GUIDE TO GUIRILLA ADVERTISING Halley Perry Lexicon Essay AAD 610 / MKTG, Media, Comm Professor Jon Fenn 2/10/15

GUIDE TO GUIRILLA ADVERTISING Halley Perry Lexicon Essay AAD 610 / MKTG, Media, Comm Professor Jon Fenn 2/10/15

Guerilla Marketing is a marketing strategy that is easy and inexpensive for non-profits and it creates big profits. It is defined by the Business Dictionary as, Tactics available to every small firm to compete with bigger firms by carving out narrow but profitable niches. There are many tactics to consider when executing guerrilla advertisement. Some of these tactics include, but not limited to, extreme specialization, aiming every effort at favorably impressing the customers, providing service that goes beyond the customers' expectations, fast response time, and working hours that match the customer's requirements. (Levinson 1984). This paper will explore in-depth some Guerrilla marketing schemes and how it has been used over the years. It will also identify terms and key words used to describe this marketing strategy and how they are used to describe guerilla marketing. History of Guerilla Marketing Using guerilla marketing as a strategy has been around for a long time and mostly without business or individuals realizing this was a form of strategy. The person to first develop the concept of Guerilla Marketing is Jay Conrad Levinson in 1984. He has since then written several books on this marketing strategy, including a book focused for non-profits using guerrilla marketing as a profitable strategy. Levinson was the Senior Vice-President at J. Walter Thompson and a Creative Director and Board Member at Leo Burnett Advertising. In Levinson s books, he proposes unique ways of approaching and combating traditional forms of advertising. His goal for guerrilla marketing, as summarized in most of his books, is to use unconventional tactics to advertise on a small budget. During the time he wrote his first book, radio, television and print were on the rise, but consumers were growing tired of all these common advertisements. Levinson suggested that campaigns need to be shocking, unique, outrageous 1 P a g e

and clever. It needs to create buzz. (Conrad, 1984 pg. 184). The term guerrilla marketing was inspired by guerrilla warfare which is a form of irregular warfare and relates to the small tactic strategies used by armed civilians. Many of these tactics includes ambushes, sabotage, raids and elements of surprise. Much like guerrilla warfare, guerrilla marketing uses the same sort of tactics in the marketing industry. Levinson further explains guerrilla forms of marketing that offer businesses various opportunities to boost sales figures through the use of unusual strategies. He also stated that while guerrilla marketing also focuses on increasing sales and profits, it differs from traditional marketing with respect to the strategies and methods employed. (Conrad, 1989). Now, this alternative advertising style relies heavily on unconventional marketing strategy, high energy and imagination. Guerrilla Marketing is about taking the consumer by surprise, make an indelible impression and create tremendous amount of social buzz. Guerrilla marketing is said to make a far more valuable impression with consumers in comparison to more traditional forms of advertising and marketing. This is due to the fact that most guerrilla marketing campaigns aim to strike the consumer at a more personal and memorable level. Guerrilla marketing is often ideal for small businesses that need to reach a large audience without breaking the bank. It also is used by big companies in grassroots campaigns to compliment on-going mass media campaigns. Individuals have also adopted this marketing style as a way to find a job or more work. Small businesses started changing their ways of thinking and approached marketing in a brand new way first as a means to save money and effect their audience s emotion. The concept of guerrilla marketing continues to develop and 2 P a g e

grow. It will never stop developing and will always create innovative ways to approach consumers. Case Studies of Guerrilla Marketing Guerrilla marketing originally was a concept aimed towards small businesses with a small budget, but this didn t stop big businesses from adopting the same ideology. Larger companies have been using unconventional marketing to complement their advertising campaigns. Some marketers argue that when big businesses utilize guerrilla marketing tactics, it isn t true guerrilla. Bigger companies have much larger budgets and their brands are usually already well established. It can also be far more uncertain for a big for profit business to do guerrilla marketing tactics because of their quality of their product or company can be compromised. Quality, in this case, refers to the standard of how an individual product or organization is measured compared to their competitors. For this assignment, quality is closely related to ethical approaches of organization and their reputation. Guerilla marketing can help or hinder a company s quality for the audience. Take for example the Boston Bomb Scare caused by Turner Broadcasting. This is a wellknown example of how guerilla acts can hinder a company s reputation. In 2007, The Boston Bomb Scare started off as a guerrilla marketing campaign to promote a new film featuring a Cartoon Network show called Aqua Teen Hunger Force and turned into a citywide bomb scare. Turner Broadcasting with the help of guerrilla marketing agency, Interference, Inc., placed battery-powered LED placards resembling the Mooninite character on the cartoon show. The LED placards were placed throughout Boston, Massachusetts and the surrounding 3 P a g e

