Conscious Marketing

Marketing has a mixed reputation. On the one hand, it is seen as the inventive facet of building businesses, which is its stimulating and rewarding side. On the other hand, it is associated with manipulating consumers. Overall, it has played a leading role in modern commerce, and is charged with being even more visionary in the new, people-based economy.

Reflection

Business promotion has always been a reflection of the times. It can be interesting and somewhat disturbing to revisit the campaigns of old, in which sexist or racist attitudes, or downright dishonesty were evident in how products were advertised. It makes you consider how much deception is still at work in the media today.

Business has been about rivalry, the premise of which has been inherently subversive. This has extended to the consumer. Every conceivable device, from the use of words and colour, to the understanding of human psychology, has been employed to make money. It has been an age of immaturity and the long-term consequences for the planet are now bigger than any billboard or building-sized banner could proclaim.

It has been a clever but unconscious age, and we are paying the price. Profits have come at the expense of planetary, organisational and individual well being. The emerging world of marketing needs to be more aware and responsible, and to reflect a more conscious humanity.

Reinvention

Everyone needs to become more aware. It is the pivotal human and commercial endeavour of our age. Contained in consciousness are integrity, innovation and self-actualisation. If the marketing function in business can take responsibility for its leadership role in spreading awareness – not just awareness about brands, services and products, but awareness itself – then it will re-invent marketing intelligently.

Promoting Consciousness

When someone is conscious, their consciousness is contagious. It emanates from them as an often unidentifiable but always palpable energy. They are calmer, wiser and sharper. They are not ego-bound or driven, so something of the beyond surrounds them. Whatever business they are in, their consciousness is the essence of what they sell. It attracts and retains customers, and it inspires colleagues.

Consciousness is the essence of life. It is the human element in any interaction. It is innately progressive, creative and responsive. It is characterised by space, as it opens up the present moment for the new to occur. It is not bound by the past, and so it allows for true innovation. Consciousness does not rearrange what exists, it accesses the realm of potential. And so, consciousness transforms.

Conscious people compile into a conscious organisation, which, whatever it does as its trade, spreads consciousness. Its modus operandi is awareness and, therefore, intelligent, efficient and characterised by collaboration not conflict. When you attend to being present and alert, you open the way for evolution.

Developing Consciousness

Each individual is responsible for their own awakening. People are wanting increasingly to bring this to their work. The commodities and means of production are evolving towards the ethereal and experiential, rather than simply the tactile. And the equity of brands is commensurately in the perception and opinions of consumers, staff and market analysts. Consciousness is the key to the future.

Leaders in business must begin with their own self-discovery. This shows the way and sets the precedent. The business is no longer out there, but within. Innovation, management and relationship building all follow from individual awakening. Group intelligence and effectiveness follow from it, too.

Integrity

Integrity also emerges as a natural consequence of consciousness. It need not be imposed or cultivated from the outside, as a strategy, policy or corporate value. It is a form of overall intelligence, as is congruence. In a conscious organisation, there is an integration of who people are and how they present themselves. They are authentic. All the energy that was wasted upholding a mask becomes available for creative work. All the inner conflict that was reflected in relationships falls away, too.

The business becomes more real, simpler and wiser, and these qualities become associated with its brand. As it evolves appropriately with changing times, it maintains an alignment between the individuals in it, its living strategy, and the big picture of which it is a healthy part.

Leading Brands

The self-actualisation of individuals and the singularity of the brand both thrive in a context of consciousness. Everyone is a marketer, whatever their role in the business. Because this has become imperative in the emerging world, the responsibility for industry leadership lies in the marketing function.

Consciousness brings marketing to life. It makes it meaningful and authentic, eliminating any perceptual or organisational incongruencies. It builds intelligent and sustainable brands, and brings about an altogether more advanced humanity.

Written by: Robin Wheeler is an international speaker on consciousness in business, and author of the acclaimed INSIGHTS trilogy of books on ‘being yourself for a living’, available countrywide.