Let's break down the marketing mix called the 4Ps. It was introduced to the literature by Philip Kotler, the first name that comes to mind when marketing is mentioned in the world. The "4P" is derived from Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. You have a startup that is preparing to introduce a new baby diaper to the market. Let's create the 4P structure together. First of all, you start with the product, the baby diaper that is competitive and suitable for market conditions. Then, you determine a price that is suitable for your production and operational costs, which is our second P. The third P is Place, which refers to distribution. How will your product be distributed? Do you plan to sell only online or do you also aim to be present in physical stores? Will your target audience also find this product on the shelves of physical retailers? The last P is Promotion. What are the features of your product, and what kind of campaigns and channels do you plan to use to promote it? Some of the tools in promotion include "advertising, personal selling, public relations, announcements and discounts, sweepstakes, contests, etc." Remember that all of these require good planning. I think I have summarized the 4P concept briefly. Now we can explain how the 4P evolved into the 4C.

4C

In our connected world, the marketing mix concept has developed more integrated ways to reach the customer. This connection has become inevitable and has given rise to the new 4C concept. Therefore, the marketing mix is considered as Co-creation, currency, communal activation, and conversation. Joint investment, exchange rate, community activation, and conversation.

The new strategy for product development in the digital economy is joint investment. Early involvement of customers in the idea development phase plays a key role in creating a new product with a solid foundation. The pricing concept is also moving from standard pricing to dynamic pricing in the digital age. Dynamic pricing can be flexible in parallel with market demand and capacity utilization. For example, online retailers use a pricing strategy that offers a special price for each customer based on the large amount of data they collect and analyze from big data pools. The concept of pricing in this way is also known as Big Data. Companies can increase their profitability thanks to this technique. In this digital economy, pricing is similar to fluctuating exchange rates based on market demand. The channel concept is changing as well. In the sharing economy, the most powerful concept is distribution among individuals. Startups like Airbnb and Uber have disrupted the hotel and taxi industries, respectively. These companies provide easy access to services that belong to other customers, not themselves. The Uber you call to your door is actually another Uber customer, a real person who provides taxi service with his vehicle during his free time. In Airbnb, the house you rent is actually someone else's house who offers their home to other people for tourism purposes. In recent years, the concept of Place has also undergone an evolution. Traditionally, companies have always had a one-way communication by sending messages to customers who were in the audience position. Today, social media has made it possible to mix these messages. The importance of customer ratings has increased significantly thanks to applications such as TripAdvisor. In this connected world, the marketing mix or 4C makes it more likely for companies to survive in the digital economy. While customers were more passive in traditional marketing, in the digital world, the customer and the brand are in constant communication. The main issue here is that both sides should actively benefit from the value.

In summary, today, collaboration is the key in customer relations. The success in marketing lies in the fact that companies invite customers to participate in the process by offering them opportunities that demonstrate their value. Initially, the methods that companies will use to increase their visibility should start with traditional media and then become sustainable in digital environments. The digital world should actively participate in motivating them to take action.