cities. The placards were placed in random locations and remained unlit during the day. At night the placards lit up to show the Mooninite character putting up his middle finger. Turner Broadcasting s idea of guerrilla marketing became a Public Relation nightmare. The devices resembled some characteristics of explosive devices and soon caused the scare. It caused the Boston Police and Firefighters to mistakenly claim these Mooninite as bombs, or what the police called, improvised explosive devices. This in turned created huge controversy in the media and marketing world that world renowned media sources such as CNN, Los Angeles Times, and Fox News discussed it regularly for about a month. (Creative Guerilla Marketing, 2014). Even though this created huge publicity for the show, it created a bad reputation with competitors and disconnect with untargeted audiences. The campaign ended up costing Turner Broadcasting and Interference, Inc. $2 million for the incident. As an ethical non-profit, an establishment needs to communicate effectively for its consumers. (Creative Guerilla Marketing, 2014) Well it seems that many companies have learned from past successes and failures. One major brand that has been doing a wonderful job at big budget advertising is Budweiser. They created a mix of types of guerrilla marketing that added the tag line, Up for Whatever? Budweiser created a whole new experience for the people who said they were Up for whatever. From the organization, a staff member or celebrity, would go up to customers who had a Budweiser and if that customer answered with the slogan, they would take that customer and rewarded the customer. Budweiser has created many viral videos but the one that created 4 P a g e

a the most over the top guerrilla marketing was creating a life-size Pac Man game for the super bowl commercial this year. They transformed a whole street for this event. By doing the life-size Pac Man, they create a memorable experience by creating a participatory environment. Participatory is the opportunity that Budweiser created by involving participation of someone who is already a fan of their product. In turn, the participatory is the action of creating an activity. Activities for memorable moments are a key for any customer or patron. This is relevant in Jenkins work called Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture. In this reading, they stated, [t]he young today reject goals they want roles-roles-that is, involvement. They want total involvement. They don't want fragmented, specialized goals or jobs. (Jenkins, 2004, p.3). This is a best part about using guerrilla advertising. It can help create an activity or a memorable event for a viewer/customer. In a way, it brings an emotional connection. By saying guerrilla marketing makes a connection it refers to the memorable experience they create by using an emotion and brings together for the product or service of the business. So, every time the customer sees the company s logo or in this case Pac Man, they remember that experience and how it made them feel. In case of the Budweiser, the customer will always want to drink their beer because of the overly awesome game of Pac Man. Devices of Guerrilla Marketing Guerrilla Marketing is ever evolving and there are many tactics that have been used over the years. It has grown so popular that there are subcategories and new categories are developed every day. The case studies that were discussed earlier are great examples of marketing teams that have massive amount of funds compared to most non-profit marketing 5 P a g e

