5 C's of Marketing Startegy

The Five C’s of Marketing are the five most important areas of marketing. When marketing executives make marketing decisions, they should consider the five C’s of marketing. The five C’s stand for Company, Customers, Collaborators, Competitors, and Climate. The five C’s act as a guideline when we are creating a marketing plan or devising a marketing strategy.

The 5c analysis is one of the most popular situational analysis models due to its effectiveness and its simplicity, and is an excellent choice for small- to medium-sized businesses.

How to conduct a 5c analysis:

Begin by asking questions related to  business:

1. What does the company sell? List the major product lines or types.
2. Do company products vary from competitors' products? If so, in what ways?
3. What competitive advantage does the company have?
4. What makes the companies brand unique or memorable?
5. What does the companies business do better than others?
6. What does the companies business do worse than others?
7. How do customers view the companies business?
8. If the company suddenly gained Rs 10000000.00 to invest in the companies business, where would the company invest it?
9. If the company suddenly had to cut its budget by 10%, where would the company make those cuts?
10. What are the companies 1, 3, and 5-year goals for itself?

The 5 c marketing strategy are:

1. Customers: The analytics in accordance to the customer varies greatly. A company needs to analyse a vast array of things to determine what the customers want and work on its capacity to fulfil that. The company needs to analyse things like the market size and growth, study how the  preference and desire of the customer changes over time, seasonal impact on sale and frequency of purchase, why a customer chooses a product, quantity purchased, how the customer knows about the company, what prompts the customer to buy the product, analysis between benefit vs. cost, market segment, and the benefit the customer seeks – tangible or intangible.

2. Company: Whether you are an FMCG company or an international information technology company, you need to analyse the scope for improvement in your product line, the image you currently have in the market and this needs to be done on a regular basis. You cannot rely on data that is post-dated. The mood of the market changes constantly and you need to analyse that, the response of the customer towards your product. The goodwill of your company in the market, goals, missions and vision also needs to be analysed.All this helps the company to determine the areas of its weaknesses, its capability to serve its customers and detect any loophole in its strategy.

3. Competitors:This analysis is very important as it determines the present and the future of a business. Competitor analysis focuses on three things in the majority; identifying the competitor is one of the very first and the most important factor in competitor analysis – identifying the product that the competitor offers; whether it’s akin to yours and if so then how can you offer better, the potential opportunity for the company and the threat its competitors may post in the near future, and the ratio of market share that its competitors are enjoying and its share in the market – this analysis helps the company focus on areas that would help it enjoy more of the market share and optimize on its present customer.

4. Collaborators:Collaborators are those who have shared interests in the growth of the company, meaning if the company enjoys profit they benefit a share of it. Identifying collaborators is very important as they help the company discover many un-reaped opportunities that the company would otherwise never be aware of. Collaborators like distributors, suppliers, and alliances are the closest to the customers, so input from them can go a long way.

5. Context or Climate:The analysis of context or climate is often referred to as PEST analysis. PEST is the analysis of the macro-environment, it affects every company whether big or small. Each syllable of the word PEST stands for:-

• Political analysis: The government policies and regulations that affect the functioning of a company.eg. GST, FDI, Tax imposed on corporations, and other taxes levied.etc.
• Economic analysis: Economic factors greatly affect the functioning of a business, like the recent 2008 crisis; if businesses could predict this, they could have shelled a lot of loss.
• Social analysis: The mood of the society and the current trend and fashion play a major role in determining the preference of a consumer.
• Technological analysis: A business needs to be alert about the new technologies and adapt themselves accordingly, bring in technologies that would help solve the customers needs more effectively. Like in the near future ‘internet of things’ is going to be the new big thing and businesses need to learn in advance of the possibility it poses.

5 C's Analysis of Cadbury India

Company

Cadbury Dairy Milk is a brand of chocolate made by Cadbury Plc. unit of Kraft Foods and sold in several countries around the world. It first went on sale in 1905 in the United Kingdom. The current parent is Mondelez International.

Customers

The prospective customer of dairy milk range from 5 to 60 years of age. Since dairy milk has a range of product suited for every member of the family. The aim is to strengthen the brand relationship in the current consumer’s life. The ranges of customers vary for diary milk. Whereas some buy it as an alternative for sweet others buy it as a gift item. The consumers mostly buy the product on impulse and are influenced by taste/flavor and then by company/brand. Customers get sentimental and emotionally attached. We can see that it had really affected the minds and psychology of consumers E.g.-when the company advertised its brand by tag lines “Aaj Pehli Tarik Hai”, ” Kuch Meetha Ho Jaye " and “Pappu Paas Ho Gaya”. However, the consumers had stopped purchasing the bars for sometime after the worm controversy. 

Competitors

The main competitors of Dairy milk in India are Nestle, Ferrero Rocher, Amulchocolates & unbranded chocolate. The high end chocolates (Bourneville and silk)also face competition also face competition from the imported Swiss chocolates. Butone of the biggest advantages the dairy milk has over its competitors is the brandloyalty that it has got. The excellent advertising, reach and accessibility have made itthe top of mind brand in the chocolate category.

Climate

The climate for the chocolate industry and dairy milk in particular seems very attractive in a country like India. With the size of the market being so big along with encouraging category growth the prospects look very good. Since the product is not seasonal and the margin is also good makes the climate for the industry even better.With new innovations coming up in terms of product and packaging the market is still on a growth curve.

Collaborators

As already said Cadbury dairy milk manages a huge range of retailers and wholesellers who make up the collaborators. 

Key Takeaways

1. As a marketer we need to determine what customer needs we are trying to satisfy through research we can gain valuable customer insights so we can develop customer segments.
2. It's important you understand your company's resource capabilities you can do this by conducting a SWOT analysis to understand your company's strengths and weaknesses.
3. Competition is the key. Competitors who compete with your company in your industry you need to know them in great detail their strengths and capabilities.
4. Collaborators are our key suppliers and alliance partners we partner with to add value to our product and service offerings.

5. Climate is referred to as pest analysis pest is the analysis of the macro-environment which includes political economic social and technological impact factors.

   In summary, the five Cs are a useful framework for developing a marketing strategy and the basis of good strategy development is researching and developing deep customer insights