A holistic marketing program typically includes a product development team.
Holistic marketing is an integrated marketing approach that focuses on bringing all aspects of marketing together and uniting the various marketing strategies. This typically involves a holistic view of all internal processes, including the structure of the various company departments, manufacturing processes, and other products created by a company, but can often also include competitive assessment. Holistic marketing often requires a broader view of the situation that takes into account the details and long-term goals of the company.
Within a given company, a holistic marketing program will help connect the various teams and departments, which may include product development teams, brand teams, and salespeople. These different groups are often managed individually and do not have much contact with each other. This can result in inconsistencies for marketing strategy, especially if teams receive different instructions, create different goals for themselves, or inadvertently commit other development sectors to certain actions. Holistic marketing tries to bridge the gaps between these different sections of product development to ensure that everyone involved in marketing a specific product has the same goals.
The holistic marketing concept also focuses on other products created by any company. If certain products are too similar to each other or too different and unrelated, sales can potentially drop even if each individual product is optimized for marketing. Companies should consider estimated customer response to new products to determine projected sales and success.
For example, if a popular company launched a new and improved product but kept the old product on the market, it could inadvertently cause confusion among consumers. Not only would this cause the public to question the quality of the old product, but it would also greatly decrease sales of the old product, especially if the new product was remarkably similar. On the other hand, a company launching two completely separate products will have a hard time forming an integrated brand strategy, which can make it difficult for customers to remember and return in the future.
Holistic marketing also takes the competition into account. Launching products that are too similar to the competition, or marketing products similarly to competitors, will diminish the strength of a company’s reputation. Conversely, launching unrealistic marketing campaigns that don’t align with the public’s idea of the company can also reduce sales. For example, getting a particular celebrity to endorse a product will usually be successful, but only if the endorsement is credible. If the public doesn’t believe that the celebrity would actually support the product in real life, the marketing campaign is likely to be unsuccessful.