Guerilla Marketing is a unique, effective, and creative type of marketing. Guerrilla marketing tends to grab the attention of audiences quickly. By implementing this strategy, many companies are reaping for more significant benefits.
Then, what does guerilla marketing means? Read this article for a better understanding of guerilla marketing.
What is Guerilla Marketing?
Guerrilla marketing is a marketing tactic in which the companies will use surprise and unconventional interactions to perform it. The goal is to promote a product or a service.
Guerrilla Marketing is different from traditional marketing. They often rely on personal interaction, have a smaller budget, and focus on a smaller group of promoters. Then its responsibilities include spreading the news in a specific location rather than campaigning using widely distributed media.
Companies that use guerrilla marketing rely more on face-to-face promotions to spread viral marketing so that they can reach a wider audience for free. The key to guerrilla marketing is the emotional connection to the consumer.
In general, these tactics are not designed for all types of goods and services. Most of the targets are young people who tend to be more responsive. Guerilla Marketing is carried out in public places such as streets, festivals, shopping centres, city parks, and many more.
Principles of Marketing Geurilla
A company will need more effort when using Guerilla Marketing in the promotion. The principles that are generally applied in this marketing technique include:
1. Low Budget
Since this marketing strategy is performed mouth to mouth, then it is unnecessary to place advertisement in commercial media such as TV. But, this strategy needs a public place so that it will be more efficient. Free posting via social media is more than enough if your Guerilla marketing cash manages to get high engagement.
2. Surprise
Guerrilla marketing is only a surprise or temporary. Hence, they are carried out in some places with unusual ways to attract attention and surprise from audiences.
Therefore, Guerilla’s marketing content demands fresh ideas and elicits an audience response.
This temporary nature adapts to the nature of surprise and only affects the audiences at the beginning. If there is a surprise repetition for a long time, it certainly will not give a sensation of excitement. So, the company cannot use only 1 content forever.
It would be best if you tried to serve quirky content again. This is quite a challenge, but you should consider the engagement results from Guerilla marketing which are very significant.
3. Has Positive Value
Guerilla Marketing has a positive goal: to entertain and provide an impressive new experience for the audience. Even though the content has an element of horrendous surprise, it will always be remembered and provide positive value to the community. This application of guerrilla marketing features exciting or viral content but is not considered mere hype.
Types of Guerilla Marketing
The grouping of this type of Guerilla Marketing is based on the target audience decided by the company, including the following:
1. Ambient Marketing
To apply this campaign model, the company has to choose a correct location. The facilities in the location chosen will be included and involved in the advertisement creation. For example, a product illustration on a suburban wall.
2. Stealth Marketing
Stealth Market
ing techniques are carried out clandestinely, thus requiring more interpretation efforts from the audience. An example is involving PC products in advertisements with the concept of model flow in action.
3. Viral Marketing
Viral Marketing is a type of Guerilla Marketing that utilizes object and product taglines that lead to the popularity of the goods or services offered.
4. Ambush Marketing
This promotion method is carried out by attracting the audience’s attention directly through various events. An example is promoting a product or service in a launching event program.
5. Astroturfing
This Guerilla marketing is unique because it is promoted by using other products hype in the community. For example, the media produces written content related to viral product reviews.
The Application of Guerilla Marketing on Businesses
In an era where we are wholly connected to the internet, many companies are using Guerilla Marketing, whether for small or large companies.
1. UNICEF
In 2017, New York was experiencing fairly severe water conditions. UNICEF intensively created advertising campaigns to increase public awareness of this phenomenon to overcome this.
The effort made by UNICEF was placing vending machines by selling bottles filled with dirty water on the streets of New York City. Then the bottles are labelled with diseases commonly caused by consuming unclean water.
2. IKEA
This well-known Swedish furniture seller has long been with Guerilla Marketing. One form of marketing that is quite creative is to turn the main staircase in the store into a set of drawers.
IKEA did this to show that effectively managing storage in a dwelling is very important. This method proves that IKEA is an expert in this field.
3. Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI)
Previously, KAI had made a campaign by changing the rail guardrail. KAI used an illustration with a knife shape and words that say, “Don’t be reckless if you want to be safe”. KAI deliberately made the advertisement to increase public awareness not to cross the trail when the train passes.
Small-scale businesses can also apply Guerilla Marketing. For example, by making installations in public spaces, showing works of visual art on the streets, or others.
Advantages and Disadvantages
Guerrilla marketing is one of the breakthroughs in marketing that has many advantages. This way of promotion has unique content that has never been encountered before, so the audience will be more focused on paying attention.
Hence, the audiences will listen to the content to answer their curiosity. Creative advertising delivery is also easily attached to human memory.
Guerilla Marketing is a form of minimal budget promotion because it has nothing to do with the advertising platform but depends on how effective the ad content is.
Guerilla marketing can also foster collaboration between brands, for example, by holding giveaways. Both business accounts can share this ad content to reach a larger audience by providing a shared giveaway.
Meanwhile, the disadvantage of Guerilla Marketing is that it takes a long time to create ideas and concepts. However, doing brainstorming with teams can overcome this problem.
Another disadvantage is that it creates misunderstandings with the ideas and values held by the community. An example is prank content for product promotion.
However, if the community think that prank content does not include positive values and violates some norms, it will get bashed by the netizens when it goes viral. So, you have to be very careful when creating ads with Guerilla Marketing. Things that need to be avoided are violations of social norms and those that could lead to SARA’s problem (Ethnicity, Religion, Race and Inter-Group).
Guerilla Marketing always puts forward unique or quirky ideas. That is why Guerilla marketing also carries risks. So, you have to be careful when implementing promotional ideas so that the content doesn’t turn against you in a negative context.
Keyword: Guerilla Marketing
