In today’s competitive world, where everyone is vying for their piece of pie, it is vital to attract the customers, probably even woo them away from one’s competitors. Different companies use different methods of promoting their products and services, big players have it the easy way with a good part of their budgets allocated for the same. But how do the small players (SMEs) or even start-ups who do not have the luxury of such budgets go about their way ?
Well the answer for these companies is GUERILLA MARKETING! Guerrilla marketing is the non-conventional advertising strategy. It aims to attain maximum customer attention with minimum costs. It therefore calls for nimbleness, alacrity to respond to changes in market, maximum use of imagination, unconventionality and flexibility. Guerrilla marketing aims at creating brand awareness not at selling one’s products.
The term “Guerrilla marketing” was coined by Jay Conrad Levinson (also known as “Father of Guerrilla marketing’’) in 1984. According to Levinson guerrilla marketing is the best option for SMEs and start-ups, due to the relative quick and flexible implementability of these methods, and more importantly they are not a strain on their limited budget! SMEs can use this marketing more effectively because of their size, organisational structure and niche market presence. Guerrilla marketing activities are more likely to serve market niches for SMEs than big players in the market. They may use atypical methods such as intercept encounters in public places, street giveaway of products, PR stunts, mobile digital technologies to create memorable brand experience.
One such example worth mentioning is of Snapdeal.com, arch rival of Groupone, who thanks to their daring stunt in 2011 attracted maximum attention online as well as offline. It renamed an entire village in India from Nagar to Snapdeal.com Nagar. Though initially people were not very impressed with this stunt, later further digging revealed that Snapdeal.com actually done a lot for the community, including providing clean drinking water facilities and promising to upgrade the local school and hospital. The story hit outlets from CNN to Mashable and SnapDeal promised to provide clean drinking water for 15 years. This guerrilla marketing attempt along with the CSR component garnered a lot of favourable attention towards Snapdeal.com.
There are several examples of guerrilla marketing, some notable ones are as follows. The tiny non-profit web-browser Mozilla Corp., who has captured nearly a quarter of the web-browsing market employs grassroots marketing at its finest. This innovative company uses 100 percent organic marketing techniques (similar to Google) to promote their fast-growing tech service. At the middle of Firefox’s marketing efforts is SpreadFirefox(dot)com, a digital hub for the Firefox community and all of its related marketing activities. There are three core components here. Mozilla has set up a community forum where users can participate in projects and chat with others via message boards providing seamless customer service capabilities; they can contribute by becoming part of their global project of spreading the world about the business worldwide.
Another example would be of The Blair Witch pre-release campaign which ,was a very impressive guerrilla strategy used by college students who were movie makers who made this super low budget horror flick and made it a national blockbuster attracting lot of attention using the actual urban legend. Thanks to a website that thousands of gullible early adopters bought into along with some posters that expertly blurred the line between fantasy and reality.
Apart from garnering attention for businesses, guerrilla marketing can also be used for drawing attention to social causes. In 2008 with an attempt to create awareness about the 1600 pandas left in the wild, WWF embarked on a very novel campaign 1,600 hand-made paper mache pandas,
were placed in various locations across Paris — first in front of Hotel Ville, then across the city. It was a striking display that seemed, at first, quite vast, but hit home quickly as viewers realized that every panda in their sight represented the only pandas remaining in the wild. The campaign was political, emotional, and talked about for years afterwards.
Another example of guerrilla marketing for social awareness would be France’s “Medecins du monde’’ who expressed its commitment to the homeless vagrants in France by distributing tents in a manoeuvre named “The Tent City”. The campaign drew attention to the plight of the homeless wherein the French government allocated $10 million to emergency housing in response to the demonstrations.
Though guerrilla marketing has many advantages, there are some risks involved with using it, which could sometimes mean death knell for start-ups or SMEs. It is a form of advertising which is not an exact science. The number of variables involved in advertising guarantees that nothing is 100% effective. Obtaining measurable results is difficult though not impossible, unlike other marketing methods. There is no clear way of determining the ROI( Return on Investments). Guerrilla marketing requires greater level of dedication and energy than traditional advertising venues. It does not give overnight results plus requires an investment of time to achieve one’s business goals.
Most importantly, guerrilla marketing is not for the fainthearted, one always has a few detractors who find faults in one’s methods. At worst, one may be threatened with legal action (so it is very important to check laws before engaging in guerrilla marketing campaign).
One such example is of Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie. In 2007, Interference Inc., the marketing team tried to execute a 10 city Lite Brite extravaganza to promote the new Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie. Lite Brite works of art, shaped like characters from the movie, were attached to highly-traveled structures like bridges and overpasses. In Boston, the Lite Brite was placed in a busy transportation hub and was mistaken for a homemade bomb. A massive evacuation was conducted and Boston police got involved, suspecting terrorism. Following this hullabaloo, the manager of Cartoon Network Jim Samples had to resign to avoid criminal liability and Interference Inc. had to pay damages worth 2 million to Boston Police and US Department of Homeland Security.
Guerrilla marketing has its advantages and disadvantages. Big companies can afford to bounce back from a disastrous guerrilla campaign however same cannot be said for small ones. So one has to be very wary while practicing guerrilla marketing techniques. Thus with adequate caution and imagination one can attain desired results and coverage for one’s business.
Guerrilla marketing is therefore a tool to be wielded with care or else it can be lethal to the holder…
Author:
Mita Mandawker
Xaviers Institute of Management & Research, Mumbai
Sources:
http://www.slideshare.net/mikenelson01/guerrilla-marketing-3793649http://pasig.olx.com.ph/2nd-guerrilla-marketing-for-smes-iid-115625940
http://www.guerrillaonline.com/cs/Guerrilla-Marketing-Principles-54.htm
http://www.neatorama.com/2011/12/15/10-of-the-greatest-guerrilla-marketing-campaigns-of-all-time/
http://www.creativeguerrillamarketing.com/guerrilla-marketing/18-of-the-most-memorable-guerrilla-marketing-campaigns