Application of the 4Cs marketing mix in the digital environment

The marking mix 4Ps has been a basic framework to how effectively market your product, the 4 Ps marketing mix model is a great achievement in the theory of marketing, the advancement of technology has changed the face of marketing, in a world in which digitalization appears to change increasingly the traditional way of marketing, thus the need for a new model raised to keep pace with this transformation. The 4Cs model was introduced by Lauterborn 1990. This paper is aimed at investigating the 4Cs marketing mix paradigm in the digital context which is approached with the review of the main literature regarding marketing mix in digital context, centering on the 4Cs model and its application in the digital environment

Application of the 4Cs marketing mix in

the digital environment

1GHAYTH ALI JARAD

Abstract The marking mix 4Ps has been a basic framework to how effectively market your product,

the 4 Ps marketing mix model is a great achievement in the theory of marketing, the advancement of technology has changed the face of marketing, in a world in which digitalization appears to change increasingly the traditional way of marketing, thus the need for a new model raised to keep pace with this transformation The 4Cs model was introduced by Lauterborn 1990 This paper is aimed at investigating the 4Cs marketing mix paradigm in the digital context which is approached with the review of the main literature regarding marketing mix in digital context, centering on the 4Cs model and its application in the digital environment

Keywords: 4Cs, digital environment, marketing

I Introduction

Since the marketing mix theory first appeared and introduced by Jerome McCarthy in 1960 and popularized by Kotler which is widely known as the 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion).Technological development as expressed by the internet, social media inventions, digital marketing and E-commerce have put the 4Ps controversy in his ability to meet the new change requirements, critics started questioning the relevance of the classical 4Ps model of marketing since its introduction, the 4P marketing mix has been adjusted due to changes in shopper and hierarchical states of mind over the final few decades (Londhe, 2014) and thus marketers and scholars have been habitually provoked to investigate a new hypothetical approaches and extending the scope of the promoting blend concept

Digital marketing main objective is the attraction of customers to brands and also providing a platform for them to interact with the brands Through digital media, consumers can access information at anytime, anywhere, wherever they want With digital media, consumers not only rely on what the company says about their brand, but also digital marketing includes a wide selection of marketing tactics for services, products and brands that mainly use the Internet as their primary advertising medium in addition to mobile

and traditional television and radio We have some examples like Canon iMage Gateway helps consumers share digital photos with friends online The L'Oréal Lancôme brand uses e-mails to keep in touch with customers and therefore tries to increase customer loyalty to the brand Magazine publishers can activate and direct their customers to the Internet via e-mail and SMS to increase the level of re-subscription (Merisavo

et al., 2004)

With the invention and mass acceptance of telephone, radio, television, and then cable television, electronic media has become the dominant marketing force McDonald's uses an online channel to enhance brand communications and communications They have created online communities for children, such as the Happy Meal website with educational and fun games to keep customers around (Rowley 2004) (Reinartz and Kumar, (2003) found that the company's postal efforts are positively related to the company's profitability over time The main benefits of social media marketing are reduced costs and increased reach The cost of a social media platform is usually lower than other marketing platforms, such as personal sales or sales through intermediaries or distributors In addition, social media marketing allows businesses to reach customers who may not be available due to the time and local restrictions of existing distribution channels Typically, the main advantage of social networks is that they can enable companies to increase reach and reduce costs (Watson et al., 2002; Sheth & Sharma 2005)

II Background of the study

Firstly, it is an important tool to understand that the work of a marketing manager is largely

to compensate for the advantages of their competitive advantages in combination with the advantages of others (Gronroos, 1994) The second advantage of the marketing mix is that it helps to reveal another dimension of the work of the marketing manager All managers should distribute available resources among various needs, and the marketing manager, in turn, will distribute these available resources among various competitive devices of the marketing mix Thus, it will help instill a marketing philosophy in the organization (However, Möller, (2006) emphasized that the flaws in the structure of the marketing complex are 4Ps, since the pillars of traditional marketing management are often the subject of intense criticism

