Sale the 7 Cs: teaching/training aid for the (e-)retail mix

Abstract

Purpose – The “4Ps” of the marketing mix have long been popular with students, tutors, trainers and practitioners as a learning and teaching aid. The purpose of this paper is to present an equivalent tool for retail and e-retail: “Sale the 7Cs”.

Design/methodology/approach – The approach is by reference to and synthesis of other authors' versions of the marketing, retail and e-retail mixes, distilled into a simplified framework.

Findings – The findings or outcome of the study are summarised into a framework that has seven components, linked by the “C” mnemonic. Starting with C1 for convenience; the framework also includes C2 for customer value and benefit, C3 for cost to the customer, C4 for computing and category management, C5 for customer franchise, C6 for customer care and service and C7 for communication and customer relationships. This simplified mnemonic is new for (e-)retail.

Originality/value – Mini case examples are used to illustrate the applicability. These have a practical value for trainers and educators as specimen answers to activity exercises. Retailers may find the convenient 7Cs structure useful when planning strategies and tactics.