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AN INSIGHT TO A NEWER MARKETING

TOOL….

HOLISTIC MARKETING

BY ANNETTE FERNANDES
MCOM PART 2
SEMESTER 3

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HOLISTIC MARKETING
A FRESH BUSINESS CONCEPT
Definition: - The holistic marketing concept is based on the development, design, and
implementation of marketing programs, process, and activities that recognize their breadth and
interdependencies. Holistic marketing recognizes that “everything”
Individuals try a variety of different marketing strategies every day. Some of these strategies
work for them and helps them to become successful and profitable, while others are left wanting
in one aspect or another. Even when a certain marketing strategy seems to work, it seems like
something is missing from the whole experience. If any of these apply to you, it might be good
idea to look into different marketing strategy that invigorates their spirit as well as their
marketing style. A different form of marketing strategy in which you explore different aspects
such as Integrity Selling, Spirit Selling, and Spiritual Marketing is known as Holistic Marketing.
Holistic Marketing is a great tool for any business whether you are a therapist, practitioner,
consultant, or any other type of business one wishes to market effectively. The first step in
Holistic Marketing is to start to the soul searching process. You need to look inside yourself in
order to figure out what is going on in your life and what you wish to accomplish. Ask questions
that will help figure out what inner strengths that you may possess, then figure out how to draw
on those strengths. Another step is to figure out what you and the potential clients have in
common. Clients need to be able to feel comfortable and trust who they are doing business with,
no matter what field of expertise it might be. No one is going to see a doctor if they don't feel
comfortable with them.
The next part of Holistic Marketing is that the individual marketing their skills or product needs
to be in the marketing mind frame every day. In order to be successful, you have to be ready to
market yourself every day, no matter if it's at the grocery store or the office. This doesn't mean
that you have to be in everyone's face all the time, pushing the products or services, with Holistic
Marketing there is a more natural approach to this. Treat it the same as making a new friend or
acquaintance, be friendly, nice, confident, and don't make it seem like the objective is to sell.
This will get the attention of more potential clients or customers in a more positive way than any
of the other tactics that take more of a salesman approach.
For those who are new to the prospect of Holistic Marketing it is wise to do some research into
the practices and methods taught by various people. This can be done online or by investing in a
few books to help you along and help you discover what you need to change about your current
marketing strategy. The overall goal is to find a marketing strategy that works for whatever it is
you are trying to market. If there is more than just one person involved in the marketing, make
sure that everyone takes part of the marketing plan. Everyone needs to be involved in order to be
successful. So many people fear marketing when it can actually be embraced and transformed
into something that can be enjoyed.

Holistic marketing is a concept that is increasing in popularity, as more business owners are
seeking to promote their products and services in a way that conveys authenticity and integrity.
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Holistic marketing can be defined as a heart-centered approach to expanding and promoting

one's business. The intention is to attract highly qualified customers who have made an
emotional connection with what is being offered.
Conventional marketing is much more of an impersonal process that looks at promotion as a
numbers game. The more people who are exposed to your marketing messages, the better.
Holistic marketing is a personal process of building genuine relationships with prospective
customers through effective education and benefit-oriented story sharing.
The beauty of this form of marketing is that there is very little selling that has to be done in the
negative sense of the term. Instead, the prospective customer sells him/herself on what is being
offered through effective connection and education. Many service-based business owners who
hate the idea of forcing others to see the value in their product are now able to promote their
work authentically using this concept of holistic marketing.
In particular, the internet makes it much easier to engage in this new style of marketing. Now
the business owner can share helpful information from their website in a way that does the
selling for them. The main idea is that selling is accomplished through offering value up front
with no risk on the part of the prospective client. Then, if it is a natural progression, the
customer will move through the sales funnel until he/she decides that they are ready to buy.
Holistic marketing is a concept whose time has come. Now, entrepreneurs who have hated
selling can promote their work without being pushy or inauthentic.

THE HOLISTIC MARKETING MATRIX

HOLISTIC MARKETING
INTEGRATED INTERNAL RELATIOSHIP SOCIAL RESPONSIBITITY
MARKETING MARKETING MARKETING MARKETING
Products & Services Top Management Customers Community
Communications Marketing Department Partners Legal, Ethics
Channels Other Department Channels Environment

INTEGRATED MARKETING
One of the major tasks of marketers is to “integrate” all the marketing activities & programs like
“creating”, “communicating” & “delivering” value to the customers. The Famous Marketing Mix
– the Four Ps, as devised by McCarthy constitute the traditional marketing activities in four
broad groups as given below in details:
1. Products – Design, Features, Brand Name, Models, Style, Appearance, Quality, Warranty,
Package (design, type, material, size, appearance & labeling), Service ( pre-sale, after sale,
service standards, service charges), Returns.
2. Price – Pricing Policies, List Price, Margins, Discounts, Rebates, Terms of Delivery, Payment
Terms, Credit Terms, Installment Purchase Facility, Resale Price, Maintenance prices.

