What is guerrilla marketing?
Guerrilla marketing is an unconventional advertising strategy that tries to have the most feedback with the least financial cost.
But how low-cost? It is so low-cost that in the marketing management literature, guerrilla marketing is also referred to as cost-free (financial) marketing. This is because it invites you to spend your time, energy, and especially your imagination on advertising and not just seek to attract an audience with money.
Guerrilla marketing is a creative and cost-effective method of advertising, and we have discussed it in this article from the KeyUpSeo blog.
Buy organic search traffic is useful for improving your site's position in Google, and KeyUpSeo offers you this service with the highest quality with the help of the traffic increase system.
The basis of guerrilla marketing, as its name suggests, is similar to the tactics of guerrilla warfare. As you probably know, soldiers in guerrilla or irregular warfare use unpredictable and surprising moves to defeat the enemy. For example, they ambush enemy forces on the way or sneak into enemy camps in the middle of the night.
This is the basis of guerrilla marketing. Strategies that do not follow traditional marketing models and influence audiences in more unusual ways.
History of Guerrilla Marketing
Guerrilla marketing was first introduced to the world in 1984 with a simple book by Levinson. But now there are more than 35 books, an association, a rich website with newsletters, many audio and video files, a consulting organization, columns in international newspapers, magazines, the Internet, and various conferences and seminars in many countries about this marketing method and its various examples, and of course its resources are still growing and expanding at a high speed.
Jay Conrad Levinson, the father of guerrilla marketing, describes this strategy as follows:
The spirit and essence of guerrilla marketing is always the same: achieving conventional goals such as profit and audience satisfaction, using unconventional methods, and investing energy, instead of money, also advertising campaigns must be shocking, unique, clever, and even cheeky.
This method offered small businesses a great way to survive in the expensive world of traditional marketing. As a result, many of these businesses gradually turned to this method and, as a result, found a completely new way of thinking and looking at marketing.
Why has guerrilla marketing been so successful?
Guerrilla marketing has attracted the attention of small and large businesses, and there are many reasons for the popularity of this marketing method.
Guerrilla marketing is easy to implement, and its financial cost is very low. However, it can have a significant impact on the audience and introduce the brand to the customer attractively and creatively. It is precisely because of these characteristics that this marketing method has been able to bring many successes to small businesses around the world to date.
Of course, there is no doubt that the current global economic conditions have also played an effective role in the popularity of guerrilla marketing. The costs of technology are decreasing day by day, and its popularity is increasing day by day. Governments are also providing more facilities to small businesses to provide them with opportunities to grow, and on the other hand, they are imposing more regulations on large businesses. The last point is that people's awareness is growing, and they are no longer fooled by brand names. The result of all this is that there is an unprecedented opportunity for small businesses to thrive, and we are witnessing an exponential increase in their number.
Of course, you should keep in mind that small businesses have increased in recent years, but many of these small businesses have failed due to a lack of proper marketing. In such circumstances, guerrilla marketing has been like a savior for small businesses and, as an understandable and simple method, has been able to provide these businesses with an excellent competitive opportunity. Their low-cost solution, in a costly world, and a simple marketing method, in a complex and confusing world.
What businesses is guerrilla marketing useful for?
The main target of guerrilla marketing was small businesses looking for simple and low-cost ways to attract an audience. However, this type of marketing is not necessarily limited to small businesses, and many large brands have also used it successfully.
We will continue to explore ways to apply this type of marketing for both small and large businesses.
How Small Businesses Use Guerrilla Marketing
Guerrilla marketing may be the right choice for your small business. Why, you ask?
When done right, this marketing method is usually low-cost and has a high reach to the target audience. It is also a good way to differentiate your company from the competition because you are positioned as a creative and different company in the minds of your audience, which helps your business reputation a lot. Marketing experts say good things about guerrilla marketing:
One famous example of guerrilla marketing in small businesses is The Blair Witch Project, which was carried out by a few filmmaking graduates from the University of Florida with a small budget and a camera.
They designed a website and wrote this text on it:
In October 1994, three filmmaking students who had gone to the woods near Maryland to make a documentary disappeared. A year later, their camera was found.
The preview aired on Bravo caught everyone's attention. The show's producers asked the creators to design a new website for the film because the focus of Bravo's site visitors on the movie page was making the network's other shows less visible.
How Big Businesses Use Guerrilla Marketing
Guerrilla marketing was originally an idea that came to the aid of small businesses, but that hasn't stopped big businesses from using the idea.
A variety of businesses use guerrilla marketing as a supplement to their advertising campaigns. Some marketers believe that when famous brands use guerrilla marketing, their strategy is not guerrilla because these companies have a large budget and are still famous at the time of marketing their company.
Using guerrilla marketing for big businesses is very risky. In some cases, their guerrilla advertising can fail and become a public relations nightmare for these companies. Smaller businesses can more easily engage in guerrilla marketing because people quickly forget about their advertising failures.
Unsuccessful example of guerrilla marketing
A failed example of guerrilla marketing dates back to the Cartoon Network movie Aqua Teen Hunger Force, which led to a citywide panic. The guerrilla marketing company involved in this project installed LED billboards of one of the characters from the movie scattered throughout the city. The billboards remained off during the day and lit up at night, causing panic among the people in the city due to their resemblance to bombs.
The program received a lot of positive and negative reviews from marketing experts, and the production company and the marketing company of this project were forced to pay a fine of two million dollars.
A successful example of guerrilla marketing
A successful example of guerrilla marketing involves the Coca-Cola Company.
The company, with the help of marketing firm Definition 6, designed the “Happiness Machine” commercial. The video shows a Coca-Cola vending machine dispensing more than just a cold drink to its customers. The clip was recorded by five hidden cameras at St. John's University in the Queens neighborhood of New York.
The video went viral, with more than four and a half million views on YouTube. The video had the greatest impact in Brazil, Mexico, Japan, and Russia.
Guerrilla Advertising and Its Impact on Digital Marketing
The principles of guerrilla advertising can also be implemented in online marketing. We can find solutions that surprise our audience and make our name known in their minds at a low cost.
Of course, for this purpose, it is better to have a proper understanding of the Internet space and be familiar with the features, advantages, and disadvantages of online marketing.
It is true that guerrilla marketing has mostly come to the aid of small businesses, but large businesses have also used this marketing strategy, if you decide to use this marketing method, do not forget one thing, if you are not willing to take risks, guerrilla marketing is not suitable for your business. On the other hand, with a little creativity, you can have a distinctive advertising campaign at minimal cost.
If you do not have enough experience to implement your digital marketing strategy, it is better to seek help from successful agencies. In this regard, it is better to read the article How to choose the best digital marketing agency.
Release date : 24 December, 2024
