More familiar with distributors than manufacturers, and more knowledgeable about internal management than distributors. ---------------------------- 4P Theory Comprising the four elements of Product, Price, Promotion, and Place, the 4P theory was proposed by Professor E. Jerome McCarthy of the University of Michigan in 1960. Its greatness lies in simplifying marketing and making it easy to remember and disseminate. Products include core products, tangible products, and augmented products. In a broad sense, products can be tangible entities or intangible services, technologies, knowledge, or wisdom. There are many pricing methods, such as competitive comparison, cost-plus, target profit, and market gap methods. The goal of these methods is to make the product a tradable commodity. Since enterprises aim for profitability, pricing must balance sales efficiency and corporate benefits. Price wars are a pricing and competitive strategy, but low prices are not always effective. For instance, a friend once faced a choice between two merchants selling the same Olay product at different prices: one at full price and the other at 20% off. Surprisingly, he chose to buy at full price. Information asymmetry means that price carries too much additional speculative information—quality, shelf life, authenticity, utility—and price is not only related to the product itself but also to the brand's added connotation and value, market supply and demand, and the reputation of the shopping venue. Traditional promotion includes personal selling, advertising, public relations activities, and sales promotion. These methods are widely applied in marketing. Place is the sales path a product takes from the producer to the end consumer. Ordinary consumer goods pass through agents, wholesalers, department stores, or retail shops. In B2C models, there are also direct sales via telephone, television, the internet, personnel, and brand stores. Direct sales models greatly reduce the intermediate links from manufacturer to buyer, passing the middle profits to consumers or compensating for the extra costs of new marketing models. In B2B models, direct manufacturer-to-manufacturer sales or intermediary sales through agents may also be adopted. After the 4Ps, with the rapid development of the service industry in the 1970s, some scholars added a fifth "P": People. Also, due to the importance of packaging in consumer packaged goods marketing, Packaging became another "P". In the 1970s, Philip Kotler, the "father of marketing management," proposed two more Ps when emphasizing "megamarketing": Public Relations and Politics. When marketing strategic planning became important, Kotler introduced a 4P process in strategic planning: Probing, Partitioning (Segmentation), Prioritizing, and Positioning, expanding the marketing mix to 12 Ps. However, the 4Ps remain a fundamental marketing tool and continue to play a very important role. 4C Theory "Although the 4Ps dominated for nearly half a century, by the 1990s, with increasing consumer individuality, media fragmentation, and information overload, the traditional 4Ps were gradually challenged by the 4Cs." Essentially, the 4Ps start from an enterprise-centric perspective: what products the business wants to produce, what prices to set to achieve expected profits, how to communicate and promote product selling points, and which channels to use for sales. This ignores the customer's interests as a buyer and the fact that the customer is the true object of all marketing services. The emergence of a new customer-centric marketing approach gave rise to the customer-oriented 4Cs. In 1990, American Professor Robert Lauterborn proposed the 4Cs theory corresponding to the 4Ps. The core of the 4Cs is customer strategy, which is also a basic strategic principle for many successful companies, such as Walmart's core value that "the customer is always right." The basic principle of the 4Cs is to plan and design marketing activities centered on the customer: from product to meeting customer needs (Consumer's Needs), from price to comprehensively weighing the cost (Cost) customers are willing to pay, from one-way promotion to two-way communication (Communication) with customers, and from product flow through channels to achieving customer purchase convenience (Convenience). Customer needs can be divided into explicit and potential needs. Satisfying explicit needs caters to the market, while satisfying potential needs guides the market. The primary task of marketers is to research customer needs, discover their true needs, and then formulate corresponding need strategies to influence the production process. Due to intensified market competition, customers show consumption fatigue toward homogeneous products, and moderate innovation is a competitive weapon to guide and satisfy customer needs. The hierarchy of customer needs is also a basis for market segmentation. The level of needs to satisfy directly determines the target market positioning. According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, customer needs develop from basic product needs to higher-level psychological satisfaction. Therefore, enterprises should not only make products but also build brands and lifestyles, creating brand core value and new lifestyles to satisfy customers' needs for social recognition and lifestyle taste. Customer cost is the total cost incurred by customers in purchasing and using a product. Price setting is purely product-oriented, while customer cost includes, in addition to the product price, the time cost, learning cost, opportunity cost, switching cost, and the cost of purchasing additional accessories or related products. Considering these costs comprehensively is more conducive to designing products based on the characteristics of the target customer group and meeting their real needs. Customer communication first clarifies that the enterprise's communication and promotion strategy should be customer-oriented rather than enterprise-oriented or competition-oriented. Many enterprises formulate promotion strategies based on competition, leading to a vicious cycle of competition. Customer orientation enables enterprises to achieve competitive differentiation and cultivate core competitiveness. Customer communication also emphasizes customer participation and interaction throughout the process, achieving information transmission and emotional connection. On one hand, communication should choose media channels that target customers frequently contact; on the other hand, due to information explosion, consumers are exposed to a wide range of information sources daily, so one-way information transmission may be inefficient due to consumers' information filtering. Communication that emphasizes customer participation allows customers to fully receive and remember information during interaction. Current experiential marketing allows customers to understand the fit between products and their needs, discover product value, and unconsciously grasp brand culture, achieving psychological resonance. During the experience, customer feedback is accepted by the enterprise and becomes the direction for next innovation. Coca-Cola is available everywhere; real estate companies provide shuttle buses; driving schools offer door-to-door pickup; fast-food restaurants deliver meals to your door... These are all examples of achieving product convenience through channel design. The goal of customer convenience is to shorten the physical and psychological distance between customers and products, thereby increasing the likelihood of product selection. 