4P (product, price, channel, promotion) marketing strategy has had a far-reaching impact on marketing theory and practice since it was put forward by JeromeMcCarthy in the late 1950s, and has been regarded as a classic in marketing theory by marketing managers. Moreover, how to realize marketing combination under the guidance of 4P theory is actually the basic operation method of company marketing. Even today, almost every marketing plan is based on the theoretical framework of 4P, almost every marketing textbook and every marketing course takes 4P as the basic content of teaching, and almost every marketing manager consciously or unconsciously considers problems from 4P theory when planning marketing activities.

4C theory replaces 4P to step into modern times.

However, with the increasingly fierce market competition and faster media communication, it is "outdated" to use 4P theory to guide enterprise marketing practice, and 4P theory is increasingly challenged. In 1980s, Lauterpen put forward 4Cs marketing theory in view of the problems existing in 4Ps: 1 and the needs of consumers. First of all, we should understand, study and analyze the needs and desires of consumers, instead of considering what products the enterprise can produce first. 2. The cost that consumers are willing to pay. First of all, we should understand how much money (cost) consumers are willing to pay to meet their own needs and desires, rather than pricing the products first, that is, how much money they want from consumers. 3. Consumer convenience. The first thing to consider is how to facilitate customers' shopping and other trading processes, rather than the choice and strategy of sales channels. 4. Communicate with consumers. It is very important to implement marketing communication with consumers as the center. Through interaction and communication, the internal and external marketing of the enterprise is continuously integrated, and the interests of both customers and enterprises are invisibly integrated.

4C theory also has regrets.

Generally speaking, 4C marketing theory focuses on consumer demand. Compared with the market-oriented 4p, 4C has made great progress and development. However, from the marketing practice and market development trend of enterprises, 4C still has the following shortcomings: First, 4C is customer-oriented, while the market economy requires competition-oriented, and the marketing of Chinese enterprises has also turned to the stage of market competition-oriented. The essential difference between customer orientation and market competition orientation is that the former sees new customer needs; The latter not only sees the demand, but also pays more attention to competitors, calmly analyzes their strengths and weaknesses in the competition and adopts corresponding strategies to seek development in the competition. Second, with the 4C theory integrated into marketing strategies and behaviors, after a period of operation and development, although it will promote the development and progress of social marketing, enterprise marketing will be unified at a new level. Different enterprises are at most a degree of gap, which can not form marketing personality or marketing characteristics, can not form marketing advantages, and ensure the stability, accumulation and development of enterprise customer share. Thirdly, 4C is customer-oriented, but customer demand has a rationality problem. Customers always want good quality and low price, especially in terms of price. Seeing only the side of meeting customers' needs, enterprises will inevitably pay more costs, which will affect the development of enterprises over time. Therefore, in the long run, enterprises should follow the principle of win-win, which is a problem that 4C needs to solve further. Fourthly, 4C still doesn't reflect the marketing idea of winning and owning customers for a long time, and doesn't solve the operational problems of meeting customers' needs, such as providing integrated solutions and quick response. Fifth, 4C is the transformation and development of 4P as a whole, but the color of passively adapting to customer needs is relatively strong. According to the development of the market, it is necessary to establish a new active relationship between enterprises and customers from a higher level and in a more effective way. Such as interactive relationship, win-win relationship and related relationship.

The Latest Development of Marketing Theory ——4R Theory

In view of the above problems, recently, I did. Schultz of the United States put forward a new 4R (Relevance, Response, Relationship and Return) marketing theory, and expounded the brand-new four elements of marketing:

