Guerilla Marketing

12 Key excerpts on "Guerilla Marketing"

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  eBook - ePub

  Nontraditional Media in Marketing and Advertising

  • Robyn Blakeman(Author)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications, Inc

    (Publisher)

  3

  Guerrilla Marketing

   

  G

  uerrilla marketing engages and often interacts with the target audience through innovative advertising and promotional public events, online, and even in some unusual guises and locations. This chapter defines how marketers should view Guerilla Marketing as a valuable outlet for reaching their intended target, describes how this type of marketing works, and outlines some of the possible pitfalls of using guerrilla marketing without thorough planning and research.

  Guerrilla Marketing Personalizes the Brand

  George Bernard Shaw once wrote, “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man” (Shaw, 1903). Guerrilla marketing techniques accomplish the unreasonable; they entice consumers to stop, and to interact with the advertising.

  Jay Conrad Levinson popularized the term

  guerrilla marketing

  in his 1984 book, Guerilla Marketing. The term may be defined as tactics that surprise in an unexpected way for less cost than traditional advertising tactics. Levinson conceived guerrilla marketing as a creative and inexpensive way for small business owners to compete against larger competitors offering immediate consumer feedback (Levinson, 2001). Guerrilla marketing, also known as ambient or

  experiential

  marketing, is a grassroots form of promotion that is successful because of its nontraditional use of space and often unorthodox staging of events, successfully maximizing exposure using minimal resources. The events involved in this type of marketing are often so unusual that they can capture an enormous audience. Successful events are often interactive and surprising, and always engaging, before revealing their true purpose—advertising.

  The overall goal of guerrilla marketing is to capture attention using promotional tactics that are meant to entertain the target rather than deliver a hard sell advertising message. The more extraordinary the experience or atypical the location or surface, the larger the impression on the target. Because it is more difficult to isolate the consumer and overcome their apathy toward the advertised message, nontraditional media and guerrilla marketing must find a unique and memorable way to supersede any mistrust on the part of the target and surprise and entertain them with something totally unexpected. Engaging the target in a stunt or event, such as the type used in guerrilla marketing, is a great way to isolate a product or service from the competitors’ brands by giving the target a chance to experience or interact with the messaged brand. The sheer uniqueness and innovative promotional tactics of most Guerilla Marketing are memorable, often extending the messages beyond the event, via electronic marketing and word of mouth.

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  Guerrilla Marketing and Joint Ventures

  Million Dollar Partnering Strategies for Growing Any Business in Any Economy

  • Jay Conrad Levinson, Sohail Khan(Authors)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Morgan James Publishing

    (Publisher)

  —PART ONE—

  G U e R R i L L A M A R K e T i N G

  Passage contains an image

  CHAPTER 1

  G u e r r i l l a M a r k e t i n g P r i n c i p l e s

  Traditional marketing advocates destroying competition; Instead co-operate with competitors and create win-win opportunities — Jay Conrad Levinson

  T he term ‘guerrilla marketing’ was first introduced by Jay Conrad Levinson when he wrote a book on this topic and named it Guerrilla Marketing which went on to become an international bestseller with sales of over 20 million copies worldwide. Since then, the term has become widely popular and has been used in many text books.

  The main theory behind guerrilla marketing is that it employs a completely unconventional approach towards marketing and promotion, the foundation of which lies in the application of imagination, energy and time. The motive behind this new technique is to generate unique ideas that do not require much finance. The campaigns involved in guerrilla marketing theory are often interactive, unconventional, and mostly target consumers in totally unexpected places.

  The main objective of guerrilla marketing is to come up with something that provokes people to think in a way that has a long-term effect on their memory while, at the same time, creating a buzz that spreads like wildfire and goes ‘viral’. For example, the promoters of the cause, “Stop Nudism”, played a clever and inspiring promotional campaign using guerrilla marketing when they posted their “Stop Nudism” sticker on one of the many nude female statues in London, driving the point home by covering up with a bra! This method of spreading their message was widely successful and people truly appreciated it.

