Think about marketing your business as a whole

Holistic marketing is a marketing strategy developed by thinking about the business as a whole. When using a holistic marketing strategy, every aspect of the business must be carefully considered. The company must think about how a consumer will interact with its product, its website, its advertising materials, and everything else.

WHAT IS HOLISTIC MARKETING?
Let’s say you are in the business of selling bread. Do you market the benefits of the whole loaf, or the benefits of the slice?
• If you market a slice, what affect does that have on the whole loaf?
• Do your clients and customers want a loaf or just a slice or two?
• How do you know who your clients are?
• How do you know what your clients want?
• Where will you find your ideal clients and customers?
• What is your loaf made from?
• What else can you make from the same ingredients to benefit your clients and customers?
• How do you know that your clients and customers would not benefit from other products?

Not only do you need to communicate with your clients and customers, you need to do so in a way that can benefit them, you and your business.

By sending your clients, customers and prospects valuable and useful information via email marketing, web, social media, radio, TV or direct mail you can keep them updated and informed about a wide range of events happening in your business.

Although this type of marketing is not a cheap option for some businesses, you can take a look at various marketing groups, local PR companies or even your local college business students to see what they can do to help you get the word out.

The more information you acquire to help you understand how to communicate with your clients and customers, the more you will improve your holistic marketing efforts.

Happy Retailing,
Moe Lastfogel
moe@retailobserver.com

Today’s economy has given us many chances to either make it or break it.
“Some say opportunity knocks only once, that is not true. Opportunity knocks all the time, but you have to be ready for it. If the chance comes, you must have the equipment to take advantage of it.” —LouisL’Amour (American writer, best-selling author, 1908-1988)

What are you doing to prepare yourself to be ready for your chance?
“Learn to listen. Opportunity could be knocking at your door very softly.” — Frank Tyger (nationally published editorial cartoonist, columnist and humorist for the Trenton Times)

How long have you waited for your chance?
“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” — Milton Berle (slapstick comedian and show host)

How will you know when it’s your turn and what will you do about it?
“What is opportunity, and when does it knock? It never knocks. You can wait a whole lifetime, listening, hoping, and you will hear no knocking. None at all. You are opportunity, and you must knock on the door leading to your destiny. You prepare yourself to recognize opportunity, to pursue and seize opportunity as you develop the strength of your personality, and build a self-image with which you are able to live / with your self-respect alive and growing.” — Maxwell Maltz (US plastic surgeon, motivational author, and creator of the Psycho-Cybernetics, 1927-2003)

Of all of these quotes, I feel the simplest was the strongest. Uncle Milty seems to make it very clear—build the door. But why stop there? Add a doorbell, welcome mat, and a video monitor. As far as that goes, why not a doorman, a watchdog and a tangle of bells and tin cans at your front step. You don’t want to miss your chance, nor do you want to let it get away without at least knowing that it’s there. Like a Boy Scout, be prepared, have a strong plan and know what path you want to take. But most of all don’t wait for opportunity to knock, because as Maxwell Maltz states, it never knocks—only you do. Find your door, knock, and most important of all, don’t wait for an answer, open up the door to your destiny and march right in. Only you have the power to make things happen for you. And as that swooshy shoe company states, “Just Do It”.

Happy Retailing,
Moe Lastfogel
​moe@retailobserver.com