1. Establish a relationship with customers. In a highly competitive market, customers are dynamic. When customer loyalty changes, they will move to other enterprises. In order to improve customer loyalty and win a long-term stable market, an important marketing strategy is to establish a relationship between business and demand with customers through some effective ways, form a relationship of mutual assistance and mutual demand, and connect customers with enterprises, thus greatly reducing the possibility of customer loss. In particular, business-to-business marketing is completely different from consumer marketing, which needs to be maintained through association and relationship. There are many ways to establish associations, and all kinds of enterprises are different. Here are a few examples:-Association with users. Serve users with the mode of system integration, provide users with integrated and systematic solutions, establish organic links, form a relationship of mutual demand and benefit sharing, and develop together. The enterprise itself can provide customers with all-round services. But this service is not necessarily perfect, and it is difficult to guarantee that every service is the best. The solution is to provide customers with a package of solutions, and then integrate and optimize the combination in a wider range to ensure that the solution and all integrated parts are the best, thus forming an overall optimization. For example, Shanghai Bell, as a manufacturing industry, is getting more and more difficult to operate, but they have changed their thinking, adopted an integrated approach and focused on providing the best solutions, purchasing products from other manufacturers and providing customers with a package of services, so their business has developed rapidly. Compaq adopted this model and became a solution provider, which reversed the situation of single product and difficult operation. Haier's star service is actually a system integration service. In this way, by providing a package to help customers do their best, enterprises and customers have established a long-term and reliable relationship with each other. -Related to product requirements. Improve the correspondence between products and needs, and provide high-quality products or services with characteristics or uniqueness that meet the characteristics and personality of customers. Its specific approach is: first, products are divided into three levels: core products, external products and additional products, and demand is divided into three levels: use demand, psychological demand and potential demand. Enterprises must correspond the levels of products and requirements, and the more accurate the correspondence, the stronger the correlation. Secondly, the production mode of "mass customization" is adopted. The development of network economy has completely changed the situation that the traditional economy can't assemble special market demand on a large scale, but can only produce products with special styles in small batches, and "tailor-made" means privileged prices, high expenses and excess profits, making it possible to make "large-scale tailor-made" production methods. Any product with a special style that could not be produced by assembly line in the past can be assembled into a "batch" through the network and the global market, which can be transformed from special to routine, so that it can be produced by assembly line according to the corresponding requirements of economies of scale. More importantly, with the expansion of the network economy, the cost of assembling this global market is rapidly decreasing. Therefore, enterprises must seize the opportunity of the network, on the basis of fully understanding the needs of customers, tailor-made goods and services for them, such as various e-commerce services and software services for the special needs of enterprises, so as to consolidate and attract customers more effectively.

2. Improve the market reaction speed. In today's interactive market, the most realistic problem for operators is not how to control, formulate and implement plans, but how to listen to customers' hopes, wishes and needs in time from the customer's point of view, and respond promptly and quickly to meet customers' needs. At present, most companies tend to tell customers rather than listen to them, which is not conducive to market development. Contemporary advanced enterprises have changed from the speculative business model in the past to a highly responsive business model. Facing the rapidly changing market, in order to meet the needs of customers and establish relevant relationships, enterprises must establish a rapid response mechanism to improve the response speed and response ability. This can minimize complaints, stabilize the customer base and reduce the probability of customer transfer. The magic of the network lies in its rapidity, and enterprises must regard the network as an important tool and means of rapid response. In terms of timely response, the practices of Japanese companies are worth learning. Japanese enterprises are not simply pursuing perfection and beauty in quality, but pursuing customer-oriented quality and quality-price ratio. They don't guarantee that the product won't go wrong because the cost is too high. However, on the basis of coordinating the relationship between quality and service, establishing a rapid response mechanism and improving service level can quickly respond to problems and solve them quickly. For enterprises and customers, this is a win-win way.

3. Relationship marketing is becoming more and more important. In the market environment where the relationship between enterprises and customers has changed substantially, the key to seize the market has been to establish a long-term and stable relationship with customers, from transaction to responsibility, from customers to fans, from managing marketing mix to managing interaction with customers. According to this, there are five turns: (1) An important idea and development trend of modern marketing is to change from trade marketing to relationship marketing: not only to win users, but also to have users for a long time; (2) From paying attention to short-term interests to paying attention to long-term interests; (3) From single sales to establishing friendly cooperative relations; (4) From focusing on product performance to focusing on the benefits that products or services bring to customers; (5) Never attach importance to customer service and turn to high commitment. The core of all this is to deal with the relationship with customers, organically combine service, quality and marketing, and realize the goal of having customers for a long time by establishing a long-term and stable relationship with customers. The consciousness of responding to customer needs, answering customer questions and calming customer dissatisfaction has fallen behind. Priority must be given to establishing strong relationships with important customers who create 75% ~ 80% profits and 20% ~ 30% profits of enterprises. Otherwise, spending most of the marketing budget on 80% customers who only create 20% profits of the company is not only inefficient, but also a waste. Communication is an important means to build relationships. Judging from the classic AIDA model: "attention-interest-desire-action", marketing communication can basically complete the first three steps, and the average cost of contacting customers each time is very low.

