Guerrilla Marketing
The ethics of guerrilla marketing have often
been called into question due to an alleged deceptive, misleading, or
subtle nature of the campaigns. Guerrilla marketing, as described by
Jay Conrad Levinson in his popular 1984 book Guerrilla Marketing, is
an unconventional way of performing promotional activities on a very
low budget.
Guerrilla Marketing promotions are sometimes designed so that the target
audience is left unaware they have been marketed to and may therefore
be a form of undercover marketing.
It is argued that when implementing guerrilla marketing tactics, small
size is an advantage. Small businesses, according to this argument,
are able to obtain publicity more easily than large companies; they
are closer to their customers and considerably more agile.
Yet ultimately, according
to Levinson, the Guerrilla Marketer must "deliver the goods". In The
Guerrilla Marketing Handbook, he states: "In order to sell a product
or a service, a company must establish a relationship with the customer.
It must build trust and rapport. It must understand the customer's needs,
and it must provide a product that delivers the promised benefits."
Levinson identifies the
following principles as the foundation of guerrilla marketing:
Guerrilla Marketing is specifically geared for the small business.
It should be based on human psychology instead of experience, judgment,
and guesswork. Instead of money, the primary investments of marketing
should be time, energy, and imagination. The primary statistic to measure
your business is the amount of profits, not sales.
Guerrilla Marketers should
always use a combination of marketing methods for a campaign.
Use current technology
as a tool to empower your marketing.
While still used frequently by small businesses, Guerrilla Marketing
has been used increasingly by fortune 500 companies, including General
Electric, Yahoo!, Citigroup, Sony Ericsson and Nike.
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