The Marketing 5Cs tool forces you to think expansively about the entire universe your business operates in, with a focus on your external environment. A simple framework on the surface, it provides a way to understand the present state of your business so you can attempt to predict, react, and create the future.
You can download our Marketing 5C's slide here >>
This tool can be as simple (low effort) or as in depth (time intensive) as you want it to be. It’s great for entrepreneurs and small/medium sized business because it does not necessarily require deep analytics or rigor, just an expansive view of the terrain you operate in. I’ve started three ventures myself; I know even the smallest addition of work in a start-up like environment can be too much to take on.
With that said, I’ve laid out the 5Cs in a high-level way so you could take only the biggest observations/insights and put them on one page. Also, instead of telling you what you can plug into each section, I’ve written the key questions that you should be asking; asking good questions is the hallmark of strategic thinking.
“Be open minded. But not so open minded that your brain falls out”
— Groucho Marx
Where do the 5Cs fit in with strategic planning?
Strategy Kiln loves to showcase OCCAM’s Strategy Razor, our five-step process for strategic planning that includes two crucial ingredients that are often overlooked, strategic thinking and strategic leadership. The 5Cs Analysis helps kick-off a situation assessment in the “open phase” of OCCAM.
What are the 5Cs, and what questions should I be seeking answers to?
Company
Are we profitable?
o Could we be more profitable?
o How have we tracked vs. goals and objectives in the past?
Is there an opportunity to increase operations and reduce costs?
What assets do we possess that may be underutilized?
o How can we reinforce current assets and operations to provide greater results?
What is our company culture like?
o What are the top values we aspire to vs. what employees say we stand for?
Where are we currently investing capital?
o Are these the right areas to invest?
o What should we invest in for the long term?
What’s keeping us up at night?
o What SHOULD be keeping us up at night?
Customers
Do we have a qualitative and quantitative sense of who our customer is?
o Who are the low/medium/heavy buyers?
What are the demographics/psychographics/behaviors that describe them, and how can we use this information to hone product and marketing decisions?
In terms of market structure, what are the largest product/service segments?
o Are there any key needs we could serve but currently are not?
o Are there any customers we should stop serving?
What are the key customer learnings we have that can drive future strategy?
Practical ways to understand your customer
Create a survey to get answer to customer pain points and needs using your current audience, or use Pollfish.
o Pollfish will get you an audience of ~400 for $500 - $1,000. It’s something I plan to try myself over the next few months
o It’s totally free to take a look at what customers type in google and get volume and cost estimates
o Type in Keyword Planner in google and you can figure out how to access it
o Gives you three free searches per day, and it’s what I use to get a sense of high volume/low competition customer interest online
Competitors
Who are the market share leaders and why?
o Who has gained/lost share and why?
Who are the direct and indirect competitors we face?
How are competitor’s business models similar or different?
o Any new business models introduced that are small now but growing fast?
What have the latest innovations been?
o Are we competitive in terms of innovation (quantity, quality, and scale wise)?
o What should we consider as a new approach to innovation, if needed?
Practical ways to understand your competition
Did you know you can go to any of your competitor’s Facebook page and see exactly what ads they have up, and how much their ad spend is for social/political agendas?Well you can – just got to the competitors Facebook page and find this Page Transparency box on the left side of the page, and from their you can “go to Ad Library” as shown above.
o This is another incredible free resource that lets you see a competitors domain authority (likelihood to get SEO traction in google), but more importantly, let’s you see what content (pages, articles, etc.) is driving the most traffic for your competition
Collaborators
Do we have the right business partners across all aspects of the business?
o Is there an opportunity to improve current relationships or engage new partners?
o Is our technology helping or hindering us from being productive?
What areas should we prioritize in terms of need?
o Marketing agency partnership
Do we need a strategy, branding, or marketing campaign partner?
o Marketing software technology - E.g. Are current email and website platforms capable of delivering what we need to our customers?
You could pull in influencer partnerships here if they transcend a standard marketing outreach approach.
Climate
Don’t overlook the external factors that may change and impact you in a massive and surprising way
o What legal/regulatory rules or laws could impact your ability to operate?
o Is your supply chain exposed to trade tariffs (e.g. products from China during the trade war) or shortages?
o How does the macro economy affect how you do business?
Do you perform better or worse during recessions?
How can you diversify to ensure sustainability during difficult times?
A practical way to understand broader trends
o Everyone LOVES Google trends because it’s so easy to use. Go take a look at keywords like “keto diet” or “work from home” and see how these topics are exploding, leveling, or declining over time.
One of the drawbacks of a 5Cs analysis is that it’s not a decision-making tool. You get observations and facts; the goal is to draw initial business implications, and from there choose another approach in order to formulate a strategic recommendation.
You can incorporate a SWOT Analysis, either within the 5Cs or as a next step.
When used properly, the SWOT analysis makes an excellent complement to the 5Cs framework, using the data you’ve gathered from the 5Cs as inputs. Don’t think of SWOT as a data collection tool, a SWOT should drive strategic insight by linking strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats against each other, leading you to where your opportunity to grow exists. You can watch a dedicated video on the “SWOT Fusion Matrix,” or “TOWS,” which is a powerful recommendation version of the SWOT, here >>
Summing it up…
Why are the 5Cs important?
If you want a clear strategy or marketing plan, you need a holistic and deep understanding of your company, customers, competitors, collaborators, and climate dynamics. You can keep the 5Cs analysis simple and easy to execute, making it a friendly tool for entrepreneurs and small business owners.
How to use the 5Cs
- Keep the 5Cs as one slide for a high-level view, or break in out into multiple slides
to tell a story
- Can be used for annual planning and also works well as a method to bring new employees up to speed on how your business operates
- Bolting on other tools, such as a SWOT and PESTEL analysis, leads to better. decision making
- Take a look and refresh this at least every 6 months
Advantages
- Simple, holistic view of your business
- Flexible format can adjust to the level of detail you need in your analysis
Disadvantages
- Weak on actionable next steps without adding other tools like SWOT
- Watch out for making the tool too simple (not enough data)
What are some pros or cons you’ve experienced with the 5Cs approach?
Any specific thoughts on how to get this off the ground in smaller organizations?
Comment below, and thanks.
About the Author: Adam Fischer leads content development for Strategy Kiln. As a marketing strategist, he’s held positions at Fortune 500 companies as well as start-ups. He holds a B.S. in philosophy from Northeastern University and an M.B.A. from Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University. He enjoys the enigmatic nature of business strategy and finding ways to grow understanding of it for both himself and others.
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