Guerilla Marketing – Is it Good?

Guerilla marketing got its name from guerrilla warfare because they both use unorthodox and unexpected strategies to achieve their objectives.

Usually guerilla marketing uses quick, flexible techniques to compensate and compete against their larger budget competitors, who they can’t outspend in order to create noise in the market place.

The term guerilla marketing came into existence by author Jay Conrad Levinson who coined the phrase and not only are there numerous books on the top available in business book stores but there’s even a website devoted to its strategies and tactics (www.gmarketing.com).

There are four key points to understand:

1. Be sure of what your brand stands for and what your brand personality is.

2. Be clear on who your target market is and where they hang out, what they do, what they think etc.

3. Find events and activities where your target market congregate or participate.

4. Find ways to create significant noise at these events in a way that is unexpected, pleasurable and entertaining for the target market and memorable.

As a caution, be careful that your unexpected guerilla tactics do not undermine your brand positioning and are associated with a positive experiential interaction. Be aware that hijack marketing is considered a no-no and you need to be creative and dynamic, without turning your target market, or the event organizers against you!

In order to determine your target market and your brand personality sign up now for The Small Business Marketing Toolbox Programme and it’ll have you thinking creatively about guerilla marketing strategies and tactics in time for 2010!

Consistency – How Important is it in the Marketing Message?

One of the most important aspects of your marketing is determining what your brands stands for and what your marketing message should be. Take a look at any successful franchise to see the benefit of consistency of message.

KFC and Nando’s are both successful even though their brands stand for vastly different things, however, both of them remain steadfast in what they stand for and everything they do, every marketing message they communicate is consistent and aligned to their respective brand personalities.

Do you do this in your business?

It is one of the downfalls of many small businesses. Consumers are trained to expect consistency and if you don’t provide a consistent service or message they’ll see you as unreliable and unprofessional. For example: if you sell sports cars you don’t want customers arriving to find your sales staff in shorts, t-shirt and takkies and equally if you sell farming equipment you don’t want your staff arriving in a pin-stripe suit and tie.

It seems logical enough however I can almost guarantee that if you pull out all your stationery that has a logo printed on it, look at your business signage and look at the logo on the side of your company vehicles you’ll find they aren’t uniformed.

Either the logo is different in format, has different colours or is not uniformed on where it is positioned on the page etc. This inconsistency sends a message to your customers and it’s not a message you want them to hear!

Commit funds as soon as you can to getting a professional logo done and ensure it is consistent in all the various places your customers will see it. You’ll be amazed what a difference it makes to how people perceive you.

If you’d like more information on how to get marketing working for you why not register for our Small Business Marketing Toolbox programme and make 2010 your year to shine!

Eric Parker will be here in 2010

The Small Business Toolbox is pleased to announce that we will be working closely with FrontRunner Publishing and Eric Parker to bring you the ability to purchase electronic copies of Eric’s famous “Be A Winner” series of business pocket books.

With titles like How to Buy a Small Business; How to Raise Finance for Your Business and how to Make Your Business Fail-Safe, amongst 14 others, we’re sure you’ll find advice and tips to solve just about every business challenge imaginable.

Basil and Eric were impressed with The Small Business Toolbox and are keen to get the payment gateway live as soon as possible so our development team is hard at work to ensure you have access to these incredible tools early in 2010.

Hopefully that’ll enable you to capitalize on all the opportunities surrounding the 2010 World Cup and make next year the year you, and your business, thrive!

Watch this space and, in the meantime, remember now is the time to revisit your Business Strategy for next year so why not do The Small Business Strategy Toolbox programme so you’ve got your business action plan ready to go when the new year starts!