Zhi-wei & Zhichun (2006) Research on Innovating China's real estate marketing strategy system based on 4CS theory, the research pointed out the strategies based on 3Ps used for marketing which are outdated, some of those strategies includes: Much attention to packaging and publicity, little attention to quality and brand, lack of integrity management and the use of tricks, high prices of buildings which are unfordable by the people, unreasonable product structure, ignoring differences in consumer demands, low service quality and poor property management The application of 4C marketing is seen as the antidote to correct these anomalies

The 4C theory is seen as the application of “people-oriented management” idea in the field of corporate marketing Thus the 4C marketing mix incorporates customers’ needs, cost of goods and services

to customers, convenience and communication 4C marketing mix focuses on the buyer on the basis of the market, making customer needs the central point, establishing full contacts with customers to have full understanding of customers’ demands and convenient services The authors sees 4C as an inevitable requirements for companies to be in a marketing environment as consumers are becoming more active in marketing activities, consumers life pace is accelerating, fierce unprecedented competition, highly differentiated media and over-inflated market information 4C seems to be the perfect marketing mix choice since individuals have become the main body of real estate consumption and only the real needs and desires

of customers can be explored

As regards pricing, 4Cs theory does accepted “cost + profit” pricing method, Pricing is based on what consumers are willing to pay for their needs Beside the amount invested in the property, cost

is taken to include other factors like the social pressure in the course of the investment, risks in terms of quality or legal battles, time etc As regards convenience, there are strict requirements in the choice of intermediary companies Two-way communication is encouraged for in-depth investigation into the composition of the target market

In a study conducted to investigated the impact of marketing mix in attracting customers to Saderat Bank in Kermanshah Province of Iran Bahman et al., (2013) came with the following conclusions among others: With increasing competition between banks and financial institutions, management and employees should strive to reduce the time required to provide additional services to their customers The study also shows that there is a significant relationship between the diversity of customer service and increased awareness and resources to attract customers to the bank They advised that banks should diversify and expand their services through advertising, television messages and the installation of banners on various sites

to attract more customers These type of activities is seen as the reason why customers with a higher deposit are loyal to them

Institutions such as banks may provide clients with comprehensive management services The Institute should conduct a wider campaign to attract a variety of services and be more aware of its real and potential customers Advertising and television messages and banners should be installed on various sites in order to attract more customers, as many customers will benefit from a variety of deposits and payments for services and facilities Banks should have the main opportunities to attract the most important target customers The type of funds and their advantages should be clear to customers, and thus make it easier for customers to invest more (Bahman et al.,2013)

Another research on the application of 4C in the banking sector was done by Tyrone et al (2013) The research, the paper uses data of high-net-worth customers in the private wealth management division of

contribution and suggest management strategies for practitioners Key findings in the research are: The most important element is the customer For wealth management, the key is to manage customers with different attributes and maintain customer relationships Banks should understand the prices of products that customers can adopt and the financial ability of their customers to plan and meet their specific needs This will allow banks to charge an appropriate fee, i.e to charge customers a fee that is cost to cutomers which is one of the 4C At the same time, the bank's services to customers should be taken into account in terms of accessibility and understanding, in order to better respond to the need for customer value and motivation It refers to convenience as one of the 4Cs

In addition, maintaining continuous two-way communication with customers, maintaining continuous interaction between financial advisors and customers, and understanding the customer's real needs are also prerequisites This refers to communication as one of the 4Cs All of the above arguments should be supported, i.e banks have a clear grasp of the customer's attributes Regression results show significant positive correlation between customer's risk tolerance, type of product held by the customer, VIP privilege level, number of customer family accounts, duration of transaction between customer and case study bank, annual customer revenue and customer profit contribution

