guerilla marketing

Transcription

guerilla marketing

S CIENCE E CONOMY C OHESION
EUROPEAN UNION
Creating the Future of Lithuania
UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED
SOCIAL SCIENCES
UNIVERSITY OF
APPLIED SOCIAL
SCIENCES
DONATAS JONIKAS
GUERILLA MARKETING
COURSE HANDBOOK
SOCIAL SCIENCES
UNIVERSITY OF
APPLIED SOCIAL
SCIENCES
ALL BOOKS
NEW BOOKS
Discount
Discount
-70%
MAIN
ENTRANCE
-50%
Donatas Jonikas, Guerilla Marketing
S CIENCE E CONOMY C OHESION
EUROPEAN UNION
Creating the Future of Lithuania
SOCIAL SCIENCES
UNIVERSITY OF
SMK University of Applied Social Sciences
APPLIED SOCIAL
SCIENCES
Donatas Jonikas
SOCIAL SCIENCES
UNIVERSITY OF
APPLIED SOCIAL
SCIENCES
GUERILLA MARKETING
Course handbook
Klaipeda, 2015
1
Donatas Jonikas
GUERILLA MARKETING
Course handbook
Approved by the decision of the Academic Board of SMK University of Applied
Social Sciences, 15th April 2014, No. 4.
Layout by Justina Ulinskaitė
The publication is financed within project “Joint Degree Study programme „International
Marketing and Branding“ preparation and implementation“ No. VP1-2.2-SMM07-K-02-086 funded in accordance with the means VP1-2.2-SMM-07-K “Improvement
of study quality, development of Internationalization” of priority 2 “Lifelong Learning” of
the Action Programme of Human Relations Development 2007 – 2013.
© Donatas Jonikas, 2015
© SMK University of Applied Social Sciences, 2015
ISBN 978-9955-648-29-1
2
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction ........................................................................................................... 5
1. Marketing War Strategies ........................................................................ 7
1.1. Marketing Battlefield .............................................................................................. 7
1.1. Defensive Marketing ........................................................................................... 11
1.2. Offensive Marketing ............................................................................................ 17
1.3. Flank Attack .......................................................................................................... 21
1.4. Stealth Actions ........................................................................................................ 26
1.5. Guerrilla Marketing .............................................................................................. 31
1.6. Case Study .............................................................................................................. 37
2. Guerrilla Marketing Atitude ............................................................... 50
2.1. Guerrilla Marketer Skills ..................................................................................... 50
2.2. Creativity in Guerrilla Marketing ...................................................................... 55
2.3. Guerrilla Marketing Examples ........................................................................... 57
3. Structure of Guerrilla Marketing .............................................................7 3
3.1. Strategy in 7 Sentences .......................................................................................... 75
3.2. PyroMarketing – 4 Step Tactics ............................................................................ 79
3.2.1. PyroMarketing Vs Mass Marketing ................................................................ 79
3.2.2 Case Study ............................................................................................................ 84
4. Methods for Guerrilla Marketing ........................................................
92
4.1. Idea Generation Methods ................................................................................... 92
4.1.1. Preparation ....................................................................................................... 92
4.1.2 Braistorming ...................................................................................................... 98
4.1.3. Method of Challenge ..................................................................................... 99
4.1.4 How – How Diagram ..................................................................................... 100
4.1.4 The Kipling Method ...................................................................................... 102
4.1.5 Six Thinking Hats ........................................................................................... 103
4.1.6 Storyboarding ............................................................................................... 104
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4.1.7 Assumption - Busting ...................................................................................... 105
4.1.8 PSI method ........................................................................................................ 106
4.2. Copywriting in Guerrilla Style ........................................................................ 110
4.2.1. Copywritting Techniques ............................................................................. 110
4.2.1. Flyer Text .......................................................................................................... 118
4.2.2. Website Text .................................................................................................... 120
4.3. Cold Calling in Guerrilla Way ........................................................................ 126
4.4. Parthership in Marketing ............................................................................... 132
5. Guerrilla Marketing Toolkit ............................................................... 139
5.1. Getting Fast Cash ............................................................................................. 140
5.2. Extra Power Tools ............................................................................................ 143
5.3. Getting Free Publicity ...................................................................................... 150
5.4. Unusual Advertising Channels ....................................................................... 157
5.5. Tools for Sale Support .................................................................................... 168
References ................................................................................................. 173
Appendices ................................................................................................ 177
4
Introduction
The first Guerrilla Marketing book was written by Jay Conrad Levinson and
published by Houghton Mifflin in l983. Today there are 58 volumes in 62 languages, and
more than 21 million copies have been sold worldwide. In the words of the “father”
of guerrilla marketing, Jay Conrad Levinson, guerrilla marketing could be described
in this way: “I’m referring to the soul and essence of guerrilla marketing which remain
as always - achieving conventional goals, such as profits and joy, with unconventional
methods, such as investing energy instead of money”. I kindly invite those, who haven’t
yet understood the idea of cover picture of this course book, to read any edition of
Jay Conrad Levinson “Guerrilla Marketing” (with all respect, the image is inspired by
one of many examples given by Levinson).
Today there is a vast choice of guerrilla marketing books, blogs, scientific articles,
podcasts and etc. But this book is a practical guide on developing guerrilla marketer
skills. That is the main goal of this book. It consists of five major chapters and helps
to build guerrilla marketer’s skills step by step:
1. “Marketing war strategies” – if we want to talk about guerrilla marketing
strategy, first we should know what other kinds of strategies exist, what companies
are able to implement them effectively and who has no other choice, but to develop a
guerrilla marketing strategy.
2. “Guerrilla marketing attitude” – the chapter tells about skills and attitudes,
which must be developed if you want to be a successful guerrilla marketer.
3. “Structure of guerrilla marketing” – guerrilla strategy made of seven sentences
is described, and pyromarketing tactics is introduced for you to have clear vision of
what, what and how you will do while implementing guerrilla marketing ideas.
4. “Methods of guerrilla marketing” – seven methods for generating guerrilla
marketing ideas are introduced, in order for you not to be stuck in situation without
a vision and ideas. Furthermore, text writing methods and preparation for incoming
and outgoing phone calls are proposed. Finally, you are encouraged to look for
both-beneficial partnership and this chapter tells how to do it.
5. “Guerrilla marketing toolkit” – some tools are grouped and proposed for your
convenience in this chapter and Appendix 1. Even if you get stuck in situation, when
there are no creative ideas, take a look at these tools and you will definitely find
something applicable in your case.
As this is a practical guide, you will find plenty of small, but precise examples in
each chapter and two larger case studies. Each chapter has practical tasks for you. It
would be the best case for your practical tasks to choose the company, you like the
most and would like to work in.
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Be a guerrilla while seeking a job and do not miss the opportunity. Once you
finish all tasks, send them to the company. I am not kidding! If you have done a good
job, you will get not only a great evaluation mark, from this curriculum, but a
possibility for a job interview as well!
I guess, some of you might have a question - what does this guy know about
guerrilla marketing and especially about the practical side of it? Who is this guy at all
and can he teach us anything valuable?
I have started my marketing agency UAB “Marketologai” (www.marketologai.lt)
back in 2008 m. These were the hard times – economic downturn has just begun, but
not everybody has noticed it yet. Probably you have heard that nearly up to 90% of
new companies go bankrupt or stop their activity within 5 years in regular economic
conditions. But then we had economic downturn and almost all companies, even
market leaders, cut their expenses, dismissed many employees, but their sales went
down and most of those companies went bankrupt.
A bit less than 58 EUR (200 LTL) was the starting budget of my marketing
agency. Yes, that was all from financial side what I wanted to invest in my new
business. And this was enough to create a website on an open source system Joomla
1.5 and even to spend some part of this money on Google AdWords online
advertising to get first few requests. The result: within two or three weeks we started
putting our clients on schedule for a month in advance and even more. Up till now
(2014) we have never bought any advertising, except about 75 EUR spent on Google
AdWords during these 6 years! We have clients from Lithuania, UK, Norway,
Switzerland and some other countries. I develop even more specialised marketing
service projects like for product export, R&D outsource, medical tourism and etc.
What I did, was based on guerrilla marketing principles and I have put the main
ideas in this book.
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1. Marketing War Strategies
1.1. Marketing Battlefield
If we talk about guerrilla marketing, it means we talk about marketing wars.
Therefore before getting deeper into guerrilla marketing strategies and tactics,
variety of different war strategies should be discussed first.
There is a saying that it is easier to get to the top than to stay there. Ries and Trout
(1986) disagree, arguing that once at the top, a company can use the power of its
leadership position to stay there. All other things equal, an army with a larger
number of troops has an advantage over smaller armies. A larger vehicle has an
advantage over a smaller vehicle in a collision. When several companies enter a new
market, the one with the larger sales force is likely to become the leader. The larger
company has the resources to outnumber smaller competitors. It can advertise more,
perform more R&D, open more sales outlets, etc.
This is not to say that smaller companies do not stand a chance. Rather, smaller
companies must recognise the principle of force and attempt to win the battle by
means of a superior strategy, not by brutal force. Some managers may believe that
they can overcome a larger competitor through superior employees. Ries and Trout
(1986) maintain that while it may be possible to assemble a small group of star performers,
on a larger scale the employee abilities will approach the mean.
Another argument is that a better product will overcome other weaknesses.
Again, Ries and Trout (1986) disagree and proved the concept almost thirty years
ago! Once consumers already have in their minds that a product is number one, it
is extremely difficult for another product, even if superior, to take over that number
one place in the consumer’s mind. The way to win the battle is not to recruit superior
employees or to develop a superior product. To win the battle, a firm must successfully
execute a superior strategy which fits the company’s position.
An entrenched defence that is expecting an attack has an advantage that can only
be overcome by an overwhelmingly larger attacker. For example, a defensive position
that is in a trench or foxhole will be shielded from the attackers, and the attackers will
suffer much more casualties than the defenders. For this reason, the attackers require
a much larger force to overcome the defensive positions. The same is true in marketing
warfare. Many companies with insufficient resources have tried unsuccessfully
to attack a leader. A study was made of 25 brands that held the number one position.
Sixty years later, 20 of those 25 brands still held the number one position (Ries and
Trout, 1986). It is very difficult to overtake the market leader.
The element of surprise helps the attacker, but when the market leader is large
the attackers also must be large, and the logistics of launching a large scale attack or
a large promotional campaign are such that the element of surprise is difficult
to maintain and the defensive position becomes yet more difficult to be damaged.
When the defenders are taken by surprise, it usually is because they ignored
warnings or did not take them seriously.
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As in military strategy, it is unwise for a firm to publicly state deadlines for its
victory. Deadlines often are missed, and the firm loses credibility in the propaganda
war if it fails to live up to a prediction. Politicians who are wise to this rule tend to
make their campaign promises vague. Publicly stated marketing promises should be
vague for the same reason.
Firms also should avoid the trap of thinking that if they work hard enough, they
will succeed in their attack. It is a strategy and not a hard work that determines
success. In warfare, when a battle turns to hand-to-hand combat, the advantage
resulting from the strategic plan no longer exists. In marketing, a firm achieves victory
through a smarter strategy, not by spending more hours in meetings, reports,
memos, and management reviews. When management declares that it is time to
“redouble our efforts”, then the marketing battle has turned to hand-to-hand combat
and is likely to end in defeat.
In military warfare, a battle often is named after the geographic location where
it took place - for example, The Battle of Waterloo. Ries and Trout (1986) argue that
marketing battles do not take place in geographic areas, nor in stores. Rather,
marketing battles take place in the mind of the consumer.
Before a military battle, the battlefield usually is mapped and studied in great
detail. In marketing, market research traditionally has served this function. However, Ries
and Trout propose that the most important information is to know which positions
are held by which companies in the mind of the consumer. In other words, which
of them hold the high ground. In military warfare, mountains and higher altitude
areas represent strong positions and often are used to present a strong defence. In
marketing warfare, the question is one of who holds the mountains in the consumer’s
mind.
In the USA, Kleenex holds the facial tissue mountain since it is the number one
facial tissue in the minds of most consumers and many consumers consider the
word “Kleenex” to be synonymous with facial tissue.
In Lithuania Pampers is almost a synonym for diapers, because at the very
beginning when the market of diapers was being formed, Pampers invested a huge
amount of money into mass media and “took the highest ground” in customers’
minds.
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Mountains often are segmented and competitors may launch different brands
each targeting a specific segment. General Motors successfully attacked Ford’s
market leadership when it launched Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, and Buick,
each targeting a specific segment of the automobile market. Too often, the leader
responds by attempting to counterattack in each segment, only to fail and even
to lose its original leadership position.
Though we could name more already, Ries and Trout (1986) discussed four
strategies for fighting a marketing war:
1. Defensive
2. Offensive
3. Flanking
4. Guerrilla
A firm’s market share relative to that of competitors determines which strategy
is appropriate. There often is a significant market share gap between two competitors
such that each has approximately a factor of two more market share compared to
the next weaker competitor. Because of this large gap, the principle of force plays an
important role in the choice of each firm’s strategy.
Let us assume that there are four companies and each is approximately twice the
size of the next closest to it. In such an environment, each of the four companies has
different objectives:
• company No.1: market domination,
• company No.2: increased market share,
• company No.3: profitable survival,
• company No.4: survival.
According to Ries and Trout (1986), the main competitor of the market leader
that holds the majority of market share is not one of the other companies in the
industry, but rather, the government. If the market leader attempts to grow larger,
then anti-trust issues will be raised. If a major market leader wins the marketing war
and causes the next largest company to exit the market, then the government may
take steps to break up the company that is dominating the market. Consequently, the
best strategy for such a firm is a defensive one.
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The number two company’s best strategy is an offensive attack on the market
leader if there is a large gap between the number two company and number three.
The reason is that the gaining of market share from the number three firm is unlikely
to make a large impact on the much larger number two company. However, there
are potentially significant rewards if market share can be gained from the dominant
company.
The number three company is too small to sustain an offensive attack on a larger
firm. Its best strategy often is to launch a flanking attack, avoiding direct competition,
for example, by launching a product that is positioned differently from those of the
larger firms.
The smallest firm probably does not have sufficient resources to launch any type
of sustained attack. If it launched a flanking product, a larger competitor likely would
launch a similar one and would have the resources to win more customers. The
smallest company would do the best to pursue a guerrilla strategy, identifying a
segment that is large enough to be interesting to the small company, but not large
enough to attract competition from any of the larger companies.
On the mountains in the mind of the consumer, the high ground at the top of
the mountain is owned by the market leader. The number two company’s offensive
battle would seek to gain high ground from the leader. The leader’s defensive battle
involves coming down from the top to fight off offensive attacks. The number three
firm’s flanking attack would go around the mountain. The smallest firm’s guerrilla
tactics involve its going under the mountain.
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1.1. Defensive Marketing
Defensive marketing strategies refer to the actions of a market leader to
protect its market share, profitability, product positioning, and mind share against
an emerging competitor. If not undertaken, some amount of customers will leave the
established business in favour of the competitor - who can even displace the market
leader and rise to the top. Thus, a defensive strategy is appropriate mainly only for
the market leader. Ries and Trout (1986) outline three basic principles of defensive
marketing warfare:
1. Defensive strategies only should be pursued by the market leader. It is
self-defeating for a firm to pretend that it is the market leader for the purpose
strategy selection. The market leader is the firm who has attained that position in the
mind of the consumer.
2. Attacking yourself is the best defensive strategy. Introducing products
better than your existing ones pre-empts similar moves by the competition. Even if
the new product has less profit margin and may reduce short-term profit, it accomplishes the more important long-term goal of protecting the firm’s market share.
3. The leader always should block strong offensive moves made by competitors.
If the leader fails to do so, the competitor may become entrenched and permanently
maintain market share.
A classic example of a well-executed defensive block was that of Johnson
& Johnson when Bristol-Meyers decided to launch Datril to compete directly with
Johnson & Johnson’s successful Tylenol brand. Datril was to be priced 35% lower
than Tylenol.
Johnson & Johnson learned of Datril before its launch, and informed BristolMeyers that it was cutting the price of Tylenol to match that of Datril. Johnson &
Johnson even extended credits to its distribution channels to make the price
cut effective immediately. This move was intended to prevent Bristol - Meyers from
advertising Datril as a lower-priced alternative to Tylenol. However, Bristol - Meyers responded by accelerating the launch of the television advertising campaign.
Finally, Johnson & Johnson countered by convincing the television networks not
to run the Datril ads since they no longer could truthfully claim that Datril was
priced lower than Tylenol. Johnson & Johnson’s efforts were successful and Datril
achieved less than a 1% market share. Tylenol sales scoared on the publicity and
lower prices.
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Employed by market leaders, defensive marketing strategies are implemented
any time a new threat to market share appears. In a free-market economy, industry leadership can quickly change, and even long-established companies can be
displaced. Therefore any company with a dominant market share must constantly be
on its guard for new competition, and be quick to respond with the right strategy.
Three main defensive areas should be taken into account by any market leader:
• market share - the percentage of customers who buy a business’s product
instead of the competitors’ products;
• mind share - the awareness of a business among consumers (e.g. there may
be more than 10 businesses in a given market, but only 2 of them might be
immediately identified by consumers);
• product positioning - the consumer perception of a product’s virtues in
relation to other products on the market.
Google is the market leader in “cloud” technology services. To stay ahead of
new competitors, the company actually attacks itself by producing new products
that force their old ones into obsolescence. It thus presents a moving target
for new competitors, who end up competing primarily against the old Google
products.
Tesco was the market leader in general merchandising when Wal-Mart
began to move in, threatening to attract their customers with lower prices. Tesco
responded with lowering the price on many items, while simultaneously improving the
personalisation of coupons and promotions. In so doing, and despite Wal-Mart’s
ongoing success, Tesco kept hold of its customer base in many cities.
Starbucks was not the first coffee shop or restaurant to offer free Wi-Fi, and to
promote that fact to customers; but it started doing so in order to protect its market
share from other businesses that were doing just that.
Facebook, the market leader for social media, updated their options for
friends’ lists as a direct response to the “circles” offered on Google+. This allowed
users to establish different levels of involvement in their social media contacts.
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Defensive marketing strategies apply most directly to existing customers. For
products that are purchased continually (such as food items), this includes a large
group of loyal customers. Loyal customers of a retail store or fast-food restaurant
may represent a majority of sales, even when they’re only a minority of the total
customer base. For products that are purchased less frequently, such as a new computer, defensive strategies must be applied both to existing and potential customers,
so that the business retains its mindshare among all those considering a purchase.
Different defensive strategies must be used, and will vary depending upon the
nature of the competitor’s attack. If the competitor’s product costs less, strategies will
be focused on the price-sensitive customer. If the new product has a specific feature
that attracts customers, a repositioning strategy might be used. The key is to identify
the competitor’s strengths first, which customers those strengths are resonating with,
and respond to that challenge.
In most cases, even the best defensive marketing strategy will not prevent a
company from having lower profits than it had before the new competitor showed up.
An exception to this is a “sleepy” market, where a market leader has not yet realised
how much more demand exists for its product (such as Tylenol in the early ‘80s).
If a market for a particular product is growing, the leader can maintain its profit
level as long as it gains new customers faster than its challengers. However, if that
particular market has been “fully mined,” any new competition is going to reduce
profits for the established business(es). Defensive responses hope to keep these losses
to a minimum by promoting a number of strategies, including:
• Pricing. The market leader may have to reduce its own prices (and profits)
in order to prevent customers from defecting to the competition. This is
particularly important when the threat comes from a lower-priced product.
However, this strategy can also be used against a similarly priced product
advertising some other feature, as long as the savings in price are perceived
by customers to be of more value than that feature or quality.
In some cases the market leader may actually increase prices. For example, if a
product sells well based upon its quality, features, and/or reputation, many consumers who buy it may not be attracted to a competitor’s lower - priced alternative.
In this case, the market leader does not try to keep its most price-sensitive customers
from defecting to the competition, but instead raises the price for the ones who were
willing to pay more anyway. When this strategy is used, it must be accompanied by
advertising that focuses on the product’s increased value for the money.
13
• Distribution. Sometimes it is possible to block the distribution of a competitor’s
product by creating incentives for distributors who refuse to carry it.
However, this is only possible when the market leader is well - off enough
to provide these incentives - and when doing so, will not be perceived as an
illegal monopoly action. In most cases, companies can do more to retain
profits by investing less in distribution, focusing on keeping the most defensible
markets rather than trying to defend everywhere.
• Product improvement. Most products have more than one interesting
quality for customers. A dish soap, for example, has a combined quality of
strong cleaning effectiveness while staying gentle on hands. A competing
product might be particularly strong against some, but not all, of these
qualities. Thus a defending company can choose to improve their product
either along their competitor’s strength, or along their own strength. Continuing
the dish soap example: if a competitor’s product advertises itself as
particularly effective on dishes, then the defending company can either try
to make their product more, or it can choose to improve its mildness (and
then advertise that). A company’s choice of strategy will depend upon the
market demand (i.e., do more customers buy their dish soap for its mildness, or
for its effectiveness?). Defending companies must be careful when attempting
to attack a robust competitor’s strength, and should never change/abandon
the product qualities that have driven their success.
When Pepsi challenged Coca-Cola’s market dominance in the 1980s, CocaCola tried to improve their product along their competitor’s strength by producing
the sweeter-tasting New Coke. The plan backfired, as it undermined its own brand
and upset its core customer base. Coca-Cola was forced to switch back to its
former recipe, failing to recapture Pepsi’s customers.
• Advertising. Defensive companies will invariably respond to new competitors
in their ad campaigns. But the content of these campaigns is important. For
example, promoting their brand at this point is generally a bad investment.
Product and brand awareness campaigns yield a diminishing return on
investment, and never address why the competitor’s product is attracting customers. A better advertising strategy is to reposition the product, stressing
the features that the competitor is weak on (or does not have). Such advertising can work without changing the product. However, in other cases, the
marketing strategy will also involve some kind of product improvement.
14
• Defend profits without defending market share. In some cases, a company
with multiple products may choose to protect profits by divesting itself
of a losing product. It then takes the money it had previously invested in
this product and moves it to other products that are like to offer greater
returns.
Legal issues are an important factor in a market leader’s strategy. Successfully
attacking the competition and winning raises anti-trust issues. Attacking oneself
is less risky from an anti-trust perspective. It also is preferable to expand vertically
rather than horizontally into new markets since laws prevent a firm from using its
monopoly in one market to develop a competitive advantage in another. Finally, once
there is marketing peace and the brand has affirmed its dominance, it can grow its
sales by growing the market.
15
Questions and Tasks
Questions:
1. What kind of companies should apply a defensive marketing strategy? Why?
2. How a defensive marketing strategy could be implemented? What actions is
a company able to take?
3. Tell a few examples in which a company has implemented a defensive
marketing strategy and how it was done.
4. Explain why market leaders sometimes release new products, which compete
with their current products?
5. Explain how the market leader can defend profits without defending market
share?
Tasks:
1. Find an example of a market leader in your chosen industry. Which company
is the leader and why do you think so?
2. Make a brief research of its competitors. Which competitors seem to be strong
enough and make some threat to the market leader?
3. What the market leader should do, if any competitor will decide to attack it?
4. Is there anything this market leader could do, to avoid being attacked?
Additional Literature
1. Ries, A., Trout J. (1986). Marketing Warfare. McGraw-Hill
2. Gertner D., Gertner R., Guthery D. Coca - Cola’s Marketing Challenges in
Brazil: The Tubainas War. Thunderbird International Business Review. Mar/Apr2005,
Vol. 47 Issue 2, p231-254.
3. The 12 Most Intense Marketing Wars Ever. http://www.businessinsider.com/
epic-marketing-wars-2011-6#avis-targeted-hertz-with-the-famous-we-try-harderslogan-in-the-1960s-1
4. O’Gorman D.E. The Fog of (Marketing) Wars: the Need for AssumptionBased Decision Making Processes. Proceedings of the Marketing Management Association. 2007, p44-50
5. Agan T. The Emerging Civil War in Marketing. Advertising Age. 3/12/2007,
Vol. 78 Issue 11, p22-22
6. Muellen J. Marketing is War. Australian Anthill. Dec2008/Jan2009, Issue 31,
p48-49.
