Marketing communication is an essential component of a brand’s success!
David Jobber and John Fahy explored marketing communication in-depth and published their findings in their book “Foundations of Marketing” after studying numerous successful and unsuccessful brands.
Successful marketing communication always needs to have four components. Otherwise, the purpose of marketing communication is lost.
4C’s of marketing communication are:
- Clarity
- Credibility
- Consistency
- Competitiveness
Clarity means there is no shred of ambiguity in marketing communication.
Clarity is a clear idea and a simple message.
Customers understand the message without any doubt and are able to take solid action on the basis of the message.
Credibility means that the idea must be credible in customers’ minds. Customers don’t doubt the value proposition.
Consistency means a consistent message to break through the myriads of communication. It means communication does not include unnecessary elements during customers’ journeys.
Competitiveness means the idea and message provide the company with a competitive edge.
Once a business has segmented its marketing and identified the target audience, the next stage is to position the business. To successfully achieve this, the 4Cs are useful tools to create a positioning statement or to build an online value proposition.
Here are three examples of popular brands analyzed on the 4C model.
- Just do it! (Nike)
- Think different (Apple)
- We believe better sounds make everything better (Bose)
- There is only one Harrods (Harrods)
All of the above slogans and positioning statements miss the element of competitiveness.
Here are some slogans that address the competitive element of marketing communication.
- Love is cheaper (Morrison’s)
- Live well for less (Sainsbury)
The above two slogans give the brand a competitive edge in the market by sending a complete message.
While creating marketing communication material, use the 4C model and write messages that are clear, credible, consistent, and competitive.
Yes, it’s possible that you may not be able to address all 4C’s in your messages.
But try to include most of them in your communication.
Such a practice will turn your marketing communication into an effective one and produce substantial results for your brand.
Remember, prefer to write messages that are always clear and credible. Otherwise, if you miss these essential elements in your message, your communication will be ambiguous and customers will never act accordingly.
That’s all for today!