What is guerilla marketing or guerrilla marketing?
The word Guerrilla, which is the Persian form and sound of it, is "Guerrilla", contrary to its appearance in English, it means guerilla; A word that in the minds of many can evoke rebellion or conflict and chaos. At the same time, guerrilla marketing is not, contrary to what it seems, a kind of war strategy and has nothing to do with chaos and violence. In a way, this method of marketing is used to attract the audience's attention and brand awareness; A method of advertising that creates a lot of interaction among the audience without the audience knowing that they are facing a gross advertisement.
Guerrilla Marketing, Guerrilla Marketing, is a method of advertising that is designed in an unconventional way to surprise the audience and thus increase brand awareness. J. Conrad Levinson, a business writer who has written extensively on guerrilla strategies, first coined the term in 1980.
In Levinson's time, the field of advertising was very different. Today, with the development of the marketing industry, advertising has undergone many changes, and for this reason, guerrilla marketing is moving towards digitalization. In the field of marketing, the use of guerrilla techniques is done by relying on the element of surprise; An element by which marketers trap the audience in their daily flow. An important point that attracts the attention of many marketers to guerrilla marketing is its low-cost nature. In this way of marketing, the main investment is more on creativity and thought; To the extent that in the language of marketing management, this type of marketing is referred to as a cost-free (financial) method because you spend your time, energy and imagination to implement your advertisement and you see that you don't necessarily need to spend a lot of money to attract an audience. do not have one.
Guerrilla marketing steps
Levinson likens guerrilla marketing to an attack; The following steps should be implemented step by step as a circular process:
Step 1 - Detailed market search:
"In this step, you should examine the market in terms of the intensity of competition, the style of customers and technology, to discover the advantages that can be obtained."
Step 2 - Identification of competitive advantages:
"Prepare a list of the company's competitive advantages to help you in making the main decisions and policies of the marketing plan."
Step 3 - Determining the goals of partisan advertising:
"Marketing goals should be precisely defined so that they can be monitored in the next steps."
Step 4 - Creative strategy design:
"Or focus on the company's specific marketing objectives, identify creative strategies used to deliver messages to target markets."
Step 5 – Synchronize the program with marketing partners:
"Synchronizing with marketing partners on the one hand enhances advertising and on the other hand reduces marketing costs."
Step 6 - Selection and prioritization of marketing actions:
"Choose marketing tactics carefully and decide on the order of implementation, the responsibility of implementation and the date of their implementation."
Step 7 - Implementation of guerrilla marketing:
"The attack must be launched at a suitable pace to lead to public excitement."
Step 8 – Operational support:
"At every stage of implementation, you need to support marketing efforts to solve problems faster."
Step 9 - Measuring the effectiveness of guerrilla marketing:
"Periodic measurements of marketing actions prevent repetition of wasteful operations and reinforce effective activities."
Step 10 – Optimizing Guerrilla Marketing Efforts:
"Improve messaging, media, and tactics by getting feedback from all actions taken."
Guerrilla marketing tactics
In general, there are four types of guerrilla marketing in Iran and other countries of the world, which I will discuss below:
Outdoor Guerrilla Marketing
This marketing model is usually done outdoors and in places that are impressive and appear in front of the audience without any effort. For this type of guerrilla marketing, large and eye-catching objects are usually used; For example, placing temporary works of art in the sidewalk space or exciting and large sculptures in the street or installing strange signs in the city.
Internal guerrilla marketing
This guerilla marketing model is like guerilla marketing in the open space, the same elements and objects may be used, but it is no longer in the open space, on the sidewalk, or in the city; For example, this guerilla marketing model can be seen in closed spaces such as train stations, stores and other indoor spaces.
Guerrilla marketing ambush event
In this type of guerilla marketing, campaigns usually choose a big event such as a sports game or a concert, and then, usually without the permission of the sponsors of the event, advertise their own product or brand in ways that attract more attention.
Experiential guerrilla marketing
Guerrilla experiential marketing is planned in a way that creates interaction between the audience and the brand. A campaign may use internal or external guerilla marketing, but it is not designed in such a way that it creates interaction with people.
Advantages of guerrilla marketing
- It is possible to create a mutually beneficial partnership with another organization or brand through this marketing.
- This type of marketing is often cheaper than other marketing techniques.
- Gives marketers an opportunity to use their creativity.
- It may lead to audience acquisition compared to traditional marketing campaigns be more
- Can be more fun for marketing professionals.
Disadvantages of guerrilla marketing
- Because the basis of Guerrilla Marketing work is based on creativity and the ideas are new and untested, the result may not be successful.
- Different people may not have the same understanding of guerrilla advertising and its message may not be understood correctly.
- Because the brand is exposed to the public in this way, if the campaign is poorly executed, it can backfire and go viral to the detriment of the business owner.
- In case of unforeseen circumstances, such as bad weather or political tensions, the program may be canceled and the person will suffer for the cost he has paid.
- Some forms of guerrilla marketing can make people feel bad by doing things like ambushing and intimidation.
- Sometimes such campaigns may become counter-advertising for that business due to legal or ethical issues.
- If a campaign is too risky or unorthodox, it may not be approved by shareholders because they prefer to invest in less risky programs
