Guerrilla Marketing

In our introductory week, we've been tasked with introductory readings from Guerrilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson.  The text from this book is quite intriguing as it serves to identify the main differences between what is referred to as traditional marketing and the concept of guerrilla marketing.  Levinson uses the opening chapter to define his definition of what marketing means and how the guerrilla marketing approach may make you reconsider how you view the term.

First, Levinson defines and clarifies what marketing really is.  Here's some ways in which he redefines the term to get readers thinking about how we may be taking the wrong approach to attracting and retaining customers.

1. "Marketing is every bit of contact your company has with anyone in the outside world."

This is far different than how I thought of marketing.  Marketing is a strategic way to attract new audiences of potential customers, right?  Not exactly.  It is quite literally every contact you have with anyone.  This point emphasizes the fact that anyone is a potential customer and you need to represent your company in all facets of your business.  The devil is in the details!

2. "Marketing is the art of getting people to change their minds - or maintain their mindsets if they're already inclined to do business with you."

Nothing too earth shattering here, but this is an interesting perspective to have when approaching marketing.  You're not merely blasting your product image all over town.  You need to invent ways to convince a potential customer that they would be better off purchasing your product, choosing your product instead of a competitor, or continuing to be a loyal customer.  All different angles with the same goal, sell more product!

3. "Marketing is also the truth made fascinating." 

This statement is geared towards the concept of shifting focus from me to them.  The success from marketing comes from helping your customer succeed at their goals and in turn, you succeed at your goal; generating and retaining business/profits.  Although it seems simple, this statement feels like a core competency in successful marketing and I anticipate it will be an ongoing topic or viewpoint that is reiterated and emphasized throughout the text. 

 

4. "Marketing is more of a science every day as we learn new ways to measure and predict behavior, influence people, and test and quantify marketing... it is also unquestionably an art form...and it is a business.  And the purpose of a business is to earn profits." 

 

This combination of observations and statements is the true meat and potatoes.  Psychology and data are a necessary element to successful marketing but the creative space in which marketing thrives is also an art.  Levinson wraps it all together with this concept that marketing is a combination of wonderful and contrasting principles but above all else, it is a business.  The final objective is to bring science and art together to earn profits and I for one, am excited to read more about what he has to say!

Levinson also highlights 20 distinct differences between 'Traditional Marketing' and 'Guerrilla Marketing'.  Each point highlights the difference in focus, execution, and goals that an agent of guerrilla marketing has, which can give them an advantage in many things such as long-term relationships with clients, harnessing the power of strategic marketing, building customer loyalty, and even collaborating joint marketing ventures with competitors!  Take a look at the overview I've put together in the table below, which summarized the differences that Levinson points out in his text.

           The Differences between ‘Traditional Marketing’ and ‘Guerrilla Marketing’

	Traditional	Guerrilla
1	Maintains that to market properly, you must invest money	Maintains that if you want to invest money, you can – but you don’t have to if you’re willing to invest time, energy, imagination, and information
2	Shrouded in mystique and intimidation; fear of making mistakes can lead to missed opportunities	Removes the mystique and exposes marketing for exactly what it really is – a process that you control – rather than the other way around
3	Geared toward big business with big budgets	Small business: Companies with big dreams but tiny budgets
4	Performance measured by sales or responses to an offer	Main number that merits your attention is the size of your profits
5	Based on experience and judgment; “guesswork”	Can’t afford wrong guesses, so it is based as much as possible on psychology; such as repetition and the unconscious mind
6	Suggests that you grow your business and then diversify	Suggests that you grow your business, if growth is what you want, but always maintain your focus to achieve your goals
7	Suggests that you should grow your business linearly by adding new customers one at a time	Grow a business geometrically – by enlarging the size of each transaction, engaging in more transactions per sales cycle, and tapping into the power of customer referral
8	All efforts on making the sale, under the false notion that marketing ends once the sale is made	Emphasis on fervent follow-up with the knowledge that 68% of all business lost is lost from ignoring customers after they’ve made the purchase
9	Scan the horizon to determine which competitors you ought to obliterate	Scan the horizon to determine which businesses have the same kind of prospects and standards as you do – so that you can cooperate with them in joint marketing efforts
10	Urges you to have a logo that represents your company – a visual means of identifying yourself	Have a meme that represents your company – a visual or verbal symbol that communicates an entire idea
11	“Me” marketing	“You” marketing
12	Focused thought on what can we take from the customer	Focused on the lifetime value of a customer and what we can give a customer
13	Advertising works, web sites work, direct mail and e-mail work	Marketing combinations work. Running a series of ads, having a website, and then direct mailing or e-mailing, they’ll all work, and they’ll each help the others work
14	Count money	Count new relationships; establish and nurture a bond between themselves and each individual customer
15	Rarely emphasize technology	Requires that you be very ‘technocozy’
16	Aimed messages at groups: the larger the group, the better: broadcasts	Aims messages at individuals: narrowcasts, microcasts, and nanocasts
17	Unintentional.  Focus on the big guns of marketing – radio, TV, newspapers, magazines, and web sites	Always intentional.  Focus on the details of contact with the outside world; ignoring nothing and realizing the importance of tiny details
18	Believes you can make the sale with marketing	Alerts you to the reality that marketing today can hope only to gain people’s consent to receive more marketing materials from you
19	A monologue	A dialogue. Interactivity and involving the customer with the marketing
20	Identifies the heavy weapons of marketing: radio, TV, newspapers, magazines, direct mail, and the internet	Identifies two hundred weapons of marketing, and many of them are free

As you can plainly see, the approach of guerrilla marketing is in stark contrast to traditional marketing in many ways.  Using psychology and the artform of creating strategic marketing, will lead you down a very different path than traditional marketing but according to Levinson, it will also lead you to sustained and growing profits.  Which, after all, is the main goal for any business.  I'm excited to learn more of what this book has to offer in reshaping my understanding and application of marketing in the real world.

Until next time,