First, marketing had the 4 Ps:
- Product, aka what you’re selling
- Price, aka what it costs
- Placement, aka how do you get your product to your customers
- Promotion, aka how are you selling your product
Then, marketing moved to the 4 Cs:
- Consumer, aka who is your audience and what do they want
- Cost, aka what it costs (that one didn’t change)
- Convenience, aka where do your segments buy your stuff (because they may not all buy in the same place/way)
- Communication, aka two-way interaction with your audiences
But, Harvard Business Review argues, really forward-thinking marketers are now into SAVE-ing:
- S-olutions, which forces you away from thinking about your products and into thinking about the problems your audiences have and how you can help them address those problems, which is a step beyond “what do they want?”
- A-ccess, is still about the where, but incorporates the Google idea of the Zero Moment of Truth, the concept of the “purchase journey,” and your organization’s skill in and availability for customer service and interaction
- V-alue, which is intimately familiar to associations, as we talk constantly about the “value of membership” – turns out, people are far less price-sensitive than we tend to think they are as long as the value is apparent
- E-ducation, aka content marketing, or non-sales communication
What are you doing to SAVE for your members?
sohini says:
” turns out, people are far less price-sensitive than we tend to think they are as long as the value is apparent”
Yup. This is why I use some things that cost more in dollars. (Like the Mac computers and the car that cost me a bit more than the other option way back when.) I’ve never felt like I didn’t get what I paid for, and never resented writing the monthly check for as long as I had to.
Conversely, I feel like I’m more inclined to haggle if I know that I’m going to be grumbly and therefore want to not pay top dollar.
Sarah Lugo says:
Great reminder! Focusing too much on the consumer and the product makes me stay static instead of looking forward. Do you think Access and/or Value could also refer to CSR??? Or in reference to associations–community outreach?