What's Holistic Marketing?

As only an audacious young MBA can do I'm going to create a new idea in business
- and name my own little net-fiefdom after it, Holistic Marketing. I know, I kn
ow I'm going to upset all those folks who already think MBAs are "know-it-alls"
but I don't care. You and I, well at least I, already know that I don't know eve
rything.
You have heard of the marketing concept, a market orientation and integrated mar
keting communications but you haven't heard of Holistic Marketing...well now you
have. So what is Holistic Marketing?
Holistic Marketing is the idea that marketing is everything. It is the idea that
to truly be successful an organization must have a holistic approach to marketi
ng where each facet of the organization is focused on how to add value to the cu
stomer and communicate that value.
Holistic Marketing is not just thinking about the customer strategically as in h
aving a market orientation or achieving consistency of message, look and feel ac
ross all platforms as in integrated marketing communications but rather focusing
on the principle that if value is not being created it is being destroyed.
The challenge is to focus on building value in everything that the organization
does. Too often creating value is left to the innovators and strategists while m
arketers are tasked with communicating that value. This old paradigm is broken b
ecause it leaves out the folks in between who really drive value for any organiz
ation, the folks on the line who execute.
A business can have the best strategy and marketing communications in the world
but if the people who deliver the product or service aren't interested in creati
ng value for the customer then the entire equation will be undermined. The great
challenge then is to get everyone within the organization pulling in the same d
irection.
One of the pillars of this new philosophy of business is the seminal work, Built
to Last by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras. Collins and Porras postulate that one
of the driving forces behind great organizations is a shared sense of purpose an
d a culture so strong it is almost cult-like. These two elements combine to give
people within the organization something to believe in which results in them al
l pulling in the same direction.
When everyone in an organization feels empowered to create the next customer sol
ution then you get value being added up and down the organization, even by those
folks at the bottom of the pyramid. Holistic marketing is this concept; that va
lue is not created in the corner office but by those on the line delivering the
product or service to the customer. The folks on the line will only continue to
add value if they are engaged in the process and empowered to do so, if not then
your out of luck.
Remember, if value isn't being created it's being destroyed. The question you ha
ve to ask is...Are your people creating value or destroying it?