Implementing Holistic Marketing in Service Sector Companies in Saudi Arabia

Hi Adaora,
It was a learning and enriching experience, reading your discussion and assertion about
holistic marketing. I agree to your argument regarding the need for implementation of holistic
marketing strategy by the business organizations in any industry at any part of the globe in the
contemporary period. As Huang and Rundle-Thiele (2015) opine in their elaborate research paper
that with the world becoming more integrated and interconnected in every aspects, including that of
the commercial domains and with the increasing dominance of internet and social media, which
facilitate easy and fast flow of information among people across the globe, just focussing on the
product or service quality of a firm and basing the marketing strategies on the same cannot help the
firms to gain competitive advantage in the increasingly competitive market (Rakic and Rakic 2015).
However, the perceptions regarding the notion of holistic marketing framework as a whole
and the different components of the same can be seen to be varying among different scholars across
the globe. For instance, I can see that you have focussed on the four components of holistic
marketing strategy, namely the internal marketing, integrated marketing, relationship marketing and
performance marketing. This structure is also suggested by different scholars like Vernuccio and
Ceccotti (2015). However, there is also another crucial component of holistic marketing, that of the
socially responsible marketing. As highlighted by Ivanova and Bikeeva (2016), in the contemporary
period of increasing social awareness, the companies also need to incorporate ethics and social
responsibility in every aspects of their operations, especially in the marketing activities to be
desirable in the eyes of a more socially aware population of customers.
Regards
Khaled
References
Huang, Y.T. and Rundle-Thiele, S., 2015. A holistic management tool for measuring internal
marketing activities. Journal of Services Marketing, 29(6/7), pp.571-584. [Accessed on: September
12, 2018]
Ivanova, I.A. and Bikeeva, M.V., 2016. Corporate Social Responsibility: Specificity, Formation
Mechanism, Estimation of Management Efficiency. European Research Studies, 19, p.167. [Accessed
on: September 12, 2018]
Rakic, B. and Rakic, M., 2015. HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT OF MARKETING SUSTAINABILITY IN THE
PROCESS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT. Environmental Engineering & Management Journal
(EEMJ), 14(4). [Accessed on: September 12, 2018]
Vernuccio, M. and Ceccotti, F., 2015. Strategic and organisational challenges in the integrated
marketing communication paradigm shift: A holistic vision. European Management Journal, 33(6),
pp.438-449. [Accessed on: September 12, 2018]