  In addition to such promotional stuff, guerrilla marketing also involves directly approaching customers on the streets, giving away products in malls or shopping centers in new and innovative ways, along with other PR stunts that grab the market’s attention without having to spend thousands of dollars or being too over-the-top. The trick and magic of guerrilla marketing lie in innovation and creatively coming up with unique ideas. These days, the gurus of guerrilla marketing take advantage of digital and mobile technologies to gain the edge when engaging with customers and creating a brand experience for them that is truly memorable and long-lasting.

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  Startup Guide to Guerrilla Marketing

  A Simple Battle Plan For Boosting Profits

  • Jay Levinson, Jeannie Levinson(Authors)
  • 2008(Publication Date)
  • Entrepreneur Press

    (Publisher)

  CHAPTER 8

  GUERRILLA MARKETING DEFINED

  Marketing is everything you do to promote your business, from the moment you conceive of it, to the point at which customers buy your product or service and begin to patronize your business on a regular basis. The key words to remember are “everything” and “regular basis.” Marketing is all contact that you or anyone within your organization has with anyone outside of your organization. It includes:

  • The name of your business • Determining whether you will be selling a product or service • Method of manufacture or servicing • Colors, size, and shape or your product • Packaging • Location of your business • Advertising • Public relations • Sales training • Sales presentation • Telephone inquiries • Problem solving • Growth plan • Referral plan • Follow-up

  Marketing is a complex process that requires your full attention. Marketing is a circle that starts with your idea for generating revenue and completes itself when you have the patronage of repeat and referral business.

  Guerrilla marketing means going after conventional goals using unconventional means.

  What Is Guerrilla Marketing?

  Guerrilla marketing means going after conventional goals using unconventional means. It means that in marketing, your main investments should be time, energy, imagination, and information—not money. If you want to invest money, that’s cool, but you don’t really have to if you don’t want to.

  SMART THINKING

  There was once little store in the middle of two giant stores. One day the little store owner was dismayed to come into work and find that each of the two larger stores had hung huge banners outside announcing “Grand Opening Sale—prices slashed 50 percent” and “Monster Clearance Sale—prices slashed 75 percent.“ Worse yet, each banner was larger than his own store.

    The little store owner, being a guerrilla, and knowing he couldn’t compete with those kind of prices, responded by creating and displaying his own banner, which simply read . . . “Main Entrance.”

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  Entrepreneurship

  • Andrew Zacharakis, William D. Bygrave(Authors)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  Guerrilla marketing is often linked to “creating a buzz” or gener- ating a lot of word‐of‐mouth in the marketplace. The terms buzz, viral, and word‐of‐mouth marketing aren’t interchangeable. According to the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), the three concepts are defined as in the accompanying box. 22 Entrepreneurs may use all of these nontraditional promotion campaigns to get people’s attention, especially younger generations who may not pay attention to TV campaigns and print media. Guerrilla marketing is also attractive to entrepreneurs because often they have to work with a limited or nonexistent promotion budget, and traditional media are very expensive. Unfortunately for entre- preneurs, such nontraditional promotional methods are getting the attention of big marketers, who want to break through the clutter of existing media. BzzAgent, a Boston‐based word‐of‐mouth marketing agency, has more than 500,000 agents who will try clients’ products and then talk about them with their Types of Guerrilla Marketing • Word‐of‐mouth marketing: Giving people a rea- son to talk about your products and services and making it easier for that conversation to take place. • Buzz marketing: Using high‐profile entertain- ment or news to get people to talk about your brand. • Viral marketing: Creating entertaining or infor- mative messages that are designed to be passed along in an exponential fashion, often electroni- cally or by e‐mail. 164 ENTREPRENEURIAL MARKETING Much of what we now call event marketing is in the realm of guerrilla marketing because it is experiential, interactive, and lighthearted. But as we noted earlier, guerrilla tactics are becoming more and more difficult for entrepreneurs to execute because every corporate marketing execu- tive is trying to succeed at guerrilla marketing too and has a much larger budget to employ.

