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GUERILLA MARKETING: The New Age of Marketing
Becoming a
successful entrepreneur is not as easy task. Larger companies have a broader range of employees
with more access to people who are experienced and diverse in their knowledge. Big
companies are able to put more money towards advertisements and reach more
people. Also, large companies are able to acquire certain legal rights that a
small organization may not. However, with a concept known as Guerilla marketing,
small businesses and entrepreneurships are becoming successful using unconventional
and nontraditional tactics.
With consumers seeing about 1,600 ads a day (Castells), it is vital that your ad stands out. “The more media messages we get, the fewer we listen to. Marketers are looking for more opportunities to get in the face of their targets." (Warr). Ads that are successful are usually different. They made the viewer smile and the ads are unexpected and sometimes unusual, which is exactly what Guerilla marketing does. To be a successful guerilla marketer, there are five major strategies to learn.
Creativity is the first strategy of guerilla marketing. You must be creative and think outside of the box so that your ad is different than the rest. You do not want to be conventional in guerilla marketing. Lyon points out that bold colors and funny saying have been done. It is time to really use your “creative juices” and come up with someone completely original.
Next, your ads should be unexpected. Miele, a German house ware company, actually built a real hot air balloon over their billboard with their product, a vacuum cleaner, sucking the balloon. Also, how could you forget the billboard for a bank in Athens showing a woman in a suggestive position? These are the types of billboards that you remember.
A guerilla marketer should also have the attitude “to do more with less,” which simply means to be reasonable and smart when deciding how and where to spend money. If you are a small and new company, it would probably not be the best move to spend thousands of dollars on a giant and over the top advertisement. Instead, use your creativity and come up with something great, but still in your price range.
The fourth strategy is to maximize your surroundings. This means that it is important to use what you already have and there are props all around us. For example, Folgers coffee used steam coming out of manholes to mimic steam coming off of the coffee. People will start to think of Folgers coffee when they see steam on the streets.
The last strategy is to be interactive. People like being able to participate and it also helps them to remember you. The furniture store, IKEA, for example, transformed a bus stop using their furniture . This is what grabs people’s attention. (Lyon).
The term, coined by Jay Conrad Levinson, in his book Guerilla Marketing, has become widely known throughout the marketing world, but it hasn’t always been known. “For entrepreneurs, for small businesspeople, and for all businesspeople, the guerilla approach is crucial. The successful small-business owners who have prospered in the face of limited budget and torrent of competitors will tell you that it is crucial that you make the guerilla attitude and smarts part of your permanent mindset.” (Levinson, 16). The bottom line is that marketing has changed over time. Guerilla marketing differs greatly from traditional marketing before the twenty-first century.
Traditional marketing expects that to market appropriately, money must always be invested. However, guerilla marketing does not require large sums of money at all. What are required most are energy, time, knowledge, information, and imagination. Levinson points out that the amount of money needed really only depends on your goals. He notes that you could invest anywhere from $300 to $300,000, as long as it is enough to promote your business in some way.
We know that traditional marketing is used by big businesses that invest large sums of money each month. Levinson noticed in 1984 that there was not one large business that invested less than $300,000 monthly. Today, many Fortune 500 businesses use Levinson’s book and ideas to teach their employees different strategies. Levinson defines these businesses as “companies with big dreams but tiny budgets.” Huge investments are no longer as important as strategy.
Guerilla marketers pay very close attention to details. For example, they concentrate on how you answer the phone, the dress code of employees, the look of the business place, and energy of the employees and company itself. Traditional marketers focus on TV, radio, magazines, and the internet, but rarely focus on details. “Guerilla marketing is always intentional. It pays close attention to all details of contact with the outside world, ignoring nothing and realizing the stunning importance of those tiny but supercharged details.” (Levinson, 9).
Conventional marketing makes decisions based on judgments, where guerilla marketing focuses greatly on human behavior and psychology. For example, 90% of purchases are made in the individual’s unconscious mind. So, guerilla marketing focuses on repetition and aims to make people subconsciously decide to buy a product. As we learned in a reading from class, some companies actually pay a doorman, for example, to stand outside of an upscale apartment building with boxes from their company. When people see that upper class people are purchasing a certain item, then they might too.