16
1.2. Offensive Marketing
When more than one company offers the same kind of product, each company
only receives a percentage of all sales of that kind of product. This percentage is called
a “market share”. An offensive marketing plan is any effort to take some of the market
share away from one company and bring it to another. An offensive strategy is
appropriate for a firm that is number 2 or possibly number 3 in the market. However,
in some cases, no firms may be strong enough to challenge the leader with an offensive
strategy. In such industries, the market leader should play a defensive strategy and
the much smaller firms should play a flanking or guerrilla ones.
In the 1960s, the Harley Davidson motorcycle company emerged from
near-bankruptcy to dominate the market with an aggressive business strategy.
Cheaper, faster bikes from foreign manufacturers, especially those based in Japan, were
becoming the preferred motorcycles of American bikers, much to the dismay of
Harley.
A new, dynamic plan of action on Harley’s part turned simple marketplace
competition into all-out war. Harley began spreading the idea that America
was simply a dumping ground for over-produced Japanese import bikes, while
at the same time crafting an image and mythos surrounding its own brand. The
foreign bikes were sleek, fast, and cheap, while a Harley remained stark, heavy, and
pricey.
Rather than reject these associations, Harley embraced them, turning the image
of a tough-looking, leather-clad man on a motorcycle into an icon for the company.
This decision to concentrate on the unique features of its products while pointing
out what the competition’s product lacked made Harley a household name and put
it on track to decades of profit.
By 2001, not only was Harley Davidson on a domestic earning spree with more
than half of the total market share, it also went overseas to become the top - selling
heavy - class motorcycle in Japan. With decades of supporting data, it is safe to say
that Harley’s aggressive marketing strategy is one of the most successful examples
of offensive marketing in history.
Harley Davidson Company saw its market share declining while its competitors,
like the Japanese company Honda and the Italian company Ducati, started to
control more of the market, especially in the United States. Harley used an offensive
marketing strategy to convince consumers that its competitor’s motorcycles were
inferior while simultaneously romanticising the unique features of Harley’s motorcycles. This proactive, image-driven campaign was designed to not only grow
Harley Davidson’s business, but also shrink the business of its competitors.
17
Any organisation that is in direct competition with another organisation is likely
to use offensive marketing strategies. In the business sector, an offensive marketing attempts to reach customers who either already prefer a competing company
or customers who are undecided about which business they will support in future
purchases.
A prominent example could be taken from the USA famous “Burger Wars”
period when several fast food chain restaurants created advertising campaigns that
directly referenced and disparaged their competitors. In one print advertisement
from 1998, Burger King promoted a new sandwich called the Big King that was
meant to attack the most popular sandwich at McDonald’s with the phrase, “Like a
Big Mac, except it’s got 75 percent more beef - and it’s flame broiled.”
Political campaigns can be viewed as a competition between two or more
candidates where votes stand in for profit. If there are two candidates running for
the same office, the candidate who captures the majority of the market share of
voters will win. Political campaigns are well known for using “attack ads” designed
to compare one candidate or issue to an opposing candidate, or issue to create a stark
contrast and influence the way people vote.
Offensive marketing can be a complex endeavour because a business not only
has to effectively communicate the appeal of its own product, but must also
understand the strengths and weaknesses of a competitor’s product. Ries and Trout
present the following three principles of offensive strategy:
1. The challenger’s primary concern should be the strength of the leader’s position, not
the challenger’s own strengths and weaknesses.
2. The challenger should seek a weakness in the leader’s strength - not simply a
weakness in the leader’s position.
3. Attack on as narrow a front as possible - avoid a broad attack.
The strength of the leader’s position is of primary importance because the leader
has the top position in the mind of the consumer, and it is this position that must be
attacked.
A weakness in the leader’s strength must be found. For example, imagine two
hat shops compete for the same customers in a single town. If Shop A wants to take
some of the market share from Shop B, Shop A should ignore the fact that Shop B
has lower prices. Instead, Shop A could suggest that its own hats are of high-quality,
while suggesting that Shop B sells low-quality hats.
Simply attacking any weakness is insufficient. For example, the leader may
charge a premium price and the price may appear to be a weakness. However, the
leader may in fact have large profit margins and may be willing to lower the price as
18
much as necessary to defend its position. The leader usually has the resources
to defend against an attack against its weaknesses, whereas there may be weaknesses
inherent in the leader’s strengths that cannot be defended.
There often is a flip side to the leader’s strength that can serve as the target of
the challenger’s attack. For example, a leader may be so successful that it is crowded
with customers, and the challenger then can exploit that success by offering a better
customer experience.
For example, Avis Rent a Car once advertised, Rent from Avis. The line at our
counter is shorter. Sometimes the weakness in the leader’s strength arises from the
fact that it has a major investment in assets that cannot be readily adapted. A more
flexible challenger can use this fact to its advantage.
The challenger should attack on as narrow a front as possible. Generally, this
means one product rather than a wide range of products. The reason for keeping
the attack narrow is the principle of force; a narrow attack allows the challenger to
concentrate its resources in the narrow area, and in that area may present more force
than the leader. Many number two and number three companies ignore this
principle and try to increase a market share by broadening their product lines to
compete in more areas, often with disastrous consequences. FedEx made this mistake
in its early years by offering a wide array of transit times such as overnight, 2-day, and
3-day delivery. FedEx became successful only when it began to focus on the next-day
delivery market and won that position in the mind of the consumer using the slogan,
when it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.
A narrow attack is particularly effective when the leader has attempted to be all
things to all people with a single product. In that situation, a challenger can identify a
segment within the leader’s market and offer a product that serves only that segment.
The challenger then stands a chance of winning a position in the consumer’s mind for
that more narrow class of product.
Businesses should closely monitor the effects of offensive marketing campaigns,
and survey consumers for their views on the campaign. A business should also closely
follow any change in its own market share during the campaign to determine if the
specific materials used in the campaign have had the intended effect.
19
Questions and Tasks
Questions:
1. What kind of company could apply an offensive marketing strategy? How big
this company should be compared to other companies in the market?
2. Explain main steps how an offensive marketing strategy should be implemented?
3. Tell few examples which company has successfully implemented offensive
marketing strategy and how it was done.
4. Explain why it is not advisable to arrange a broad attack campaign? How
offensive a marketing strategy should target all efforts?
Tasks:
1. Remember your chosen market leader from the task in previous chapter.
Which company would be capable to arrange an offensive action on market leader?
2. Find the weakest point of market leader and develop a strategic idea, how the
company could attack the market leader.
3. Explain what benefits for customer, unique selling preposition and etc. would
the company develop and why do you think this would be meaningful for customers.
2. Goldglantz, H.F. How to Win the Marketing War. Landscape Management.
Oct2011, Vol. 50 Issue 10, p114-117.
3. O’Gorman D.E. The Fog of (Marketing) Wars: the Need for AssumptionBased Decision Making Processes. Proceedings of the Marketing Management
Association. 2007, p44-50
Vol. 78 Issue 11, p22-22
5. Muellen J. Marketing is War. Australian Anthill. Dec2008/Jan2009, Issue 31,
p48-49.
20
1.3. Flank Attack
A flanking attack is not a direct attack on the leader, but rather, an attack in an
area where the leader has not established a strong position. Flanking marketing
allows one company to displace a competitor in a peripheral market. Those companies that engage such strategies aim to capture a market segment that is not well
served by the existing competition. As the flanking company moves in, other
competitors must re-allocate their own resources to keep that targeted market, or
end up ceding those customers to the flanking company.
A. Ries and J. Trout (1986) present the following three flanking principles:
1. A flanking move is best made in an uncontested area. The product should
be in a new category that does not compete directly with the leader and should be the
first to target the segment.
2. A flanking move should have an element of surprise. Surprise is important to
prevent the leader from using its enormous resources to counter the move before it
gains momentum. Test marketing should be minimised to maintain the element of
surprise.
3. Follow - through (pursuit) is equally as important as the attack itself. The
firm should follow-through and focus on solidifying its position once it is established
before competitors launch competing products. Too often, management turns
its attention to the products that are not performing well rather than strengthening
the position of the winners. If the firm does not have the resources to strengthen its
newly won position, then perhaps it should have used a guerrilla strategy instead of
a flanking one.
A flanking move does not require a totally new product. Instead, the product
only needs to be different enough to carve its own position. A. Ries and J. Trout
(1986) offer the following examples of product variations on which to base flanking
moves:
• Low price - for example, Budget Rent a Car successfully flanked Hertz and
Avis. Others such as Dollar and Thrifty followed, but Budget was ahead of
the game and was able to solidify its position.
• High price - customers tend to use price as a measure of quality. HaagenDaz super-premium ice cream is an example of product that successfully
positioned itself in the high-price category. The higher profit margins allow
the firm to follow through and solidify its position.
• Small size - Sony with portable electronics and Volkswagen with automobiles
successfully won the position of small size. Volkswagen lost its position as it
attempted to broaden its line to all sizes of cars.
21
• Large size - for example, the Prince oversised tennis racquet.
• Distribution - the product itself may not be substantially different but new
distribution channels may be used. For example, Timex distributed its
watches in drugstores and Hanes distributed L’eggs pantyhose in supermarkets using innovative packaging and displays.
• Product form - for example, Close-Up was the first gel toothpaste and
Softsoap was the first liquid soap.
Flanking is not a low - risk strategy. Market acceptance of an innovative product
is unknown, and test marketing must be kept to a minimum to guard the element
of surprise. Whether the leader will take prompt action in response is an unknown.
Being well-tuned to the trade is helpful since in their public speeches executives often
provide clues about their stances on potential products. For some products such as
automobiles, the development time is several years and thus the flanking product has
the potential to establish its position before incumbents can respond.
Flanking is typically employed by innovative businesses against larger competitors. It might be employed by a large firm; however, a larger, established firm
is less likely to risk inviting a confrontation in its own core market. Smaller, more
nimble companies can act more quickly and secretly - both important elements of
a flanking manoeuvre - and do not suffer the loss of business infrastructure when
moving resources to a new market. “Small,” however, can be a relative term, as many
of the examples below come from companies that are now quite big:
Mercedes-Benz began a flanking manoeuvre against General Motors back in
the 1950s, targeting the prestige market (dominated by the Cadillac brand). They
purposely priced their luxury cars much higher than Cadillac as part of their campaign to represent Mercedes as a superior car (“engineered like no other car in the
world”). It was a long-term strategy: after four decades, their yearly sales (about
73,000 cars) were still less than monthly sales for Chevrolet (one of GM’s core
brands), so GM never made a move to decisively answer them. By 2004, Mercedes
was outselling Cadillac; and Cadillac had long lost its reputation as being the prime
example of a luxury car.
Absolut performed a similar manoeuvre in the vodka market. Purposely pricing
themselves about 50 percent higher than leading competitor Smirnoff, they flanked
them on the nearly established premium vodka market. A few years later, Grey
Goose offered a vodka priced 60 percent higher than Absolut, in turn flanking them in
the “ultra-premium” vodka market.
Budget Rent-a-Car used a low-price strategy to flank dominant competitors
Avis and Hertz in the car-rental business.
Softsoap used product innovation to flank hand - soap competitors, offering
the first liquid soap.
22
Flanking strategies work both ways. A dominant company may defend
against potential flank attacks by creating its own flanker brand - a brand to occupy
the flank position on a core product.
Tide laundry detergent launched its Cheer brand as a lower-cost alternative to
Tide to entice a new market segment. While sales of Tide fell a little, the combined
sales of Tide and Cheer were greater than Tide’s sales before the launch. Sitting on
Tide’s low-price flank, any flanking attack made by a future competitor will
threaten Cheer before it can threaten Tide, the core product.
Flanking strategies win under - served customers. Fundamentally a bid for
another competitor’s customers, the success of a flanking attack depends on the
competitor’s strengths and weaknesses. For example, one flanking strategy might be
targeting price - sensitive customers with a “budget” option, while another flanking
strategy may attempt the opposite by offering a “premium” option to the underserved
market.
A flanking company may be aiming for a regional target, moving into a
market nominally occupied by a big company, but where the company is not focusing. In this case, the customers might be reached through better service, or ease of
purchase.
A flanking attack begins with identifying a consumer segment that’s been underserved by the competition. The goal is not to create a demand, but to locate a market
demand that’s not being entirely met. Often, the consumer demand is simply for
more options - price, features, access - which are not offered because the businesses
currently serving the demand have their focus in other areas. A large business
typically focuses on its highest performing brands; after all, no business has infinite
funds to invest in marketing everything. Other times, a large business has tapped a
new regional market but is focusing its expansion elsewhere - because again, it can’t
expand in every region simultaneously.
Once the demand has been identified, the flanking company moves in to
establish its product. Often this is a new product or innovation, but it may be an
existing product repositioned for the target market. At this point, the flanking
company needs to act quickly and stealthily to establish its market position, because
at any point the competition may notice the flank attack and respond. Actually,
customers win either way, as both the attack and any response will present them with
more choices.
23
The need for stealth affects how a product is launched. To begin with, testmarketing an innovative product can be dangerous, as it can tip off the competition.
Of course, introducing an innovative product without test marketing is also risky,
requiring marketing professionals to make trade - offs between risks.
The need for stealth also eliminates many advertising methods. Major television
ads not suitable. Instead, the flanking company may try to leverage word of mouth,
face to face marketing, and the cultivation of referrals. Communications channels
not typically used by the competition are good places to get the word out. If you are
already planning to launch a flack attack, remember that most usual response from
your competitors will be:
• reallocating resources to the threatened market,
• improving product and service quality in the threatened market,
• introducing new products/brands,
• repositioning through advertising.
Finally, the flanking company needs to demonstrate follow - through. As they
gain customers (and their competitor loses them), they are bound to attract attention
- and a response from the competition. Therefore, the flanking company should not
try to diversify too quickly, or to develop underperforming products which divert
money and energy. Instead, it must be ready to throw the full weight of the company behind the flank attack, so that when the response comes, the company’s local
strength is greater than that of its competition - for even if their competition is many
times their size, that company has to continue to invest its money in other places as
well.
24
Questions and Tasks
Questions:
1. What kind of company should use flank attach strategy?
2. Explain main steps how flanking attack strategy should be implemented?
3. Tell few examples which companies have successfully implemented flanking
attack strategy. Why it has succeeded?
4. How he competitor, which is being attacked by flank, will react to such
action?
Tasks:
1. Choose any small company in any industry, but let it be capable to afford
some funds for marketing budget. Develop the flanking attack strategy for this company and explain:
• which competitor will you attack?
• what benefit or feature will be the main point?
• what result (sales volume, income, market share, profit increase or etc.) you
would consider as a good result of your successful flanking attack? Is it
realistic?
2. What is the most expected competitor’s reaction and what should you plan to
do after such a reaction happens?
2. O’Gorman D.E. The Fog of (Marketing) Wars: the Need for AssumptionBased Decision Making Processes. Proceedings of the Marketing Management
Association. 2007, p44-50
Vol. 78 Issue 11, p22-22
4. Mellentin J. The art of war - and marketing yogurt. Dairy Industries International.
Jul2007, Vol. 72 Issue 7, p14-15
25
1.4. Stealth Actions
Stealth marketing, also known as buzz marketing, is any marketing strategy that
advertises a product to people without them knowing they are being marketed to.
Sometimes it‘s counted as a part of guerrilla marketing, but some marketers prefer
to name it as separate area of marketing. There are many techniques in stealth
marketing, the most common being product placement and undercover marketing.
The main purpose of stealth marketing is not to generate immediate sales, but to
create interest and excitement that will make consumers more receptive to direct
advertising later.
In 2002, Sony Ericsson was one of the first companies to produce a cellular
phone with a digital camera peripheral, called the T68i. The company wanted to
generate buzz on a large scale for the T68i, but the device was such a novel
combination of technologies that its marketing department struggled to find a way
to both educate and excite consumers with traditional advertising like magazine
ads and TV commercials. For a more organic, person-to-person marketing experience,
Sony Ericsson started what would become one of the most famous examples of
stealth marketing in history.
Using 60 actors in 10 major cities, Sony Ericsson instigated a viral effect that is
still talked about today. The actors, posing as tourists, couples, and other regular
people, asked strangers on the street to help them take a Picture.
Instead of handing those strangers a camera, they handed them their new
camera-phone by Sony Ericsson. They talked enthusiastically about the device’s
features and taught the helpful passers-by how to use it. The aim of the campaign
was to get as many people as possible to talk about their unique experience with a
new and innovative camera-phone. The campaign was largely considered a success,
with the T68i rising to become one of the bestselling phones of the year in several
countries.
Sony Ericsson’s T68i camera-phone marketing campaign employed actors who
secretly represented the company, giving them opportunities to interact with
strangers and promote the product in a non-obvious way. Many companies choose
this method because it is inexpensive compared to more traditional advertising.
Product placement features a product outside of the context of an advertisement,
usually as a part of some form of mass media or entertainment.
26
Companies place their products in movies and TV shows, and enter endorsement deals with celebrities to pitch products. Regardless of what specific approach a
company takes, stealth marketing is most effective in raising awareness about a new
product that hasn’t been widely advertised yet.
At a private party in 2009 for a large group of Philadelphia’s most socially
active 20-somethings, a man named Tommy Upgrove spent the night pouring
shots of vodka for his guests.
Upgrove was the owner of 32 Degrees Luxe Lounge, a popular nightclub that
catered to a demographic of young, professional people with large social networks
and plenty of disposable income. The vodka Upgrove poured was called Turi
Vodka -- more specifically, the only thing Upgrove poured that night was Turi
Vodka. His guests were unaware that Tommy Upgrove was not just a nightclub
owner, but also an undercover marketer for the evening.
Bacardi hired a marketing agency called SoulKool to generate buzz about
Turi, a brand they had imported from Estonia. Hoping to make Turi stand out in
the very +cover marketing agent to introduce Bacardi’s target demographic to the
product in a way that would get them to talk about it and even recommend it to
their friends.
Upgrove did not promote Turi in any overt way. He did not talk it up, he did
not offer a special deal with it, and he did not call attention to the logo on the bottle.
The only thing Upgrove did to bring Turi to market was make it available to the
right people in the right place. Best of all, none of those people knew they were
seeing an advertisement, so they never felt pressured to adopt an opinion about it.
It is common for companies to employ people in positions of power or respect
in their undercover campaigns. For example, the Turi vodka campaign hired
a highly-regarded nightclub owner to feature Turi at his private party, drawing
an association between the product and the host’s popularity. Turi could have also
been marketed by hiring an actor to visit bars, order Turi, and recommend it to other
patrons.
27
The Internet has created a number of additional undercover marketing
opportunities. It is common for companies to pay others to create positive reviews
of products in blogs, forums, video-sharing websites, and in the comments section
of online retailers.
A variety of companies can use stealth marketing techniques to drum up buzz
for a product. Companies hope to generate buzz for products in a way that is not
overly obvious. While some people have become resistant to traditional advertising
techniques over the years, they still greatly trust word-of-mouth and recommendations from friends.
Stealth or sometimes called “undercover“ marketing is the most commonly used
by larger companies that can afford to use multiple marketing strategies for a single
product; although, stealth marketing has also been used successfully by small
companies to create interest in a new product. Sony Ericsson used stealth marketing
for the T68i because it was a product that most consumers did not know about. They
hoped that their undercover marketing campaign would get people talking about a
novel technology before the company launched other forms of advertising for the
phone.
Smaller companies without extensive marketing resources can use stealth
marketing to raise awareness about a product instead of using any traditional
advertising at all.
One of the most notable cases of stealth marketing by a small business was
fashion entrepreneur Daymond John’s first campaign for the FUBU clothing line.
John had almost no operating budget and no access to traditional advertising, so
he asked hip hop stars Run DMC and LL Cool J to wear FUBU clothing at concerts
and during their appearances on MTV. This gave FUBU a massive audience without John having to spend any money buying advertising space. The campaign was
successful and FUBU became a major clothing label.
Stealth marketing can be a risky investment. It rarely has a measurable effect on
business as quickly as other kinds of marketing, and it can have a negative impact
on consumer opinion if people become aware of it too soon. For these reasons, any
company considering stealth marketing as a strategy should honestly assess the costs
and potential complications of the technique before implementing it.
Stealth marketers who use Internet platforms are taking advantage of a rich,
growing field. If an undercover blogger, Twitter handle, Facebook page, or
video-maker can catch an Internet audience’s attention, it can mean big business.
28
Percentage of companies that get new customers from these online platforms
(Chadwick Martin Bailey, 2012):
• Twitter: 42%
• Blogs: 57%
• Facebook: 67%
A company must read consumer data and conduct surveys to create a clear
picture of who its customers are, and how they might react to stealth marketing materials. If a cosmetics company, for instance, wanted to launch a product
placement campaign for a line of lipstick designed for girls between the ages of 13
and 18, the company should research what movies, TV shows, and celebrities people
in that demographic prefer.
After collecting market research data, a company can create its stealth
marketing materials. This may include writing a script for an undercover campaign,
crafting product placement scenarios, or developing any other method that
introduces consumers to the product. At this stage, the cosmetics company can
approach the TV networks, movie studios, and celebrities that might feature the new
lipstick. The company can start pitching ideas for product placement scenarios, such
as a character on one of the TV shows using the lipstick in an upcoming episode.
A company can choose to let a stealth marketing campaign stand on its own,
or use it as the foundation for additional marketing. If the cosmetics company
decides not to create any other advertising for the new lipstick, it can start to measure
any changes in sales or conversion rates related to that product to determine if the
campaign was effective. Otherwise, the company could also start to run traditional
advertisements in magazines, on television, or on the Internet to connect with
consumers on another level.
In the middle 2000‘s, a small American cigarette company called Freedom
Tobacco wanted to market its brand, called Legal. There are many restrictions on
how and where tobacco can be advertised in the United States. There are no
tobacco TV commercials, few magazine ads, and some product placement in
R-rated movies. Unable to compete with the advertising budgets of large tobacco companies, Freedom decided to use undercover marketing. The company
hired actors to sit in bars with a pack of Legal cigarettes visible in front of them,
hoping to share some with other patrons who asked. Unfortunately for Freedom
Tobacco, 38 states now have some form of indoor smoking ban. The campaign
was good while it lasted. The risky undercover attempt preceded 100 new
distribution orders for the company.
29
It is advised that stealth marketing campaigns should be very short-term
projects. The longer a campaign runs, the more likely it is to be discovered. When the
campaign ends, the company should pay attention to any changes in sales, customer
traffic, or website traffic to determine if the campaign was effective.
Attention! Some stealth marketing practices exist in a legal gray area. Some
consumer protection groups have asked the United States Federal Trade Commission to
investigate stealth practices as early as 2005 and many undercover marketing tactics
are explicitly illegal in the European Union. Any company considering using stealth
marketing should be aware of local laws regarding the strategy.
Questions and Tasks
Questions:
1. Who can use stealth action strategy?
2. Name few examples which companies have successfully implemented stealth
action strategy. Were those companies so small that they couldn’t afford any other
strategy? Why have they chosen such way?
3. Explain what should be done for implementing stealth action strategy
effectively.
Tasks:
1. Choose any company you would like and imagine that it has to launch a new
product or a new service. Explain what kind of stealth action strategy you would
recommend for the company and what results do you expect?
2. Where would you check if your planned actions are legal? Please name exact
institutions and laws. Make practice finding them all and avoiding any unpleasant
surprises from legal authorities.
1. Roy A., Stealth marketing as a strategy. Chattopadhyay S. P. Business Horizons. Jan2010, Vol. 53 Issue 1, p69-79.
2. Stage C., Andersen S. Ambiguous Imitations: DIY Hijacking the ‘Danish
Mother Seeking’ Stealth Marketing Campaign on YouTube. Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research. 2012, Vol. 4 Issue 2, p393-414
3. Martin K. D., Smith N. C. Commercializing Social Interaction: The Ethics of
Stealth Marketing. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing. Spring2008, Vol. 27 Issue
1, p45-56.
4. Sprague R., Wells M., E. Regulating Online Buzz Marketing: Untangling a
Web of Deceit. American Business Law Journal. Fall2010, Vol. 47 Issue 3, p415-454.
30
1.5. Guerrilla Marketing
The term “guerrilla marketing” was first coined by Jay Conrad Levinson in his
1984 book of the same title, and has since become an important section in many
marketing textbooks. Basically, guerrilla marketing is about investing time, energy,
and (particularly) imagination into a campaign, instead of primarily money.