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  Entrepreneurship

  • William D. Bygrave, Andrew Zacharakis(Authors)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  Procter & Gamble’s (P&G’s) four-year-old Tremor division has a panel of 200,000 teenagers and 350,000 moms who are asked to talk with friends about new products or concepts that P&G sends them. Some experts suggest that traditional marketers underused public relations or used it only as an afterthought, thus opening the door for creative guerrilla marketers. It is easier to define what guerrilla marketing does than what it is. Guerrilla marketing is heard above the noise in the marketplace and makes a unique impact: It makes people talk about the product and the company, effectively making them “missionaries” for the brand. It creates drama and interest and positive affect, or emotion—all pretty amazing results. But in fact, truly good guerrilla marketing is as difficult as—and maybe more so than—good traditional marketing. Because lots of companies are trying to do it, it’s harder to break free of the pack. Think of guerrilla marketing as guerrilla tactics that you can apply to various media or elements of the communications mix rather than as entirely different communications tools. You can use guerrilla tactics in advertising (riveting posters in subways) and in personal selling (creative canvassing at a trade show), but you’ll most likely use them as a form of PR—as tactics that garner visibility and positive publicity. The president of Maker’s Mark practiced guerrilla marketing when he inspired The Wall Street Journal ’s reporter to learn about and Marketing Skills for Managing Growth 199 write the story of his bourbon. Red Bull is a master of promotion, including many extreme sports–related events including the Stratos Project. With Stratos, Red Bull organized to create the world record for the highest skydive from a record height of 128,000 ft. The entire event was branded as a Red Bull Event while being viewed by over 12 million individuals on YouTube. ISSUES IN GUERRILLA MARKETING • Identify challenges and develop cre- ative solutions.

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  Entrepreneurship

  • William D. Bygrave, Andrew Zacharakis, Sean Wise(Authors)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  BzzAgent, a Boston-based word-of-mouth marketing agency, has more than 500,000 agents who will try clients’ products and then talk about them with their friends, relatives, and acquaintances over the duration of the campaign. It has worked with companies like Anheuser- Busch, General Mills, and Volkswagen. Procter & Gamble’s (P&G’s) four-year-old Tremor division has a panel of 200,000 teenagers and 350,000 moms who are asked to talk with friends about new products or concepts that P&G sends them. Some experts suggest that Guerrilla Marketing 187 traditional marketers underused public relations or used it only as an afterthought, thus opening the door for creative guerrilla marketers. It is easier to define what guerrilla marketing does than what it is. Guerrilla marketing is heard above the noise in the marketplace and makes a unique impact—it makes people talk about the prod- uct and the company, effectively making them “missionaries” for the brand. It creates drama and interest and positive affect, or emotion— all pretty amazing results. But in fact, truly good guerrilla marketing is as difficult as—and maybe more so than—good traditional marketing. Because lots of companies are trying to do it, it’s harder to break free of the pack. Think of guerrilla marketing as guerrilla tactics that you can apply to various media or elements of the communications mix rather than as entirely different communications tools. You can use guerrilla tac- tics in advertising (riveting posters in subways) and in personal sell- ing (creative canvassing at a trade show), but you’ll most likely use them as a form of PR—as tactics that garner visibility and positive publicity. The president of Maker’s Mark practised guerrilla market- ing when he inspired the Wall Street Journal ’s reporter to learn about and write the story of his bourbon.

