Guerrilla marketing
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Guerrilla marketing, as created by Jay Conrad Levinson and described in his popular 1982 book Guerrilla Marketing, is an unconventional way of performing marketing activities (primarily promotion) on a very low budget.
Levinson claims that small entrepreneurial firms are very different from large firms. He quotes a Harvard Business Review article by Welsh and White which says that small business is not a smaller version of big business. It is much more than simply a question of scale. The biggest difference is the relative “resource poverty” of small businesses. Because of this lack of resources, small business must use an altogether different set of marketing strategies and tactics than big business.
Today, Guerrilla Marketing is driven by Jay Conrad Levinson in the US, and by his European President Paul Hanley in Europe, Middle-East and Africa.
Differences from Traditional Marketing
Levinson defines the following principles on how Guerrilla Marketing is different from traditional marketing:
- Guerrilla Marketing is specifically geared for the small business.
- Marketing should be based more on human psychology instead of experience, judgement, and guesswork.
- Instead of money, the primary investments of marketing should be time, energy, and imagination.
- The primary statistic to measure your business is the amount of profits, not sales.
- The marketer should also concentrate on how many new relationships are made each month.
- Create a standard of excellence with an acute focus instead of trying to diversify by offering allied products and services.
- Instead of concentrating on getting new customers, aim for more referrals, more transactions with existing customers, and larger transactions.
- Forget about the competition and concentrate more on cooperating with other businesses.
- Guerrilla Marketers should always use a combination of marketing methods for a campaign.
- Guerilla Marketing identifies over 100 ways to market. And 62 of them are free.
- Use current technology as a tool to empower your marketing because its generally inexpensive and easy to use.
Guerrilla marketing tactics
- working directly with a Guerrilla Marketing consultant
- a word of mouth campaign
- attacking the consumer directly through their daily routine
- personal canvassing
- telemarketing by all members of the firm
- personal letters
- advertisements in the Yellow Pages
- personal meetings
- circulars and brochures distributed at parking lots, homes, offices, malls, etc.
- classified ads
- ads in local community newspapers
- billboards
- truck and automotive signs
- direct mail campaigns
- seminars, lectures, and demonstrations
- searchlights
- flags and banners
- t-shirts
- matches, pens, and calendars
- Interactive Urinal Communicator
It is up to the guerrilla marketer to be creative and devise unconventional methods of promotion. He must use all of his personal contacts, both professional and personal, and must examine his company and its products, looking for sources of publicity. Many forms of publicity can be very inexpensive, and others are FREE.
It is argued that if one uses guerrilla tactics, one will find one's small size an advantage. One will be able to obtain publicity more easily than a large company. One will be closer to one's customers and more agile.
Although guerrilla marketing was designed for small businesses, it can also be (and is) used by large businesses.
See also
- Guerrilla Marketing UK
- marketing
- guerrilla marketing warfare strategies
- marketing strategies
- publicity
- small business
- viral marketing
References
- Guerrilla Marketing, Secrets for making big profits from your small business Jay Conrad Levinson, 1984, Houghton Muffin Co., Boston, ISBN 0-396-35350-5
- The Way of the Guerrilla Jay conrad Levinson, 1997, Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, ISBN 0-395-77018-1
- Guerrilla Persuasion Don Pfarrer, 1998, Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, ISBN 0-395-88168-4
External links
- Official Guerrilla Marketing Distance Learning Site (http://www.gmdiploma.com/)
- Official Guerrilla Marketing site for Europe (http://www.guerrilla-marketing.org/)
- Official site of Jay Conrad Levinson (http://gmarketing.com/)
- Official Guerrilla Marketing Association (http://www.guerrillamarketingassociation.com/)
- Official Guerrilla Marketing Coaching Training (http://gmarketingcoach.com/)