Guerrilla tactics use unconventional communications, often in unexpected places,
and focus on low-cost strategies that make a high-impact impression.
Cell phone theft is a problem in Romania. As a matter of fact, a cell phone
is stolen there every two minutes. You can insure your phone against loss with a
company; but many do not think they need to. So one of those insurers, Vodafone,
hired some professional pickpockets—not to steal phones, but to slip flyers into
people’s pockets, purses, and bags. “It’s this easy to steal your phone,” read the
flyers. “Insure your phone at Vodafone.”
Guerrilla marketing strategies rely on new and even untested and unverified
marketing methods. Anything that falls outside the categories of traditional
marketing can be considered non-traditional, guerrilla. The goal of non - traditional
advertising is to create striking advertising experiences that capture interest through
their creativity and unpredictably. Much of non-traditional marketing involves
putting ads in unusual places, or displaying ads in unusual ways, hoping to
command the attention of unassuming viewers.
Originally conceived as a tool for small businesses and entrepreneurs, guerrilla
marketing is nonetheless increasingly popular among large businesses. Additionally,
non - profit organisations have been apt to invest their time, energy, and creativity
into guerrilla campaigns.
Unicef placed a vending machine in Manhattan that sold dirty water for
a dollar. “Flavours” included Malaria, Cholera, Typhoid, and Dysentery. The machine’s display informed people about the plight of children in need of clean drinking water, and pointed out that a single dollar could provide 40 days of clean drinking water for such a child. Additionally, it provided a number to text in order to
donate to the cause.
31
Volkswagen hung a series of cartoon thought bubbles over all the spaces in a
parking structure in Dubai, so that parked cars appeared to be thinking, “I wish I
was a Volkswagen.” As people pulled into the car park, they were welcomed by a
boundary wall reading, “Have you ever wondered what your car is dreaming of?”
Coca-Cola advertised its new “grip” bottle. Coca-Cola placed a static-charged
ad at a bus stop, which would grip people’s clothing if they stood too near.
Bounty used next to an eight – foot - tall coffee cup spilled on the ground (or
in another case, a giant popsicle), a sign declared that Bounty “Makes small work
of big spills.”
Blackberry paid attractive young women to flirt with men and have them
enter their number into Blackberry phones.
Jeep advertised the versatility of the Jeep, and to made the brand more part of
the urban environment, the company drew parking spaces in unlikely locations,
such as across plaza stairs or through planters and curbs.
Several different cancer awareness groups have employed similar guerrilla
messages at beaches, including providing coffin-shaped beach towels, and placing
morgue toe - tags on sleeping sunbathers. For instance, there were placed 20
coffin shape towels on the beach every day and posters put everywhere around
– “Overexposure to the sun causes skin cancer killing 20 people every day“. Subsequently, how would you feel lying down on a coffin-shape towel? And what if you
woke up in the sunny beach and found a tag on your toe (like those in morgue) with
a message? Would you read it and remember?
32
Figure 1. Non – profit advertising for skin cancer prevention
Source: Marketing agency “In A Gorilla Costume“ (2011)
The idea of guerrilla marketing is to direct resources into a limited area, using
the principle of force to win that area. Examples of geographic guerrillas include
local retailers who win customers with offerings better tailored to the locale compared
to the offerings of national chains. Locally - tailored city business publications are
an example that fill a need that cannot be filled by a national publication such as the
Wall Street Journal. Banks and airlines also have used a limited geographic scope
successfully.
Demographic guerrillas target a specific demographic segment of the population.
Inc. magazine is an example that targets small business owners who were not well
served by publications such as Business Week.
Industry guerrillas target a specific industry, using vertical marketing to tailor
a product to the special needs of that industry. The focus is narrow and deep rather
than broad and shallow.
Product guerrillas offer a unique product for which there is a small market. The
Jeep is an example of such a product.
High - end guerrillas offer a premium high-priced product. Rolls - Royce is a
guerrilla in very high - priced automobiles. Because the volume is small and Rolls
- Royce already has the lead, other manufacturers are deterred from competing
directly.
33
The high price creates a mystique about the product and raises the curiosity of
consumers who seek to find out what makes the product so special that it commands
such a high price. Line extensions of the main product do not work well here; high end products should have a new name in order to establish a new position that is not
diluted by the position of other products.
Guerrilla marketing was conceived to primarily target existing customers rather
than new ones, aiming to increase their engagement with a product or brand. When
selecting audiences for a guerrilla message, a group that is already engaged with the
product at some level is the best target; they will be quicker to recognise and respond
to creative tactics, and more likely to share the experience with their friends.
Figure 2. “Folgers” coffee advertising in guerrilla way
Source: R. Lum, 2010
34
Folgers placed stickers with an aerial view of a coffee mug on top of steaming
manholes all over Manhattan. Small holes in the sticker allowed the steam to exit the
drainage system. Therefore it looked like the whole street was full of hot coffee mugs.
And what if they have had even added a coffee aroma around the area?
As social media has become a major feature of the market landscape, guerrilla
marketing has shown to be particularly effective online. Consumers who regularly
use social media are more likely to share their interactions with guerrilla marketing,
and creative advertising can quickly go viral.
A guerrilla campaign starts with a creative and engaging idea, generally involving
not just the content of the message, but its form. Surprises and innovative methods of
communication are key components for engaging the interest of the consumer. For
example, Arkaden, a fashion mall in Gothenburg, Sweden, deployed mirrors with
images of their fashions (instead of posters of fashion models), so that consumers
could see what they looked like in Arkaden’s clothes.
A variety of creative methods can be employed - and indeed, one of the principles
of guerrilla marketing is to use a combination of methods. Graffiti (or reverse graffiti,
where a dirty wall is selectively cleaned), interactive displays, intercept encounters in
public spaces, flash mobs, or various PR stunts are often used. While using a variety
of methods, the overall marketing message should be consistent. Repeated sightings
of the surprise message build interest, and changing messages for each stunt tends to
confuse or diminish a consumer’s interest in the brand.
The surprising message should inspire consumers to share their find with their
friends. Here, the omnipresence of camera phones works in favour of guerrilla
marketing. The tactic has to be far enough away from conventional advertising that
consumers don’t primarily regard it as advertising, but as something novel and
interesting in its own right. That way, those delighted by the unique message will
share it. Every “hey, check this out” photo a consumer sends to a friend represents
additional advertising for free! And since this advertising comes not from the seller
but from a friend, it carries more value. A successful event generates a buzz - or even
better, goes viral. Having everybody talking about your product is far better than
talking about your product to everybody.
35
Questions and Tasks
Questions:
1. What kind of companies should apply guerrilla marketing strategy? Why?
2. Do large companies with huge marketing budgets can apply guerrilla
marketing effectively?
3. How guerrilla marketing strategy should be developed and implemented
according to Ries and Trout (1986)?
4. Tell your most amazing examples of guerrilla marketing and explain why it
was so successful?
Tasks:
1. Select any industry or business activity you would like to work in. Let’s say a
new start-up company was established and you became one of shareholders in this
company. You do not have much money (company has 0 EUR in its marketing budget),
thus any money spent on marketing will be spent from your and your partner’s purses.
Tell the idea of guerrilla marketing actions that you could implement.
2. Think what your strongest competitors in the market and who your best
potential clients are. Could you develop some guerrilla ideas how to make your
competitors and clients “work” for you? How could you use strengths or weaknesses
of your competitors? What could you do, to attract best potential clients and to make
them spreading word of mouth about you?
Questions and Tasks
1. Levinson, J.C. (2007). Guerrilla marketing. Easy and inexpensive strategies
for making big profits from your small business. Houghton Mifflin Company
2. Lum, R. (2011). 12 Inspirational Guerrilla Marketing Examples. http://www.
creativeguerrillamarketing.com/guerrilla-marketing/12-inspirational-guerrillamarketing-examples
3. Lum, R. (2012). Creative Small Business Marketing Ideas by Touchwood
Design. http://www.creativeguerrillamarketing.com/advertising/creative-businessmarketing-design-ideas
4. Marketing agency “In A Gorilla Costume”. (2011). Skin Cancer Awareness
Guerrilla Marketing Coffin Towel. http://inagorillacostume.com/2011/skin-cancerawareness-guerrilla-marketing-coffin-towel
36
1.6. Case Study
To better understand marketing war strategies, study this real case. Ice-cream
market in Lithuania has high level of competition and different competitors are
in action. Therefor this case is convenient for analysing marketing war strategies
in practice. All information given below is real and represent Lithuanian ice-cream
market in 2012. Each of competitors (ice-cream producers) has the same information
as this and in addition each of them has their own internal data about their sales,
costs, marketing budgets and etc. It is possible to purchase more detailed market data
from Nielsen market research agency, i.e. to find out how many pieces and kilograms of
each ice-cream (your’s and any competitors) was sold during last month, last quarter,
last year; what was medium price per kilogram or per piece; how many each of
ice-creams was sold in retail shopping centres and how many were sold in independent
stories, gas stations and etc. Have such information allows to view the whole market
in more detailed way, but it is very costly and if you tend to be a guerrilla marketer,
you’ll probably know many ways how to use these 4.000 – 7.000 EUR more efficiently.
Read the case and solve these tasks:
1. Which producer/s use or should use:
a) defence strategy?
b) attack strategy?
c) flank attack strategy?
d) guerrilla strategy?
Explain, why should they use these strategies?
2. Let’s say that each of competitors heard something great about effectiveness
of guerrilla marketing and decided to try it. Prepare a list of recommendations for
each ice-cream producer under condition, that each company can spend up to 14.500
EUR (50.000 LTL) per year for your recommended guerrilla strategies and tactics.
3. Imagine, that you were hired to introduce new ice cream to Lithuania market.
You are free to choose any ice cream, but keep in mind that your represented
company will import ice cream.
a. What marketing strategy would you choose, if you had 100.000 EUR (345.000 LTL) marketing budget? Explain key points of your strategy?
b. In case if marketing budget was only 20.000 EUR (~70.000 LTL), would you be able to use any other strategy apart guerrilla marketing? Explain key points of your guerrilla marketing strategy.
37
4. What strategy would you offer to Klaipedos pienas AB, if you would found
out that this ice cream producer took ~14% of total market share in 2012. Would you
offer to change marketing war strategies to other producers, having in mind that now
you know that remaining category “Other” has decreased from 17,7% down to just
3,7% (there are no other major players in the market!)?
Abstract from an article published in national news portal 1
Those conducting a survey at Lithuania’s Trading Companies Association on
the most popular flavours of ice cream probably were not aware of the ice cream
and intimacy relationship when they announced vanilla as the most popular
flavour in Lithuania. “And to be more precise, plombir (white) ice cream, which
has been the most sought-after flavour since Soviet times,” says Alvydas Malakauskas,
director general of Premia KPC, an ice cream producer.
The director says the company sold over 430,000 litres of this kind last year.
“In other words, every Lithuanian enjoyed Premia’s plombir in 2011,” says the CEO.
In revealing where the secret of the success is, Malakauskas says: “The main
rule is the longer ice cream lasts, retaining its shape and taste, the more popular it
is. The vanilla plombir is exactly that.”
Ice cream imports are increasing
Looking around Lithuanian supermarkets, no other item carries so many
discount tags as ice cream. Even now, in the summer season. Some brands are
discounted by 30-40 percent, even 50 percent.
Looking further, at the ingredient’s list, shoppers might be unpleasantly
surprised to discover that most of the cheaper varieties, both domestic and foreign
products, include such ingredients as milk powder or regenerated milk. No sweet
cream! And that creates a huge challenge for Lithuanian ice cream producers, who
mostly tend to focus on quality production.
“Ice cream imports have been rising year-on-year lately, by 21.4 percent last
year alone. For domestic ice cream makers, it becomes more and more difficult to
stave off the foreign production,” says Viktoras Malinauskas from Lithuania’s Diary
Product Export Association (LDPEA).
1
http://www.15min.lt/en/article/business/domestic-competition-pushes-lithuanian-ice-cream-producers-to-foreignmarkets-527-229832
38
In Norfa supermarkets, roughly 100 kinds of ice cream are for sale, and most of
them, around 60 percent, are by foreign makers, Norfa spokesman Darius Ryliškis
said to The Baltic Times.
On the lookout for foreign markets
Often unable to compete with imports, Lithuanian ice cream producers have
to be on a constant lookout for foreign markets. And, in fact, some have been
successfully penetrating them, according to the Lithuanian Institute of Agrarian
Economics (LIAE).
Lithuanian ice cream goes as far as the United States, Russia and even Israel,
as the export volume has increased by nearly one-fourth over the past two years
alone.
Raimundas Ramonas, production director of Vikeda, known for Dadu ice
cream, the company’s most distinguished product, says small Vikeda ice cream
shipments are being sent even to Australia. Mulling expansion, he says many things
have to be taken into consideration, including different tastes in different countries.
“Usually foreigners prefer sweet cream-rich ice cream, in other words,
plombir. Therefore, for example, we export only this kind to Germany. However,
more and more Lithuanians tend to choose cream-rich varieties of ice cream too,”
says the Vikeda head.
To adapt to foreign tastes, Vikeda is running a bakery line, where cones are
being made. “To us, Lithuanians, cones are not very important, as we still prefer
drum-like roundish ice cream waffle packages,” he says.
No room for price cuts
Though world markets see milk supplies in surplus, and milk powder prices
down by one-third, ice cream lickers, nevertheless, will have to spend more on this
dessert.
“According to our data, one kilo of imported ice cream cost 4.8 litas in March
last year, and went up to 5.13 litas this year. Domestic producer ice cream prices
have also increased, from 6.7 to 7.49 litas per kilo,” says Daiva Mikelionytė, LIAE
researcher.
Cheaper milk powder may impact, to some extent, the ice cream price.
Alvydas Alunderis, department head at Pieno Žvaigždės (Milk Stars), says the
product prices are determined by the market itself. “As we produce most kinds of
ice cream only from fresh cream, we compete with other producers at the premium
level - the highest quality level. It’s hard to expect the product price to fall,” the
producer says.
Vida Šukienė, with Ingman Ledai, a major ice cream producer, concurs with
the Pieno Žvaigždės representative on the “little or no room” thesis for cheaper,
high quality ice cream.
39
“Approximately 80 percent of Ingman production is being made using skim
milk, sweet cream and butter. None of the items is cheap,” she says.
To avoid large retail trade mark-ups, some producers, like Dadu, have started
opening their own stores around the country. It seems some of the competitors are
to follow this example.
UK-Dutch player in the market
Last year, the domestic ice cream market was shaken up by a market-defining
acquisition – UK-Dutch ice cream maker Unilever bought Finnish ice cream
producer Ingman Ice Cream, which has an affiliate in Lithuania.
The company has started from scratch with the introduction of Algida, an ice
cream that, by now, has found its spot on the shelves in over 40 countries. “They
had gotten off to a very good start, employing the resources a larger company can
employ in launching its new product. They take up approximately 10 percent of the
Lithuanian ice cream market now, and it seems it is not the maximum for them.
Sure, their penetration shrinks other producers’ market shares,” an industry
insider, who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity, told The Baltic Times.
Move to larger packaging
With ice cream imports and competition in the market increasing, so is the
army of ice cream fans. “Ice cream is one of the most popular summer foods; therefore,
even during high season, with the abundance in the market we are nearly always
giving discounts, though lately the price hasn’t changed,” says Maxima spokeswoman Olga Malaškevičienė.
She says most Maxima clients prefer domestic Lithuanian ice cream. Interestingly,
when it comes to packaging, most buyers prefer ice cream in waffle cones.
Ryliškis, the Norfa spokesman, notes that ice cream sales this May, compared
to the same month of last year, have surged 25 percent. “The hike has been due
not only to warmer weather, but also to a lot larger ice cream assortment,” says the
supermarket chain representative.
In discerning other trends, Nestle Baltics market researchers note that Lithuanians
tend to buy ice cream in larger packages. “The habit of buying ice cream in larger
quantities than single cones has reached Lithuania from the West, especially the
United States. Until now, most Lithuanian buyers would buy ice cream in single
little packages and cones. In that sense, we are still lagging behind all Western
European countries. However, this is changing,” says Ariana Rastauskaitė, Nestle
Baltics Corporative Affairs head.
40
Weather remains a key factor
Malinauskas from LDPEA says weather is crucial for ice cream sales. “If a day
is warm and sunny, in a single day in the resort town of Palanga you can sell as
much ice cream as during an entire winter month in all the resort’s supermarkets.
In other countries with similar weather conditions as in Lithuania, ice cream sales
aren’t so sensitive to weather. Unfortunately, in Lithuania, sales are very much so,
as ice cream producers count their sold production not in the millions of portions,
but rather in the thousands,” notes Malinauskas.
He says ice cream sales plummet by up to 90 percent in winter.
Official annual report from Eromonitor 2
Headlines
• Ice cream sales reach LTL160 million in 2012 after growing by 7% with
retail volume reaching eight million tonnes up by 2% from the previous
year. The entrance of Unilever shakes up the category.
• Ice cream desserts records the highest growth, up by 7% in current value
terms.
• Average unit price rises by 5%.
• Private label dominates ice cream.
• Ice cream is predicted to achieve a constant value CAGR of 6% over the
forecast period, reaching LTL213 million in 2017.
Main trends
Ice cream sales have always been highly dependent on seasonality and
producers certainly had little to be joyful about in recent years. While the general
economic climate improved and consumers gradually abandoned their austere
shopping habits, poor weather conditions hampered the development of ice cream.
As if this was not enough, other troubles continued to put pressure on growth
rates, most importantly, private label. Products ordered by retailers were popular
amongst consumers who saw few reasons to pick up branded goods when a
low-priced nearly identical one is sold nearby.
Ice cream managed to register 2% volume growth in 2012 with retail sales
exceeding eight million tonnes. The sales were a bitter disappointment for
producers, which accounted for the significantly lowered base of growth of 2011
and therefore hoped and prepared for double-digit increases. However, due to
unfavourable weather conditions, sales were sluggish not only in May, but also
June. This might not seem like much, but in the traditionally chilly climate, every
day of the short summer counts.
2
Passport GMID. Ice-cream in Lithuania. January, 2013. Euromonitor.
41
• In current value terms, ice cream performed better, growing by 7% and
•
•
•
42
reaching LTL160 million. Price increases were driving the growth, with
even the growing share of private label unable to compensate for the
trend. Hikes in commodity costs, as well as rising expenses of transportation were cited as the reasons behind price increases. There was also some
trade-up seen in ice cream: While cheaper private label offerings found
their niche, premium products were bought by a sizeable portion of
ice cream eaters. The current value CAGR of ice cream stood at 0% over
the review period. The lack of growth was determined by falling volumes
which shrunk by as much as 6% over the review period, largely because of
the economic crisis and poor weather conditions in consecutive years.
Price increases helped to compensate for falling volumes, but this is
hard to do in a very price-sensitive market, selling goods that no
consumers deem purchases of first necessity.
Ice cream desserts was the most dynamic category within ice cream,
gaining 7% in value terms in 2012. The category is the smallest of all and
the low base of growth certainly had a great deal to do with such good
results. Furthermore, ice cream desserts was the category that suffered
the most during the recession, with consumers curbing their spending.
Now that consumers are feeling more confidence in their financial
positions, they allow themselves occasional ice cream desserts.
No major changes of flavours were noticed in 2012. Vanilla, chocolate and
caramel remain the dominant flavours. Companies seem to have put up
with it, as they search for ways to differentiate their products without
offering new tastes. Even though the variety of the flavours is much more
impressive in foodservice channels selling ice cream and Lithuanians are
receptive to them, this does not translate into more sales of various
flavours in stores.
35% of all ice cream was sold via supermarkets in 2012, making it the most
important distribution channel. Proximity to consumer is vital to sales of
ice cream, because most of the products are consumed immediately after
the purchase. Small grocery retailers, which are lagging behind in most
other packaged food categories, was the main beneficiary, holding 19% of
all sales, followed by hypermarkets with 17%. The dominance of modern
grocery retailers is more pronounced in sales of take-home ice cream, with
supermarkets, hypermarkets and discounters holding respectively 42%, 20%
and 11% of total value shares. These stores simply have more take-home
ice cream, whilst smaller shops do not consider it to be worth selling such
products and only offer impulse ice cream.
Competitive landscape
• The competitive landscape of ice cream changed significantly over the last
few years of the review period. The changes were gradual and therefore
unnoticed. The rise of private label stands out the most. While such
products accounted for less than 10% during the feel-good 2008, such
products are now leaders of ice cream, with Maxima LT, the country’s
largest retailer, holding 21% of the market on its own. Favourable shelf positioning, the success in copying best-selling branded products, spill over
effects from branding of the same name private label goods sold in other
packaged food categories and, most importantly, lower prices, all contributed to the ascension of private label.
• The increase in private label pushed the previous leaders from their positions. Vikeda UAB and Ingman Vega were right behind the leader in 2012
with 18% of value sales each. Both companies employ similar strategies,
using their popular Dadu (Vikeda) and Baltija (Ingman Vega) brands to
drive sales. The companies cannot be blamed for doing anything wrong:
Good distribution channels were developed over the years and brand recognition of their products is also not an issue, but pricing is: The companies cannot match the prices offered by private label and the difference
of some thirty cents that was ignored during the years of prosperity is
enough in the current period of thriftiness to persuade consumers to opt
for cheaper products.
• The second major change affecting ice cream is Lithuania is the rising
share of foreign producers. The move was acute enough in 2010 and 2011,
with some retailers importing cheap Polish products (local producers believed this was more a negotiation tactic, giving shelf owners more leverage). However, in 2011, Unilever, a global food giant, entered the market
with its Algida brand. The commitment of Unilever was demonstrated
once again later when it acquired Ingman Vega. As told by sources, the
goal for the next few years is to gain market share in the country. The combination of scale, know-how and strong Ingman Vega’s brands that are still
perceived as local by shoppers, makes such goals attainable, which should
definitely leave competitors uneasy. However, in order to take over the
leadership of ice cream, Unilever will have to wait until consumers are less
price-conscious, willing to spend some extra for the glare of brands.
43
• In terms of activity of companies in product development, local firms
appear to have conceded their defeat at the hands of private label. Retailers
gained sales of their products by successfully blurring the line between
them and branded goods, which should encourage ice cream producers
to ramp up their efforts to differentiate their production. Alas, this is the
theory, in practice, consumers are still demanding chocolate, vanilla and
caramel in cones and wrapped in plastic – just as they did two decades
ago – for as low a price as possible.
• Producers of ice cream admit to having curbed their efforts in launching
new products, mostly because the R&D expenditures are rarely returned.
Incremental innovation dominates the category, as illustrated by the
launch of Karaliski (Royal) ice cream with a marshmallow flavour. Karaliski is
the company’s leading premium take-home ice cream and the firm is
trying to capitalise on the potential of this so far untapped segment.
• Unilever launched several of its own brands while entering the market. Big
Milk, economy priced brand, was given the most attention, which is
understandable, given the thriftiness of consumers that is shaping the
market. The product is manufactured in the Czech Republic for many
countries with large volumes of production leading to lower unit costs.
Unilever stood out from competitors in terms of advertising, making its
brands ubiquitous using mostly outdoor ads. To make its product known
to consumers, it also gave away lots of free samples during various public
events. The company is also very active on the internet, using its Facebook
profile to build emotional ties with its customers.
• Ice cream firms are not doing enough to differentiate their products from
private label which is the most acute threat to category growth, spending
most of their marketing money on price discounts. Consumers see little
difference between branded goods and private label, hence the pressure
on prices affects the development of the whole category.
Prospects
• Despite the commoditisation of products and rise of private label in ice
cream, the belief in the category is not gone, as suggested by Unilever’s
entrance into the market and the vast sums of money (by Lithuanian
standards, anyway) the firm commits to its entrance. All market players –
foreign and local alike – point to discrepancies in ice cream consumption
measured per capita, with Lithuania lagging by multiple times compared
to Western Europe countries and even neighbouring Latvia and Estonia.
44
• Such optimism certainly has some ground. Euromonitor International
•
•
•
•
predicts a constant value CAGR of 6% over the forecast period with sales
reaching LTL213 million in 2017. Both value and volume sales will
increase and the category is to benefit greatly from the improving
economic climate of the country. Ice cream was and always will be a
spontaneous purchase, depending on the mood of consumers. With
disposable incomes rising, Lithuanians are expected to not only consume
more, but trade up. The forecasted results are better than the review
period’s negative constant value CAGR of 4%, which was influenced both
by low spending power and unfavourable weather conditions.
