“I don’t get how dressing up in a gorilla suit will help me sell this product.” – Anonymous Quote
Every good marketer has read Jay Conrad Levinson’s seminal tome Guerrilla Marketing. The title has become ubiquitous to the profession. It registers as a noun of ‘marcom-speak’ that describes nearly any off-the-beaten-path strategy and tactic. While the ‘new’ guerrilla strategies are distillations, permutations, and variations on Levinson’s original theme, they all bank on his singular realization that all marketing is a matter of geometry and kinetics.
Unfortunately, just about any non-traditional process has become “guerrilla.” My friend Cliff Vegas at Superbole.org complains that most things people call ‘guerrilla’ are decidedly NOT guerrilla. More often than not, he says, folks are misusing the term to describe ways of doing things on the cheap. I agree with Cliff, it is the latter point that I find wholly unfair and completely inaccurate. Marcom ‘guerrilla-style’ is not the poor man’s marketing campaign – it is not a way to do cheap marketing. If you believe that, you will fail.
For discussion sake, true guerrilla marketing centers on other methodologies such as ambient marketing, buzz marketing, undercover marketing and viral marketing. When Michael Wollner and I were working in the hospitality and lodging industry, we came across “touchpoint” marketing as an extension to brand promise and recognition.
There will be plenty of time to get into the nitty-gritty. This is just a kick off post for what I expect will be a long ongoing blog. My aim is to demystify the art of marketing communications while delving into the ‘howz’ and ‘whyz’ of guerrilla strategies and tactics. I’ll open up the kimono (so to speak) and reveal what I know (or what I don’t) with others who are equally and gainfully opinionated. Just on pre-invitation head count alone, it seems that this should be an illuminating discussion.
Thus, “the Good Guerrilla” begins. Good hunting!
Tags: buzz marketing, Guerrilla Marketing, levinson, touchpoint, undercover marketing, viral marketing
I’ve enjoyed your contributions over at Mixx for quite some time now, and I’m looking forward to see how the new blog approach works out.
While I enjoyed the article and agreed with the majority of points made, I can’t help but take exception to the opening sentence. You know as well as I do that exceptions exist. I come from a journalism background. What can I say, I’m a stickler for precision in addressing technicalities…
On a serious note, I did enjoy the post, and I suspect this won’t be my last visit to your blog.
Thanks Lester. And I’ve enjoyed your posts as well. Thanks for visiting.
You are, of course, correct about the exceptions. Not all people NEED to subscribe to Levinson’s ideas to be successful. However, his observations are succinct and fairly accurate for almost any marketing situation.