Qing, F et al.(2014) researched on Micro-blog marketing tool with university library in perspective using the 4C marketing mix: Customer, cost, convenience and communication It shows that micro-blog can

be taken as a tool in marketing as it influential in the promotion of service quality and customers’ satisfaction

in university libraries For instance, the limit of 140 characters per message of the micro-blog can be considered a big bonus for the customers, as they can avoid reading larger segments of words, thus getting requiring just a few seconds to obtain important information This will save customers’ cost of time and also putting forward higher requirements to the university library Challenges like privacy issues and technical problems have also been identified in the application of micro-blog marketing The authors also emphasized that micro-blog provides a new horizon for the exchange of information and also help in the realization of the exchange of information as well as in face –to-face communication with the customers

Ali et al., (2016) shows that traditionally using the 4P model for fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), was deemed sufficient to the importance of marketing efforts before the advent of value-based marketing In the context of stiff competition at the local, national, and global levels, customer satisfaction has become not just a secondary task, rather, competition is now moved to the level of value provided by competing firms The results indicated that the consumer solution has a positive and strong relationship with the brand image This means that the more market offers are the best solution to the consumer’s problem, the better the consumer’s image will be Although research has proven that the product in the 4P model has a strong influence on the brand image, nevertheless, now consumer now show concerned about solving their problem, rather than about shape, features and style

Nowadays, customers are more attracted to products of companies offering more and more services

to overcome the difficulties in movement and payments On the other hand, inflationary trends around the world are making buyers selective in choosing and choosing products that offer more benefits at lower prices The price is now considered as the value that the client must bear, and not as an investment to obtain specific benefits According to the results of the study, consumer spending is closely related to the brand image Very expensive brands reduce market share

In addition to this, methods of physical interaction of consumers (i.e an interface) with the digital environment needs more in-depth research, when studying exposure of digital environments on consumers, there will be need to consider longer-term answers because these effects can be subtle, but collectively important So a one-time experimental research should be supplemented by longitudinal experiments and collection of archival data consumer digital exposure, online social interactions and behavior over time

The three well-known marketing models, including 4P, 4C and 4S, have different suitability for the three typical digital products Thus enterprises should have a strategy for providing information on choosing

a marketing mix model in accordance with product categories and provide a set of marketing strategy tools (Liang et al., 2005; Wang et al., 2005) The results of two studies show that Instagram authorities with a large number of followers are more attractive, in part because they are seen to be more popular It is important that only in limited cases, the perception of popularity, caused by the number of followers of an influential person, increases the opinion of an influential person perceived by leadership However, if an influential person monitors very few accounts himself, this can adversely affect his popularity In addition, cooperation with influential individuals with a large number of subscribers may not be the best marketing choice for promoting divergent products, since this reduces the perceived uniqueness of the brand and, therefore, attitude to it (Veirman et al., 2017)

Practical application of 4Cs marketing mix in the digital environment

The application of 4C in the digital marketing environment can be better appreciated if we consider the transformation of the 4P marketing mix to 4C Instead of adding new elements, Lauterborn's 4Cs model offers a different, modern look at the classic 4Ps marketing mix In fact, 4C emphasizes the importance of a consumer orientation with a marketing approach from the point of view of a modern and well-informed consumer, faced with a huge selection of goods and services in oversaturated markets ((Draskovic & Valjak, 2012) Figure 1 below gives a graphical display of this transformation

Figure1: Transformation of 4Ps to 4Cs

Source: Author

In mass marketing, a product development organization often views the market very broadly There

is very little in-depth understanding of what the consumer really wants from the product Companies spend millions of dollars on consumer and market research to bridge the knowledge gap Even this will not give answers to all questions, because in the audience of the mass market there are many different psychographics

of buyers Niche marketing gives room to conversations that are almost one on one More concerted efforts are being made to understand exactly who the customer is and what his real needs, desires and desires are

4ps

>Product

>Price

>Place

>Promotion

4Cs

>Customer

Value >Cost >Convenience >Communication

This is an opportunity to discover markets that are not subject to competition, but can be profitable if the need is large enough (Smalley, 2017)