Two major threats loom over the category. One is that weather conditions
which affect sales a great deal are impossible to change and even predict.
Stocking up on ice cream prior to expected rampant demand before the
season might lead to massive losses. Equally bad is the prospect of running out of stock because of underestimation of consumers’ appetites.
Such uncertainties must be priced in and eventually appear as a burden
of doing business. The second threat is the conservative consumption
of Lithuanians. Ice cream firms will have to work hard to persuade
consumers to try out new products that are selling for higher prices and
deliver sweeter profits.
With disposable incomes rising, Lithuanians are expected to not only
consume more, but trade up. Once firms dare to invest in equipment and
spend more on marketing, their products should be viewed as more
attractive compared to those offered by private label. Global prices of
commodities are also set to increase, which is another reason to expect
higher unit prices over the forecast period. Suspicious critics of the modern
production processes point to the fact that traditional ingredients, such as
milk, cream and sugar are nearly impossible to find in products currently
available in stores. Such claims are mostly true about low-priced imports
and cheaper private label goods. With an increasing number of Lithuanians
trying to avoid artificial substitutes, the quality of average product sold is
set to increase, as is the unit price.
Distribution will remain vital to the success of ice cream producers. More
sales spots will lead to more sales and the revival of the retailing landscape
that started in 2011 should affect sales in a positive way. Ice cream
producers claim that the space assigned for fridges in supermarkets is
shrinking, which might force them to look for other channels.
45
• Vending might be a viable solution, if technological issues are resolved.
The rise of internet trade is considered more as a threat by industry
players. Internet stores, such as e-Maxima have freezers in their delivery
trucks, which guarantee that ice cream will be delivered in perfect condition.
However, producers fear that consumers choose products much more
rationally on the internet and therefore are less likely to purchase ice cream
than in traditional physical stores.
• The arrival of Unilever will surely have consequences in the market. The
category is fragmented and if Unilever succeeds in gaining market share
– early signs look promising – other players will either consolidate or be
forced out of business. That the market has too many players has been said
many times over and with increasing pressure of imports some of them
might be pushed out of the game.
• Minor twists of products are not expected to have an impact on the market, as
they are not significant enough to attract the attention of consumers. The
division of the market will probably be determined in advertising agencies
and not factories, as only those companies that succeed in differentiating
their brands from private label have any shot at success. Large companies
with deeper pockets are likely to win, while for the rest, no summer will
be hot enough to deliver good financial results.
Sales of Ice Cream by Category: Value 2007-2012
LTL million
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
Frozen Yoghurt
-
-
-
-
-
-
Impulse Ice Cream
115.2
133.0
98.2
110.4
111.9
119.4
- Single Portion Dairy Ice Cream
107.4
124.2
91.5
102.9
104.2
111.4
7.9
8.8
6.7
7.4
7.6
8.0
42.3
47.8
33.3
35.5
37.9
40.4
- Single Portion Water Ice Cream
Take-Home Ice Cream
46
- Take-Home Dairy Ice Cream
42.3
47.8
33.3
35.5
37.5
40.0
-- Bulk Dairy Ice Cream
39.9
45.1
31.4
33.4
35.5
37.8
-- Ice Cream Desserts
2.4
2.7
1.9
2.1
2.0
2.2
-
-
-
-
-
-
-- Multi-Pack Dairy Ice Cream
- Take-Home Water Ice Cream
-
-
-
-
0.4
0.4
-- Bulk Water Ice Cream
-
-
-
-
-
-
-- Multi-Pack Water Ice Cream
-
-
-
-
0.4
0.4
131.5
145.9
Ice Cream Total
157.5
159.8
Source: Euromonitor International from official statistics, trade associations, trade press, company research,
store checks, trade interviews, trade sources
Sales of Ice Cream by Distribution 2007-2012 (% of retail value)
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
Store-Based Retailing
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
99.4
99.4
- Grocery Retailers
79.3
81.1
80.9
83.3
84.5
85.4
-- Supermarkets
34.3
34.3
33.2
34.2
34.9
35.4
-- Hypermarkets
14.8
15.4
16.5
16.4
16.6
16.8
-- Discounters
5.8
6.1
6.5
7.4
7.7
7.9
-- Small Grocery Retailers
19.0
20.2
18.7
19.2
18.9
18.5
--- Convenience Stores
4.5
5.5
6.0
6.0
6.2
6.3
--- Independent Small Grocers
10.5
10.3
8.5
8.2
7.3
6.3
--- Forecourt Retailers
3.9
4.4
4.2
5.0
5.5
6.0
-
-
-
-
-
-
-- Confectionery specialists
-- Other Grocery Retailers
5.5
5.1
6.0
6.1
6.4
6.8
- Non-Grocery Retailers
20.7
18.9
19.1
16.7
14.8
14.0
-
-
-
-
-
-
-- Health and Beauty Retailers
-- Other Non-Grocery Retailers
20.7
18.9
19.1
16.7
14.8
14.0
Non-Store Retailing
-
-
-
-
0.6
0.6
- Vending
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Home Shopping
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Internet Retailing
-
-
-
-
0.6
0.6
- Direct Selling
Total
-
-
-
-
-
-
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
47
Ice Cream Company Shares 2008-2012 (% of retail value)
Company
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
Maxima LT UAB
9.5
12.6
13.7
20.9
20.9
Vikeda UAB
16.6
17.0
18.3
16.8
18.0
Ingman Ledai UAB
17.0
15.1
16.7
18.5
18.0
Premia KPC AB
22.8
26.1
20.0
14.0
14.6
Pieno Zvaigzdes AB
11.8
12.9
11.7
10.5
10.8
-
-
-
-
-
Others
22.2
16.3
19.7
19.3
17.7
Total
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
Kraitene UAB
Ice Cream Leading Brand Shares 2009-2012
Brand
Company
2009
2010
2011
2012
Dadu
Vikeda UAB
17.0
18.3
16.8
18.0
Optima Linija
Maxima LT UAB
10.1
8.5
13.1
11.8
Favorit
Maxima LT UAB
2.4
5.2
7.8
9.1
Bravo
Premia KPC AB
11.1
9.3
8.0
8.3
Baltija
Ingman Ledai UAB
2.5
2.4
2.5
3.2
Cool
Pieno Zvaigzdes AB
2.4
1.7
1.3
1.3
Aurum
Kraitene UAB
-
-
-
-
Others
54.4
54.6
50.4
48.3
Total
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
Forecast Sales of Ice Cream by Category: Value 2012-2017
LTL million
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
-
-
-
-
-
-
Impulse Ice Cream
119.4
124.6
130.7
137.8
146.6
156.8
- Single Portion Dairy Ice Cream
111.4
116.3
122.2
129.0
137.4
147.2
- Single Portion Water Ice Cream
8.0
8.2
8.5
8.8
9.2
9.6
-
-
-
-
-
-
Take-Home Ice Cream
40.4
42.6
45.2
48.4
52.1
56.1
- Take-Home Dairy Ice Cream
40.0
42.2
44.7
47.9
51.5
55.5
Frozen Yoghurt
Retail Artisanal Ice Cream
48
-- Bulk Dairy Ice Cream
37.8
39.9
42.3
45.3
48.7
52.5
-- Ice Cream Desserts
2.2
2.3
2.4
2.6
2.8
3.1
-- Multi-Pack Dairy Ice Cream
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Take-Home Water Ice Cream
0.4
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.6
-- Bulk Water Ice Cream
-
-
-
-
-
-
-- Multi-Pack Water Ice Cream 0.4
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.6
Ice Cream
167.2
175.9
186.3
198.7 212.9
159.8
Advertising expenditures in 2012 (LTL)
2. Guerrilla Marketing Atitude
49
2.1. Guerrilla Marketer Skills
J.C. Levinson (2005) titled as the “father of guerrilla marketing” gave a
memory crutch so that you will never forget these words. All 12 words end in the
letters “ENT.” Run your business by the guerrilla concepts they represent and you
could call yourself a guerrilla marketer.
1. Commitment. You should know that a mediocre marketing program with
commitment will always prove more profitable than a brilliant marketing program
without commitment. Commitment makes it happen.
2. Investment. Marketing is not an expense, but an investment - the best
investment available today (if you do it right). With guerrilla marketing principles to
guide you, you will be doing it right.
3. Consistent. It takes a while for prospects to trust you and if you change your
marketing, media, and identity, you are hard to trust. Restraint is a great ally of the
guerrilla. Repetition is another.
4. Confident. In a nationwide test to determine why people buy, price came in
fifth, selection fourth, service third, quality second, and, in first place - people said
they patronise businesses in which they are confident.
5. Patient. Unless the person running your marketing is patient, it will be
difficult to practice commitment, view marketing as an investment, be consistent,
and make prospects confident. Patience is a guerrilla virtue.
6. Assortment. Guerrillas know that individual marketing weapons rarely work
on their own. But marketing combinations do work. A wide assortment of marketing
tools is required to win customers.
7. Convenient. People now know that time is not money, but is far more
valuable. Respect this by being easy to do business with and running your company
for the convenience of your customers, not yourself.
8. Subsequent. The real profits come after you have made the sale, in the form
of repeat and referral business. Non - guerrillas think marketing ends when they have
made the sale. Guerrillas know that is when marketing begins.
9. Amazement. There are elements of your business that you take for granted,
but prospects would be amazed if they knew the details. Be sure all of your marketing
always reflects that amazement. It is always there.
10. Measurement. You can actually double your profits by measuring the
results of your marketing. Some weapons hit bulls - eyes. Others miss the target.
Unless you measure, you will not know which is which.
11. Involvement. This describes the relationship between you and your customers.
It is a relationship. You prove your involvement by following up. They prove theirs by
patronising and recommending you.
12. Dependent. The guerrilla’s job is not to compete but to cooperate with other
businesses. Market them in return for them marketing you. Set up ties with others.
Become dependent to market more, spend less.
50
As J.C Levinson (2005) says, the guerrilla entrepreneur knows that the journey
is the goal. He also realises that he is in control of his enterprise, not the other way
around, and that if he is dissatisfied with his journey, he is missing the point of the
journey itself. Unlike old-fashioned enterprises, which often required gigantic sacrifices
for the sake of the goal, guerrilla enterprises place the goal of a pleasant journey
ahead of the mere notion of sacrifices.
The guerrilla entrepreneur achieves balance from the very start. He builds free
time into his work schedule so that balance is part of his enterprise. He respects his
leisure time as much as his work time, never allowing too much of one to interfere
with the other. Traditional entrepreneurs always placed work ahead of leisure and
showed no respect for their own personal freedom. Guerrillas cherish their freedom
as much as their work. The guerrilla entrepreneur is well-organised at home and at
work. He does waste valuable time looking for items that have been misplaced, thus
he organises as he works and as new work comes to him. His sense of organisation
is fuelled by the efficiency that results from it. While he is always organised, the guerrilla
never squanders precious time by over - organising.
The guerrilla entrepreneur is not in a hurry. A false need for speed frequently
undermines even the best-conceived strategies. Haste makes waste and sacrifices
quality. The guerrilla is fully aware that patience is his ally, and he has planned
intelligently to eliminate most emergencies that call for moving fast. His pace is
always steady but never rushed.
The guerrilla entrepreneur uses stress as a benchmark. If he feels any stress, he
knows he must be going about things in the wrong way. Guerrilla entrepreneurs do
not accept stress as part of doing business and recognise any stress as a warning sign
that something’s the matter - in the work plan of the guerrilla or in the business
itself. Adjustments are made to eliminate the cause of the stress rather than the stress
itself.
The guerrilla entrepreneur looks forward to work. He has a love affair with his
work and considers himself blessed to be paid for doing the work he does. He is good
at his work, energising his passion in a quest to learn more and improve his
understanding of it, thereby increasing his skills. The guerrilla doesn’t think of work
as a marriage, he thinks about flirt.
The guerrilla entrepreneur does not kid himself. He knows that if he overestimates
his own abilities, he runs the risk of skimping on the quality he represents to his
customers, employees, investors, suppliers and fusion partners. He forces himself to
face reality on a daily basis and realises that all of his business practices must always
be evaluated in the glaring light of what is really happening, instead of what should
be happening.
The guerrilla entrepreneur lives in the present. He is well-aware of the past, very
enticed by the future, but the here and now is where he resides, embracing the
technologies of the present, leaving future technologies on the horizon right where
they belong - on the horizon until later, when they are ripe and ready.
51
The guerrilla entrepreneur understands the precious nature of time. He doesn’t
buy into the old lie that time is money and knows in his heart that time is far more
important than money (J.C. Levinson, 2005). He knows that instead, time is life.
He is aware that his customers and prospects feel the same way about time, so he
respects theirs and wouldn’t dare waste it. As a practicing guerrilla, he is the epitome
of efficiency but never lets it interfere with his effectiveness.
The guerrilla entrepreneur always operates according to a plan. He knows who
he is, where he is going, and how he will get there. He is prepared, knows that
anything can and will happen, and can deal with the barriers to success because his
plan has foreseen them and shown exactly how to surmount them. The guerrilla
re-evaluates his plan regularly and does not hesitate to make changes in it, though
commitment to the plan is part of his very being. The guerrilla entrepreneur is
flexible. He is guided by a strategy and knows the difference between a guide and a
master. When it is necessary to change, the guerrilla changes, accepting change as
part of the status quo, not ignoring or battling it. He adapts to new situations, realises
that service is whatever his customers want it to be, and knows that inflexible things
become brittle and break.
The guerrilla aims for results more than growth. He is focused upon profitability
and balance, vitality and improvement, value and quality more than size and growth.
His plan calls for steadily increasing profits without a sacrifice of personal time, so
his actions are oriented to hitting those targets instead of growing for the sake of
growth alone. He is wary of becoming large and does not equate hugeness with
excellence.
The guerrilla entrepreneur is dependent upon many people. He knows that the
age of the lone wolf entrepreneur, independent and proud of it, has passed. The
guerrilla is very dependent upon his fusion business partners, his employees, his
customers, his suppliers, and his mentors. He got where he is with his own wings,
his own determination, his own smarts, and, as a guerrilla, with a little help from a
lot of friends.
The guerrilla entrepreneur is constantly learning and is passionate about his
work. He has an enthusiasm for what he does that is apparent to everyone who sees
his work. The enthusiasm spreads to everyone who works with him, even his
customers. In its purest form, this enthusiasm is best expressed as the word
passion - an intense feeling that burns within him and is manifested in an unmistakable
devotion towards his work.
The guerrilla entrepreneur has no weaknesses. He is effective in every aspect
of his enterprise because he has filled in the gaps between his strengths and talents
with people who abound in the prowess he lacks. He is very much the team player
and teams up with guerrillas like himself who share the team spirit and possess
complementary skills.
52
He values his teammates as much as old-fashioned entrepreneurs valued their
independence.
The guerrilla entrepreneur is fusion - oriented. He is always on the alert to fuse
his business with other enterprises in town, in America, in the world. He is
willing to combine marketing efforts, production skills, information, leads, mailing
lists and anything else to increase his effectiveness and marketing reach while reducing
the cost of achieving those goals. His fusion efforts are intentionally short-term and
rarely permanent. To do this, he must remain focused upon his journey, seeing the
future clearly, at the same time concentrating upon the present. He is aware distractions,
so he does what is necessary to make those distractions only momentary.
The guerrilla entrepreneur is disciplined about the tasks at hand. He is keenly
aware that every time he writes a task on his daily calendar, it is a promise he is making
to himself. As a guerrilla who does not kid himself, he keeps those promises,
knowing that the achievement of his goals will be more than an adequate reward for
his discipline. He finds it easy to be disciplined because of the payback offered by the
leisure that follows.
The guerrilla entrepreneur has an upbeat attitude. Because he knows that life is
unfair, problems arise, to err is human, and the cool shall inherit the Earth, he takes
obstacles in stride, keeping his perspective and his sense of humour. His ever-present
optimism is grounded in an ability to perceive the positive side of things, recognising
the negative, but never dwelling there. His positivity is contagious.
53
Questions and Tasks
Questions:
1. Describe guerrilla marketers character attributes. What kind of person is a
guerrilla marketer?
2. How guerrilla marketer plans his time?
3. Why measuring everything and everywhere is so important for guerrilla
marketer?
4. What kind of skills or knowledge should guerrilla marketer be learning?
Tasks:
1. Choose any company you want for this task, or stay with any of Lithuanian
ice-cream producers. Think about local advertising – how you could use trading
equipment or surrounding objects to get more attention from potential customers.
Just think what that might be and then:
• make a photo of the area and pick objects which will be used for local
marketing/advertising;
• make a draft on the photo what you would plan to create in actual;
• figure out what permissions you need for such local advertising and whether
there are any fines for making such advertising without a permission;
• roughly estimate you budget;
• calculate a possible effect of such advertising (how many people will see it;
how many of them would be interested to tell about such an installation to
their friends; how many people are expected to visit your establishment or
make a phone call to you).
2. Find any factors of amazement in your chosen company, its services or
products. Explain, will it truly be something amazing for potential customers?
Questions and Tasks
for making big profits from your small business. Houghton Mifflin Company.
54
2.2. Creativity in Guerrilla Marketing
When it comes to marketing, guerrillas become creative in very special ways
and they’re not the ways that are demonstrated by most marketing. Guerrillas view
creativity in marketing the same way that drivers view steering wheels in their cars.
The creativity is supposed to guide the marketing toward its goal of producing profits
just as the steering wheel is supposed to guide the car toward its goal of arriving safely
at the destination.
It doesn’t always work out that way. The bummer is that although there are tragedies
on the highway because accidents happen, there are tragedies in marketing and none
of them have to happen. Worse yet, they don’t even happen by accident People actually plan, sweat over and focus hard upon marketing that is headed from the start
directly towards disaster.
Creativity in marketing is very much different from creativity in the arts,
although marketing is as eclectic an art form as has ever been devised by humankind.
Marketing embraces writing, design, photography, video, special effects, music,
dancing, and acting-and yet its purposes are not those of the arts.
As J.C. Levinson (2005) explains, guerrillas view marketing with ten insights into
marketing creativity that illuminates the path for them. These insights prevent them
from going over the edge, losing their way or wasting their time and money. Here are
the ten insights:
1. Creativity in marketing should be measured solely by how well it contributes to
your overall profitability. If it helps you sell at profit, it is creative and if it doesn’t, it’s
not creative. That makes creativity easy to measure. Awards and compliments have
nothing to do with it.
2. Creativity should always be blended with its ability to withstand repetition
because purchase decisions are made with the unconscious mind and repetition is
the best way to access the unconscious. If your creative marketing idea can get stronger
with repetition, you’ve got a winner.
3. Using creativity in marketing that resorts to humour is like reaching into a bag
filled with poisonous snakes. Not only might you get hurt on your very first time
reach into the bag, but the more you reach the more it works against you because
repetition helps marketing but murders humour.
4. Creativity in marketing not directed towards motivating a purchase is like
employing a vampire in your marketing. The vampire sucks attention away from your
prime offer, your benefits and your main idea in an inane attempt to be creative at the
expense of your profitability.
55
5. Creativity should be seen as an opportunity not for show business but for sell
business. Marketing is business far more than entertainment, and although it may be
entertaining, that is not its prime requirement. It exists mainly to create a desire to
buy and not mainly to entertain.
6. Creativity is a way to implant your name and not an excuse not to mention your
name. Gain awareness and a crucial share of mind by showing and saying your name
creatively, helping people remember your name the next time they’re in the market
for what you sell.
7. Creativity in marketing is the challenge of demonstrating your benefit in a way
that people will remember. It is important that your prospects remember your name
and equally important to know what makes you special and why they should own
what you are offering.
8. Creativity comes not from inspiration or even perspiration. It comes from
knowledge. The more knowledge you have, the more creative you can be. You require
knowledge of your benefits, prospects, industry, competition, media options, and the
Internet-for starters.
9. Creativity begins not with a headline, graphic idea, special effect or jingle; it
begins with an idea. The idea should centre on your offer, your competitive advantage
or your main benefit, and it should come singing clearly through your marketing in
any medium.
10. Creativity of the highest form in marketing has longevity and improves with
age. How long has the Green Giant been ho-ho-ho-ing in his valley? Have United’s
skies been friendly? Has the Maytag repairman been lonely? Great marketing
creativity is both flexible and enduring.
Most business owners have ridiculous notion that their marketing is supposed to
constantly change. But the truth is, that you should implement marketing decisions
that work and bring you good sales results, not awards or compliments. So it is going
to be a tough job for you to separate the true creativity from the pretend creativity.
Most marketing you see these days is of the pretend variety. Still, armed with these
insights, the creativity that you employ will be guerrilla creativity and will lead not
down the garden path but directly to your bank vault.
56
2.3. Guerrilla Marketing Examples
• Here are few examples of quite creative and effective guerrilla marketing
ideas. The whole chapter No.5. offers you various creativity tools and is
waiting for your attention. Take an easy on this chapter and I hope you will
get some creative inspiration.
Figure 3. Social advertising for smoke prevention
Source: F. Mugnai (2009)
Costs of such advertising were minimal – only stickers on public ashtray were
needed to be put. This was social campaign, and public ashtrays was not only a great
direct media carrier, but it was for free. Furthermore, the effect of physical evidence
is great – a smoker each time has to put a cigarette into the big eye, where a short and
accurate message is written: “Smoking causes blindness. Quit”.
57
Figure 4. Fitness company advertising in public transport
Source: http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/
Would you not feel great imagining yourself lifting such a heavy weight with
your one hand? If no, than it would be at least a funny thing, that people could talk
about and even share photos with their smartphones! This advertising is good,
because it is cost effective and totally non – standard. But probably the best thing is
that potential clients are allowed to feel this in such strange way and… to build up
some thoughts while traveling home or to work.
58
Figure 5. Kung – Fu panda kicks the glass
Announcing new movies in outdoor advertising, including bus stops, is not a
new thing. But in this case advertising agency did their best to show how clumsy
Kung–Fu panda has broken the glass of the bus stop advertising.
59
Figure 6. Durex with dots in the street
To promote Durex condoms with ribs or with knobs, in some cities in Belgium
condoms were painted on paving stones with the according pattern. What a great
idea this one is. It really hits the message home. After being maybe a bit disgusted
you cannot help but smile at this one. Just curious, are there no fines for printing such
things on city surfaces?
60
Figure 7. Durex with ribs in the street
61
Figure 8. Extra time with “Durex”
Source: R. Lum (2011)
Announcing periods of the match with “Durex” branded tablet. Furthermore,
they got lucky – there was an extra time! Again with “Durex“. Imagine how many
potential customers (men) are watching the match in stadium? It is quite possible
that such original tablet was shown on TV a number of times during the Sports!
62
Figure 9. Would you think about dental insurance playing bowling?
Source: D. Heck (2009)
Would you not think about dental insurance at least a little bit, if constantly
seeing how a huge ball hits those teeth again and again? Not a standard approach and
probably quite a cheap one!
Figure 10. Using lighted sticker on the car
63
Le Cactus restaurant - bar communicated the burning effect of spicy wings by
putting stickers featuring the face of a men screaming on the rear window of taxis.
The man’s tongue is superimposed on the central brake light, creating the effect of
extreme heat.
Figure 11. How would you look with this tattoo?
Dermagraphic Tattoo’s placed stickers of tattoos in various bathroom and
changing room mirrors so that people could line the tattoos up in the mirror to give
the impression that they were actually on their skin, in order to promote their
mission to “try before you buy a tattoo”. Below the tattoo was another sticker with
the message.
64
Figure 12. New supermarket in metro station
Stickers were applied to the subway station pillars in order to make them look
like life-size HomePlus supermarket stands. The intended effect was to make the
people entering the subway station feel like they were stepping into the HomePlus
supermarket. No TV/Print ads were carried out for HomePlus. As a result of this
unique outdoor campaign, the sales for the opening day exceeded the expected sales
by 550%.
65
Figure 13. Advertising job search portal in universities
Brilliant sticker advertising campaign that won prestigious awards and drew in a
lot of website traffic. Imagine if you want to attract graduate students to register into
your job search portal. How much would such a sticker cost? 50 EUR? 100 EUR?
Probably not more, but all students in the faculty will notice this coffee machine,
even those who do not drink coffee – friends will tell them about this poor lady in
the machine!