budgets. Levinson had another book that concentrated on guerrilla marketing specifically for non-profits. There are chapters that include many guidelines to properly come up with implement a strong marketing plan that considers all the concepts we have covered in class. For instance, there is a whole chapter dedicated to explaining how most non-profits should strategies per product. In L book, he explains how non-profits are selling an experience and that there are tangible object to consider when marking for them. In class, this discussion came up and we used the performance art as an example. They sell by seats. Their different strategies could be different for each show or how they sell tickets. Also, in L book it gives 250 examples of guerrilla marketing devices that could be used for many low budget establishments. The devices that will be discussed in this section will show the lower cost tactics that could be or have been used by non-profit organizations. The first category of guerrilla marketing to explore is what media websites have called, Wild Posting. Wild postings may seem old-fashioned, but they are still wildly popular with bands and products that want to portray well designed images. The place to see wild posting is usually down a city street that have walls plastered with multiple copies of a poster for a movie, concert, or band. Those would be wild postings, and part of their effectiveness lies in the way that they can make people believe that they are witnessing something significant. (8 Guerilla Marketing Tips For Small Businesses, 2011). Another reason why this type of advertising is effective is rhythm. Rhythm, in the marketing world, is a term that means the marketing strategy created a pattern by using a repetition. As far as Wild Posting go, there is a reoccurrence of images that can be created inexpensively by using paper and can be plastered on walls in varies ways. McLuhan would agree. In his work called The Medium is the Message, 6 P a g e

where he talks about how another environment can be created. He wrote Environments are not just containers, but are processes that change the content totally. New media are new environments. That is why the media are the message. This does not necessarily mean the environment is bad, but it means its operation upon us is total and ruthless. (McLuhan, 2009). Another form of Guerilla Marketing is experiential marketing. Experiential marketing is increasingly embraced by all types of companies and brands today. It s becoming easier for us to tune out and ignore advertisements today, so experiential marketing aims to give you an experience rather than send you a one-way message. Experiential marketing lets you interact with the product and associate your immediate emotional responses with that brand. The other most important part about guerrilla marketing is Invite People to Come in and Complain or Suggest. It has been suggested on Investopedia to place some posters in your neighborhood announcing a "Come In and Complain or Suggest Day. (8 Guerilla Marketing Tips For Small Businesses, 2011). The idea is to attract traffic, listen to what your customers dislike and want, and to draw in potential customers. This is a great way for consumers to bring their own ideas for other kinds of marketing strategies. Consumers have a choice to see your performance or visit your museum or whatever nonprofit product you have. Choice for this discussion means that the consumer is selecting or making a decision to use their time to purchase your product. By creating a day to listen to your customer s suggestions, they are becoming part of the decision making. We have also discussed this topic in class. How to create the customer involved. Once they are involved, the easier their choice is going to be when deciding how to spend their time. That is how a suggestion day might help an organization. Conclusion 7 P a g e

We have discussed many types of guerrilla marketing and ideas that have been used over the years. One word to tie all these tactics of guerrilla marketing is communication. There are two definitions used for the word and both of them are used when discussing about the guerrilla marketing strategy. The first definition is the described on the Merriman website is imparting or exchanging of information or news. Which is one of the goals of marketing in general. It is to inform customers of an event or to inform them of a product or brand. This was highly successful in Wall Postings, and the same idea was discussed on the quality of the Bomb Scare image. However the bomb Scare was an example created a high controversial communicated message. The other definition of communication is means of connection between people or places, in particular. That connection was discussed in participation in the examples of Budweiser s Up for Whatever campaign and in the Suggestion day. Communication is the essential for guerrilla marketing and finding a balance to bring the brand of the organization and an emotional attachment of the viewer. Guerilla marketing allows both types of communication to balance even with low budgets for marketing strategies. As Jon Conrad once stated on his blog, It is for those entrepreneurs whose budgets are low but their imaginations are great. 8 P a g e

References Creative Guerilla Marketing. (2014, December 1). What Is Guerrilla Marketing? Retrieved February 12, 2015, from http://www.creativeguerrillamarketing.com/what-is-guerrillamarketing/ Jenkins, H. (2007, April 1). Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education in the 21st Century. (Brief article)(book review). Teacher Librarian. Levinson, J. (1989). Guerrilla marketing attack: New strategies, tactics, and weapons for winning big profits for your small business. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. McLuhan, M. (2009). The Invisible Environments: The Future of an Erosin. MIT Press 8 Guerilla Marketing Tips For Small Businesses. (2011, September 11). Retrieved February 12, 2015, from http://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0911/8-guerilla-marketingtips-for-small-businesses.aspx 9 P a g e