Flip the Funnel: How to Use Existing Customers to Gain New Ones

THE 6-C MODEL: A CRASH-COURSE RECAP

The traditional 4-P marketing model is outdated and commoditized (Figure 14.1). The notion that we can build entire brand platforms—and tangibly differentiate and sustain the brand from its competitors by using a one-dimensional framework of product, place, price, and promotion—is both limited and passé. Success stories today on any of these levels have been few and far between; and are truly exceptions to the norm and outliers in and of themselves.

Product = the iPhone or Wii

Place = the Kindle and its WhisperNet, and WhisperSync technology

Figure 14.1 From the 4-P to the 6-C Model

Source: © Joseph Jaffe.

Price = Priceline.com, Coldplay, or Radiohead’s honor system

Promotion = Tourism Queensland’s “Best Job in the World”

In a three-tiered, physical, digital, and virtual world, there is a new foundation on which to substantially and authentically create meaningful departure or arrival points that demonstrate real differences—as opposed to perceived or artificially created ones:

Content	}	The classic Web 1.0 formula (Digital)
Commerce	}
Community	}
Context	}	The emerging Web 2.0 formula (Virtual)
Customization	}
Conversation	}

Our role as marketers is to decipher connections between the six categories, not only how one might influence another—for example: “What is the impact of content such as consumer-generated content on commerce?” —but also ...