66
Figure 14. Advertising job search portal during event
The same job search portal did advertising during the event. Yes, it is a bit risky
way, but that is a guerrilla marketer’s attitude! I guess, no comments are needed.
People attending the event and entering through such original gates, saw just a brief
message “There are better ways to make career” and a website address as an answer.
Figure 15. Advertising fetish wear on bottles of sauce
The company, “Dressing for Pleasure“, a specialist in fetish wear put stickers of
the enticing rear ends on the bottoms of ketchup bottles. Thus inviting bar patrons to
explore a completely different appetite while addressing their hunger.
67
Figure 16. Original advertising of insurance company
To promote life broker and the benefits of life insurance, McCann Melbourne
put fallen safes in the middle of office foyers to get people to read the sticker above.
Figure 17. Showing the truck feature on match box
“Ford“ wanted to show one of its benefits – the new truck had a longer and more
convenient cargo bed. Match boxes were made with “Ford“ logo and an image of the
new truck. Opening the match box gave a direct impression about the longer cargo
bed and the text explained where to look for more information.
68
Figure 18. Original and unexpected advertising in a book
There is an advertisement of consultancy service which helps quit smoking:
“THE END. If YOU smoke statistically your story will end 15% before it should. For
help with quitting call: …“. Original, yes? How would you feel having in your hands
this book and still, let us say, about 30 pages unread with the most interesting story
turns?
69
Figure 19. Outdoor advertising – minimum effort, maximum impact
Outdoor installation (big tube of glue) was arranged at the beginning of
a heavy traffic bridge. Unexpectedness and clear message communication was
reached at quite low costs.
70
Figure 20. Movie advertising on streets
If you have seen the movie “Dude, where’s my car?”, you probably remember
when two guys get from the house to the street and one of them with a little bit
surprised face asks – “dude, where’s my car?”. Few parking places were booked and
painted with the movie name, asking the same question. And the movie release date
was given as a hint.
71
Questions and Tasks
Questions:
1. Explain how creativity is developed in guerrilla marketing.
2. Which examples of guerrilla marketing seem similar? Make comments what
is common in your chosen examples? Why these solutions were effective?
Tasks:
1. Internet with e-mail possibilities and smartphones have changed habits of
communication –people send less and less regular mail. Therefore national post
company has faced difficult financial situation. Your task is to come up with at least
21 guerrilla marketing idea how to encourage people to send more mails and boost
usage of national post service. As the company has difficult financial situation, you
can’t afford any mass media or other expensive advertising. Consider these aspects
as hint for solution:
• What people can’t send via e-mail or smartphone?
• What other reasons except the New Year greetings might be for sending
pleasant letters?
• What message should the national post company to say?
• How the national post company could deliver this message with as lowest
as possible costs?
• What could be done to achieve viral effect?
2. Browse the internet, look around your environment and find at least three
good examples of executive guerrilla marketing. Find out as more as possible about
success of these solutions and share your findings with study friends.
2. Mugnai, F. (2009). The 80 best guerrilla marketing ideas i’ve ever seen. http://
blogof.francescomugnai.com/2009/11/the-80-best-guerrilla-marketing-ideas-iveever-seen
3. Wilson, C. (2012). Guerrilla Marketing Simple Idea: Business Cards. http://
freshpeel.com/2012/06/guerrilla-marketing-simple-idea-business-card
4. Heck D. (2009). More Kick A$$ Guerrilla Marketing Promotions. http://www.
bootstrappingblog.com/tag/guerrilla-marketing/page/2/
5. Open Workshop. (2013). Creative thinking tools and techniqueshttps://openworkshop.nesta.org.uk
6. Plsek, P. (1997). Creativity, Innovation, and Quality. Irwin Professional Publishing
7. Quainton, D. (2012). How to…have impact, and not end up in jail. Event.
Jun2011, p30-32.
3
Why 21, but not 20?.. Just because to encourage your non-standard thinking :)
72
3. Structure of Guerrilla Marketing
The first thing to know is that guerrilla marketers plan backwards, beginning
with the attainment of their goals in the future, then working back to the present. If
you can allow yourself to visualise success, the path to it will be easier to find. Most
companies see the beginning of the path in front of them, but do not see where it
leads in the distance. Their short - sightedness gets them in trouble when change or
unforeseen circumstances occur. It even impairs their ability to function when
confronted with success.
The hardest job in the planning of marketing is seeing the target. You must
remove the shackles of insecurity and fear in order to travel to your final destination.
So you have got to think as though you have been attaining your goals all along as
you plan for your distant future. As J.C. Levinson (2007) suggests, you must see your
company at its finest in 20 years in order for it to operate at its peak in ten years. By
knowing what must be accomplished for such optimum performance, you can see
where you must be in five years. That helps you concentrate upon what must be done
by the end of one year. Then that points the way to what you have got to do tomorrow,
to do today, and to do now.
J.C. Levinson (2007) gives a good example in comparison with playing golf. You
must know exactly where the cup is. Knowing where the green is will not cut it for
you. Knowing that the fairway is in front of you will not do it either. Most small
businesses are run by owners who stand at the tee, club in hand, but are not really
certain in which direction they should aim. They can hit the ball, possibly even hit it
long. But that wil not get the ball into the cup where it belongs.
Guerrilla businesses operate by marketing plans that factor in success and
growth, change and flexibility. These plans shine a bright light far ahead, illuminating a
target that exists only in the mind of the owner. That owner must put that same target
into the minds of those who work with him - his employees and co-workers, marketing partners and suppliers.
The way he does it is with a plan that clearly shows the path upon which he is
traveling and the destination to which it leads. It helps in all decision making - from
advertising to personnel. It has room for expansion, diversification and success.
Although it enables the business to operate in the “here and now”, it keeps a sharp
focus on the “there and then”.
Although the soul of planning exists within the mind of the planner, the heart
resides in the research he or she does. Knowledge gained from research will provide
stability and reality to a plan. It will guide the hopes and ambitions of the planner
while pointing to goals and tactics. The research must temper both boldness and
timidity at the same time with the radiant glow of information.
73
The guerrilla possesses the insight to begin planning with research. The more
concrete the research, the more sensible the plan. Plans gain strength as guerrillas
gain wisdom in these areas (J.C. Levinson, 2007):
• Product or service. Guerrillas learn what makes it different, better, desirable.
They find ways to improve it and add value to it.
• Benefits. Research into the benefits offered by the product should be reflected in the marketing plan, especially benefits not offered by others.
• Market. Plans exist not in a vacuum but in relationship to an entire marketplace. Guerrillas become experts in their market before planning.
• Industry. Guerrillas want to see their industry as a whole to help them spot
vulnerabilities and opportunities, to learn from successes and failures.
• Competition. Sane marketing plans are created according to dreams adjusted to
competitive activity. Guerrillas are rarely taken by surprise.
• Customers. Rich sources of guerrilla data are customers of guerrillas and
customers of competitors of guerrillas.
• Prospects. Savvy marketing plans specify who these people are because
research identified and located them prior to the plan being created.
• Media. Guerrillas learn the best ways to reach their target prospects and incorporate what they have learned about the media in their marketing plan.
• Internet. It is so simple to scour cyberspace for marketing intelligence that
all guerrillas consider cybersearching mandatory before planning.
• Technology. Because speed and efficiency can spur effective marketing, guerrillas look into how technology can propel them to their goals.
Before you can determine which promotional strategy will help you reach your
target market, you need to do some competitive research and learn about your
target customer. It is crucial that you estimate your costs as accurately as possible.
You should be able to obtain a rate schedule from any media outlet and the sales
departments of fairs and trade shows. Finally, in order to measure your success or
failure in various promotional activities, you need a specific objective stating what
you want to accomplish by what date and a way to measure your success. A poor
example of measurable objective would be “send out brochures”. A better example is
“send out 1.000 brochures by May 1”.
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3.1. Strategy in 7 Sentences
As J.C. Levinson (2007) suggests, guerrillas create a strategy in seven simple
sentences. No more need for a comprehensive marketing plan that lists projected
goals in great detail for the next five years and other nonsense. Today, the
guerrillas out there know what it takes to win with their marketing and win in a very
high margin. These seven sentences can make or break your marketing strategy, so
never leave home without them.
1. The purpose of the marketing – The physical action you want your prospect
to take.
2. How will you achieve this purpose – your competitive advantage and benefits.
3. Your target market – who are you aiming to benefit?
4. The marketing weapon you will use – online, offline, magazine print, etc.
5. The niche and your position and what you stand for.
6. The identity of your business – Not who owns it, but what you stand for.
7. Your budget – This should be expressed as a percentage of your projected
revenue.
Giving more detailed explanation of these seven sentences, let us take for
example the strategy of our marketing agency UAB „Marketologai“.
The purpose of your marketing. This is the introduction sentence to your
paragraph and should outline what you are looking to gain from the marketing you
are putting into action. Is your marketing sole purpose to create awareness of some
kind a global issue or is your marketing purpose to generate traffic to your business
website in order to gain visitors and potential sales? Or maybe you want to receive as
more as possible phone calls from potential customers?
The marketing purpose of UAB “Marketologai“ is to motivate company
managers to get in contact with the agency regarding marketing planning and to
convert as much as possible such requests to real orders.
How you will achieve this purpose. This is going to give a quick outline of the
way you intend to achieve this purpose. How will you accomplish your targeted
goals? What makes your product or service needed compared to others? It is far well
known that people buy benefits not features. This sentence should explain what your
product or service does that sets it apart from the others and makes it a benefit to
your client/customer.
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We will achieve this goal by explaining that consistent marketing planning and
hiring experienced marketing specialists help to earn bigger profit.
Your target market. This should be self-explanatory, but some people forget to
think about this part of their marketing. A generalisation is not going to get you the
benefits that the pinpoint accuracy of your target market. Throwing a fishing rod
into an ocean without any research on the area could get you a few bites, but knowing a specific area with fish that love the bait you are using could get you hundreds
of bites.
Companies and entrepreneurs representing quality products/services with at
least 200.000 Lt marketing budget and willing to avoid competition in price are our
target market.
The marketing weapon you will use. This will be whatever marketing tools you
will use. General ideas are good, but again, targeted ideas are great. If you are an
author of a book or blog on a specific subject, why not put a fish bowl at the library
and give the winner a free copy of your book, or a free downloadable copy of your
e-book? Remember that you are always thinking about what can and will work the
best for your business.
Website, SEO, contextual advertising, building an image of marketing expert,
partnership with companies working with similar clients, recommendations,
freelancer directories, professional networks, first consultation for free, “satellite“ projects.
Your niche, your position and what you stand for. The niche is pretty close to
your target market but slightly different. If you are a plumber, your target market may
be the elderly who are too weak to fix the problems themselves while your niche is
the plumbing industry. The position you talk about is geared towards explaining why
your product or service is needed and what your company stands for.
We are not an ordinary marketing consultant - we position ourselves as
marketing planning and implementation agency, which not only consults, but
helps all the way.
The identity of your business. What your company stands for could be many
things, but remember that an identity and your image are two completely different
things. The image of your company is a false impression that you give your clients;
one of exceedingly high worth and expectations you normally cannot live up to. Your
identity is what you’re known for and what you want people to remember about
you.
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Competence, clarity and honesty in everything.
Your budget. Your goal is to budget only a specific amount of money in the initial
stages and then fund your marketing efforts off the profits that it brings in. Generally,
most small businesses will allocate a specific percentage to their budget and will hold
true to it. Your budget can be anywhere from 3% to 50% depending on how much
money you want to put into it and how great your ROI (return of investment) is.
Guerrilla marketing budget – 3% from income.
Overview. So now you have seen what each sentence is used for and why they
are important to your guerrilla marketing strategy, but what does it look like all put
together? As far as we have faced, the best way to make this 7 point strategy alive is to
keep it in one paragraph and have it in front of your eyes every day.
The marketing purpose of UAB “Marketologai“ is to motivate company
managers to get in contact with the agency regarding marketing planning and to
convert as much as possible such requests to real orders. We will achieve this goal by
explaining that consistent marketing planning and hiring experienced marketing
specialists helps to earn bigger profit. Companies and entrepreneurs representing
quality products and services with at least 200.000 LTL annual marketing budget
and willing to avoid competition in price are our target market. We will use special
website, SEO, contextual advertising, building an image of marketing expert,
partnership with companies working with similar clients, recommendations, freelancer directories, professional networks, first consultation for free, „satellite“ projects. We are not an ordinary marketing consultant - we position ourselves as marketing planning and implementation agency, which not only consults, but helps all
the way. Competence, clarity and honesty in everything is our main identity. 3%
from all income goes to marketing budget.
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Questions and Tasks
Questions:
1. What are 7 main questions for guerrilla strategy according J.C. Levinson?
2. Explain difference between niche and identity.
3. Explain how to set your goal correctly. How the goal of your marketing should
sound?
Tasks:
1. Create a 7 point marketing strategy for any company you choose from or for
new ice-cream company which wants to enter Lithuanian market.
Purpose
How to achieve it
Target market
Marketing weapons
Niche
Identity
Budget
2. Tell your developed strategy to your study friend and discuss how to make it
even better.
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3.2. PyroMarketing – 4 Step Tactics
3.2.1. PyroMarketing Vs Mass Marketing
Pyromarketing is a new way to think about marketing - an effective method to
deliver relevant messages to the right people and to foster their spread throughout
society. Rather than trying to break through the cacophony with bolder, louder, and
more intrusive tactics associated with mass marketing, pyromarketing provides a
repeatable approach that recognises and accommodates individual differences,
acknowledges the power of experience, and leverages the influence of passionate
customers. That is why we can count it as some kind of guerrilla marketing tactics.
New circumstances have created an opportunity for a different marketing
approach and G. Stielstra (2005) has announced his new concept about the
marketing. The pyromarketing model uses the metaphor of fire to explain a
marketing strategy that accounts for individual differences, personal preferences,
and current societal influences. There are four essential ingredients to every fire.
They are:
1. Fuel
2. Oxygen (O2)
3. Heat
4. Chemical reaction.
Consumers are like fuel. There is money stored in their wallets, but there is also
a very strong bond between consumers and their money. Marketing is the heat that
raises them beyond their ignition temperature and sets them alight. Consumers
exchange their money for products or services, the equivalent of oxygen to a fire. The
more remarkable consumers find the product, the higher its concentration of O2.
The more satisfied consumers are with your product or service, the higher their heat
release rate and this positive word-of-mouth is the single most important factor to
the growth of the marketing fire. Building communities of satisfied customers helps
them increase their excitement by sharing their experiences. This radiative feedback
contributes to a positive heat balance transforming simple customers into customer
evangelists that grow a marketing fire to flashover.
Practical implementation of pyromarketing takes four easily memorisable steps –
the same which are necessary to set up fire.
1. Gather the driest tinder: Focus your efforts and resources on the people
most likely to respond. These people have the greatest need and will be most satisfied
when you meet it. What is more, they will become unstoppable customer evangelists
who spread your message through word of mouth to others.
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Mass marketers waste millions of dollars, euros trying to convince “attractive”
audience segments to buy their products rather than speaking honestly to the people
who already need what they offer. Why small businesses should make the same
mistake?
2. Touch It with the Match: This means giving people an experience.
Experience is a shortcut to understanding. If you want people to laugh, do not tell
them you are funny, tell them a joke! Give people an experience with your product
or service and its ability to meet their needs. Then, if people will not come to you to
get it, then take the experience to them.
3. Fan the Flames: People spread messages more effectively than advertising.
The fire is hotter than the match. Fanning the flames means equipping people to
spread your message to their friend, family, and neighbours.
4. Save the Coals: Keep a record of the people you encounter through your
marketing. In other words, begin and maintain a consumer database. Does
the company have a registry of guests, prospects, clients? Businesses know that their
most frequent customers are also their best.
The era of mass marketing is ending. The promotion of a single product
or service to everyone through undifferentiated media reached its heyday in
the sixties and its success convinced most marketers it was the only way. But the
world has changed and mass tactics that worked so brilliantly thirty-five years before
and which still seem perfectly sensible in the safety of the boardroom, or marketing department, increasingly fail in the real, modern world. Larry Light, McDonald‘s Corp.‘s chief marketing officer recently declared that mass marketing no longer
works (Brand Journalism, 2004). Smart companies according to Business Week are,
- standing mass marketing on its head by shifting emphasis from selling to the vast,
anonymous crowd to selling to millions of particular consumers (Bianco, 2004)
Somewhere toward the middle of the twentieth century the tributaries of mass
manufacturing, high demand for consumer products, a predominantly urban
population, and a few but pervasive mass media, converged. The formula for mass
marketing‘s success was this:
1. Limited product choice but plentiful supplies.
2. High demand for goods and services.
3. Clustered consumers.
4. Broad access to very few media.
5. Little or no consumer resistance to advertising.
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Cultural shifts and technological innovations as influential as those that created
mass marketing have conspired to siphon away its dominance. Consumer demand
remains, but we now live in a world of expansive product choice, dispersed
populations, myriad media outlets and consumer resistance to advertising so strong
it borders on resentment. Countless product choices now allow consumers to express
their individuality with every purchase. Mass production has given way to mass
customisation and evidence abounds in both the consumer product category, and in
the entertainment industry.
The number of brands on supermarket shelves has tripled since 1993. In 2003
alone some 26,893 new food and household products were introduced, according
to Mintel International Group Ltd‘s Global New Products Database. Among them
were 115 new deodorants, 187 breakfast cereals, and 303 women‘s perfumes
(Bianco, 2004).
A short five years ago, if a band did not have radio airplay and the resources of a
major label, they did not have much of a following. Today, independent record labels
and independent artists are having great success reaching niche audiences with
virtually no airplay or music video coverage (Garrity, 2007).
Consumers have choices as never before and those choices feature subtle
distinctions that improve their appeal to narrowly defined audience niches. Masses
of products with individual appeal have replaced products with mass appeal. As
a result of these new realities Mass Marketing No Longer Works. The following formula
seems to best represent the current situation for mass marketing (C.P. Rothschild, G.
Stielstra, S. Wysong, 2009):
1. Vast product choice and plentiful supplies.
2. Dispersed consumers.
3. High demand for goods and services.
4. Broad access to various Media.
5. High consumer resistance even resentment towards advertising.
Let us take a closer look at differences between mass marketing and pyromarketing
which are given in table 1.
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Table 1. Mass Marketing Vs PyroMarketing
Mass Marketing
PyroMarketing
Homogeneity (people are the same)
Heterogeneity (people are different)
Focus on the company
Focus on the consumer
Cost per thousand
Cost per customer
Marketing Immerses
Marketing Ignites
Advertising puffery
Advertising honesty
Source: C.P. Rothschild, G. Stielstra, S. Wysong, 2009
Homogeneity. Mass marketing assumes that people are essentially the same.
It‘s an easy mistake to make and one that follows, quite naturally, from mass
manufacturing. Mass manufacturing, after all, was designed to make standardised,
homogenous products. Assembly lines optimised their sameness to exacting specifications. (Schultz and others, 1993). Through an error of logic, mass marketers
assume consumers are as interchangeable as the products they buy, and attempt to
use demographics to define whole populations. If the person who bought a ticket to a
touring Broadway show was rich, they conclude that rich people buy tickets to shows
and they should target them with their advertising. It may be that the person, who
purchased the show ticket, was wealthy, but it does not follow that wealthy people
purchase Broadway show tickets. People are defined by many attributes and they
don‘t all contribute to purchase decisions.
If a woman was asked why she bought the ticket to the show she probably would
not say “because I‘m rich!“ More likely she would say something like “I bought a
ticket to the show because I enjoy live performances“. Or “a friend told me it was a
wonderful production“. By focusing on characteristics irrelevant to the actual
purchase decision, mass marketers can be duped into thinking people are alike.
Heterogeneity. Pyromarketers recognise each person represents a distinctive
blend of characteristics, experiences, interests and passions, only some of which
contribute to each purchase decision.
Mass marketing focuses on the company. Traditional mass marketing imagines the
universe revolving around the business. It operates from the inside out - beginning
with the company‘s goals and often ignoring the consumer‘s entirely. It makes
telemarketing calls at mealtime, sends SPAM email, or disguises direct mail as urgent
correspondence from a bank or the government. Mass marketing installs sidewalks
at right angles and tells the consumer to stay off the grass.
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PyroMarketing focuses on the Consumer. Pyromarketing places the customer‘s
needs first. It allows people to walk where they will and builds the sidewalks on the
footpaths they wear pyromarketing tries to serve the customer, not just sell to them
(G. Stielstra, 2005).
Mass marketing cares about cost per thousand. Cost Per Thousand (CPM)
measures the cost of reaching a thousand people with an ad. It is supposed to help
businesses weigh the relative value of various advertising options. The vehicle with
the lowest CPM is thought to be superior because it reaches the greatest number of
people for the money. If mass marketing‘s other assumptions were true if everyone
is the same, if all people are equally likely to buy, if marketing can, in fact, coerce
then this makes perfect sense. If the essence of great marketing is nothing more than
throwing advertising against the wall to see what sticks, then CPM matters a lot. The
lower the CPM, the more you can throw. However, this betrays one of mass marketing‘s fundamental flaws. Increasingly, it confuses activity with results. It‘s not enough
to place the ads, or to have them seen by lots of people. What happened as a result?
Did anyone buy the advertised event ticket?
PyroMarketing cares about cost per Customer. Cost Per Customer (CPC ) is
a better way to evaluate the relative merits of advertising. CPC does not measure
impressions, it measures response. A focus on the prospects most likely to respond
leads one away from mass media and toward tactics not often considered.
Mass marketing immerses. Traditional mass marketing believes it can convince
the disinterested. It tries to commandeer the attention of indifferent people and, by
immersing them in advertising, create a felt need where none had previously existed.
But this grossly overestimates advertising‘s power to persuade and the consumer‘s
willingness to be persuaded.
PyroMarketing ignites. Marketing at its very best is communication, not coercion. When marketers connect people to the products or services that satisfy their
needs, nothing more is required. When a product and its marketing are relevant,
people ignite and immersing them in advertising isn‘t necessary. Immersive advertising proves the adage that you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink,
but pyromarketing proves its corollary that you cannot prevent a thirsty horse from
drinking.
4
Note that CPC – means “Cost Per Click” in internet marketing.
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Mass marketing allows puffery. Technically, advertisers are not permitted to
mislead people. Fraud is illegal. Practically, however, things are not so plain. Objective
claims are specific, measurable, or based on fact. Puffery is more apt to include exaggerated claims or hyperbole, and be vague, immeasurable, or opinionated. Advertising puffery does lend itself to building a brand, or recruiting customer evangelists.
Instead it can lead to mistrust and convince consumers the company is dishonest.
PyroMarketing demands advertising honesty. Pyromarketers tell the truth.
Factual statements are not dry when they honestly describe a benefit to the person who
needs it most. Honesty fosters trust, the very opposite of their response to puffery
and spin. Spin sets into motion a never-ending cycle of scepticism, wrote Malcolm
Gladwell in an article titled The Spin Myth (Gladwell, 1998). If you want people‘s
attention, be attentive to their needs. If you want them to trust you, then be trustworthy. If you want them to believe you, tell them the truth. The golden rule of pyromarketing
is: market to the consumer as you would have them market unto you.
3.2.2 Case Study
Step 1: Gather the Driest Tinder.
The driest tinder are the most valuable prospects for your product or service
because they are most likely to buy, benefit from, and then enthusiastically promote
it to targeted people in their sphere of influence. The driest tinder are the point of
origin for every marketing campaign. Their life experience, passions and interests
regulate their perception process which, in turn, determines whether advertising will
have any impact. The quickest way to improve advertising is by targeting the most
interested consumers. People already inclined toward your product will actually
amplify its message, quickly moving past their ignition point to buy and become
evangelists for what you are selling. The driest tinder will notice, remember, act upon
and repeat your marketing message
Sports and entertainment venue managers are familiar with the power and
influence of customers organising around their passions and buying tickets. It doesn‘t
take much to find the driest tinder for top selling artists, or popular sports teams.
However, there are far more instances in which a lesser known talent, performance,
or team is booked in a venue, and filling seats is a greater challenge.
The first place to look for the driest tinder is among the existing customer base. It
is commonly known that past behaviour is the greatest predictor of future behaviour.
