Conscious Marketing

Though we may have conscious and compassionate intentions at the heart of our businesses we often default to traditional competitive ME-marketing models. Conscious marketing requires that we take a heart-centered WE-marketing approach based on cooperation and empathy. When we apply manipulative head-centered marketing strategies to our life-affirming products and services we create dis-ease. Applying the principles of conscious marketing help to integrate our professional and spiritual lives and heal the gap between self-awareness and market success.

As we adopt spiritual practices and conscious living habits our intuition and subtle awareness is heightened. Conscious marketing systematically applies that refined instrument of awareness to the marketing of a product or service. When it comes to marketing, the most important quality to be cultivated and implicated is empathy. It just so happens that the more we expand spiritually and the more consciously we live the more empathetic we become. I once heard the process of conscious living described as "the longest 12 inches you will ever travel, from your head to your heart". Though it is a challenge to face ourselves honestly it is the most rewarding thing in life. The more authentic we become the more conscious our market approach will be.

The dictionary defines empathy as, "the ability to identify with and understand another person's feelings or difficulties." When we are marketing a product or service it is very important to get out of our own way and empathize with the specific challenges of our target audience. Too often those in the holistic field find themselves compromising their ethics, consciously or unconsciously, by applying inauthentic strategies that seem to dilute the purity of their business intention.

To move into empathy with our target audience we first begin to identify the specific challenges our product or service is able to alleviate. This is where it is time to move out of our head and into our heart. There is no greater tool to facilitate this process than conscious breathing. Here is a small exercise: Take three deep breaths in and out the nose and let the mind become quiet, do not force the mind to be quiet but simply allow the mind to be and thoughts to come and go without indulging in them. Now, take three deep breaths with the intention of breathing into the heart and exhaling out the top of the head. You may even imagine you have a blow-hole like a dolphin or whale out the top of the head. You are moving from your own personal heart to what my Guru calls the heart-space above the head or Chidakash. This is a clear authentic space that transcends your personal pain and connects you with all living things.

From this neutral space consider your target audience either in the form of an individual person or the market segment in general, being specific is generally more effective. Set the intention that you want to identify with that individual in an authentic way. A massage therapist may close their eyes and see the stresses and strains the body undergoes in the normal course of living. Make a note of the specific challenges that come up, allow the mind to work but make room for intuitive thoughts that may not initially make sense.

Empathizing with your target audience is a great first step on the journey to conscious marketing. By applying our subtle awareness in this critical aspect of our business we are able to ensure that our marketing communications are authentic and have great impact.

I wish everyone on the journey to integrate spiritual inspiration and worldly execution massive success and radical awareness.

Jayanta Paquette is a coordinator for CompassionWorks with By the River, Inc. where he develops and delivers training and support programs that help caregivers alleviate stress by developing their own compassionate presence. He has a strong background in business development strategy and strategic marketing. He also shares yoga, meditation and Reiki hands-on healing with caregivers. You can find him at Beloved Yoga, http://www.belovedyoga.ning.com