Application Of Spirituality In Marketing

The term spirituality here refers to the new age spirituality without referring to any religious contexts. The concept and significance of spirituality cannot be ignored in marketing of products while it is also discussed in management and other disciplines. Spiritual marketing is a concept of articulation and conveying the authentic beliefs around a service, product or a brand with end users benefits in mind. The consumer belief influences his buying behavior. Companies can market even the most ordinary products and services as symbols of deeper spiritual values. Positioning the product as something that contributes to overall spiritual growth can attract the devoted customers. The consumers tend to yield ‘spiritual utility’. Through spiritual marketing and delivering the highest quality possible and building community among the customers can be highly profitable. We’re only at the beginning of understanding the market for consumer spirituality. Future research should expect exploring marketplace dynamics, megatrends that are relevant in this growing spiritual marketplace. A company should make the marketing decisions not only by considering consumer’s wants and company’s requirements but also society’s long term interests. Generally, people emphasis more on sustainability, spirituality and quality. The durability of things is compulsory in the society. This awareness is due to empathy towards nature, future generations and the evolution of a healthy society. Company adopt and develop strategies that take into account this level of awareness, promoting the spiritual side and the sustainable outcome. Over centuries, people have turned to spiritual leaders for enlightenment and guidance, and it still holds true for such leaders who still inspire fervor in their believers. People’s beliefs have been influenced by generations of various spiritual believers. Today’s new age spiritual consumer seeks more than mere physical satisfaction of his needs. He seeks to transform his life by consuming products that promise well- being of his soul and answers questions related to seeking higher meaning of life. Sometimes people thinks that they could not be a sales person or market stuff to people. When the truth is that they have been selling people on their beliefs and perceptions as well as marketing themselves for a very long time but just doing an awful job of it in life.

Spiritual marketing is the ability to illuminate and dispatch your legitimate beliefs around a service, product or brand clearly, sensibly and with the end users benefit in mind. The thing which is so spiritual about that drives it is behind that definition. It is a fact that living and marketing truly and clearly is about perceiving your connection to divinity. If you perceive your connection to a divinity, one can always have, be or do whatever. There are a lot of people who think that they can never be a sales person or market things to people, but little they know that they have been selling people on their beliefs and perceptions and marketing themselves for so long but doing an atrocious job of it in life. Belief is nothing more than an affair of belief. However, people sell unconsciously and don’t transfer their beliefs very well. They are not aware of selling people on their perceptions and beliefs to begin with in so many cases. Joe Vitale released a book called ‘Spiritual Marketing’ and introduced this concept to this world through his book, back in the year 2001. He also mentioned the steps which are required to be able to exhibit your desires from a rich and rewarding place. The steps he mentioned are the core of being able to sensibly exhibit he desired along with the skill of communication to share your ideas and services in an efficient manner. What we seek might be a feeling instead of a product. This is the core of spiritual marketing. Spiritual marketing focuses on product, services and marketing strategies on various human needs in balance with the world. This term might sound new but this is one of the oldest concepts.

Authors like Joe Vitale and Bob Proctor differentiate it from ‘religious marketing’ and describe spirit as “the presence within of the universal spirit …the true self.” It is interesting to know that why companies are now using “Spiritual Marketing”. So, the various reasons could be the suffering society, searching reconciliation with our environment and with ourselves, we have an urge to believe in something or anything, we want to feel associated. Moreover, as long as the needs are satisfied without lying about offerings and without harming others, it is ethically correct to take advantages of these needs to create new products, services and marketing strategies. Being ethical and being dishonest are the things which has to be taken care of. All products come with impalpable benefits, these benefits are based on consumer’s perception itself. Companies tend to play with these intangible assets every time. It’s basically consumer’s responsibility to know the rights from the wrongs and be careful of what is acknowledged through various advertisements that we see through different platforms and be aware on what they spend their money on. To get facts and figures on how spirituality affects the behavior patterns of consumers. The aim of the study was to see if people beliefs in spiritual groups affect their decision making or not. So, a questionnaire was circulated among people of Delhi NCR to know their preferences for the same. It was then observed that 45.5% of buyer were middle aged women who felt spirituality in products and services lead to quality life. It was also found that 14.1% young female follow a spiritual leader and almost 40% of young females buy them. The human beliefs are an important indicator of consumer needs and preferences. Human beliefs, judgements, attitudes and choices affect their buying decisions. The marketers, sometimes, use symbols and image that are known to the people for the promotion of their product and services. The symbols may have different meanings in different cultures. At the same time, marketers should use those symbols which may not give any negative impact to the society in any way. Spirituality, for a long passage of time was limited to the disciplines of psychology and sociology and traditionally was seen as a part of religion. But now, the studies have proved that spirituality impacts the consumption behavior of the people. The Indian philosophy or the Indian Literature deals with spirituality and beliefs in Karma and Dharma. It can be said that a person’s belief in Karma or righteousness influences their buying or purchasing habits. The concept of mindfulness of spirituality affect the consumer about his behavior. But if spirituality is in the picture, so the consumer would take care of why they would buy, for whom to buy, etc. This implies a high level of spirituality which may lead to rejection of some products.

Today, we all are caught in the vicious circle of work, stress and other commitments, therefore, to get out of this vicious circle, people tend to choose to follow a spiritual guru or follow a wrong path. But for those who follow a ‘spiritual guru’ instead feel that it would promise well- being and answers their questions related to seeking higher meaning of life. And in case of the country India, people in a great number, follow a guru, who provide us direction or right path. But now, in digital world, these spiritual gurus have emerged as the new brand ambassadors. By seeing the huge following of these spiritual gurus in a highly populated country like India where large audience would lead to large profits, companies have made them their brand ambassador. Swami Baba Ramdev, a well-known personality, who is also now the face of Patanjali brand. Patanjali is FMCG organization dealing with milk products, cosmetics, household cleaning items and what not. Attaching a spiritual guru to a brand helped Patanjali to have a loyal base of customers giving a tough competition to other leading companies. Not only to promote the products or services. Sadguru Brahmeshanand Swami ji who is a spiritual leader with most of the followers from south India, has been appointed as ‘Ambassador of Peace’ by Parliament.

In recent years ‘yoga’ has come into spotlight, globally, because of its excellent health benefits and a positive lifestyle. So in order to promote this ancient form of practice worldwide, the well- known gurus are chosen for the purpose. Spiritual gurus like Shrila Prabhupada, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, disciples of Swami Vivekanand have been given the responsibility to promote the same in the world.

The interest in spirituality in consumer behavior is growing. The consumer’s level of spiritual development and commitment influences the consumer’s behavior. The interest in spirituality in consumer behavior is growing. When the older adult reach spiritual maturity or undergo intensive spiritual growth toward the end of their life, the consumer behavior is influenced. Spiritual identity and related spiritual values influence the formation of attitude, and erect consumption limits and taboos, the stronger the level of spirituality, the stronger this influence. Spiritual values shape consumption ethics while prescribing the rejection of non-compatible consumption behavior. Consumers have started to search spiritual well-being in the marketplace, increasingly. It’s seen that those products that are inspired with spiritual significance helps consumers manage concerns even present while steering the modern world. To introduce innovations into global markets, marketers should understand both individual resistance. Moreover, a company should make marketing decisions not only by considering consumer’s wants, the company’s requirements but also society’s long term interests.