For Sports and entertainment venues, the ability to tap into this customer base will
be somewhat contingent upon who owns the data from the ticket purchase. While
ticketing solution agreements vary, it does not take pyromarketers long to see the
benefits of owning, or sharing customer data 5.
5
Be caucious – sharing customer information in some countries (especially EU) is forbidden by law.
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Venues especially in USA have come to realise the importance of a web presence
for making prospective customers aware of upcoming events. A growing number
are using websites to interact with, and engage customers and prospects. Web 2.0
innovations are making it affordable and much easier for staff to create and manage
like-minded online communities, differentiate customer preferences, and communicate through customised channels. This of course creates a vehicle to capture visitor
contact data - many of whom will become the driest tinder.
Venues should also consider upgrading their ability to collect customer data and
interests during events. Free standing kiosk could be used before and after an event
to receive customer feedback. Gathering data through customer surveys, door prizes,
and drawings can also be effective means for gathering customer data.
Venue managers who embrace pyromarketing will ensure the customer information gathered is not just traditional demographic data, but includes questions that
pertain to passions, interests, and values. These are the qualities that will allow you to
reach the most likely prospects to buy a ticket.
Another recommendation is to challenge assumptions about why customers buy
tickets to an event. A traditional marketing approach may assume a minor league
baseball game should be marketed to a specific demographic made up of age and
gender.
The pyromarketing model emphasises individuals have unique internal traits
that make some more likely to buy than others. Sports and entertainment venues
should profile key prospects and identify where the driest tinder gather. Just when
you think you have defined your market, drill down a level or two further and find
the really dry tinder. Online directories of associations make it easy to find thousands
of national organisations devoted to professional interests or personal hobbies.
However, because event marketing for sports and entertainment venues tends to
be local, marketing departments will need to be diligent in identifying smaller, but
influential groups of dry tinder. It is becoming common to have venue staff dedicated
to finding and communicating with groups of like-minded individuals via interactive
media, like blogs, chat rooms, new groups, and websites (Waddell, 2007). No matter
how seemingly obscure the interest, there are organisations that support it. Learn
how many members they have, when they meet, their web address, and the other
communication vehicles that support their organisation by serving its members.
Start a dialogue with the people you find there. If you pledge to serve rather than sell,
they will gladly tell you about the ways they gather with their like-minded friends
and how you can tap into that network.
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Step 2: Touch It with the Match.
Touching it with the match involves giving people an experience with your
product or service and its benefits. Traditional advertising can ignite the driest
tinder, but it lacks the heat to set fire to all but the most interested consumers.
Experience, unlike even the most effective advertising, has the unique ability
to capture people‘s attention, to excite their emotions, to enhance their memory, to
promote their pleasure, to speak with credibility, to align with their expectations and,
in the end, to influence their preferences. An experience with a product‘s benefit quickly transforms prospects into customers. Experience, not advertising, triggers the human reward circuit. Reinforced by dopamine, it allows people to feel the
pleasure of satisfying their need and conditions them to choose it again and again.
Experience alone creates the somatic markers that enable consumers to choose one
product from myriad options. Experience heats marketing to new levels.
Whether hosting or producing an event, venues can be part of the experience,
and thus be part of the show. The experiences ticket holders have is not solely the
result of what they see and hear from the stage, or playing area, but all that is
experienced from ticket inquiry, to exiting the venue. Not every event booked is
guaranteed to live up to its billing.
Beyond enhancing the event-day experience by engaging the customer, what
implications does touching it with a match have for venue managers? The pyromarketing suggests a proactive approach to get the driest tinder and the mildly interested
prospects to experience the product or service. If concessions are part of the overall
event experience, perhaps venues should consider offering samples of select food or
drink.
Another proactive approach is to identify key influencers in the community and
invite them to sample an evening performance. Or perhaps venues can arrange for a
sampling of the performance, or talent, to be delivered on site to influential groups.
While travel and logistics can make this difficult, other alternatives like having a
dramatic reading of a related book, or a panel discussion on a related news story may
be a way to bring a sample of the performance to prospective customers.
Sports and entertainment venues managers also can not underestimate the
impact technology can have on bringing a sample of an event to customers. Touching it with a match may mean streaming portions of a show or performance on the
venue‘s website, or as we have seen in recent years, encouraging consumers to
YouTube what they have captured at an event.
Pay attention, does your advertising match the consumer‘s actual experience
with your product? Or, does your advertising foster disappointment by over
promising? What venues do not want to do is advertise - where the theatre is a part
of the show, and provide poor customer service, or present a poorly maintained
facility. Make sure a consumer‘s experience with your venue exceeds the expectations
created by its advertising.
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Finally, the pyromarketing model prompts the venue manager to ask what
customers really love about your product or service. Are the real benefits the same as
the ones you advertise, or have your customers identified a hidden benefit that would
actually help you sell more tickets? Find out what your customers love about that
particular entertainment venue, and feature it in your advertising.
Step 3: Fan the Flames.
The pyromarketing advocates people spread messages more effectively than
advertising. Fanning the flames involves equipping your customers to spread your
message through word-of-mouth. Word-of-mouth is not what happens in the
absence of marketing, it is the natural consequence of marketing done right. Mass
marketers were taught that marketing involves a single step that it is something
businesses do to consumers. But this approach values people only for their - purchase
potential and ignores their - promotional potential.
Pyromarketing takes a different view. Making the initial sale is an important first
step to building a marketing fire, but accounts for only half the process. You must also
equip those initial buyers to become customer evangelist, and to effectively spread
the marketing message to others.
While driest tinder will buy based solely on their personal preferences and
knowledge of the options, everyone else turns to decision externalities. Through
observational learning (Bandura, 1986) some will decide to buy or avoid your product
based on other people‘s experience. Others will feel the pressure of what psychologists
call social proof (Cialdini, 1984), and buy as a growing percentage of their friends do.
Still others, based on the theory of emotional contagion (Hatfield, 1994), will get
caught up in emotion, and buy on the strength of a friend‘s recommendation.
Sports and entertainment venues managers can enhance the chances of the marketing message catching fire by promoting to the driest tinder and its natural affiliation
networks and by enhancing each customer‘s connectivity just after they buy. Below
are several specific tactics in-house marketing teams should consider when trying to
fan the flames (P.C. Rothschild, G.Stielstra, S. Wysong, 2009):
1. Start with the driest tinder. They are an affiliation network of ideal size and
susceptibility. By promoting to people most likely to buy your ticket just as they are
gathering with like-minded friends, you make it possible to dominate a group and
create the conditions for an information cascade.
2. Increase their connectivity - after they buy. Ideas grow and develop in social
communities. If your customers or prospects don‘t gather naturally, look for ways to
help them. By building communities where customers and prospects can gather, you
create new affiliation networks through which influence can propagate. Can your
venue take a proactive approach and offer small spaces for friends to gather at no
charge to discuss books, plays, or other interests?
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3. Extend their Reach. People influence those they can touch. Left alone they
will tell their neighbours and close friends. But, if you give them the tools they will
tell distant relatives and long lost high school buddies. Email is great, but there are
other ideas too. Perhaps a postage-paid. You Gotta See this Show postcard would be
a cost effective way to fan the flames of a multiple day performance. Sending an
increasingly affordable DVD sampler to an affinity group made up of arts patrons
may provide more than just a bit of programming for their next gathering.
4. Divide and conquer. Information spreads best through smaller groups. If the
driest tinder for your events gathers in large groups, how can you organise them into
smaller clusters through which information is more likely to spread? Building on the
driest tinder‘s passions, can you organise small VIP meet and greets with the talent,
or tour management. Behind the scenes tours may be popular to those interested in
the business and production side of entertainment.
5. May I Have Your Attention? People buy products after watching other people
enjoy using them. How can you get people to talk about your event or venue in
public? One application may be to post video clips of patrons enjoying an event, or
giving testimonials about your venue.
6. Help them to belong. Do your customers just buy tickets, or do they feel a
part of something bigger. Can a small portion of a season ticket package go to help a
charity? Perhaps, venue managers can also do a better job communicating just what
the add-on endowment fee goes toward. Or you could think about any other action
how to boost the feeling that those who bought tickets belong to some kind of special
group, and that they share something in common.
Step 4: Save the Coals.
In pyromarketing, saving the coals means keeping a record of the people that
respond to your marketing so you can identify, understand, engage and mobilise
them for years to come. If you know and understand your customers; who they are,
where they live, and what they love, then you can quickly and affordably engage them
with relevant messages about new products. Most importantly, a record of your
customers allows you to build relationships and begin transforming ticket buyers
into loyal customer evangelists, who are eager to promote your event to the people
along their social network.
While saving the coals is the final step in the pyromarketing process, in some
ways it is also the first. By keeping a record of your customers and prospects, their
preferences, behaviour, and purchase related data; you enable the other three steps in
the process. This is what makes pyromarketing a repeatable, growth-oriented, marketing
strategy. A database helps you quickly identify the driest tinder for a new ticketed
event, and contact them to provide a personal experience or to encourage word-ofmouth.
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Unlike pyromarketing, mass marketing often keeps no record of its customers
and instead uses large, expensive advertising campaigns to find buyers for each new
offering. It lures consumers from the masses with promotions, but lets them slip
anonymously back into the crowd after they buy. Without a record of its customers, companies that use mass marketing are forever starting over because they must
spend each new advertising budget to find many of the same people who bought the
last time. Expensive and inefficient, mass marketing uses new matches (money) to
re-build the same fire. What follows are several questions, along with implications,
every venue manager should ask when considering a strategy for saving the coals.
Only as a manufacturer may have two sets of customers – the retailer who sells
their product and the end user of the product - so is the case with sports and
entertainment venues. Venues may rent space to a promoter, but they also serve the
ticket holder - the end user. While it is critical to maintain relationships with renters
of the facility, it is exceedingly important to understand the needs and behaviour of
the end user. There might be a tendency among venue managers to assume the promoter, or ticketing partner, - owns the relationship with the customer. Stielstra (2005)
identifies the positive outcomes of building relationships with customers through the
use of a database, and further points out that no one - owns the relationship with
the customer, except perhaps the customer. Smart venue managers create a win-win
with their promoters and ticketing partners by sharing data when they can. By keeping a record of how this collaboration improves sales each year, venue managers can
convince the more reluctant ticketing partners, promoters, and even artist, to share
customer data.
Building a database enables in-house marketing departments to know, understand,
engage and mobilise consumers. The information collected should facilitate
those goals. Every new promotion is an opportunity to meet new consumers,
learn more about them and store the results.
There are really only two types of information you can know about a consumer:
Who they are (demographics) and what they do (behaviour) (Hughes, 2000). Basic
demographic information can help you better know your customer. This can involve
recording information you typically associate with consumer databases, things like:
Gender, date of birth, education, income financial situation, home ownership, and
whether they have children. Collecting contact information and other data that will
improve the service you are able to provide is also appropriate. You must also have
permission to contact them and know how they want to be reached. Ask your consumers how they want to hear from you and how often. It is important to recognise
customers will reveal information over time. The amount of information requested
and collected should be in line with the level of trust developed between the venue
and the patron.
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The best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour and so understanding
your consumers requires knowing what they do. What organisations or clubs have
they joined? To which organisations do they donate money or time? Think of those
activities that betray passions or interests related to your events or service and record
them.
• Some information is especially helpful to the pyromarketing process and is
important to capture and record. Knowing how you acquired a customer,
for example, can suggest something about their value.
• Did they respond to your advertising, to a personal experience, or were they
referred by someone?
• Did they require the influence of all three before deciding to buy?
• Does it cost more to market to certain people than you earn when they finally
buy?
• Are some customers far more profitable than others?
• ...
Knowing the answer will help to identify each customer‘s ignition temperature
as it relates to the ticket they bought and understand how to interact with that
customer in the future. It is also useful to learn and record a customer‘s recommendation
behaviour:
• Do they recommend?
• How actively?
• What kind of customers do they bring you?
• ...
By keeping track you can identify customer evangelists and equip them for
effectiveness. Remember, a customer‘s value is not measured by their purchase
behaviour alone, but also by the new sales and customers they prompt through their
recommendations. You may find that some customers personally buy very little, but
are indirectly responsible for considerable revenues and profits thanks to their vigorous
referrals and recommendations. Think of these people as an extension of your sales
department. You measure your sales people according to how many sales they generate,
not by how much they personally buy. Measure the value of certain customers the
same way. By knowing which customers buy for themselves and which recommend
to others, you can devise appropriate strategies. You may touch one group with the
match to encourage additional purchases while fanning the flames with the other
group by equipping them with tools that help them recommend.
Now that customer data has been collected, look for ways to connect your customers
to each other by creating vibrant customer communities. Create affinity groups – like
season ticket holder groups - or online customer support centres, where your customers
can help each other. Allow your customers to post their profile and connect with other
customers. Create a special website for fans. Create an email discussion group. This
list is endless, but the point is this: do not let your best customers exist in vacuum. It
is one of the great benefits of „saving the coals“.
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Questions and Tasks
Questions:
1. Why mass marketing does not work anymore? Is it really true or maybe there
are some exceptions?
2. What is pyromarketing? Name all four steps of pyromarketing and explain
them.
3. How should pyromarketing be planned? Explain what would you do if you
were asked to develop a pyromarketing tactics to a particular company or a product?
Tasks:
1. Select any company you like and pick any of its products or services. Your
task is to prepare as effective as possible tactics of pyromarketing. Think about the
company and its target market and answer:
• Who might be “the driest tinder”?
• What action you should do to “touch them with a match”?
• What should you do to “fan the flames”?
• What is your “coal” and what would you do to “save the coals”?
2. Find information what marketing decisions were made and actions taken
to advertise the movie “The Passion of the Christ”. Explain how pyromarketing was
adopted in this particular case.
1. Stielstra, G. (2005). PyroMarketing: The Four-Step Strategy to Ignite Customer
Evangelists and Keep Them for Life. Harper Business
2. Rothschild P.C., Stielstra G., Wysong S. (2009). The PyroMarketing Model:
What Venue Managers Can Do to Create Customer Evangelists. Journal of Venue
Event Management. Vol. 1, No.1
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4. Methods for Guerrilla Marketing
4.1. Idea Generation Methods
4.1.1. Preparation
Guerrilla marketing requires high creativity and original thinking. Some people
have no trouble thinking differently and creatively, but most of us find it difficult
to escape established patterns of thought. Ideas come from all kinds of places –
sometimes they just appear, sometimes we borrow or steal them, and sometimes we
purchase or procure them. However if you are stuck on a problem or a particular
challenge in marketing, there are plenty of tools that could help you to exercise your
mind in a different direction.
Figure 21. Source of guerrilla marketing ideas
Source: Open Workshop, 2013
Recognise a great idea is one of the main problems, actually. The real probability
is that many people fail to spot a great idea on its first outing into the world. Most
people might dismiss it as ludicrous, impractical and possibly even dangerous. This
is because by their very nature, really powerful, transformative ideas are challenging
and have far - reaching implications.
During the process of generating early ideas, it is necessary to suspend criticism
and judgement. To get to a great idea first you need to generate lots of ideas and
entertain them for a while – especially those that seem implausible and completely
out of step with practical realities.
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During this stage of your innovation process you should focus on encouraging
openness and the exploration of possibilities, with the intention of generating a long
list of potential ideas that could be explored and developed further. You should aim
to create time and space where:
• free thinking is encouraged and no idea is considered as bad;
• a range of different people can contribute;
• criticism and judgements are deliberately held back.
Figure 22. Main conditions for ideas generation
Source: Open Workshop, 2013
You do not need to run a workshop to come up with ideas, but there are real
benefits to setting aside some dedicated time for thinking creatively with others.
Many people struggle to stretch their imaginations in familiar workplace settings
and among our normal routines; which is why innovative organisations often set
aside decent chunks of time – even whole days or sets of days – specifically for idea
generation. They know that people need space to generate good ideas and have found
that running away days and residential camps can be the most effective and efficient
way to support creative thinking.
First, do not concern yourself with thinking outside the box. As D. Heck (2009)
says: “forget the box altogether“. Because by trying to come up with ways to think
outside the box, you naturally start to align yourself with thought patters similar to
other businesses trying to think differently.
The point is, you are all creative beings and hold an infinite amount of potential
— you simply need to take a few minutes to relax and tap into your inner thoughts.
You will be surprised at what you allow your brain to come up with when you give
it a chance to plug into the subconscious and recall your past experiences and pair it
with your expansive knowledge base.
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After you’ve given yourself some time to meditate and think deeply on how to
make your business stand out, grab a pen and paper (or keyboard) and just start
writing down all the different ideas that pop out in your mind.
The key here is to allow for a stream of consciousness. As soon as you begin to
question the legitimacy or plausibility of the ideas you come up with, you’re going
to start suffocating the creative process - similar to waving your finger at your brain
and punishing it for expressing itself. This is one of the leading reasons businesses
have so much trouble being different, they don’t allow themselves creative license.
Open yourself up and you’re going to love what you come up with. And you’ll be
able to multiply your mental results by getting your team together and brainstorming
together. If you’re truly a small business and don’t have any employees or teammates,
then buy your friends a couple of beers and ask if they’ll come over and help you
brainstorm.
The big challenge of generating great ideas is freeing yourself from the
conventional, mundane thoughts that occupy most of your brain time. Here are seven
tips provided by K. Daum (2013) to help you open your mind and stimulate your
great idea generator.
1. Engage in Observation Sessions.
Great ideas will not happen in a vacuum. You need some way of getting your
brain to think in new and creative ways. Commit time to specific sessions where you
stimulate your brain into thinking differently. A simple walk through the city can
introduce you to exciting activity and behaviour that makes you think anew. Any
crowded urban area, mall or zoo can do the same.
2. Socialise Outside Your Normal Circles.
Hanging around with the same friends and colleagues can get you in a thinking
rut. Take advantage of all those LinkedIn connections and start some exciting
conversations. New people do not know all your thought patterns and old stories, so
you will have to revisit your existing inner monologues. The refreshing perspectives
will help to surface new thinking and possibly a lightning bolt or two.
3. Read More Books.
Books are wonderful for creating new thoughts and stimulating great ideas. Even
if you cannot make the time for a novel, go hunt down a bookstore and spend an hour
browsing. You will find plenty of thought stimulation. At least read some journals!
4. Randomly Surf the Web.
Google is great when you know what you are looking for, but the best way to generate new ideas is with unexpected learning. Take an hour each week and go on a web
journey. Start with the I’m Feeling Lucky button and just take it from there. Try to pick
the stranger and more obscure references as you surf and stretch your brain a bit.
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5. Keep a Regular Journal.
A journal is great for recording thoughts, feelings and the history of your life.
It also is a great way to structure and develop ideation habits. If you do not keep a
journal, start today. If you already do, simply add the practice of finishing every entry
with: “Here is my new idea for the day ...“
6. Meditate.
It is hard to come up with great ideas when your mind is crowded with everyday
thoughts and concerns. You need quiet space. Meditation will help you clear your
mind of daily business and stress. Then you can quietly focus on your future - or
solving world issues. Commit to two hour-long sessions every week and soon you’ll
find new ideas flowing.
7. Use Structured Exercises.
Structure breeds creativity. Simple exercises can get your brain working in a
focused manner to yield great ideas. One of such is offered by Dr. Blaine McCormick.
With a partner, take ten minutes (timed) to come up with 42 ideas on a specific topic
or problem. You may only think of 30 or 35 but no matter. You’ll find that there are at
least two or three gems in the list.
There are many different ways to run a successful meeting, workshop or event to
generate ideas - there is no one size that fits all. Before you think about which
methods, tools and approaches could work for you, look at the work you have done
so far and be clear on your context and purpose. Consider the following questions:
• What do you already know about your challenge or opportunity? Think
about a succinct and exciting way you could share this with the group, so
that they can share your understanding of the issues and your passion for
change.
• Who do you need to work with to come up with good ideas? Look to involve
an interesting mix of people with different perspectives on the issues.
• What is your objective for the workshop? Define a clear goal for your colleagues
to work towards. For example, you need to find cost effective ways to inform
at least 10.000 potential clients about your new service.
• What are your plans for idea development? Plan how you will develop ideas
beyond the workshop and make this clear to colleagues on the day. They will
want to understand how their ideas might be taken forward and what role
they could play.
• Above all, think about how you can support and inspire others to raise their
level of ambition and set their sights high. It is not often asked to leave received
assumptions and all practical constraints aside and come up with ideas for
how the world could be different. But that is exactly what you are expecting
your colleagues to do.
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There are many structured creativity tools and methods that aim to help think
differently by doing three things in sequence (P. Plsek, 1997):
1. Closely examine a particular issue, noting down all the rules and assumptions
that underpin a system and a practice.
2. Deliberately cast aside these constraints and imagine anything is possible.
3 . Actively think about the different ways that you could do things.
It can be startling to recognise the extent to which we are constrained by barriers
that exist in our own heads. We like to think that the forces that limit us are external,
but we are mostly prisoners to the rules we impose on our own thinking, and habits
of mind that we are only faintly aware of. Constraints exist everywhere around us,
but creativity is best served by pretending – for a short time at least – that they do
not exist.
Try such exercise at the beginning of your idea generation workshop. Ask each
person to spend two minutes listing all the uses for paper clips that they can
possibly imagine. Most people return with around seven things on their list, such as
jewellery, toothpicks, and fish hooks – items that have not messed too much with the
paper clip’s original form. Sometimes people create substantially longer lists. They
have imagined a vat of thousands of paper clips, melted down and re-formed into
new objects. They have combined paperclips with other objects to create new tools.
Nobody told them they could not, but most of us just assume that such liberties are
against the rules.
All of these methods to open your mind require a commitment of time and
energy, but that is the key to great ideas. You need to give your brain the time and
space to work for you. If you try each of these methods, you are bound to come up
with a great idea or two. Make sure you record them and set a plan of accountability.
The execution is up to you.
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Questions and Tasks
Questions:
1. What actions you should take on regular basis to develop your mind for guerrilla
marketing idea generation?
2. How should you prepare for guerrilla marketing idea generation session?
3. What questions you should answer before choosing method for your idea generation
workshop or session?
1. Daum, K (2013). 7 Ways to Generate Great Ideas. www.inc.com/kevin-daum/7-waysto-generate-great-ideas.html
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4.1.2 Brainstorming
Brainstorming is probably the best known creative tool. It can thus be used in
most groups, although you will probably have to remind them of the rules. It is best
done using an independent facilitator who manages the process (so the group can
focus on the creative task). Typically it takes around 30 - 60 minutes. Brainstorming
can be shorter or longer, depending on the difficulty of the problem and the
motivation of the group.
Brainstorming works when people use each other’s ideas to trigger their own
thinking. People‘s minds are highly associative, and one thought easily triggers
another. If you‘ll use the thoughts of others, then these will stop you getting trapped
by your own thinking structures. Giving out half – thought - out ideas or strange
suggestions is normally socially frowned on and leads to people holding back
in normal situations. Brainstorming deliberately gives the permission to be “stupid“
and “child – like“.
There are four main stages of brainstorming.
1. Prepare the group. Although brainstorming is one of the oldest and
most recognised creative tools, although surprisingly few people know original four
rules.
2. Define the problem. Describe the problem for which ideas are wanted and
ensure everyone understands it. It is very easy for people to head off in the wrong
direction. A good way of doing this is to write it down on a flipchart page and tape
it to the wall.
3. Generate ideas. Ideas are now created and collected. This is usually done by
people calling them out and the facilitator or scribe writing them down on a
flipchart. This person should ideally be someone who can write both legibly and fast,
as they need to keep up with the torrent of ideas. It is useful for all ideas to remain
visible to help trigger further ideas, so when the flipchart page is full, rip it off and
tape it to the wall where everyone can see them.
4. Reduce ideas. Sometimes this is best done another time, another day or even
by another group. Usually, however, it is done immediately after the idea creation
session. There are a number of ways of reducing ideas such as everyone voting for
favourites or just discussing and seeing what comes to the surface.
All people should remember and follow the four rules of brainstorming. The
facilitator should step in if any of these are broken.
• No criticism or debate, which can inhibit people from giving ideas.
• Quantity over quality - it has also been shown that the best ideas arrive
unpredictably spread out over time.
• Freewheel, which means using one idea as a stimulus for the next, it also
encourages people to think about each other’s ideas.
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• Mutate and combine, where “mutate“ means to deliberately distort and
modify existing ideas and “combine“ means to deliberately try to build new
ideas from combinations of existing ones.
