Professor Koichi Shimizu's
7Cs Compass Model

4Ps and 4Cs

Before discussing about 7Cs Compass Model, inevitably we need to understand the contents of 4Ps and 4Cs. Not matter whether the marketing model is 4Ps, 4Cs or 7Cs, it is not only for the academic research but also can be effectively applied for the marketing management. A good model can be applied for a long period even the outside environment has been changed. However when the changes are too much and out of the expectation of its inventor, the model needs to be entirely revamped to suite these changes. 4Cs is introduced at such background - from high-growth to low-growth economics while 7Cs compass model introduced by Professor Koichi Shimizu is to more precisely explain the essential factors of low-growth economics.

Professor E. Jerome McCathy summarized the marketing models compiled by other famous professors namely Edward W. Cundiff, Richard R. Still, Robert J. Holloway, Robert S. Hancoch, William Stanton, William M. Pride, O.C. Ferrel, John A. Howard, Albert Wesley Frey, William Lazer and Eugene J. Kelley and introduced the influential 4Ps model. The contents of 4Ps model are not much different from that of other models but 4Ps (Product, Place, Promotion, Price) can be easily remembered and applied to guide the marketing activities.

The 4Cs model is based on the 4Ps. The 4Cs is a customer-centric approach while the 4P is a product-centric approach. The 4Cs makes more sense since marketing focuses on satisfying customer satisfaction. Philip Kotler, the expert of marketing, says that marketing must focus more sharply on the customer. He convincingly argued that the seller's paradigm of the four Ps - product, price, place and promotion - should become the four Cs of a buyer's or customer's mix as propounded by Robert Lauterborn (1990) in an interview with Mazur (1991-2).

In a customer-oriented marketing mix, product becomes commodity - the product for the consumers or citizens; price becomes cost to the customer and includes time and energy cost; place for the customer is channel and promotion becomes communication. Some might argue that this is a mere play on words, but it does portray a massive shift in marketing management thinking, philosophy and strategy. The issue is not what words are used but what is the best way to offer value to the user. Interestingly, the customer charters that are now proliferating are also examples of a paradigm shift toward customer satisfaction as a priority.

7Ps to Professor Shimizu's 7Cs

At the time of booming economic, the marketing professionals are not likely to ask the question if their products can be sold out or not. As illustrated by the left column of the below figure, producers produce massive products for the targeting purchasers and persuade the potential customers by practicing promotions and display the products at right places after deciding their prices. As a result in conjunction with the external environmental profiles, more profits are realized by selling out these products.

But at the time of economics downturn, as illustrated by the right column of the below figure, companies or corporations produce the convenient commodities for the consumers or citizens with the consideration of the total marketing cost, and first of all gain their consents through the sufficient communications and then their confidences by selecting the effective channels in conjunction with the uncontrollable external circumstances. This is the way to survive in the period of low growth economics.

We can find out a dozen of marketing jargons for high growth economics like managerial marketing, social marketing, ecological marketing and de-marketing, etc. Their basic philosophy is Pro-marketing - to promote the marketing activities, moving forward. However for the low growth economic, it is replaced by Com-marketing - to communicate and cooperate with the consumers, sometimes stopping or even moving backward to listen to their voices.