SkillRary

Guerrilla marketing is a marketing tactic in which a company uses surprise and/or unconventional interactions in order to promote a product or service. Guerrilla marketing is different than traditional marketing in that it often relies on personal interaction, has a smaller budget, and focuses on smaller groups of promoters that are responsible for getting the word out in a particular location rather than through widespread media campaigns.

Companies using guerrilla marketing rely on its in-your-face promotions to be spread through viral marketing, or word-of-mouth, thus reaching a broader audience for free. Connection to the emotions of a consumer is key to guerrilla marketing. The use of this tactic is not designed for all types of goods and services, and it is often used for more "edgy" products and to target younger consumers who are more likely to respond positively. Guerrilla marketing takes place in public places that offer as big an audience as possible, such as streets, concerts, public parks, sporting events, festivals, beaches, and shopping centers. One key element of guerrilla marketing is choosing the right time and place to conduct a campaign so as to avoid potential legal issues. Guerrilla marketing can be indoor, outdoor, an "event ambush," or experiential, meant to get the public to interact with a brand.

Guerrilla marketing is a product of the shift to electronic media from traditional print, radio, and television marketing. It was coined by Jay Conrad Levinson in his 1984 book Guerrilla Marketing. Its goal is to create buzz about a product or brand so that it increases the likelihood that a consumer will purchase the product or service, or talk about it with others potential buyers. Guerrilla marketing can be very cost-effective for small businesses, especially so if they manage to create a viral marketing phenomenon.

This alternative advertising style relies heavily on unconventional marketing strategy, high energy and imagination. Guerrilla Marketing is about taking the consumer by surprise, make an indelible impression and create copious amounts of social buzz. Guerrilla marketing is said to make a far more valuable impression with consumers in comparison to more traditional forms of advertising and marketing. This is due to the fact that most guerrilla marketing campaigns aim to strike the consumer at a more personal and memorable level.

The below listed are the various types of Guerrilla Marketing Strategy:

Street Marketing strategy

The main motive behind street marketing is to advertise the product or brand on the streets and in public places to grab the user’s attention. Big brands like McDonald’s, dominos, Nike, Puma, etc. find street marketing to be the most convenient way to connect to users and spread awareness of the brand. McDonald’s created zebra crossing called “Mcfries Pedestrian Crossing”, Nike started displaying its logo in roadside benches. Creative marketing strategies have always helped big brands to create awareness among their consumers. Small companies also prefer to advertise on the streets. There are various business strategies adopted by many brands to advertise on Street like distribution of flyers, pamphlets, human animation, Holograms, product demonstrations on the streets as well as on traffic signals.

Ambient Marketing strategy

Ambient marketing is about placing your ads in an unusual place that may surprise people who are seeing those ads. These types of marketing tactics are mostly created to make products/brands/organizations memorable. This type of advertising has a lasting impact on the mind of the consumer. Marketers often tend to prepare billboards that are unusual in size like making it extra-large or sometimes small. As we all know that abnormal things grab people’s attention. Ambient advertising can be found anywhere around like on the streets, on buses, billboards, bus stops, cars, etc. Well, the marketer analyses whether these types of ads have a wow factor or not. Mostly, unusual location plays an important role in making ambient ads successful.

Promotional Stickers strategy

An attractive promotional custom sticker can help a brand in getting good business and spread awareness among customers. Many companies around display their brand logo in the form of stickers on the windshield of a car as it grabs public attention. Public transport like Buses and trains has always been the best source to advertise a product. Many brands stick flyers inside and outside the buses and trains. Since 1800 the Sticker is the most convenient way to market any product or brand logo. Nowadays there are animated online stickers available which are becoming more popular among youngsters.

Ambush marketing strategy

Ambush marketing is one of the unique marketing techniques in which companies/brands tend to advertise their product on the place where the same product is already being advertised by another company or by their competitors. Let me explain with you an example suppose there is a company A who is the sponsor of a football game and trying to advertise their product men shoes but in the same football game company B who has the same product and they are not the sponsor of the game trying to advertise their product indirectly by making a banner or by shouting out the company name in a group or by getting camera attention. This type of advertising is called ambush advertising. Generally, ambush means “An attack from a hidden position”.

Ambush Marketing Example – In 2010, ambush marketing took place in the FIFA world cup between Adidas and Nike. Nike created different types of business strategies to promote its product in the FIFA world cup.  Adidas was the official sponsor of the game and Nike was running TV commercials and advertising its product through football stars like RONALDO, Rooney. Nike successfully created a lot of buzz for its products around the globe in 2010.  Like this, there are a lot of examples of ambush marketing in day to day life. 

Reverse Graffiti strategy

A marketer has found many creative marketing strategies to advertise their product and Reverse Graffiti is among one of them. Reverse graffiti is a very common process that is used by the marketer to create a temporary image or animation on the wall by removing the dirt from the surface. The first large scale reverse graffiti was made by Alexandre Orion in 2006. After that, it came into the limelight. Now, it is used by many brands and businesses to bring attention to their products and services.  There are brands like Nike, Puma, JD sports, British gas, Domino’s Pizza, Biba, etc. who have used reverse graffiti to promote their brand. Marketers identify their target audience and act accordingly. Well, there are some restrictions to be aware of if you are using reverse graffiti as your brand promotion medium like surface suitability ( it must be a dirty paved area), private property (one should keep in mind that they don’t use reverse graffiti for promotion in any private property) Ads can only be placed on public property.

Stealth Marketing strategy

It is one of the most commonly used creative marketing strategies which requires a lot of creativity to market a product. Stealth marketing is nothing but an unintended way of producing creative marketing strategies where marketer tries to advertise a product to people without them knowing they are being marketed to. It is a low-cost strategy but requires a lot of creativity. This type of creative marketing strategy happens mostly in new channels, movies, TV-series, etc. Well, the main aim of these marketing tactics is not to generate immediate sells but to create business opportunities and brand awareness among people. Now let me give you an example to make it clearer if you are watching a movie and in a scene, you notice a dell laptop or any other brand laptop in the background. Then that is called indirect marketing strategies/buzz marketing/ Stealth marketing.

The advantages of Guerrilla Marketing Strategy include:

• A campaign can have great reach (street marketing, graffiti, stickers)
• It requires low- investment and more creativity.
• Successful campaign can create a memorable brand experience.
• Attractive and creative campaigns can create a lot of buzz around the town/city.
• Guerrilla marketing helps in getting connected with your customers and other business around.

The disadvantages of Guerrilla Marketing Strategy include:

• This type of marketing strategy requires time to grab people’s attention.
• If a brand fails to grab user attention then the same campaign can become annoying.
• There is no guarantee whether the campaign will go viral or not.
• Sometimes this campaign can lead a brand into legal trouble (depends where the graffiti and stickers are placed)
• If a campaign fails to attract an audience then there are chances that people may start backlashing and boycotting your brand.

Some of the examples of Guerrilla Marketing are:

1.   One of the usual places to create guerrilla marketing actions are the zebra crossings. The lines painted on the ground give you a lot to play with if you have the necessary creativity. For example, McDonald’s simulates that the lines are French fries coming out of the typical package of the hamburger brand.

What is interesting about this action is that, besides of being part of a real zebra crossing, which still has the same function, it has achieved that the image is one of the company’s products. And besides, with the image type of the M in the sight of all pedestrians.

 2.   The public transport is another place where the imagination of guerrilla marketing surprises you. It is not uncommon to find buses wrapped with movies, companies, restaurants, malls advertisements… but the ad for this zoo in the local buses of their city was original. A snake wrapped around the bus and squishing the vehicle, something striking and unique.