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3. Place – Channels of Distribution (channel design, types of intermediaries, location of outlets,

channel remuneration, dealer-principle relation, etc.), Physical Distribution (transportation,
warehousing, inventory levels, order processing, etc.)
4. Promotion – Personal Selling, Selling Expertise, Size of Sales Force, Quality of Sales Force,
and Marketing Communications - Advertising (media-mix, media vehicles, and programmers),
sales promotions, publicity & public relations, direct & interactive marketing).
Now, these traditional concepts of Four Ps represent the sellers’ view of the marketing tools
available to influence buyers. In holistic marketing one has to see also the buyers’ point of view,
where each of these tools will deliver the customers’ benefit or value. Robert Lauterborn
suggested the buyers’ Four Cs as follows:
Product = Customer Solution, Price = Customer Cost,
Place = Convenience, Promotion = Communication
Thus the successful companies are those who can meet (1) customer needs (2) economically, (3)
conveniently & (4) with effective communication. Two broad concepts of integrated marketing
are as follows:
1. Several different marketing activities are used to create, communicate & deliver customer
value,
2. All marketing activities coordinated to maximize their joint efforts.
Or in other words, the design & implementation of one activity is done with all other activities in
mind. The business of running a successful organization is to integrate the system for
management of demand, resources & network. Integrated marketing communication is a case in
point.

INTERNAL MARKETING
Internal marketing ensures that everyone in the organization adopts appropriate marketing
principles and the top management should see it happen. This is the management task of hiring,
training & motivating the employees to serve the customers well. Smart & successful companies
understand that there is as much activity outside the company as inside. For it makes no sense to
promise excellent services before the company’s service staff is ready to provide. Internal
marketing must happen in two levels as follows:
1. At the first level, all the marketing functions like, sales force, market research, customer
service, product management, advertising, etc. must go together, i.e., all the personnel should
work in tandem or unison for common goal.
2. At the second level, “marketing” must be embraced by other departments for a common
goal of the organization. All the relevant functional departments like Finance, HR, Operations,
Logistics, Systems, etc. must coordinate each other to have a marketing orientation. Only trying
to meet individual department’s target & norms and not supporting the marketing objectives will
take the company nowhere. One has to bear in mind that it’s marketing that earns revenue.
Internal marketing requires that everyone in the organization buy into the concepts & goals of
marketing, and engage themselves in selecting, creating, communicating & delivering customer
value. Only when all the employees realize that their jobs are to create, serve & satisfy the
customers does the company become an effective marketer.

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RELATIONSHIP MARKETING
The development of deep, enduring relationships with all the people or firms involved directly or
indirectly in the firm’s marketing activities is appearing as a key goal; of marketing. This is the
concept of Relationship marketing – it aims at building mutually satisfying long-term
relationships with key parties like customers, financiers, suppliers, distributors & of course the
stakeholders, in order to earn & retain their business. It also builds strong economic, technical &
social binding amongst the parties. There are four key constituents of marketing are:
1. Customers
2. Employees
3. Marketing Partners: Channels, Suppliers, Distributors, Dealers, Retailers, Agencies, etc.
4. Financial Community: Shareholders, Stakeholders, Financiers, Investors, Analysts, etc.
5. Another key constituent is the Society: Well-wishers, Philanthropists, Scientists, Professors,
and Environmentalists.
The ultimate goal of relationship marketing is the building of a unique company asset called a
marketing network, which consists of the company & it’s supporting stakeholders as listed above
with whom it has built manual profit relationships. Interestingly, today, the competition is not
between companies as such, but between the carefully built marketing networks to be precise –
whoever has a better network wins. So the principle is simple – build an effective network, & the
profits will follow. But in practice, this is not so. The development & building of a strong
relationship requires a deep understanding of the capabilities & resources of different groups as
well as their needs, goals & desires. Relationship marketing involves the right kind of
relationships with right constituent groups, like Customer Relationship Management (CRM) with
customers, Partner Relationship Management (PRM) with other partners. Since this being
separate subjects themselves, are beyond the scope of this article.

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY MARKETING

Holistic marketing incorporates social responsibility marketing. This involves broader concerns
of the society at large, like social, legal, ethical & environmental in the context of marketing
activities. Companies operate in a society and so do their customers and hence they should never
forget its contribution to the company. It requires that marketers carefully consider the role they
are playing in terms of social welfare. Companies need to evaluate whether they are truly
practicing ethical & socially responsible marketing. Several factors are driving the companies to
practice higher level of corporate social responsibility, such as:
1. Rising customers' expectations,
2. Changing employees' expectations,
3. Govt. Legislation & pressure,
4. Investor interest in social criteria,
5. Changing business procurement criteria.
Business success and continually satisfying the customers & other stakeholders are closely
linked to adoption & implementation of high standard of business & marketing conduct. The
most admired companies in the world adhere to a code of serving people’s interests, and not only
their own. The following are the most important factors of socially responsible marketing:
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1. Legal Behavior: Companies operate within the law of the land, and they must impart the
employees with adequate knowledge of law & how to practice them. We have Govt. laws,
Society laws, and the organizations must ensure the employees know & observe relevant law,
and restrain themselves from practicing illegal, antisocial, corruptive, anticompetitive practices.

