Guerrilla Marketing: Pros and Cons of Guerrilla Marketing

Guerrilla marketing is a form of marketing strategy that a company employs to advertise products to its target market using the element of surprise or other unconventional methods. Jay Conrad Levinson, a former advertising agency vice-president, first explored the idea of guerrilla marketing in his 1984 book, Guerrilla Marketing. He named the marketing strategy after the term “guerrilla warfare,” which entails small, coordinated attacks carried out in an unconventional way by armed civilian forces fighting an enemy.

Guerrilla marketing strategies take a similar approach to advertising: They use surprise, shock, and humor to generate word-of-mouth, which, in turn, creates brand awareness without exhausting a company’s marketing budget. For large and small businesses alike, guerrilla marketing tactics are a cost-effective alternative to traditional marketing like billboards or large-scale media campaigns.

Companies follow several steps to carry out a guerrilla marketing campaign.

• Research: Successful guerrilla marketing campaigns require a company to research every aspect of the campaign. They must understand who their target audience is and where they can best reach them: in a public space or online through websites or social media. Most importantly, brands need to convey their message originally and memorably.
• Surprise: Companies can surprise consumers in many different ways. The surprise can be as simple as street marketing techniques like stickers or street art, or as complex as coordinated flash mobs in public spaces or interactive landing pages on websites. The most important factors are originality and creativity. Using marketing ideas that are familiar to consumers will not create an element of surprise.
• Participation: Consumers remember guerrilla advertising if they can willingly participate in the campaign in some manner. Pop-ups are an effective guerrilla marketing strategy. For example, music artist Childish Gambino used social media to promote ice cream trucks giving away free ice cream at specific locations; consumers that lined up for a free frozen treat also heard two singles from Gambino’s EP, Summer Pack.
• Restraint: Interactive advertising strategy is only effective if the consumer doesn’t feel pressured into participating or if the element of surprise is not too overwhelming or confusing. Research into consumer habits and preferences will eliminate the chance of delivering the wrong message to a target audience.

There are several benefits to guerrilla marketing. Among them are:

• Building connections: Creative guerrilla marketing requires more than just the company. Contacts with social media platforms are necessary for online efforts, while forging a connection with city officials, retailers, and organizations are effective ways to launch a campaign in a public space. These relationships can be helpful for future advertising campaigns.
• Emotional impact: Guerrilla marketing campaigns emotionally connect with consumers—they laugh, get surprised, and think about the subject of the campaign. Emotions are a strong motivator for purchasing decisions and generate more word of mouth than brands that do not connect with consumers’ emotions.
• Going viral: The best guerrilla campaigns can go viral if they capture the attention and imagination of consumers in the right way. Viral marketing can reach more people and potentially increase brand awareness more effectively than traditional campaigns.
• Low cost: Guerrilla campaigns are a creative, low-cost alternative to traditional marketing efforts. The uniqueness of the strategy does all the work: It connects the target audience with the brand name, and the consumer carries forward the message of the product or idea through word-of-mouth or social media.

There are a few risks associated with guerrilla marketing, including:

1. 1. Misunderstandings: The message in a guerrilla marketing campaign must be clearly defined, or consumers will misunderstand it, which can create conflict. Examples of misunderstood guerrilla marketing campaigns include a 2007 incident in which a broadcasting corporation placed battery-powered LED placards that depicted a character from a new animated series throughout Boston. The placards lit up at night and revealed the character making an obscene gesture. Residents believed the character resembled elements of an explosive device, which required police intervention. The broadcasting company paid $2 million in fines.
2. 2. Unpredictable results: Guerrilla marketing produces immediate results from a single experience, but the total impact of the campaign on sales can take longer than traditional marketing. Also, viral videos can create exceptional word-of-mouth buzz, but the company has no say in whether their campaign will go viral or not.
3. 3. Unpredictability: Guerrilla marketing is as susceptible to outside forces as traditional marketing. However, guerrilla campaigns can suffer from other issues: Bad weather or emergency situations can upend an event, as can problems with a venue or location. Even the timing of specific experiences must be on point, or it will disrupt the campaign.

There are many different types of guerrilla marketing, such as:

1. 1. Ambient marketing: Ambient marketing places advertisements or ideas in unusual locations where consumers do not expect to see such images. Ambient marketing plays heavily on the element of surprise by interrupting what people know about an object or environment. The Copenhagen Zoo used ambient marketing to promote their wildlife exhibits; they placed large, high-definition images on public transportation to depict a snake squeezing a bus.
2. 2. Ambush marketing: Ambush marketing ties advertising for a product or idea into another unrelated advertising campaign without paying for or participating in the second campaign. Ambush marketing has its pros and cons: While it is an effective way to increase brand awareness, especially for a start-up, critics regard it as dishonest, and it can negatively impact both brands.
3. 3. Buzz marketing: Buzz marketing, or astroturfing, relies on consumers to increase brand awareness about a product through word of mouth. Brands often tie buzz marketing to promotions or stunts, encouraging consumers to share their thoughts on the product with the people around them or through social media. Social media influencers who share their thoughts on a product are another form of buzz marketing.
4. 4. Experiential marketing: Also known as engagement marketing, experiential marketing creates a real-life experience that allows the consumer to engage with a product directly. Examples of experiential marketing include promotions at trade shows, test drives for automobiles, in-store events at retail locations, and even free samples of food or other products.
5. 5. Stealth marketing: As its name suggests, stealth marketing involves advertising a product without drawing direct attention to it. It is a popular yet controversial type of marketing that draws praise for its cleverness and criticism for its deceptive qualities. Product placement—the insertion of an identifiable brand into a form of media like a movie or television show—is the best-known example of stealth marketing.

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