Guerrilla Marketing to Grasp Customer Attention

Guerrilla marketing strikes the potential customer’s attention with a memorable and more personal way of advertisement strategy and it is designed to promote the products and services with a low-cost. Jay Conrad Levinson created the concept of guerrilla marketing to maximize the brand image. These strategies include using sidewalk places for advertisement activities such as leaving sticky notes, products details in an innovative way, using unconventional techniques of advertisements at restaurants, coffee shops, shopping malls, and parks, etc. The focus of guerrilla marketing is to grasp the attention of the maximum potential customers. Advertisements through guerrilla marketing strategies leave a memorable impact in the minds of the customers with more personal and surprising advertisements. Such approaches can create a positive impression about the brand and maximizes sales.

Many large and existed companies invest a lot of money to promote their products or services by using various marketing strategies. But in the case of new entrants and small business firms, high expenditure for advertisements is not possible because of many financial constraints. For such companies, guerrilla marketing helps to generate profits and enable them to compare with the existed and bigger companies also, but the thing needed is imagination power and innovative skills. Guerrilla marketing can create the brand image with clear, attractive and innovative approaches so that the customers can remember the products and brands which finally creates a buzz through word of mouth.

Guerrilla marketing is a solution to reduce costs:

Guerrilla marketing is a successful marketing strategy which fulfills the advertisement needs with low-cost in an effective way. Most of the organizations balance the cost of advertisements by using various cost-cutting approaches. It may lead to employee dissatisfaction and the decrease in productivity. For small firms and new entrants, this strategy helps in an effective way which can grasp the attention of the potential customers and bulk audience in a memorable way. It may not let the customers switch over and highly reduces the threat of substitute products and competitor’s products with low advertisement expenditure.

Principles:

The main focus of guerrilla marketing is to encourage the new entrants and small scale organizations with the low-cost strategies. Guerrilla marketing can grasp the attention of customers by various unconventional methods of advertising it can create sudden surprise or humor.
It maximizes profits by creating buzz through word of mouth so that it can attract the potential customers and new buyers.
Low-cost method, with the investment of human efforts and innovation.
Target customers are the bulk audience and large groups which enable them to buy the product.
To create a strong brand image, even the product or service is very new to the market also.
To make the people, watch the advertisement by paying attention and with a great interest.

Types of Guerrilla Marketing:

Street Marketing:

It is one of the very widely used methods of guerrilla marketing; it involves using streets, parks, beaches, public places, vehicles, shopping trolleys, bags, and unused side walls and so on, to promote the product or services with innovative and unconventional methods. Mostly it creates sudden surprise and humor to grasp the attention of the bulk audience. Street marketing may involve various advertisement activities like product and human animations to promote new products or services with human activities, road shows are used to promote product by reaching the audience i.e. advertisement on sides of the vehicles, presence marketing to grasp the attention of people by giving advertisements at local festivals, uncovered and event actions involve customization of various elements and promoting the product through public events.

Ambient Marketing:

In ambient marketing, the promotional activities are done at various locations by using unconventional methods to deliver the message. It does not have any limitations, the advertisement can be given at any place and on anything such as hand straps of buses and local trains, using the floor of public toilets, and advertisement on side walls, rocks etc.

Ambush Marketing:

Ambush marketing is a counter strategy; it involves promoting products and services to the bulk audience at big events such as at Olympic Games, without investing for sponsorship or taking the advantage without spending on sponsorship rights.

Stealth Marketing:

The focus of stealth marketing is to reach and attract the high volume of customers and to create buzz through digital activity. In stealth marketing, the ambassadors may not know the truth behind the advertisement that they are being involved in it or they may hide the truth that they are being paid or sponsoring a brand. If the companies are found doing unethical practices then they have to face legal issues also.

Buzz Marketing:

The aim of buzz marketing is generating conversations and to spread the conversation. The conversation may be regarding an ideal person using the product or about they are talking about the product in a positive way.

Viral Marketing:

Guerrilla marketing is a traditional marketing strategy, but the internet occupied guerrilla marketing in the form of viral marketing. The message of the advertisement may pass on from one individual to another and it finally reaches hundreds, thousands and millions of people. It spread like a virus, so it is termed as viral marketing. If the message spreads through word of mouth then it is called word of mouth viral marketing.

Wild Posting:

It is also cost effective method, in this method the posters related to products and advertisements are adhered to the side walls of buildings, educational institutions, shopping malls, residential places and vehicles etc without taking permission. However, it grasps the attention of the bulk audience, but the companies using wild posting may have to face legal issues.

Challenges:

In the case of wild posting and stealth guerrilla marketing methods, the companies may have to face legal issues because of using non-permitted areas for advertising and for unethical approaches to delivering messages.
The effort may become useless when the advertisements on the walls are washed or removed.
In some cases, customers may think that it is an unethical practice.
In marketer’s point of view, developing innovation strategy and implementation may become a day to day challenge. This strategy may not effectively compete with the organizations using other means of advertisement strategies such as sponsoring, covert advertisements and celebrity advertisement, etc.
Sometimes the created buzz may be limited to the local markets only, so that the advertisement may take the time to spread to the target markets.

Benefits:

Guerrilla marketing is a low-cost unconventional marketing strategy creates a strong impression about the brand.
It helps in maximizing brand image and profits.
It encourages new entrants and small companies.
It enables to deliver the message to the bulk audience and target groups.
Guerrilla marketing can give sudden surprises and can create humor, which creates unforgettable positive impact in the minds of the customers about the product and brand.