No business can sustain without marketing. Inevitable truth, isn’t it? It’s the backbone of any business that wants to survive in the cut-throat competition.
Hence, businesses look for newer ideas to gain visibility and become a hot topic among the different age groups. Well, who wouldn’t like to experience such a situation? The answer is EVERYONE!
Let’s explore the concept from the very beginning:
“Marketing is dated back to 4000 BC when Egyptians used it in the form of papyrus to convey the sale messages.”
In the 1960s, companies were exploring different ways to use media for marketing such as radio and print.
Marketing is about the brand being revealed and marketed and so is the marketing of guerrilla companies. Unlike conventional marketing or doing it in a gentleman’s way, guerrilla marketing is kind of different because it is a means of hoping to catch publicity by selecting unconventional ways at the specific locations.
Guerrilla marketing can be highly effective in your marketing budget and can bring you needed attention from people around you.
From foot marketing to verbal, it can help you in getting a number of shares on various social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
If your idea is brilliant enough for their news story or competitive for their time to cover your happenings, guerrilla marketing can be genuinely successful or give you massive coverage by big media houses.
When guerrilla marketing offers you lots of benefits then it doesn’t mean it’s the cup of tea for everybody. It needs imagination and proper execution to make the concept viral at the right moment for the right person.
Guerrilla marketing was coined Jay Conrad Levinson in his 1984 book ‘Guerrilla Advertising’. Nowadays, it’s related to small businesses with limited funding. Nonetheless, it seduced big corporations to use it for the exposure and increasing ROI many-folds.
When entrepreneur magazine interviewed several guerrilla marketing experts, they didn’t hesitate to share their two cents on one the most heated and experiment topics to gain exposure;
“…unauthorized and disruptive” and “sticky.” – Brett Zaccardi of Street Attack
“…brand activation that isn’t 100 percent permitted by the city, event or establishment.” – Adam Salacuse, Founder and President of ALT TERRAIN
“…is a state of mind. It simply isn’t guerrilla if it isn’t newsworthy.” – Drew Neisser, CEO of Renegade Marketing
Another remarkable instance of guerrilla marketing was seen in a film production entitled ‘Blair Witch Project,’ which was filmed by five University of Central Florida Film Program students in 1999. The Blair Witch Project internationally grossed $248,639,099.
“That’s how the whole thing started. The website launched in the summer of 1998 and in November, we found out we were accepted into Sundance Film Festival. We had this entire buzz going into Sundance.
It was not because we spent money. It was because we had fans already, which hadn’t even seen the film. It was eye-opening,” says Mike Monello, a co-creator of The Blair Witch Project.
Guerrilla Marketing is for Big Companies
Many people still argue, though, that guerrilla marketing is not for mega businesses. For many reasons, as they already have huge funding to do traditional marketing or modern marketing, this isn’t for big business.
Marketing Guerrilla means you’re short of funds, but still doing your best to market your product, anyway.
This can be more dangerous for big business, though, as their plan or tricks they will execute will potentially turn into their Marketing nightmare.
Turner Broadcasting attempted to use guerrilla marketing in the year 2007 but ended up scaring many people with their innovative concept, which no one in their team thought would go wrong.
They advertised their show on the Cartoon Network called Aqua Teen Hunger and positioned LED placards around the city to show their ‘Mooninite’ character sticking up their middle finger.
For the accident, the organization had to pay $2 million in fine. That’s how PR will do the guerrilla marketing wrong for big bodies.
Below are some of the things you could consider executing;
Location
As with any kind of marketing, the effectiveness of guerrilla marketing depends heavily on the right position among the right people. Either you take the graffiti method on walls / sidewalks, or you do it on foot. Still, the prominent location counted as a huge factor.
Hit or Miss
Unless you don’t bring something great to offer, no one will like to dine with you, especially in the world of guerrilla marketing. People only pause and listen or show some kind of initiative to your efforts, if you bring creativity.
For instance; making 3D graffiti on the streets can make people wonder or scare them off at first, but awe-struck them about your skills and creativity.
Then, brochures can work well for the audience to reach you on different platforms.
Share message that aligns with your business
Another move is to stay true to your post, and match it with the business theme. Suppose you’re running a start-up of vegan food or opening your first outlet where you’re selling delicious organic food, but sadly; your marketing budget is a pea-size one.
You decide to go for guerrilla marketing after searching for ideas and send people with elegant costumes on a busy street who can get attention and tell people; why they must eat organic food and dump their fast food, etc.
That’s the right example of positive and to-the-point marketing. If you go and shout in front of the junk food outlets that they are serving crap to people, you probably will come under a narcissist remark.
Now, would you like to see yourself doing that?
Consider unforeseen variables
Marketer sometimes forgets about the unexpected situation that takes their toll on their pocket and time.
Factors like city rules, environment, noise, vandalism, etc. should be weighed before implementing it, or you’ll end up in prison because people ignore those rules a lot of times.
.Trespassing is one of those offenses which can make you wear stripped black and white clothings.
Never piss off people
Often, many guerrilla marketers annoy people in their excitement, which results in negative feedback or a complaint lodged in the police department against you. Delight your targeted customers with your charm.
For instance; if you are running an organic food outlet, you can take some food samples and give to certain people and video record them (on their permission) and can ask how they like it.
Through Q&A, you can create awareness about your food outlet. It always gives you benefit two ways because not only you will share the video on social media, but your chosen people will who have the opportunity to taste your food. It will help you in reaching more people in your domain.
Connect the dots
Don’t forget to empower your social media presence and build a web design and develop it according to SEO compliance so Google can index your website and rank better when people search for you.
Connect people with the dots between offline marketing and online brand.