Wild ideas are just fine in most brainstorming sessions. They keep things
moving, stimulate deeper thinking and can lead to other ideas that may just work.
When facilitating brainstorming, ensure that everyone follows the rules - it is very
easy to get bound up in your own ideas - and also that all people can contribute.
Watch the quiet ones in the corner - they often are the people who come up with
really good thoughts that, if others hear, can lead to even better ideas.
When ideas start to wane, you can take a break and start again or move to
reducing the list to those which will be taken forward.
4.1.3. Method of Challenge
One way in which you could deal with the complexity of the world is to make
assumptions about many things. A pattern - matching ability is a great help in
allowing us to take short - cuts but it often ends up in people not noticing many
things. If you do not deliberate and take conscious action, your subconscious will let
many assumptions pass by unnoticed. Use this method:
• to force yourself or other people out of a thinking rut;
• to test out ideas for validity;
• to challenge the problem or situation you are considering when initially
defining the problem.
Select all or part of the problem domain that you are going to challenge. Perhaps
it is something that has been particularly difficult to be creative around. Challenge it
in some way - find something to challenge and question it deeply. You can challenge
many things, including:
• concepts - and broad ideas,
• assumptions - and beliefs that are not questioned,
• compromises - that you assume must happen,
• boundaries - across which you do not yet cross,
• operations - and processes whereby things get done,
• “impossible“ - things that are assumed cannot happen,
• “cannot be done“ - things that are assumed cannot be done,
• “essentials“ - things that you assume cannot be disposed of,
• either - or thinking - replacing with “and“ thinking,
• sacred cows - that cannot be challenged,
• patterns - of behaviour, visuality, etc.,
• functions - the way things work,
• paradigms - that guide thinking (and not thinking),
• dominant ideas - that guide thinking,
• polarising tendencies - that push people to extremes.
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Let us say we want to introduce a new product into the local market – energy
candies. These have not only the same taste as energy drinks, but as well there are
taurine, caffeine and B group vitamins. Therefore there is an energy boost feeling
once enjoying these candies (5 candies give more or less the same effect as 250
ml. tin of energy drink). How to inform market about such product? What the
main message should be?
• Challenging concepts: energy drink does not have to be liquid anymore!
• Challenging boundaries: you can have energy boost at your hand at any
time (in the bag, in your car and etc.)
• Challenging either-or: giveaway some candies for people to tell their
friends about energy effect of these candies
4.1.4 How – How Diagram
“How – How“ diagram is best used when you are seeking to create a practical
solution to a problem or explore the details for a plan. The “How – How“ diagram
works by repeatedly asking the same question of a problem, breaking down the
solution into more and more explicit elements. At each stage, there can be multiple
answers to the “how“ questions, which results in a hierarchical tree - structure.
Making this tree visible gives several advantages:
• it allows a group of people to share the mental model of the situation and
hence work more harmoniously on it;
• it allows re-examination of parts of the analysis, so you can change, remove
or add to it at any time. This supports the non-linear way in which we tend
to think;
• it allows you to consciously not to follow some paths, digging only into the
most likely areas.
The “How-How“ diagram uses cards that can be post-it notes, index cards
or boxes on a computer application such as PowerPoint. When working with a
group, you will need wall area on which to stick up notes with a large sheet of
paper or a whiteboard on which to draw.
1. State your problem clearly and write it on one card. Make sure that the
problem is written as a “need“, so the “how“ question will work. Put the card in
the middle of the left of the work area. When working with a group of people,
make sure they all are very clear about the meaning.
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2. Ask “how can this be done?“ Asking this question should result in several
possible solutions, which you can write on cards (one per card) and stick up to the
right of the problem card. Note that there can be boolean relationships between these
- that is, some may be alternatives and some may need to happen as well as other
solution cards. Show these either by using different colours of cards or by writing
“and“ or “or“ as in the example below. You can draw in connecting lines at this stage,
but if you need to shift the cards to make space, then these will be out of place. It is
often better to leave line-drawing until later.
3. Repeat and conclude. Repeat the process of asking “how“ for each card,
building up a hierarchy as in example given below.
Ask „how“ at each stage
Clear
responsibility
Find owner in
management
In staff
meeting
Allocate
responsibility
Increase
service
frequency
Get service
contract
Identifying
service‘s CEO
In telephone
directory
Get quotes
Purchase
best quote
External
training
OR
In-house
maintenance
Identifying
engineer
Identifying
engineer
Training
engineer
OR
Learning from
manuals
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4.1.4 The Kipling Method
Rudyard Kipling used a set of questions to help trigger ideas and solve problems
and immortalised them in the poem:
I have six honest serving men
They taught me all I knew
I call them What and Where and When
And How and Why and Who
These questions can be used as stimulation for thinking various situations. You
can use the Kipling questions at any time or when you need to get an extra stimulus.
They are good for unsticking creative session, when people dry up and run out of
ideas. They are also useful to help seeing different views when defining the problem.
You can also use it to ask questions when selecting an idea to carry forward for
further development.
Once you have a need of original communication to your potential customers,
try this method by asking such questions as:
• What message should people get?
• Where should they get it?
• When should they get it?
• How this message should be delivered?
• Why this should work?
• Who will deliver this message?
The simple approach is to take one of the questions, either at random or with a
more particular purpose in mind and ask it of the situation. You can also extend the
use of the raw single-word questions into question phrases, for example:
• How much?
• Why not?
• What time?
• Which place?
• Who can?
• Where else?
• When we will...?
Any questions should work because you are conditioned to answer these
questions. They challenge people and social rules say it is impolite not to reply. The
Kipling questions work because they are short and direct. They are also largely
general, and “What“ can be applied to many different situations, making them a
flexible resource.
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4.1.5 Six Thinking Hats
Many people have preferred thinking and communication styles and feel
uncomfortable working outside this style. They also may feel that by using a different
a different style that they will be judged as inconsistent by other people and socially
punished. As a result, they will avoid using those styles that they do not feel others
will accept.
Hats are useful metaphor: they go on your head (where you think), and to some
extent act as a disguise. By publicly discussing and agreeing to use the hats,
these different thinking styles are not only legitimised but also actively encouraged.
Particularly when others start using them, the more timid people will also feel
empowered to “step outside the box“.
Just by discussing the hats, even people who are less inhibited can also get the
idea of deliberately thinking in a broader fashion. They can try on the hats to take
different views on the situation.
“Six thinking hats“ method for idea generation is a great tool if using it:
• in teams where you want to use different types of thinking;
• where individuals would feel inhibited by taking these roles without prior
legitimisation;
• to encourage further use of a range of thinking processes;
• to explore ideas when selecting which to take forward;
• to explore how other people will react when you try to implement your
idea.
Willing to use this method, you should first explain to the team the meaning of
the hats below (table 2). If people are not used to them, a sheet of paper each with
the colours and explanations clearly displayed on them. It can be a good idea to have
a little bit of practice first, to help people get used to the idea and how to use them.
Table 2. Using six thinking hats
Hat
Headline
White
Information
Asking for information from others.
Usage
Black
Judgement
Playing devil’s advocate. Explaining why something won’t work.
Green
Creativity
Offering possibilities, ideas.
Red
Intuition
Explaining hunches, feelings, gut senses.
Yellow
Optimism
Being positive, enthusiastic, and supportive.
Blue
Thinking
Using rationalism, logic, intellect.
Source: according to www.mindtools.com
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In conversation, people now precede a comment that is using one of the six
thinking styles by mentioning the hat, or even the colour. For example, you could
say, “With the White Hat on, I’d like to ask if anyone else knows about this“ (and in
doing so, be forgiven for not being totally expert in all things).
If you are the leader or facilitator, add to the legitimisation by using the hats
yourself. Model behaviour for others by regularly using all hats. Don’t over-do it by
using them in every sentence, but do model early and at regular intervals, especially
if people are missing viewpoints or are not using the hats well enough.
Some people even use a set of fold - up flags. When you are using a given style,
you fold up the flag that denotes the style, thus giving other people a continuing
signal as to the thinking you are using.
4.1.6 Storyboarding
People understand much through stories and it is a key medium for communication.
When people converse, they tell each other stories of their lives. Stories are thus
natural media by which anyone can explain something to another. Stories are also
great for learning, as we naturally follow along the path they lay down to the ideas
and conclusions that the author has crafted. When people watch or listen to the story
of another person, they put themselves in other shoes, feeling and experiencing as
they do. Stories are great for hooking people in and generating emotional responses.
Thinking about this method in guerrilla marketing, it could be very useful in
few ways:
• when defining a problematic situation which has to be solved;
• to explore the dynamics of a solution, making sure it is simple and effective;
• to communicate a story – a key message to potential customers;
• to plan implementation of communication strategy.
First consider what you wish to explore or explain. Many situations or ideas can
be brought to life by showing what happens over time, illustrating the very real stories
in which they do or may exist. Explore the dynamics of the situation. Talk to people
to understand their lives. Draw out their stories. If you are developing ideas, you
may then seek to overlay these onto the lives you are plotting, to see where they go.
Consider how your idea shapes and guides the story, dramatically or subtly changing
what would otherwise be.
Find a coherent storyline, with actors and a complete plot. Good stories build
tension and include unexpected surprises. They evoke emotions. They show struggle
and learning. And they end by resolving the tensions and leaving the reader satisfied.
Think about the visual pictures you can create to make your story leap off the
page. What are the key turning points in the story? What are the main things that
happen? What are the main messages? Your pictures doesn‘t have to be professional.
Stick figures work very well in storyboards. You can also use computer clipart or
good old cut’n’paste from magazines.
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You may include people but sometimes people are not a part of the story. You
are the storyteller and are in complete charge. They only constraint is what you want
other people to think and feel when you display your story.
Storyboards can be very short - as little as three pictures. They can also go on
for several pages. Again, the only constraint is your imagination and the interest of
the reader. Storyboards may also be told with text and diagrams. If you are showing
improvements in a business system, a simple before and after process diagram plus
performance charts can tell a very powerful story.
4.1.7 Assumption - Busting
We make an enormous number of assumptions about how the world around
us works. Normally, this works just fine, but in creative situations it can blind us to
many possibilities. Assumption - busting works by deliberately seeking out and
addressing these previously unquestioned assumptions. Assumption - busting can
be used in most creative situations. It is particularly effective when you are stuck in
current thinking paradigms or have run out of ideas. It is thus good for re - booting
your idea generation session if it is stuck.
1. List assumptions. Look at the situation you are in with a close eye. What are
the assumptions you are making about it? What seems so obvious that you would not
normally think about challenging it? List out the assumptions. Once you get going,
you will find you cannot stop. And when you do, find the assumptions that are
stopping you and challenge these. Typical assumptions include:
• that it is possible to do something within constraints such as time and cost;
• that something works because of certain rules or conditions;
• that people believe, think or need certain things.
For example I might assume that deliveries take a minimum of three days and
that this is no problem for my customers. Remember that everything is a belief. If you
cannot find assumptions then you are assuming that they do not exist.
2. Challenge assumptions. Change your assumptive base. Assume that all
assumptions can be challenged and overcome. Start asking about each assumption:
• how could this be not true?
• what if we could do this twice as well in in half the time?
Of course you will get assumptions about the challenge, so keep responding with
new challenges to these assumptions too.
3. Find ways of making the challenge reality. This is, of course, just another
assumptive challenge. It is easy in a creative session to play games of challenging
assumptions. The real challenge it to make it happen in reality. So just use the same
principle again.
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Situation: We cannot sell this new software over the internet.
• Assumption: We do not have the e-shop.
Busting: We can learn how to create it. We can buy it.
• Assumption: Buying it in would be expensive, learning would take too much time
Busting: You don’t know until you try. Let‘s check freelancer‘s prices.
• Assumption: Even if freelancer creates e-shop, we won‘t have money for advertising.
• Busting: There is such thing as affiliate marketing, we could give even up to
50% from each sale to anyone who brings a client to our e-shop.
• Assumption: It won’t work – nobody will be interested.
Busting: We have a great Software, so there will be people interested in it. Let‘s
check affiliate networks and their standard conditions.
Before such discussion people had no idea how it could be possible to sell their
software on internet having such low budget. Finally they came up to two tasks
which might help them to start selling their software online:
1. check how much it would cost to hire a freelancer for e-shop programming
2. check what size of commissions are paid to affiliates and what other conditions are
Maybe it‘s not yet a brilliant guerrilla marketing idea, but it shows that it is not
necessary to invest huge money for starting online trade.
4.1.8 PSI Method
PSI stands for “Problem + Stimulus = Ideas“. This method is based on the
principle of forced association, which gets your brain out a rut by bringing together
things that have not previously been combined. In its flight from the discomfort of
this, the subconscious brain will give you whatever you want, including useful ideas.
PSI is a simple approach that can be used in several ways:
• as a simple thinking tool, it can trigger an effective thinking process;
• as a framework for a whole approach, it can accommodate a number of
methods of stimulating ideas;
• it is a good tool to use when you are stuck, as it gives a logical structure;
• as a quick tool it sets a direction - more serious use requires effort to define
the problem and experiment with stimulus.
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Define the Problem. The first step is thus to clarify the problem that you are seeking to solve. If you are not clear on the problem, you will have difficulty in finding a
good solution! Some thoughts for this:
1. Try writing it down in several ways.
2. Say the same thing in different words.
3. Describe it from different viewpoints.
4. Think backwards: what is “not success“.
For example if you want to introduce a new product to the market (let us take
for example energy candies which not only taste as an energy drink, but burst energy
as well), you could define problem in very different ways like:
1. Unknown brand
2. Unknown product features
3. Lack of trust in product
4. Customers are used to buy other products.
6. The price will be higher than market average.
Find a Stimulus. It is amazing the number of stimulus you can find around you.
Almost anything will do, although something evocative is better, as it will trigger
more ideas. The bottom line with stimulus is that if they work, then fine, but if they
do not work or run out, then there are plenty more lying around.
Therefore if you have to introduce a new product to the market and you see
that the main problem is unknown product features, you could come up with such
stimulus like:
1. Do not put into your moth what you do not know.
2. Many different candies in supermarket.
3. Interesting news on TV.
4. Blue paper (candies are packed in such paper).
Bang them together. In other words, you bang the problem and the stimulus
together and see what ideas this creates. It sound simple, and is. But that does not
mean it is not effective. As in much creativity, it’s the simple things that work best.
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Looking for guerrilla marketing ideas we should think about problem by attaching
each stimulus to it. At least one idea should come out from such interaction.
Unknown product features + “don’t put into your moth what you don’t know”
= give free samples with flyers attached
Unknown product features + “many different candies in supermarket”
= put poster in the shop
= put stickers on each package of candies explaining main feature
Unknown product features + “interesting news on TV”
= sponsor a TV show
= give candies to student event which might become a topic of news
= fiction story, how marathon runner was disqualified for using energy candies
Unknown product features + “blue paper (candies are packed in such paper)”
= use blue colour in every advertising
= blue is energy drink colour, so keep the same style
= put candies close to energy drinks in shops
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Questions and Tasks
Questions:
1. What idea generation methods you know?
2. Explain how the method of “Six thinking hats” works?
3. How does PSI method works?
4. How does the Kipling method works?
5. How does “Assumption - Busting” method works?
Tasks:
1. Select the most suitable method for idea generation. You should perform the
idea generation session in group of 2 – 5 people on such topics:
• one of ice-cream companies want to introduce a new product to Lithuanian
market – what new ice-cream it would be?
• one of ice –cream companies has decided to strengthen their export to
Scandinavian countries and has prepared special multi–pack (8 and 12 portions) ice –creams; what could be done to increase sales of such ice-cream
in Sweden and Norway?
• Ice-cream producer will support a national song contest by providing
ice- creams for participants and people who will come to see the show;
therefore organisers allow to take some marketing actions and use this
chance (the contest will be shown on TV); what could you do to use this
chance of free advertising on TV?
1. Open Workshop. (2013). Creative thinking tools and techniques. https://
openworkshop.nesta.org.uk
3. Daum, K (2013). 7 Ways to Generate Great Ideas.Prieeiga: http://www.inc.
com/kevin-daum/7-ways-to-generate-great-ideas.html
4. Wilson, C. (2012). Guerrilla Marketing Simple Idea: Business Cards. http://
freshpeel.com/2012/06/guerrilla-marketing-simple-idea-business-cards/
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4.2. Copywriting in Guerrilla Style
4.2.1. Copywriting Techniques
First of all let us see why copywriting is important but it is not the only one important. Actually, there are three keys to the success of any direct marketing campaign:
1. the list (or the traffic),
2. the offer (or the deal),
3. the copy (or the text).
Before you can build your marketing system, you first need to figure out what
your message will be. After all, the sole purpose of marketing is to get your message
in front of qualified prospects and give them an incentive to contact you. Therefore,
the content of your message is of supreme importance. No matter how well your
marketing system is planned and executed, if the message isn’t effective, you won’t
get results.
The key is to create a message that pushes a decision maker’s buttons. This means
thinking like a business owner, not like a salesperson. We tend to think of the outward
features and advantages of our products or services. A business owner is concerned
only about how it will achieve one of the three business goals: increase revenues,
decrease expenses, or increase efficiency and profitability. Thus, what you need to do
first is figure out and understand how whatever it is you are offering can accomplish
one or more of these business goals.
A good sales letter will prepare the reader for the price, and then give it in a soft,
convincing way. That is why you need a sales letter. It does the persuading. A “no
sales letter” site means no sales. The point here is this: text is important, but it’s not
the most important element of your results matrix. You need a terrific offer and a list
or traffic that wants that offer. Writing text after that should be an easy task.
As you probably already know, there are two ways to cause people to take action.
One is pain and the other is pleasure. These are known throughout history. They are
the two primary human activators. In short, you can get people to move with a board
smacked across their butt or a juicy carrot dangling in front of their face.
Most people in marketing and psychology agree that the first motivator (pain)
is more powerful than the second. But most guerrilla marketers prefer to be associated
with good things, pleasant experience rather than with pain. If you use pain in advertising, it is quite difficult to become something positive and pleasant in an unconscious
mind of a customer. That is the way how human brain works. If there is a problem
and you offer a solution for this problem, do not be misled that all customers accept
you as a hero, who solves the problem. The key point here is that, once your product
or service is reminded, customers will remember the problem. So you will stand side
by side with the problem, pain and some other negative aspects. And if you still are
not convinced about that, just answer the question: would you prefer that customers
buy your product because they have to solve a problem and to reduce the pain or they
buy because they want to get something good and great?
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Figure 23. Massage pen
Source: http://www.perpetualkid.com/massage-pen.aspx
Practical task
Basically, it is a regular pen – it writes and the tip of it also has a massaging
head on it. Press it against your skin and you get a massage. I know that is not much
to go on, but how would you write a paragraph to sell this pen? It is got the facts,
but it does not have any reason, or benefit, for you to care about the facts. Result: it
will not be interesting for potential customer.
Write an advertisement, e-mail, or brief text for e-shop listing to sell this
massage pen! Once you are done, check the text in the next page and compare it
with yours.
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IMAGINE you had a teensy-weensy masseuse to carry around in your shirt
pocket. Any time you desired, you could order your mini - masseuse to soothe your
tired muscles and rub away your tensions. Now imagine this tiny masseuse had a pen
sticking out of his head and ran on batteries.
Well, you are not likely to come across a miniature, pen-headed masseuse - but
here is the next best thing. Introducing the world’s first MASSAGING PEN!
People buy from people they like. When you allow your personality to come
through, people feel a sense of intimacy with you. They begin to trust you. And like
you. Rapport is built. And sales happen.
What it means is this: Forget trying to imitate any writer you admire. (Note:
Studying other writers is a wise way to learn how they wrote. I just do not want you
to become another writer.) Forget trying to please English teachers. Erase everything
you ever learned about “how to write”, if you want to write a guerrilla marketing text.
What people want is a new voice. They want to read words from a trusted new friend.
That can be you.
• From now on, you have permission to write in any way that feels right to
you.
• If your style is to use slang, then use slang.
• If you are from a different country, let that uniqueness come forth.
• If you like to tell funny stories, then tell them.
• Your style is your voice, and your voice will create an intimacy with your
reader that is profound.
Many great copywriters call a friend and tell them about the product or service
they want to sell. They record the call. They then play it back, listening for the ways
they described what they were selling.
One of the oldest copywrite strategies is probably 2.500 years old, and goes back
to Aristotle and the ancient Greeks. The great orators of that time spoke to persuade
people. Aristotle gave them a formula for doing just that:
3. Exordium - a shocking statement or story to get attention.
4. Narratio - you pose the problem the reader/listener is having.
5. Confirmatio - you offer a solution to the problem.
6. Peroratio - you state the benefits of action on the solution.
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This should look a little familiar to you. It is very similar to the classic advertising
formula known as AIDA: Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action.
H. Rank (1982) offered 5 steps method for copywriting more than 30 years ago
and yet it still remains effective and quite often used:
1. Step: Get attention.
2. Step: Build confidence
3. Step: Stimulate desire.
4. Step: Create urgency.
5. Step: Ask for the order.
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Most ads now are targeted
at specific audiences which
you can infer by when and
where the ads appear.
Thought? humour, news,
stories, questions, advice,
lists and displays, lead-ins,
demonstrations, claims &
promises, “breaking rules”
TV programs (& other
media) function as the
external attention getters
designed to “deliver the
audience” to the ads.
Emotions? associations
with sex, nature, fun, pets,
family (see AudienceCantered list, 24, in centre
column) >>>
Are they “authority figures”? (someone expert,
wise, caring, protective); or
are they “friend figures”?
(someone you would like,
or like
to be, on your side)
Do you know, like, or
trust the presenters? - the
actors, endorsers.
Are any nonverbals?
(smile, soothing voice,
friendly, sincere look)
Are any confidence words
used? (e.g. trust, safe,
honest).
Do you recognise (from
past repetition) the brand?
logo? the company?
Anything unusual? about:
Senses? (motion, music,
sounds, visuals, graphics)
2. What CONFIDENCE
BUILDING techniques
are used?
1. What ATTENTION
-GETTING techniques
are used within the ad?
24 common needs, desires often
suggested in ads: basic needs
(Food, Activity, Surroundings,
Sex, Health, Security, Economy);
certitude, or
approval needs (Religion,
Science, “Best People,” “Most
People,” “Average People”); space
or territory needs (Neighbourhood, Nation, Nature);
belonging needs (Intimacy,
Family, Groups); “growth” needs
(Esteem, Play, Generosity,
Curiosity, Creativity, Completion).
Is the ad audience-cantered?
(appealing to emotions, using
the association technique
to link
(1) the product with “good
things” (2) already liked, or desired by (3) the target audience?
If no urgency appeal, is this
“soft sell” part of a repetitive,
long-term ad campaign? (e.g.
of a standard product, famous
brand, or established store?)
Not all ads use urgency appeals, but always check for
them.
Any nonverbals? (e.g. ticking
clock, staccato sounds, quick
tempo in music, countdown).
If an urgency appeal, what
words are used? (e.g. Offer
Expires, Rush, Now, Deadline,
Last Chance, One Day Only)
What is the basic benefit
sought?
Protection, Relief, Prevention, or Acquisition,
Is the ad product-cantered?
(12 common claims: Quality,
Quantity, Efficiency, Scarcity,
Novelty, Stability, Reliability, Simplicity, Utility, Rapidity, Safety.)
4. What URGENCY
STRESSING
techniques are used?
3. What DESIRE
STIMULATING
Persuaders always seek some
kind of response!
Or, if the ad is not about a
consumer product, is it a “feel
good” -- an “image-building”
ad: public relations
to make us “feel good” about an
industry (e.g. defence contractors, energy, oil,
pharmaceuticals) or a specific
corporation to get favourable
public opinion on their side in
any controversial issues (e.g.
taxes, government regulations,
upcoming legislation)?
Most ads will use common verbs,
but. If no specific response
is sought, is it part of a “soft
sell” for a standard consumer
product? Or a store?
To buy? (buy, choose, select); To
take the 1st step? (Visit, Come
in, Ask your Doctor, Call us,
Click);
To use the product? (Drink,
Taste, Experience, Enjoy);
To get the benefit? (get, protect,
prevent, relieve)
Are there specific triggering
words used?