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  Guerrilla Marketing

  Advertising and Marketing Definitions, Ideas, Tactics, Examples, and Campaigns to Inspire Your Business Success

  • Jay Conrad Levinson, Jason Myers, Merrilee Kimble(Authors)
  • 2024(Publication Date)
  • Morgan James Publishing

    (Publisher)

  An amazingly simple plan focused on a core idea that always comes before you engage in any marketing tactics, which makes your Guerrilla Marketing focused, impactful, consistent, compelling, engaging, and profitable. Guerrilla Public Relations A low-cost method of garnering high-quality exposure for your business by building strong collaborative relationships with leading people. Hot Leads The prospects that have opted into your quiz or survey and provided information, downloaded your ebook or white paper, or requested your updates/newsletter. Identity Your business identity defines what your business is about and how you go about doing your business. Impressions The number of people who have seen (or had the opportunity to see) your ad plus how many times they have seen it. Indirect Promotions If your business or product requires educating your prospects or promoting your know-how, consider promoting your podcast or free ebook or download to build your awareness and establish yourself as an authority on a topic. Influencer Marketing Influencer marketing can be an effective means of paid advertising for Guerrilla marketers. With influencer marketing, you pay an influencer on social media, such as YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Talk, or other platforms. Innovation Guerrilla businesses succeed when they focus on desirable innovations that inspire and motivate their customers to make repeat or additional purchases and prospects to make new purchases. Intelligent Marketing Guerrilla Marketing is intelligent marketing. A Guerrilla marketer uses intentional and intelligent marketing that produces profits, which allows their business to grow, expand, evolve, thrive, and make a difference in their community or the world. Internet Service Provider (ISP)

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  Strategic Uses of Alternative Media

  Just the Essentials

  • Robyn Blakemen(Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Whatever the surface, whatever the brand and message, guerrilla marketing is a great way to get into the consumer’s face in an entertaining and memorable way. The more the tactics are talked about on the web, by phone, at work, at home, or in the press, the more powerful and lasting the impact.

  As a rule, guerrilla marketing’s goal is not to immediately encourage a sale but to encourage word-of-mouth discussions, the strongest and least expensive form of advertising. These unusual and often unconventional tactics are a great way for marketers to interact with consumers, get immediate product feedback, and perhaps encourage them to try the product, use the service, or seek additional information.

  The key difference between guerrilla marketing and traditional tactics is its goal: Guerrilla marketing does not preach, educate, or attempt to change the consumer’s mind; its immediate goal is simply to entice and create a buzz-worthy event.

  It takes imagination and more than a little inspiration to develop a successful guerrilla event. Traditional media is great for announcing, supporting, or launching a guerrilla event, but it cannot sustain one. To do that, the event must be unusual, clever, and downright amazing enough to ensure it stays alive online and in the press long after the promotion has ended. With all that publicity, it is important that the product and any customer service issues are as exceptional as the event. A great idea is only great when the product or service can live up to the initial hype.

  By inserting guerrilla marketing events into a traditional campaign, creative teams can reach the target in quirkier, more unforgettable, ways. Add in interactive opportunities, and it becomes a very targeted and consumer-focused member of the media mix. Taking a static print ad and giving it a voice, threedimensional qualities, a smell, a taste, or a larger-than-life personality gets the consumer talking, and that’s good advertising.

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  Guerrilla Marketing for Writers

  100 No-Cost, Low-Cost Weapons for Selling Your Work

  • Jay Conrad Levinson, Rick Frishman, Michael Larsen, David L. Hancock(Authors)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Morgan James Publishing

    (Publisher)
• Traditional marketing is based on experience and then judgment that involves guesswork. Guerrilla marketing is based on psychology—the laws of human behavior that determine buying patterns.
• Traditional marketing recommends that businesses increase their production and then diversify by offering allied products and services. Guerrilla marketing recommends that you maintain your standard of excellence by focusing on writing your books, and diversify only if you can create synergy that helps sell your books without lowering their quality.
• Traditional marketing encourages linear growth by adding new customers. Guerrilla marketing also encourages attracting new customers but recommends that you grow your business exponentially by using service and follow-up to create more transactions, larger transactions, and referrals from your present customers.