what is guerrilla marketing 
guerrilla marketing is a marketing tactic in which a company uses surprise and or unconventional methods and interactions in order to promote a product or service guerrilla marketing is different from traditional marketing in that it often relies on personal interaction has a smaller budget emanates from an original idea to engage the target audience and focuses on smaller groups of promoters that are responsible for getting the word out in a particular location or locations rather than through widespread uniform marketing campaigns understanding guerrilla marketingcompanies using guerrilla marketing rely on its in your face promotions to be spread through viral marketing or word of mouth thus reaching a broader audience for free connection to the emotions of a consumer is key to guerrilla marketing the use of this tactic is not designed for all types of goods and services and it is often used for more edgy products and to target younger consumers who are more likely to respond positively guerrilla marketing takes place in public places that offer as big an audience as possible such as streets concerts public parks sporting events festivals beaches and shopping centers one key element of guerrilla marketing is choosing the right time and place to conduct a campaign so as to avoid potential legal issues guerrilla marketing can be indoor outdoor an event ambush or experiential meant to get the public to interact with a brand guerrilla marketing is legal though some approaches may border the boundary of being ethical guerrilla marketing historyguerrilla marketing is a product of the shift from traditional print radio and television marketing to electronic media it was coined by jay conrad levinson in his 1984 book guerrilla marketing 1 the goal is to create buzz about a product or brand so that it increases the likelihood that a consumer will purchase the product or service or talk about it with other potential buyers guerrilla marketing can be very cost effective for small businesses and startups if they manage to create a viral marketing phenomenon this technique can be centered around the business s core mission such as education giving growth technology climate or productivity and then the company can design initiatives that promote those values in campaign forms give back to the community inspire raise awareness help etc these are more effective messages conveyed by the company s actions and shared via word of mouth by the beneficiaries of the campaigns guerrilla marketing typesthere are many kinds of guerrilla marketing some examples include buzz marketing is a marketing technique that focuses on word of mouth distribution often deployed in social media this strategy relies on one user sharing content from a company with their social network friends or family instead of trying to generate excitement by itself guerrilla marketing relies on customers to organically raise awareness of a product or company stealth marketing is a low cost strategy that strives to market to a customer without the customer realizing they are being marketed to consider the last time you watched tv although you may not be fully attentive during commercials companies that deploy tv advertisements may be attempting to market products to you without you explicitly realizing it ambient marketing is a guerrilla marketing technique that strives to blend into a natural environment as opposed to a more explicit form of advertising an example of ambient marketing is promotions on a bus bench instead of creating a guerrilla marketing campaign that obviously sticks out some marketing departments may strive for more subtle guerrilla marketing campaigns to minimize the risk of turning off customers imagine watching a sporting event and seeing several advertisements of companies that sponsored the event in many cases companies may try to to employ coattail marketing which entails appearing like a sponsor although they are not popular within event sponsorships ambush marketing is often employed as a guerrilla marketing strategy by companies looking to save money yet capitalize on a major event that is occurring projection advertising entails placing large captivating ads often on the sides of buildings or bland walls this style of guerrilla marketing often allows companies to personalize promotions especially for events instead of a more permanent form of advertising that requires capital investments or long term agreements projection advertising may be more informal and require less upfront capital grassroots marketing is a guerrilla marketing approach that relies on fewer resources companies that embrace grassroots marketing often employ low cost marketing strategies that rely on people s time such as handing out flyers as opposed to larger marketing strategies often employed by local or small companies grassroots marketing is a simpler strategy than embarking on a marketing campaign the goal of a guerrilla marketing strategy is usually to spend less money if this style of marketing leads to higher costs reevaluate your spending as there may be more cost effective approaches to marketing a brand guerrilla marketing s advantages and disadvantagesmanagement often embarks on guerrilla marketing because it is usually a budget friendly option instead of needing to deploy lots of capital guerrilla marketing is often less expensive than other marketing campaigns startups local businesses or companies with fewer corporate restrictions often deploy guerrilla marketing techniques because this method also allows for greater creative capacity guerrilla marketing often relies on informal means of marketing information allowing marketing professionals to utilize less traditional ways to deploy their strategies because marketing professionals have the ability to be more creative some guerrilla marketing campaigns can have a wider reach not only does this have the opportunity to be more profitable than other campaigns but also marketing professionals may find guerrilla marketing campaigns more desirable and fun to deploy guerrilla marketing strategies are usually less structured for this reason guerrilla marketing endeavors are often less successful and have a greater risk of failure as there is less structure recipients of the marketing content may not get a consistent message or may misunderstand the messaging to some guerrilla marketing is an adverse sense of marketing some may prefer not to receive such marketing therefore some consumers are put at risk of being adversely impacted by guerrilla marketing techniques perhaps the greatest downside of guerrilla marketing is its unpredictability because there is less structure marketing professionals may not be able to collect metrics to gauge whether the campaign is successful it may also use nontraditional guerrilla techniques that the company is unsure will be successful often a less expensive option compared to other marketing campaign techniquesusually allows for greater creativitymay reach a broader audience compared to traditional marketing campaignsmay be more fun for marketing professionals to embark onless structure often leads to less successful endeavorsmay not deliver consistent messagingmay be seen as a turn off by some individualsmay be more unpredictability due to data being difficult to track or collectguerrilla marketing examplesleading up to the release of deadpool the marvel character was issued his own tinder profile as tinder is not a typical avenue for promoting a movie this absurd approach to advertising the film and character is a strong example of guerrilla marketing 2unsuspecting college students in queens new york received unsolicited doses of happiness from coca cola in a guerrilla marketing campaign armed with real humans inside a vending machine dubbed the happiness machine also offered pizzas flowers and a six foot long sandwich this guerrilla marketing campaign went on to win awards 3though never confirmed some suspect a 2017 breakup that played out on burger king s instagram was staged by the hamburger company as the drama unfolded within the comment section of the company s social media account more social media users became engrossed in the tale some suspect the entire situation was staged by burger king to incite interest in the company s page and boost traffic 4finally consider leaving a club and seeing a garbage can full of red bull cans one must presume that the drink was popular and consumed by many within the club correct it turns out that red bull may have embarked on an empty can guerrilla campaign by placing empty cans in bins around clubs the company presumably wanted to create the impression that the drink was popular at the club 5guerrilla marketing mistakeswith the risks inherent to guerrilla marketing and the sometimes uncharted territory it travels in there are a number of examples of campaigns gone awry 