4. Return is the source of marketing. For enterprises, the real value of marketing is that it can bring short-term or long-term income and profits to enterprises. On the one hand, the pursuit of return is the driving force of marketing development; On the other hand, return is a necessary condition for maintaining market relations. Enterprises should meet customers' needs and provide customers with value, but they cannot be "servants". Therefore, marketing objectives must focus on the output and return of enterprises in marketing activities. All marketing activities must be aimed at creating value for customers and shareholders.

To sum up, 4R theory has four advantages:

(1)4R marketing theory is characterized by its competition orientation, which summarizes a new marketing framework at a new level. According to the increasingly mature market and fierce competition, 4Rs pays attention to the interaction and win-win between enterprises and customers. It not only actively adapts to the needs of customers, but also actively creates the needs of customers, integrates marketing with the idea of optimization and system, forms a unique relationship with customers through association, relationship and reaction, and connects enterprises with customers to form a competitive advantage. It can be said that 4Rs is the innovation and development of marketing theory in the new century, which will definitely have a positive and important impact on marketing practice. (B) 4Rs embodies and implements the concept of relationship marketing. Through correlation, relationship and reaction, this paper puts forward the specific operation mode of how to establish relationships, have customers for a long time and ensure long-term interests, which is a great progress. (3) The reaction mechanism provides a foundation and guarantee for win-win interaction and association, and at the same time extends and sublimates convenience. (d) "Return" is compatible with cost and win-win. In order to pursue returns, enterprises must implement a low-cost strategy, fully consider the costs that customers are willing to pay, achieve cost minimization, and gain more customer shares on this basis to form economies of scale. In this way, enterprises provide customers with value and pursue returns, which complement each other and promote each other, and objectively achieve a win-win effect. Of course, 4Rs, like any theory, also has its shortcomings and defects. For example, establishing relationships with customers requires a strong foundation or some special conditions, which is not easy for any enterprise to do. But in any case, 4R provides a good idea that operators and marketers should understand and master.

4P or 4C?

The development of modern marketing theory can be described as "fast", which is almost an overnight transition from traditional marketing to modern marketing, that is, the so-called product-centered 4P to consumer satisfaction-centered 4C. As a result, some people say that 4p doesn't work. So, is 4P really out of date? What is the relationship between 4P and 4C? What are their differences and commonalities? How to use it?

I. Analysis of 4P

It is a complementary strategic combination for the marketing 4P combination consisting of product, price, channel and promotion. What is the essence of this marketing theory from the west? In fact, its essence is to make the marketing process rational, so as to better control the marketing behavior. The essence of marketing is a tool to sell products, and its purpose is to sell in order to obtain the profits needed for the survival and development of enterprises. Since the purpose is clear, there are many ways to achieve it. So later, some "P" appeared, such as public relations activities, telephone and other marketing methods. These marketing tools are auxiliary tools in 4P. They can be called a marketing tool because they can play an important role in a certain time and space and effectively promote sales. 4P is its expression, because these tools have similar letters in English. 4P is only the representative of many marketing methods. There will be other marketing tools such as M and S in the future, and 4C, which is popular now, is the representative of new marketing tools.

So 4P is out of date? Is it the yellow flower of the past? Or a conventional weapon in a commercial war?