4R Theory The 4C theory, centered on customer strategy, has shown its limitations over time. When customer needs conflict with social principles, customer strategy may be inappropriate. For example, in the context of advocating a conservation-oriented society, should the luxury needs of some customers be satisfied? This is not only a marketing issue but also a social and moral issue. Similarly, building villas contradicts the national strategy of energy conservation and land saving. Therefore, in 2001, Don E. Schultz of the United States proposed the 4R new theory: Relationship, Retrenchment, Relevancy, and Rewards, "focusing on establishing a new type of relationship between enterprises and customers in a more effective way, different from traditional ones." 4I Theory In the Internet age, traditional marketing classics are no longer applicable. Consumers are now the kings; media was the emperor in the traditional communication era, but YOU are the new monarch in the network communication era! In the traditional media era, information dissemination was "cathedral-style," top-down, one-way, and linear, with consumers passively receiving. In the network media era, information dissemination is "market-style," multi-directional and interactive. Voices are diverse, noisy, and different. Network media has brought explosive growth of various "self-media," such as blogs, forums, IM, SNS... With these, every grassroots consumer has their own "mouth" and "ears." Facing these "rebellious long tails," traditional marketing methods need to change from "hunting" to "fishing": marketers need to learn to use "creative fire" to simmer tempting "bait," with brand information cleverly wrapped inside as the "fishhook." How to accomplish this transformation? Ogilvy's 4I principles of network integrated marketing provide the best guidance. The 4I principles of network integrated marketing: Interesting, Interests, Interaction, and Individuality. Interesting Principle: Gossip is the passport to popularity; "The Steamed Bun" is the epitaph of "The Promise." When Sister Furong and Da S's hot figures dominate the internet, and when more and more information wears the "mask of pan-entertainment," an era of entertainment to death has arrived. The essence of the Chinese internet is entertainment. In this "entertainment circle," advertising and marketing must also be entertaining and interesting. When we lose the power to say to consumers, "Do you want to listen, want to listen, or want to listen? We never force you," it is clear that making some interesting, entertaining "sugar-coated" bait and cleverly wrapping the fishhook of marketing information in interesting plots is an effective way to attract fish to bite. "Great network marketing flows with the blood of fun! It is not a stiff advertisement, it is not a stiff advertisement! Entertainment factors are possessed in its soul!" Interests Principle: Yes, interests! The world is bustling, all for profit; the world is noisy, all for benefit. The internet is a world of information and services. Marketing activities that do not provide benefits to the target audience will inevitably struggle. Transform yourself into a consumer and ask yourself, "Why should I participate in this marketing activity? Huh!" But here I want to emphasize that the "interests" provided to consumers in network marketing have a broader extension. The first thing that comes to mind—material benefits—is only a part. It may also include:
- Information and consultation The highest level of advertising is no advertising, only information. Consumers resist ads, but they need relevant information and consultation about the products they need. Direct sales ads are likely to be rejected, but when transformed into information provided to consumers, acceptance naturally increases.
- Function or service
- Psychological satisfaction or honor
- Actual material/monetary benefits
- ...Waiting for you to fill in; I believe you can discover more! Interaction Principle: Another important feature that distinguishes network media from traditional media is its interactivity. If we fail to fully exploit this USP and directly use traditional advertising methods, it is like putting new wine in old bottles, or buying the box and returning the pearl. Moreover, network media lacks the "compulsion" of traditional media in communication. Such "highlighting weaknesses and avoiding strengths" one-way bulletin-style marketing is certainly not the future of network marketing. Only by fully exploiting the interactivity of the network and fully utilizing its characteristics to communicate with consumers can we maximize the function of network marketing. Do not let consumers simply receive information. Advances in digital media technology have allowed us to enable interaction on marketing platforms at very low cost and great convenience. Consumers can fully participate in the interaction and creation of network marketing. In a pottery bar, a handmade clay pot is precious because it incorporates one's own sweat. Similarly, when consumers personally participate in the interactive and creative marketing process, it leaves a deeper brand impression in their minds. Treating consumers as subjects and initiating equal interactive communication between them and the brand can bring unique competitive advantages. The future brand will be a semi-finished product, half determined by consumer experience and participation. Of course, it is important for marketers to find methods that can lead and dominate the interaction between the two. Individuality Principle: YOU has been elevated to an unprecedented height, and the reflection of YOU's tall figure in marketing is I! The status of Individuality in network marketing is thus highlighted! Compare "Everyone on the street wears it" with "Only one in all of Beijing, exclusively for you!" You will understand that exclusivity and individuality are more likely to capture consumers' hearts. Because of individuality, it is precise; because of precision, it is attractive. Personalized marketing gives consumers a sense of "focused attention" satisfaction, better caters to their preferences, and is more likely to trigger interaction and purchase actions. However, in traditional marketing environments, achieving "personalized marketing" is very costly, making it difficult to promote widely; it is a luxury feast enjoyed by only a few brands. But in network media, the characteristics of digital streams make this simple and cheap. Segmenting a small group, or even one person, and achieving one-to-one marketing becomes possible. A godsend opportunity—how can we not use it? **--------------------------------------
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