If you are an MBA student struggling with a case study of a firm or a business owner who wants to explore the deeper insights of your firm, then a 5Cs analysis in marketing is the way to go.
Curious about what it is? Brace yourselves as I will take on an adventurous journey of the 5Cs marketing model through this article, so let us get started.
What is 5Cs Analysis in marketing?
To start, let us try to understand the 5Cs model with a straightforward, realistic, and relatable example; if we assume the firm to be a human body, then a 5Cs analysis in marketing is a complete body checkup which one should do regularly to keep the body healthy, i.e., to keep the firm growing.
In this article, I will explain every part of the process in a very simplistic manner. I will also be doing a 5Cs analysis of the tech giant Apple to give a practical point of view. So let's dive deeper into the situation analysis model.
The 5Cs of Marketing
Let us now try to understand each factor of the 5Cs analysis one by one. It may seem typical initially, but examples would surely simplify the terms.
- Context
- Company
- Customers
- Competitors
- Collaborators
For now, the C-C-C-C-Cs might seem a bit confusing, but I assure you that by the end of this article, they will appear as simple as A-B-Cs.
Understanding 5C's Analysis with examples
Context
So, the first and crucial step is contextual analysis, which in simpler words, is getting to know about the climate or the environment in which your firm is functioning. We use a business tool (PESTLE) which makes our job easier.
PESTLE refers to all the external environmental factors, i.e., political, economic, social, technological, legal, and ecological, affecting the firm. A company's success depends significantly on how it exploits the opportunities and guard against threats.
PESTLE takes you through all the concerned factors. Next time you want to do a contextual analysis of a firm, PESTLE will get you covered.
Company
Having a thorough idea about all the minute details about the company is a must in 5Cs Analysis. You should know what product your company sells and to whom.
You should introspect about the competitive advantage possessed by the company and how you can sustain it for long; being aware of all the various advantages and disadvantages possessed by the firms is also essential.
All these are done by using the traditional SWOT analysis technique, which in minimal time enables you to know about all the strengths and weaknesses of the firm along with the success drivers and future threats so that one can make wiser decisions for any product launch in the future to maximise the profit and minimise any shortcomings.
Customers
After understanding your firm's various strengths and weaknesses, the next and essential step is to know about your customers. It would be best to be very specific about your customers,i.e., their age group, taste, buying pattern, loyalty, etc.
At each step, gather and analyse information about their needs, hopes, preferences, commitment, strategies, and price/value perspective. It would help if you effectively used the customer feedback tool to gain as much information about your customers as you can.
This will enable you to be far ahead of your competitors and make logical and correct decisions in the future.
Understanding customers' needs, wants, and purchase patterns is crucial. Apple has approximately 1 billion customers and 1.4 billion active devices. Apple has such a vast market that many customers are loyal enough to buy the latest device without paying attention to the price.
In the USA, half of Apple's customers are very satisfied with its customer service, while 38% are satisfied, and only 3% expressed their dissatisfaction with Apple's customer service.
Competitors
You cannot effectively compete without knowing who your actual competitors are. Knowing your competitor's overall market position, strengths, and weaknesses will give you a huge advantage.
Ideally, you should target companies similar to your size, but it's okay if they are larger or more established than you. Despite what it might appear, smaller companies have several advantages over larger ones.
Compared with a big advertising budget, small companies can be much more agile and inventive with their marketing since they aren't beholden to committees or stakeholders.
- In the smartphone market, Apple's main competitors are Samsung, Huawei, and Xiaomi.
- The company's main competitors in the personal computer market include Lenovo, HP Inc., Dell, Acer, and Asus. Competition like this puts tremendous pressure on Apple.
Collaborators
Collaborators in 5Cs Analysis are entities that enable or enhance your firm's ability to provide a good or service in a particular way. A collaborator can be any supplier or manufacturer associated with your firm in simpler terms.
Your collaborators will enable your organisations to provide their goods or services in the manner they do. In the 5C Analysis framework, downstream collaborators are more specifically defined as customers, so integration can only happen upstream.
If you look at the number of firms associated with Apple, you will find an endless list. Apple's collaborators help it in several domains like consulting and system integration, network and security, etc. E.g., Apple solutions are created by Accenture to transform how businesses work, and with Deloitte's enterprise expertise, iPhones and iPads are maximised.
With IBM Services, global enterprises are transforming with custom mobile apps. Salesforce improves the customer experience on iPhone and iPad; Cisco provides networking, security, and collaboration solutions for Apple products.
For checking out at other collaborators of Apple, refer this article.
You would already know how big and successful APPLE has become in the Tech world. In Aug 2018, the company became the first in the world to reach a trillion-dollar valuation! The credit of this success should also go to the entities, firms that worked with APPLE. Such is the significance of collaborators.
Conclusion
As we approach the end of the article, I am sure you must have grasped a thorough idea of what 5Cs marketing analysis is. We talked about every part of the 5Cs in detail and have put the case of Apple as the central theme of the article. I have also used specific flowcharts and graphs to make you easily understand the concepts.
In addition, I briefly discussed two essential business tools, namely PESTLE and SWOT analysis. I will discuss these tools in more detail in the following chapters.
Follow each step carefully to get a good grasp of all the happenings at the company.