To analyze whether a tool is outdated, the first thing is to see whether it is fully utilized; The same knife, some people can handle it freely, and wear a hundred steps; Some people look at the knife and sigh, but more people can only play with it. Why? The skills are not enough to really understand the essence and characteristics of "knife". For the latter, a simpler pistol is psychologically convenient, easy to use and safe to use, but how to shoot it is another matter.

Second, it depends on whether it has more competitors, that is, the scale of being replaced. This will affect people's habits and loyalty to this tool. When a tool is not used for a purpose or cannot produce results, people will consider other new tools.

To sum up, let's see if the so-called traditional 4P is out of date-

First of all, for 4P products, from the marketing point of view, this is the beginning of all marketing activities. Without products, everything is impossible. We say that the real reason why product marketing is outdated is that we have not found a good product with strong consumer demand; The deeper reason is that our products can not meet the needs of consumers in basic quality, which leads consumers to have more expectations for product updates. That is to say, our products are not done well in essence and lost to foreign products in many details.

Electrolux refrigerator enjoys a high reputation in Europe, because it can guarantee the same quality for fifteen years. Internationally renowned cookware such as German Fishler cookware can enjoy high-end and rich profits. Although the same type of cookware can be produced in China, it is still a quality problem. The crisis of quality trust encountered by many domestic industries is the best explanation of product marketing.

In addition, in fact, consumers still follow the market. What products are sold in the market, consumers will consume what products, but whether the products can greatly meet the common explicit needs of many consumers. To say that product marketing is outdated means that the research and development process of products is outdated, and its essence is what kind of thinking mode R&D personnel use to develop products. As far as product research and development is concerned, it doesn't mean that R&D personnel are divorced from reality, because in essence, R&D personnel, like us, are all people with their own ideas and have the psychology of meeting the needs, just whether they can make the products more perfect from a broader perspective.

Secondly, for the price of 4P, the enterprise's own pricing itself is also the result of many considerations, such as cost, competitors, marketing environment and so on. But the reality is that if enterprises can't effectively reduce costs, they will always be at a disadvantage in the competition. Nowadays, many people think that the way of pricing by enterprises themselves is outdated, and its essence is the way of thinking adopted by enterprises when pricing. In addition, the phenomenon of market price war caused by grabbing the China market makes many enterprises feel uneasy about the price strategy, so how to set the price? Is it feasible to increase substantive advantages by reducing costs? Or do you play some numbers games on the pricing mantissa? As for consumers' views on the price in the market, the more problem is that we have not given consumers a reason to accept this price.

Thirdly, regarding the channel problem in 4Ps, the importance of channel is always described as "channel is king" in business, and the essence of channel is the market process of products from manufacturers to consumers. At present, it is believed that 4P channel is out of date because the existing channels can not bring greater promotion as before, and its root lies in the increase of market competition resistance and the confusion caused by the diversity of channels.

It's not that the existing channel views or methods are not important, but that we haven't found a fast and effective channel relationship and a way to control channels. The existing traditional channel relationship is not well done, and taking shortcuts is not the best way, because it involves the "basic skills" of enterprise sales management. No matter how good the channel method is, it will eventually "land" and be reflected through various forms or methods of commercial terminals.

Fourthly, there are many ways to promote sales, such as strategic, tactical, random and so on, and there are also many forms of expression, such as various advertisements, promotional activities such as discounted gifts, bundled sales, public relations activities and so on. As the last link of marketing, the essence of promotion lies in promoting communication with consumers, expanding consumers' random purchase rate and repeated purchase frequency, shortening consumers' purchase decision-making time and achieving the purpose of promotion.

To say that the traditional concept of promotion is outdated is more because the design and implementation of our promotion are out of line. As the saying goes, "three points of planning, seven points of implementation" is like this. No matter how good the promotion scheme is, it will eventually be implemented. Poor implementation is the ultimate reason for most of the imperfect promotion. And when our sales efforts can't be directly proportional to the sales we want, we will naturally ask: how to sell?

Generally speaking, 4P, as the marketing theory we first came into contact with, may be slightly aging in the mature western market economy environment, but it cannot be regarded as aging and outdated in the emerging market economy environment in China, because after all, our foundation is not solid.

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