Guerrilla Marketing

Marketing has been one of the most expensive aspects of running a business. While the entrepreneurs stress over how to make the most out of their advertising budget as the competition is fierce, some businesses get people’s attention even with a minimal marketing budget. But how?

One effective strategy is Guerrilla Marketing. It is an innovative and highly effective marketing strategy that helps you to stand out from the competition.

What is Guerrilla Marketing?

Guerrilla marketing is an innovative and highly effective marketing method to boost sales or attract interest in a brand or business. It was introduced and popularized by Jay Conrad Levinson in the 1980s. He wrote several books and articles on guerrilla marketing.

These methods are often low-cost and involve the use of personal interaction. It is quite different than traditional marketing and focuses on smaller groups of promoters that are responsible for getting the word out in a particular location. It is disruptive, provocative and memorable.

Some Famous Guerrilla Marketing Strategies

1. Street Marketing

This strategy uses street art to make a statement. It advertises the product or brand on the streets or in public places to gain customers' attention.

As seen in the picture, McDonald’s substituted Zebra crossing with “McFries Pedestrian Crossing” for marketing. 

Now, Imagine a family passing a road and their children spot this crossing, they’ll immediately want to grab a happy meal and some French fries. So, Mission Accomplished!

2. Ambient Marketing

It is about placing your ad in an unusual place that might surprise people who are seeing those ads. It is created to make brands memorable.

Well, looking at the picture above no one could ever imagine waking up on a beautiful day to an enormous razor in the middle of nowhere. This is where BIC, a company that promoted its razor by making a huge statement, "Our razors are sharp enough to mow your lawn" got accomplished in promoting its product.

3. Ambush Marketing

It is one of the techniques where marketers take advantage of the audience present in an event and use it to promote their products. For Example: In 2010, ambush marketing took place between Adidas and Nike. Adidas was the official sponsor of the game but still Nike was successfully able to create a lot of buzz for its products around the globe in 2010. Nike was running TV commercials and advertisements through football stars like Ronaldo, Rooney due to which it was able to promote its products during the FIFA world cup.

Conclusion

While businesses plan on coming up with Guerrilla techniques for marketing, they need to make sure that they have done enough research about their competitor’s ads history and that their plan is innovative and creative enough to gain user’s attention.

Sources

1. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/guerrilla-marketing.asp
2. https://enterpriseleague.com/blog/creative-guerrilla-marketing-ideas/
3. https://www.sfwpexperts.com/what-is-guerrilla-marketing-top-effective-examples-and-tactics/
4. https://moosend.com/blog/guerilla-marketing-ideas/