3 Quotes by Robert F. Lauterborn

The 4P’s was about “What does the marketer want to say?” while the 4C’s asks “What does the customer need to hear that the marketer can say?

Many people have played with the 4P’s and even with the 4C’s, tried to put their own particular stamp on it, but at the risk of sounding arrogant, no variation I’ve ever seen has expressed the outside-in concept as simply and elegantly as the original 4C’s formulation.

It was in rebuttal to the 4P’s concept that had been the cornerstone of marketing teaching since 1960 or so (and still may be, in many places). I felt that the 4P’s was wrong-headed because it looked at the marketing process from the company out, instead of from the customer in, which I felt was backwards.