My 5Cs Model of Marketing

It is common in business, and in Marketing function, to have models, frameworks, abbreviations, jargon etc to work on a problem, describe a situation or simply keep the knowledge limited to practitioners (by making it difficult for others to comprehend jargon and / or abbreviations). It is also common to work with a digit and an alphabet - 4Ps & 7Ps of Marketing Mix, 5Cs of Marketing and then there is also the famous McKinsey 7S model.

Recently, I was asked what excites me about Marketing (& communications) industry. This question made me realise there wasn't just one thing that I could single out, or say specifically, that stood out - however, I also did realise that there were a few that I could list down. In order to speak the Marketing language, I answered the question with my own 5Cs model (of what excites me about Marketing):

1C: Consumer-centric - neither constant nor static, consumers are at the centre of everything that this industry manages. It is exciting, for me, to understand, work with and manage ever-changing consumers (in terms of needs / wants / behaviour / demographics).

2C: Critical - plays a critical role in business that of being a sensory function – as it sees, hears, feels what consumers need / want, communicates what a product / brand offers, and at times innovates a new solution to an existing consumer problem. Not only that, Marketing is critical as through this, businesses manage to keep their fingers on pulse of competition and changing environment.

3C: Creative - not only in the form of art / design or smart copy, but also in thought process and approach towards problem solving – this industry demands creativity. Level of creativity (art / copy) and frequency of creative solutions provides a distinct competitive advantage to businesses.

4C: Collaborative - this is a team-sport, where different members of the team bring different (yet equally desired) abilities. As a people-person, collaboration is where my strength lies. In business, as in life, collaboration can solve most issues, but is most difficult to achieve.

5C: Challenging - all the above Cs ensure there is never a dull moment, and managers need to be proactive, in-sync with changing environment (consumers / competition). Every moment, every day could potentially bring me face to face with a new challenge – and that excites me the most.