Also, guerilla marketing concentrates on “you marketing” when traditional marketing does not. If you go to a large company’s website, you will notice many of the links are about “me”. For example, links labeled “About our company” or “About our product.” I can also remember a time when I E-mailed a company online asking a question. I quickly got back an automated response that hardly even answered my question. They lost me as a customer because I did not have the time to deal with an automated message. Guerilla marketing knows that the customer cares about themselves, not the company. It is important to talk about what they want to hear so guerilla marketers make each and every word about the customer.
Another big difference between the two is that traditional marketers count money often, but guerilla marketers count relationships. Most people actually do want relationships and marketers know that strong bonds and relationships are vital for success. Relationships mean that they will continue to come back and continue to spend their money.
Guerilla marketers use technology regularly. Small businesses can now use technology without spending a lot of money which gives them an advantage. With conventional marketing before, technology was not used often because it was expensive and also difficult to use at the time. If an entrepreneur is not technologically savvy today, it will surely hurt their chance at success.
Last, guerilla marketing focuses on small groups or individuals to convey their message, as opposed to big groups and masses of people like traditional marketing has always done. For conventional marketers, the bigger the group is the better. For guerilla marketers it is the exact opposite. This idea goes back to the fact that guerilla marketer like to build relationships with consumers and make bonds. (Levinson, 5-10).
Guerilla Marketing
is a fairly new idea that I believe will continue to flourish. It gives small
businesses and new entrepreneurs the chance to compete with big businesses and
corporations, which is what is really what America is all about. We are lucky
to constantly come up with new and innovative ways to be successful and follow our
dreams. It is also extraordinary that this can all be done without great sums
of money. It’s refreshing to know that a good idea, with energy and
intelligence, can become a reality even without the cash.
Interview with entrepreneur, Linda Trocina, founder of Linda Trocina INC:
Q: First off, why did you start Linda Trocina INC?
A: Because I am a mother, I needed flexibility that just doesn’t exist in the big corporate world.
Q: Guerilla marketers do not spend large sums of money on advertising and investments. What is a ballpark estimate of the amount of money you have invested in this business?
A: When I started I had no money for any print advertising. My only hope was free internet sites and word of mouth. I joined every free social networking site out there to post my business information. I also joined various human resource groups in the Atlanta area for networking. Also, I took classes where I knew potential clients would be. That is the only thing I have ever spent money on for advertising purposes.
Q: So you definitely have the “do more with less” attitude that guerilla marketers have. Have you found this attitude to be effective?
A: Yes, I’ve learned that to be a good businessperson you have to take advantage of the things you are already given. For example, many of my clients came to me by referral. Word of mouth ended up being one of my best tools.
Q: Have you done anything creative in order to gain clients?
A: I find that it’s important to get to know my clients so I write down things about each of them to remember. I also send out birthday wishes each year during their birthday to keep my name out there.
Q: Why do you think it is so important to build relationships with your client?
A: A relationship means that there is trust. I won’t let my client down and my client will, hopefully, continue to use my services. I think that clients also like to feel a bond which can only come with a small company like mine.
Q: How has technology helped you?
A: Most of my clients and candidates are in high tech, so the internet has been my most valuable tool. And I'm lucky because these people are also the first to try cutting edge technology. They prefer electronic communications to phone calls. It's fast and efficient. Today, much of my communication is done via internet and other electronic means like texting. I communicate in whatever way is easiest for the client.
Q: What you said about communicated in the easiest way for the client makes me think about “you marketing” and “me marketing.” Guerilla marketers tend to use “me marketing” which focuses solely on the customer. Have you found this to be useful?
A: Absolutely. People want to work with other people who are going to accommodate them. If I didn’t make everything as easy as I could for the client, they would probably go elsewhere.
Q: Guerilla marketing focuses on individuals, not big groups. Is this how you operate?
A: I started out focusing on individuals because that was all I could do at first but that is still the way I operate now. I’ve learned over time that focusing on one person usually really does yield good results.
