The 4Cs

Picking up where we left in the article about the anatomy of the brands, the second essential concept in brand positioning is the 4Cs which stands for (1) clarity, (2) compelling, (3) credible, and (4) contrasting.

The following table sums up the 4Cs applied to Swatch & Ice-Watch giving ground to a comparison.

The 4Cs / The brands	SWATCH	ICE-WATCH
Clarity	+: The desired strategy i.e. high quality low price makes sense to the audience	+/-: The main idea is to have fashionable watches yet quality is not the main objective and prices are relatively high which makes the desired strategy a bit fuzzy
Compelling	+: The target audience do care about price & quality	+: The target audience do care about the design and trendiness
Credible	+: The positioning strategy comes across as believable since the watches are made in Switzerland  which is the expert in good quality watches	+: It is credible because the designs are made in Belgium, there are several collaborations, and also great efforts are spent in making stars wear Ice-Watch
Contrasting	+: Swatch is contrasted enough from their competitors since watches are made out of plastic opposing enough to the traditional watches made out of leather or steel	+/-: Ice-Watches are considered as a fashion accessory since it is trendy to have it at one’s wrist although the material used (silicon) is similar to Swatch’s plastic

By Mouna S.