what is known as the marketing mix and the different models that have been appearing over time, which define the variables that companies must control to get successfully implement their action plan.

It is an internal analysis whose objective is to know the situation of the business to be able to develop this positioning plan:

4P: is the initial model that Professor Jerome McCarthy proposed in 1960, in which he simplified the list of factors to be measured to 4: product, price, place, and promotion.

• Product:  We must think about… What am I selling? What needs does my product satisfy? What features does my product have? What are the benefits obtained from each of them? What added value does my product provide?

• Price: We must ask ourselves questions like… What value does the product have for the customer? Are there standard prices established or strongly assumed by consumers for our product or similar products? If we fall the price of the product, will we achieve a competitive advantage in the market?

• Distribution: there are multiple variables to be analyzed; storage, transportation, operation times, shipping costs, and distribution channels that are most convenient to use: direct sales, distributors, online stores, etc.

• Promotion: All those ways, distribution channels, and techniques will make our product known. With traditional media, outbound, such as television, radio, newspaper advertisements, or billboard promotions. Over the years and with the help of the Internet, it has been created media. With inbound marketing, ads are better elaborated and less intrusive.

7P: a later version in which, in addition to the previous four, people, process, and physical evidence are included.

• People: The people who are within your organization, the sellers who are in your business. The workers must have good treatment with the client since this is how you will create the identity. For this to happen, you must first take good care of your employees, for them to do the same with your customers.

• Process: It is about processing the data provided by the client to convert them into actions that contribute to consumer loyalty.

• Presentation or positioning: If you want to attract your customers you have to take everything into account. The brand must be very clear about who it is and how to communicate its personality. Here you must consider the interior design, the physical environment of your product or service, the visible characteristics of your brand, and so on.

8P: according to the theories of Kotler and Keller, it was necessary to add a new factor to represent the panorama of the moment. It is about performance, or what is the same, productivity and quality.

• Productivity and quality: “Is what you are offering your customer a good deal?” This is about how the company improves the quality of customers.

4C: model introduced in 1990 by Robert Lauterborn, which represents an evolution of the initials 4P. They correspond to consumer, cost, convenience, and communication. This version puts the consumer first.

• Consumer: It is about knowing your consumer very well so that you can create something based on their needs. Do I know my consumer? How can I improve to best meet your needs? Do I effectively meet your needs?

• Cost: When we talk about costs we must consider things like, are there usually queues to pay at my premises? Does it take a long time to get to the establishment? Is price information accessible? Does the online purchase process have many steps? Do I require the buyer to complete a registration form to buy?

• Convenience: It is about offering the consumer an easy and simple purchase. That is why we must allow for; Does my website have filters to find the product more quickly? Does the purchase process have many clicks?

• Communication: The goal is to create a good and close relationship with your customers. Am I accessible to my consumer? Do I add value by offering innovative solutions? Do I offer several ways of contact? Do I solve your doubts or problems in an agile way?

7C: The 7Cs or also called the Compass Model by Professor Koichi Shimizu, in 1989, presented an alternative to the 4C model. The variables that they include are consumer, commodity, corporation, cost, channel, circumstance, and communication.

• Corporation: It is the core of the 7Cs, while the key of the 4Ps is the customers. It is about analyzing the objectives of the attacks or defenses of the C-O-S corporation (Organization, Competitor, Stakeholder)

• Circumstance: There is always another series of situations that are not in your hands. That is why it is necessary to study each factor. Shimizu focused on four main ones: The weather, the sociocultural framework, the international and national environment (ethical, political, and legal), and the economy.

• Channel: After analyzing our consumers very well, we will be clear about what type of channels we should use and what message we have to convey to capture their attention.

Success stories

When implementing your strategy, it would be helpful to look at examples such as Coca-Cola, Grupo Bimbo, Uber, Herbalife Nutrition, or Amazon. Learning from the giants of the market will help you take advantage of the benefits that their marketing plans have shown.