Guerilla Marketing as Alternative Advertising:

Guerilla Marketing as Alternative Advertising:

A Low Cost Approach to Market Products and Services to the Masses. Guerilla marketing does not sound like the type of marketing designed for a business, because it relates to strong arm tactics. However, this is not the case. Guerilla marketing means to take the low cost approach to marketing products and/or services. Instead of throwing money into a huge marketing budget, imagination and creativity is used to accomplish the same result.

This is an ideal marketing scheme for small businesses and even big businesses desiring to curb their advertising budget. Guerilla marketing requires obtaining the services of people who think outside the box when it comes to advertising.

This is especially important for traditional marketing and e-marketing products. Everyone sees the same type of marketing campaigns over and over again, which are gimmicky and unfortunately come with a high price tag. Guerilla marketing provides an imaginative approach.

Guerilla Marketing Attributes

Key attributes of successful guerilla marketing approaches include:

• Being designed for small businesses and sole proprietorships who are not encumbered with a group think way of doing business

• Using a psychological approach to marketing, instead of relying on traditional methods

• Reliance on imagination, time, and energy of marketers instead of money

• Using the key indicator of overall profits or the bottom line approach, as opposed to focusing on sales only

• Focusing on quality and excellence of the company brand instead of constantly focusing on product diversity

• Requiring a whole new way of thinking; not an us against them competition, now an approach of cooperation with competitors

• Using viral marketing as an approach to obtaining new customers instead of targeting new customers directly

• Using every digital advantage available to support marketing; for example the Internet, text messages, etc.

• Using imaginative websites and blogs to attract attention to the company’s products and services

An excellent example of guerilla marketing was with the advertising of the movie Cloverfield. The advertisement was 15 seconds long with the opening date – no title. Before the movie hit the theaters, this one 15 second commercial was spreading through all the online social networks creating a viral marketing success. Once the movie opened in the theaters it was an instant hit.

Examples of Guerilla Marketing

The following are examples of sucessful guerilla marketing efforts.

• One company selling wheelchairs drew the shape of a person in a wheelchair around an open manhole cover to advertise the dangers of open manhole covers in cities. A picture was taken and placed on the company’s website and used in digital marketing sources.

• One company took a picture of a spatula lying on the top of a water drain grate, to advertise bar-b-que grills. The picture was placed on the company’s website, along with using other digital advertising methods.

• Micro Machines (makers of small toy cars) painted small parking spaces on sidewalks and road traffic markings on sidewalks. Then new Micro Machine cars were placed in these parking spots and roadway to advertise new toy cars which were entering the market.

Guerilla marketing is an inexpensive approach to marketing, which is getting more expensive every day. All it takes are creative people and the desire to not follow the lemmings, just to stand out in the crowd.