Guerrilla Marketing – What is guerrilla marketing?

Guerrilla marketing  is a set of advertising techniques designed to achieve maximum dissemination with the minimum investment cost.
The term was coined in the 1980s by Jay Conrad Levinson in the book “Guerrilla Advertising”, and is inspired by the techniques used by civilian armies such as ambushes, raids or sabotage.
It is a set of tactics focused on achieving the  greatest possible impact with a minimum financial investment, in which creativity and ingenuity are of great importance.  Although it was conceived as an alternative to be carried out in traditional marketing, it has also acquired great importance in  online marketing.
Guerrilla marketing tries to impact the potential consumer on a more personal, emotional and memorable level.

Índice

  1. Goals of guerrilla marketing
  2. Guerrilla marketing techniques
  3. Advantages of Guerrilla Marketing
  4. Cons of Guerrilla Marketing

Goals of guerrilla marketing

 

Guerrilla marketing is very popular in both small brands and SMEs as well as large brands. We try to cover the following objectives:

  • Surprise:  It is about generating a surprise in the recipient, beyond mere brand or product information.

  • Capture attention:  Every day, people receive a multitude of advertising impacts that, due to the volume, go practically unnoticed. It’s about capturing users’ attention through something different.

  • Generate virality or “word of mouth”:  That the public voluntarily shares or recommends the campaign because it offers added value.

  • Connection with the public beyond the mere advertising action:  It is about our brand connecting with the recipients of the advertising actions on a deeper level.

  • Planned actions:  Guerrilla marketing does not consist of improvisation, but rather each action must be carefully planned, setting the objectives that are to be achieved through it.

  • Measurable actions:  In line with the previous point, each action and its results must be measurable and quantifiable, in order to calculate the ROI and the KPIs that we want to achieve.    

  • Smaller budget than other marketing actions::  The philosophy of this type of marketing is based on generating actions with a lower investment cost than other more traditional ones.

Guerrilla marketing techniques

There are various techniques included in the concept of Guerrilla Marketing. These are the most popular:

  • Ambush marketing or stealth marketing:  It consists of taking advantage of a large event and the publicity it generates for the benefit of a foreign brand.

  • Covert advertising:  This involves introducing advertising in content of interest without it being an explicit advertising space.

  • Ambient Marketing or Ambient Marketing:  It involves carrying out advertising actions in public spaces with a large influx of people. It differs from “street marketing” in that the latter could simply consist of introducing advertising elements on public roads, such as posters or billboards.

  • Experiential marketing:  These are actions designed to generate a bond with the client through sensations. It is an abstract concept that seeks to connect with the public on an emotional level.

  • Viral Campaigns: These are campaigns that attract the curiosity of the public who voluntarily share it on their social networks or websites, giving it a high level of views.

  • Event marketing:  Holding cultural or professional events can attract a large audience to whom you can send actions related to the brand.

Advantages of guerrilla marketing

Some of the advantages that have helped popularize this marketing strategy are the following:

  • Brand positioning:  A successful action can lead a brand to great popularity in a short time.

  • Low budget:  These marketing actions are substantially cheaper than other alternatives.

  • Short and medium-term objectives:  Immediate objectives can be set since they are very localized campaigns in place and time.

  • Innovation and creativity:  The low budget and high competition require taking innovation and creativity as far as possible to attract the public’s attention.

  • Easily adaptable to specific communities, languages ​​or cultures: They can be adapted to specific times and places, taking advantage of each individual’s specific situation.

  • Increased brand recall:  The added value can ensure that our brand is associated with concepts such as innovation, creativity, social responsibility, etc.

  • Good integration with other strategies:  The fact of carrying out guerrilla marketing actions does not exclude using other types of strategies, which can support each other.

Cons of guerrilla marketing

These types of actions can have their cons if they are not done carefully:

  • Confused or blurred message:  There may be a risk that the action itself, due to its spectacularity or innovation, ends up having more importance than the message itself that is intended to be sent to the public.

  • Low budget:  These marketing actions are substantially cheaper than other alternatives.

  • It can devour the brand:  Likewise, there is a risk that the campaign surpasses the brand and does not generate a memory beyond the action carried out.

  • Legal consequences:  Especially in street marketing, we must be careful of the consequences we may face if certain limits are crossed.