Consumer Value: Digital marketing should be approached from a customer perspective The types

of products and services that are desirable by the customers should be what is made available The marker dosen’t just post arbitrary products and services but through constant interaction with customers over time

he should be able to determine what they really need This is where research comes into play The internet is very effective and convenient medium to conduct research You can research a customer and explore another company website with a similar product or service with you The main idea for implementing Costumer's desire is to provide quality that is valued A company should only sell a product that meets consumer demand Therefore, marketers and business researchers should carefully study the wishes and needs of the consumer

Consumers are knowledgeable and aware of the various available options in the market It is important to understand their desires and needs regarding products and services, because companies “can only sell what someone specifically wants to buy”

Cost: is a sensitive issue in marketing The first step in digital marketing pricing is to form an

alignment with the value of a product and what the online customers will be willing to pay for the product, after this is done, the price list of other companies can be checked for comparison This is important so as not to lose customers to competitors It is also important to keep prices at bay so that the marketers goods will not be perceived as inferior The consumer perceives the total cost of acquiring a product or service, in addition to the price, the total cost may include the cost of time, travel expenses, etc According to Lauterborn, price is not the only price incurred in purchasing a product The cost of conscience or opportunity costs is also part of the cost of ownership of the product

Convenience: The essence of digital marketing is convenience The traditional option to get goods

and services is to visit shops, warehouses and offices Digital marketing becomes an option on the premise

of convenience The subject of convenience has to be approached in two ways: The convenience to get the goods and services and also the convenience to do business with the marketers The quality of goods and services should meet the expectation of customers, nothing less than what the customer has promised to provide The convenience of customers to interact with the marketers can best be approached with the creation of a company website that provides details of all the products and contacts for feedback

The website should also be interactive and mobile When general social media sites have to be used,

it should also be well managed such that all the goods are well presented and that the managers of the sites constantly update customers and give feedback constantly Customers should have easy access to the products Marketers should strategically place products at several visible distribution points Due to changes

in consumer behavior and the emergence of e-commerce, the main focus should be on ensuring the

convenience of consumers through continuous change and adaptation, rather than creating traditional and

difficult distribution methods

Communication: Digital marketing is more about communication than promotion The strategy is

to get customers engaged by what the marketers say about his goods and services and constantly be at the

services of the customer in real time to answer inquires and to also give feedback The most successful digital

markers are people that interact constantly with their customers Sometime the subject of the interaction may

not even be about sales, but to educate prospective customers about the goods and services and other

conversations related to the industry Communication, not promotion - although classic promotion relies

heavily on one-way communication, the focus should be on dialogue with the consumer, this dialogue should

be open dialogue with potential customers, depending on their needs and desires Figure two shows how

communication flows within the elements of the marketing mix

Figure 2: The flow of communication within the marketing mix

Source: Feedough

Through the communication channel, the customer gets to know about the product, consider the

desirability, interact with the seller (here the marker has the opportunity to convince the customer to make a

purchase) After a decision is made by the customer, he checks with his finances, do I have money to buy?

Then comes the subject of convenience If it’s not convenient to buy the decision to buy can be rescind

immediately

III. Conclusion

The attraction of customers to brands is the major objective of digital marketing Unlike the traditional form of marketing, customers can make decisions on purchase anywhere, anytime and also have lots of opportunities to make choices The 4Cs model offers a more modern outlook of the marketing mix

Management of the marketing mix helps to make marketing easy to manage and organize Marketing

is distinguished from other operations of the company and transferred to specialists who analyze, plan and Perform a variety of marketing tasks such as market analysis, marketing planning, advertising, promotion, sales, pricing, distribution and product packaging Departments of marketing are established in order to take responsibility for the marketing function of the company, sometimes with external experts, such as market analysis and advertising In marketing literature, and in the daily marketing vocabulary, "marketing department" and "organizational unit" as the synonyms of marketing function, is a process of caring for the needs and aspirations of customers However, the organizational approach embedded in the paradigm of managing the marketing mix is also not very useful The psychological influence on the rest of the organization of a separate marketing department is, in the long run, often destructive for the development of

a customer or market orientation in a firm (Eavani & Nazari, 2012)

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