2. Ethical Behavior: Companies must evolve & adopt a properly written code of conduct based
on the social & cultural ethics, decency, tradition & legal practices, and ensure that all concerned
are responsible in observing these guidelines. Today customers are well aware of the social,
cultural, ecological & environmental affairs in their day-to-day lives.
3. Social Responsibility Behavior: As said above, the customers also want to know what the
firm’s contribution to the society is, or what the company’s social conscience is while dealing
with customers & the stakeholders.
4. Cause Related Marketing: Contribution to the society can be enormous, and hence companies
choose a particular area of society for a particular cause. The examples are:
a. Health awareness - Heart Diseases, AIDS, Cancer, Diabetic, Obesity, Old age, etc.
b. Running children’s home, old age home, rehabilitation centre, women’s home, etc.
c. Infrastructure - rural housing, hospitals, preserving archaeological places, maintaining roads &
parks, homes for endangered species;
d. Educational scholarship for the poor & needy, higher education facility, Institutes;
e. Treatment for destitute, food for the starving;
f. Information legal & technical help during the hour of need;
g. Volunteerism & Philanthropy.
The list can be endless. Reputed companies even have their own charitable trusts, and also have
special cause related marketing plans. Cause-related marketing is the concept where the specific
cause is directly or indirectly linked to the particular revenue transaction. The company has at
least one non-economic social objective and uses the revenue generated from the designated
sales. This concept is also known as Corporate Societal Marketing (CSM). The CSM can include
other activities like traditional & strategic philanthropy & volunteerism.
5. Social Marketing: Some marketing is conducted to directly address a social problem or
cause. Social marketing is done mainly by NGOs, Non-Profit or Govt. organizations to further a
cause, such as “No smoking”, “Say NO to Drugs”, etc.

THE FUTURE OF MARKETING

The top management is slowly recognizing that the marketing in the older method is getting
wasteful and is demanding more accountability. There are a number of imperatives (must do) to
achieve marketing excellence, as presented below: Marketers must -
1. Be “Holistic” and not in bits & parts, i.e., not sectional or departmental.

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2. Achieve larger influence in the company if they are to be the main architect of business
strategies.
3. Continuously create new ideas if the company is to prosper in a hyper-competitive economy.
4. Strive for customer insight & treat customers differently, but appropriately.
5. Build their brands thru performance, more than thru promotion.
6. go electronic & win thru building superior information & communication systems.
In these ways, modern marketing will continue to evolve & confront new challenges &
opportunities. As a result, the coming years will see the demise of - - - & the rise of:

No The Demise of The Rise of

1 The marketing department
2 Free-spending marketing
3 Marketing intuition
4 Manual marketing
5 Mass marketing
Holistic marketing
ROI (return on investment) marketing
Marketing science
Automated marketing
Precision marketing

To become truly holistic in marketing & achieve these changes, what the marketers need are a
new set of skills, competencies in the following areas of expertise.
1. Customer Relationship management
2. Partner Relationship management
3 Database Marketing & Data-mining. Contact Centre Marketing & Telemarketing
5. Public Relation Marketing including Event & Sponsorship Marketing
6. Brand-building & Brand-asset Management
7. Integrated Marketing Communications
8. Profitability Analysis by Segment, Customer, Channel
9. Experiential Marketing
The Nineteenth century American author Ralph Waldo Emerson had said, “This time like all
times is a good one, if we but know what to do with it”. Thus, the exciting time for marketing
has arrived now. And also, in the relentless pursuit of marketing superiority & dominance, new
concepts, new rules, new tools & practices are ever emerging. There are a number of benefits of
successful twenty-first-century marketing. All we need are hard work, insight, right application
of mind & tools, inspiration, perseverance & of course a willingness to achieve greater heights.

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HOW DOES HOLISTIC MARKETING WORK?

1. First you want a business profile which includes such things as what your current image
is within your industry, what position you hold in your customers’ minds, what your
business style might be, and so on.

2. Then you need to understand the customers with whom you’ve been successful and why.

3. Next you need a clear picture of your internal processes and how they impact both your
customers and prospects. You’d be surprised how often internal processes actually tell
your customers you don’t want to do business with them.

4. Once you have a clear picture of your business and your customers, you then need a plan
that will guide you toward the vision you imagine and help you accomplish both short-
and long-term goals.

5. And, given all that, you need the right messages aimed at the right people to implement
your marketing plan.

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WHY SHOULD I MARKET HOLISTICALLY INSTEAD OF WHAT I’VE BEEN

DOING?
• You don’t waste money on unnecessary and ineffective products, and services.
• You focus your efforts on the highest probability markets and prospects.
• You don’t waste time and money in developing unproductive processes.
• You gain the ability to own a word in your customers’ minds.
• You become not better but only the best!
• Your marketing brings in sales and lowers the cost of those sales.
• Your growth is ensured!

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