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!

Marketing Tools

While a plethora of marketing tools are available to small business owners the most important marketing tool any small business owner needs is a marketing plan.

Without a plan you are literally operating blind with no notion of what is effective or non effective in terms of achieving your objectives.

However within the marketing plan the focus on marketing tools is there not just because the actual tools are a collection of activities you can do to get your message across to your target market. They are the only way you can connect with people in order to encourage them to buy your product or service.

Within the marketing plan framework people tend to refer to 11 Marketing Tools. These are; Direct Marketing; Internet, Public Relations, Advertising, Sales Promotion; Sponsorship; Exhibitions/Events; Promotional Items; Personal Selling; Social Responsibility and lastly Internal Marketing.

As you will know some of these have hefty price tags and some of them cost very little to implement. The trick for effectively using any marketing tool is to select the one that enables you to control your message and get it to your primary target market most cost effectively.

Which ones do you employ? Are there other options you should be investigating?

Remember, whichever marketing tool you use you need to ensure your message is worth hearing, is truthful, encourage people to act, and contains the critical contact information necessary for people to connect with you.