5. What RESPONSE SEEKING
Because of both of those formulas, most of my sales oriented writing follows
along the easy path of answering these questions:
1. Are you getting attention with your opening?
2. Are you stating a problem the reader cares about?
3. Are you offering a solution that really works?
4. Are you asking the reader to take action?
In short, and in a very simplified version, here is Aristotle’s formula in a modern
dress:
1. Problem
1. Promise
1. Proof
1. Price
Problem. That is the step one: Focusing on the problem. Begin your writing with
a headline that calls out the audience you want by focusing on their problem. For
example, if you sell something to cure, say heel spurs, than use a headline such as:
“Got heel spurs?“
Or say you are selling a weight-loss product of some sort. You might use such a
headline:
“Want to lose weight”
What you are doing is “rounding up” the people who will want to buy from you
by focusing on their problem or issue. Again, say you are a massage therapist with
you own site. Your headline at the top of your website might be…
“Stressed? Want to release your tension in 30 minutes or less?”
By now you should grasp what I am doing here. I am simply asking myself, “What
is the problem my visitors are having?” Whatever it is, I create a lead headline at the
top of my website that speaks to it.
Promise. You got their attention with step one. Now mention your promise.
Using the “heel spurs” headline from earlier, a follow-through might be…
“New herbs reduce or remove heel spurs in 30 days”
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And the second example from above, on losing weight, might read…
“New non-diet approach relies on your mind, not your food, to lose weight fast”
And the massage therapist example might read…
“My hands have eased 3,500 bodies just like yours. I can help you, too”
As you can probably gather, what you are doing in this second step is explaining
how you solve the problem mentioned in the first step. This will keep people reading. If you truly focused on their problem, you will be putting them into a “waking
trance”
Proof. We live in the age of scepticism. People are used to going to websites and
hearing wild claims or unsubstantiated claims. Their guard is up. Not only that, but
the FTC is watching you. They want proof, too, that you can deliver. So step three in
my formula is to focus on your proof, or your evidence. These can be in the form of a
guarantee, testimonials, or anything else you can think of to convince people you are
being honest with them. An example might be…
“Your heel spurs will disappear in 30 days or you can have all your money back”
“11,500 people healed of heel spurs so far”
“Research shows people lose an average of 33 pounds with this new plan”
“You will feel so relaxed from my massage that you will fall asleep on my table”
And so it goes. Again, what you are doing is proving your promise. This is where
you bring in your evidence that your promise will work.
Price. Finally, you need to ask for what you want. If you want people to sign up
for your newsletter, say so. If you want them to buy your product, say so. If you want
them to call you, say so. People want to be led. But they will not take an action unless
you spell it out for them, and tell them the price for doing so. Examples might be….
“If you don’t take care of those heel spurs today, where will you be tomorrow?”
“Order our special herbs right now for only 19.95 EUR”
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Questions and Tasks
Questions:
1. What is the formula of effective guerrilla text writing?
2. What are five main aspects of persuasion analysis?
3. How would you check your text is it effective?
Tasks:
1. To really achieve a powerful, targeted message, start thinking in terms of what
kind of headline might catch your prospects’ attention. This headline must be related
to the three chief goals of a business executive. Think of all the different ways your
product can increase revenues, decrease expenses, and increase efficiency/profitability
(take a look at Appendix 2, where you will find 150 emotion triggers – maybe you
could use any of them). Now start writing down a list of every possible headline you
can use to get a decision maker’s attention. Take your time.
2. Write a short but catchy text for your chosen product with this headline you
have already developed.
1. Vitale, J. (2007). Hypnotic Marketing. A Collection of the World’s Most
Successful Hypnpotic Marketing Techniques.
2. Rank, H. (1982). The Pitch. The Counter-Propaganda Press
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4.2.1. Flyer Text
One of the most important aspects of a simple, effective one-page flyer is the fact
that it must capture the prospect’s attention without looking like junk mail. It must
be very clean and simple, but at the same time it must pique the prospect’s interest in
achieving one of the three major business goals.
Headline is the most important element. The good news is that once you spend
time brainstorming, you will have lots of great headlines. As I mentioned, I recommend that you narrow your list down to the best ones and try using all of them. Over
time you will begin to see which ones are producing the best results and which ones
can be discarded. Remember, the key to an effective headline is that it must address
one of the three main business goals.
F. Rumbauskas (2006) provides an example from his practical experience.
The headline read, “Free Installation on All New Phone Systems This Month!”
Just to the left of the headline was a cartoon depicting a boardroom meeting with
one empty seat. The caption read, “If you don’t have a voice mail, someone isn’t
getting the message.” This text and cartoon headline addressed the major business
goals as such:
• The text “Free Installation on All New Phone Systems This Month!”
addressed the business goal of decreasing expenses.
• The cartoon addressed the business goal of increasing efficiency.
Think about ways you can supplement your set of headlines like I did with that
cartoon. There are dozens of web sites that can provide you with similar cartoons
or clip art at little or no cost, and that will substantially improve your flyer’s
effectiveness and response rates.
First Paragraph of Body Text. Here you want to include a few sentences
building on benefits announced in your headline. I prefer to keep it short and simple,
and to give it an easy – to -read look; nobody is going to read a paragraph that looks
long and tedious. Just a few sentences, at 14 or 16- point text on a standard letter sized
sheet of paper is ideal. Let us continue with the same example. On his phone system
flyer F. Rumbauskas (2006) had such opening body text:
We’re now offering free installation on all new telephone systems purchased before
the end of the month, including competitive lease rates! We also offer value - added
solutions such as voice mail and multi-site networking that can drastically improve
your productivity.
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This paragraph, like the headline, touches on the business goal of decreasing
expenses through free installation, and also revisits the increased efficiency theme
through its mention of value-added services that can improve productivity. It also
added slightly more detail than the headline by mentioning competitive lease rates
(which can decrease the prospect’s expenses) as well as another example of value-added
services in addition to voice mail (which can improve the prospect’s efficiency).
Remember, this paragraph must have a clean look that will compel prospects to read
it right away.
Bullet Points Describing Key Benefits. It is important to list two or three bullet
points detailing key points about the product that would be of interest to a prospect.
It helps to increase the potential audience. In other words, address common
objections that prospects might have.
Selling phone systems, the marketing manager had to make sure that smaller
businesses were not alienated by the fact that the offer was presented by a large
company that had very large clients. He also had to be sure to alleviate any potential
objections that might be raised as a result of headline or body text. Here are the
bullet points that were included in the first phone system flyer:
• Systems available from two phones to thousands.
• Flexible leasing options, even for brand-new companies.
• Installation can be rolled into your monthly payment.
As you can see, it was immediately eliminated the possibility that smaller
companies would not call for fear that they might be too small to work with the
big company. There were addressed concerns about financing that all start-up
companies have, and finally common concern about being hit with a whopping
installation bill despite the fact that the equipment itself may be leased was
addressed too.
Brief Closing Paragraph and “Call to Action”. This is where you motivate the
prospect to contact you. It simply consists of one or two closing sentences describing
what the prospect will miss out on by not calling you, followed with a call to action.
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“Don’t miss out on this limited-time free installation offer and our exclusive
rock-bottom lease rates. Call me right now or complete and fax the following form”
The first sentence reminds the prospect that the free installation offer is for
a limited time only, and reminds them again of the highly competitive financing
rates available only from that company. The next sentence tells them to either call
or to send in the fax-back form located on the bottom of the flyer.
Contact Information and Sen-Back Form. This one is self - explanatory; you
simply include your contact information as well as a fax-back or e-mail form. The
fax-back form is essential in countries where fax is still being used actively, in
otherwise it is better clearly to show the e-mail or the web address. In any case your
contact information should contain the essentials such as your cell number, e-mail
address, and web address.
Obviously, no flyer would be effective unless it gets in front of the people who
can act on it! Guerrilla marketers think about much more engaging flyer distribution
than just put them in mail box or, magazines or journals. Use idea management tools
to generate creative ideas how to distribute flyers of particular company, product or
service.
4.2.2. Website Text
Most website texts are written by people talking about themselves and begging
you to buy from them. In order for you to be different, you will need to write in the
way people think. You will need to create a different kind of story. When people read
your story, it takes place in their head. This is a powerful place for you to be. You are
in a person’s operating control panel. The more you cause them to think in terms of
mental images, the closer you get to causing them to take action at your website. In
short, stories are a potent tool.
You are intelligent enough to know the above formula will help you easily create
a short piece of very simple guerrilla writing. That might be fine for an advertisement.
Or even a postcard, telegram, or of course an email. But what about a fullscale website? How do you apply my 3-step hypnotic formula to create your own
hypnotically written website? The answer should seem obvious. It’s certainly simple.
All you do is expand on each of the three steps in my peace-loving formula. In other
words:
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1. Promise. Your headline can be short and sweet. But why not a secondary
headline under it? That works, too.
2. Proof. Your proof can be testimonials, a guarantee, scientific studies, quotes
from authors, a statistic, or anything else that helps convince people of your promise.
3. Price. Your call to action can be several reminders to buy now, as well as how
to buy, where to buy, and when to buy. You want people to act now, not tomorrow, so
your price might include bonuses for acting right this minute. “Order now and get 3
e-books for free.”
Example of promise text
How to play any song you love on the
guitar in one weekend flat!
Find out how to amaze your friends, your loved ones, and most of all,
YOURSELF by singing and playing SONGS YOU LOVE in as little as one
weekend--even if you have never touched a guitar before, are “tone deaf ”,
and suffer from a major stage fright!
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Example of proof text
I promise, after just one weekend with STRIPPED-DOWN GUITAR, you
will be inspired and thrilled with how satisfying the guitar can be! And once you
have gotten a taste of IMPRESSING your friends and family by performing
your favourite songs, you will be completely STOKED!
Playing guitar STRIPPED-DOWN style is CLEAR, CONCISE, and geared
to give you QUICK RESULTS that will keep you engaged and excited about your
developing skills.
In STRIPPED-DOWN GUITAR, I reveal secrets like:
• my one-weekend, step-by-step “stripped-down” method to start
playing the guitar
• the two guitar accessories a beginner cannot do without
• the best place to find the chords to your favourite songs on the Internet
• the most important secret to choosing your first song to learn
• finger by finger instructions for making the most common guitar chords
• the indispensable secret for actually getting your fingers to learn faster
• the number one thing you need to know about guitar tab sites that I
had to learn the VERY hard way
• the most important technique for freeing up space in your brain to
learn more quickly
• the little-known fact that can make a decent singer out of anyone and
the one secret that can have you singing any song better... instantly!
• the four indispensable techniques for overcoming stage fright
• how to deal with an unsympathetic audience member
... so you can capture the magic of being a musician, even if you never
dreamed you could!
Example of proof text
Click to order STRIPPED-DOWN GUITAR now!
Your satisfaction is assured through our no risk, you-cannot-lose, 100%, no
questions asked, iron-clad money-back guarantee. If for any reason, you are not
thrilled and satisfied with your purchase, just contact me directly within 30 days
and I will refund 100% of your purchase price.
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What I am saying is do not decide now if STRIPPED-DOWN GUITAR is
right for you.
Try it out for one full month - risk free.
If it does not help you overcome any stumbling blocks to learning to play
great songs on the guitar, if it does not guide you step by step through picking a song, learning it, and honing it for performance, if it does not take you
by the hand and teach you exactly how to get your fingers working and how
to get your voice out there even if you have been labelled “tone deaf ” or never
thought you could play – if it does not make progress on guitar easier than
you ever dreamed possible, and if it does not inspire you to keep on learning
and playing, then I do not want your money... and I will gladly give it all back.
You have nothing to lose!
So, how much is this tremendous experience going to cost you? Well, the
regular price for STRIPPED-DOWN GUITAR is $39.99. However, for a limited
time, we are running an introductory offer and you can have it at a discount for
only $19.99.
That is 50% off - but you must act now!
Plus, because you download the course, you can have this information immediately, and get started learning to play the guitar today! And...
It does not matter if it is 2 in the morning!
Click to order STRIPPED-DOWN GUITAR now!
By now you can see that you can make your website or sales letter pretty lengthy
just following the 3-step no-pain formula. This does not mean you want a website
or letter that runs on forever. But it does mean you can take your time to share your
message.
After all, people will read any amount of words on a website, as long as they are
interesting to them. And that is the trick that makes millionaires out of paupers. Keep
in mind that as a general rule, the more you tell, the more you sell. That means do not
be afraid of long copy (copy means words in marketing lingo).
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Websites with long copy (lots of words) tend to do better than websites with
fewer words. But again, they cannot just be any words. As you know, if you bore
people, they will leave your site in a nanosecond. Boredom breaks the trance.
For instance, J. Vitale (2004), has a rule of thumb:
The more money you are asking for, the more words you should write.
If you are only asking people to sign up for a free newsletter, a few well-chosen
words may do. If you want them to buy something under ten dollars, again, a few
well-chosen words may be enough. But if you want someone to buy a 5.000 EUR
vacuum cleaner machine or anything else worth quite big amount of money, you
have a lot of explaining to do. That will take some words.
The point is, the length of copy at your website will depend on what you are
selling. If people are familiar with your product or service, you may not have to say
much. If people easily understand why your price is what it is, again, you may not
have to say much. But if you have to explain your product, or your price, do so with
as many words as you need.
Your guiding principle should always be to focus on the interests of the people
visiting your site or reading your sales letter. Again, people will read long copy - they
read books, articles, and newspapers, for example---as long as it is interesting to them.
If people are not reading your website copy, then you have not written to their interests.
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Questions and Tasks
Questions:
1. What are the rules for creating flyer text?
2. What are main principles for creating effective text for website?
Tasks:
5. Pick any advertising. It can be from newspaper, magazine, web or anywhere
else. Go through it one minute and then fill the table below.
1. What
ATTENTION
-GETTING techniques are used
within the ad?
2. What
CONFIDENCE
-BUILDING techniques are used?
3. What DESIRE
STIMULATING
techniques are
used?
4. What
URGENCY
STRESSING
techniques are
used?
5. What
RESPONSE
– SEEKING
techniques
are used?
2. Think over the advertising, how you could improve each of those 5 steps?
Write down your suggestions:
ATTENTION
GETTING
CONFIDENCE
BUILDING
DESIRE
STIMULATING
URGENCY
STRESSING
RESPONSE
SEEKING
1. Vitale, J. (2007). Hypnotic Marketing. A Collection of the World’s Most
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4.3. Cold Calling in Guerrilla Way
Guerrilla marketing usually works as an inbound marketing rather than
outbound. It means, guerrilla marketers seek customers to show initiative and get in
contact with seller or to make any other desired action. But sometime (mostly
it depends on market specifics and is quite usual in B2B market) it is necessary to
initiate the dialog with Customer and it is done via cold calling. Cold calls are
not as effective as it was some time before and some marketers even say, that
if company makes cold calling, this company understands nothing about inbound
marketing. So here are the only two possible ways – to call to a potential client
(outbound telemarketing) or to do so, that the client himself would call you
(inbound telemarketing).
Outbound telemarketing. In order to understand how to powerfully utilise the
phone, you must first comprehend the concepts of image and of being perceived as
powerful, and how these ideas are communicated over the telephone. Let us take a
look at the typical way the phone is used by salespeople. This method fails to project
an image of power:
Hi, this is Tom Tomson with X-marketing Advisors, how are you today?
I am calling because we have a new method of selling that can increase your
revenues. I will be in your area next Wednesday—is ten or three o’clock better for
you?
Just think about this type of call from the prospect’s perspective. Would you be
compelled to accept an appointment? Or would your automatic sales resistance go
up? Chances are, you would experience heavy sales resistance, say you are not
interested, and hang up the phone. Now, let us take a look at a call that creates an
impression of power. Imagine you are a prospect, and think of how you would feel.
Compare this call with the previous example:
Good morning. I am an executive assistant with the office of Tom Tomson. I
am pleased to inform you that Mr. Tomson would like to meet with you, and his
schedule shows that he has 30 minutes available on Thursday morning at ten. I will
go ahead and pencil you in.
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If you are a prospect receiving this call, you immediately assume the person with
whom you will be meeting is important. Chances are, the image of a powerful
executive came into your mind when you got this call. You automatically accepted
the appointment, because, after all, it must be important if this is how they set up
their meetings!
Can you see how effective the second example would be, especially compared
to the first example of a typical sales call? The effective way to use the telephone in
prospecting is not to make the calls yourself. In fact, this single difference makes the
distinction between cold calling and marketing.
You will first need to find someone who would be available to make your calls. I
suggest starting small and using the money you make as a result to gradually increase
the scale of your efforts. A fantastic way to get started, the most common way that I
have seen my students use, is to simply find someone who can do this for you in their
spare time, for a minimal amount of compensation. Starting out, the best scenario is
an arrangement where the person making your calls is paid a flat amount by you for
each appointment set, and/or a bonus for every sale made.
Typically the person who gets the ball rolling is a spouse, teenage or adult child,
or other relative. If you cannot find anyone to do this, or if you are able and willing
to spend some money initially, it is fairly easy to find a contract telemarketer to make
your calls. This is a better way to go because you will have a skilled caller working on
your behalf, and you will get a lot more appointments as a result.
In the past, there were numerous objections to such recommendations as to how
to use the phone effectively. The most often argument was that phone calls are simply
another form of cold calling, and if guerrilla marketers are against cold calling, why
would they recommend to use cold calling in any way? The reason has to do with
the fact that selling and prospecting are entirely different skill sets. Prospecting and
selling are usually regarded as being one and the same. In fact, most salespeople consider prospecting to be one of the major steps of a sale. But it might not be the right
thought, because great salespeople who can develop and close qualified prospects are
usually terrible at prospecting and hate it as a result. On the other hand, those who
are great at prospecting and setting appointments usually fall short when it comes to
advanced selling tactics, such as needs identification, profit justification, and presenting. To put it quite simply, prospecting is not selling, and selling is not prospecting.
They are different skill sets, and the best results are achieved when prospecting is left
to those who do it well and selling is left to true sales professionals. This is why companies that excel in sales performance employ an organised lead-generation effort
through a combination of marketing campaigns and telemarketers who specialise in
developing leads and setting appointments. The salespeople then receive the leads
developed by the telemarketers and close them. So, as you can see, separating sales
from prospecting is the most effective overall strategy, and by doing so yourself, you
will begin to attain sales numbers far beyond your previous attainment.
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It is not difficult to find a contract telemarketer or appointment setter to make
your calls. These people usually maintain contact with networking groups and can
be found simply by asking around within such groups. You can also locate them by
searching online. The standard compensation arrangement is usually a small hourly
rate, sometimes with a minimum of around 10 hours, plus a small commission for
each appointment set that results in a sale. In order to avoid scheduling conflicts,
simply keep blocks of time clear and designate those for your appointment setter’s
use. That way you can avoid scheduling conflicts while your appointment setter is
busy developing more leads and filling up those designated blocks of time with fresh,
qualified appointments. This is leverage at work!
The next step up from a contract telemarketer is hiring the services of an
outbound call centre specialising in appointment setting. This is not nearly as expensive
as you may think; in fact, many call centres of this type offer packages starting out as
low as 200 – 300 EUR per month. You can find the outbound call centres in your area
in the yellow pages and contact them regarding rates and packages, or check their
web sites for pricing information. Depending on what is available, you may be better
off starting out this way instead of with an independent telemarketer. In either case,
you will eventually want to build your efforts over time to the point where you have
a definite need for the services of an outbound call centre. The larger your efforts
become, the more leverage you have working for you, and the more money you can
make with less work on your part.
As to the script your caller will use, that is something best worked on together.
Offer examples of what has worked for you in the past. An experienced telemarketer
or call centre will have scripts they are comfortable with; in this case, it is usually best
to have them do what they do best and simply apply it to your particular products.
You want to get the most for your money, not to mention the fact that a big part of
acquiring leverage and building systems is learning to delegate and avoid micromanaging the people working on your behalf. We all know from personal experience
how devastating micromanagement is to sales, so now that you are becoming your
own manager of sorts, be careful not to sabotage yourself by micromanaging your
people.
The best part of whatever script you decide upon is that when your callers introduce
themselves as your executive assistants, they are not lying; they really are your
executive assistants! They are helping to do your work for you so your time is free
to make money. I say this with the hope that you will realise just how important you
are becoming and how much more success you will achieve through these efforts. By
implementing these strategies, you are establishing your very own business system
that will work for you to increase your income. If you think back to the chapter on
leverage and the distinction between a business owner and a self-employed person,
you are effectively stepping into the role of a true business owner by putting these
strategies into action. If you hope to someday own your own company, you are
gaining knowledge essential to the attainment of that goal.
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In addition to setting appointments, a telemarketer can follow up on other efforts
such as direct mail. If you are doing your own flyer distribution, take a card from
every office you walk into and give them to your appointment setter to call. Even if
he or she calls a prospect who has already called you first, it looks very impressive to
have your assistant following up on your leads and will give you that much more of
an advantage with that prospect!
Inbound telemarketing. The typical situation would be, that you run an ad, an
article or some other inexpensive form of getting attention, and ask readers to call
you, using your toll-free number (unless you are advertising to people outside your
area code), and then you sell them right there on the telephone.
As J.C. Levinson (2007) says, if you are doing that kind of telemarketing now,
and you are not using a script, you are not taking telemarketing as seriously as you
ought to. Telemarketing surpassed direct mail in size way back in l982. And since that
time, five crucial points have been discovered and followed by guerrilla marketers.
These are the five simple things:
1. Find out who are your top 3 telemarketers.
2. Make an audio cassette of those top 3 people.
3. Create a script, using the words, phrases and voice inflections of the top three.
In that script, underline the phrases stressed by these top producers.
4. Distribute copies of the three cassettes plus three scripts to go with them. Give
a set to each of your other telemarketers.
5. Ask those other telemarketers to memorise the script and get it down so pat
that it sounds as though it is delivered straight from the heart.
It is okay for the telemarketers to eliminate any words that seem uncomfortable
to them, substituting another word. But they should not get rid of any words and
phrases that all three top producers are using.
Once you have got your script, firstly, recognise that you must deliver the words
on that script to the right audience. In most cases that is about 40-50% of your
success equation. It comes ahead of everything else. Since the people calling you have
responded to your ad, there is a good chance they are the right audience when they
call. This gives you a lot of momentum.
The right offer is the second part of about 40% of your equation. It tells about
the benefits you offer, your company, your product or service, and includes how you
present your offering.
The right creative approach to a telemarketing script includes the actual words
and phrases that will be used. It is the last 20% of your success equation. The right
audience and the right offer are considerably more important than the right words.
Still, the script you use can make the difference between mild success and wild
success. What about that script?
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Start by realising that it has three parts. The introduction is where you introduce
yourself by name and begin to establish rapport. The body is where you present the
logical (for the left-brained callers) and the emotional (for the right-brained callers)
reasons that they should buy right now. The close is where you ask the person to
respond positively to your offer. Be sure, when creating your script that you know:
• What the caller should do after hearing the message?
• Whether the caller should order using a credit card?
• Whether the caller should send for your brochure?
People are more powerfully motivated by security needs than almost anything
else. In direct marketing, you give that security by offering a guarantee or a trial offer.
Are these really necessary. Yes, they are crucial.
Your introduction is the most important part of your script, even though it is
the second impression that you will make. The ad was the first. Remember that the
introduction is the headline of your message and that the headline is the real name
of the game. The close should be written next because it is your final goal. The body
should be created last - so that it leads right into the close. Edit it mercilessly,
making sure every word and phrase adds to the effectiveness of your introduction.
If not, scrap them.
Yes, you should ask questions. Yes, you should respond to the answers. Yes, you
should read over your opening line and see if it would excite you as a caller. Questions
you might ask at the close include:
• Are these the results you want for yourself or your company?
• Shall we get started?
• May I sign you up now?
• ....
It might be tough to operate from a script if your telemarketers are a free spirit.
But “free spirits” fail at telemarketing more often than those who act according to the
script. As J.C. Levinson mentions in his blog, the winning combination for guerrilla
marketer is a potent ad, followed by a potent script. What they win is sales, relationships,
customers’ hearts, and profits.
Getting information is as important as making sales. D. Abingdon (2006) advises
when your employees take incoming calls, make sure they:
1. Ask if the caller is a prior customer. If the answer is yes, then have them say
something like, “We are updating our Customer list. Would you mind giving me your
address and phone number so that we can update our records?
2. If the caller says they are not a prior customer have your employees say something
like: “I’d like to send you a free report that you’ll find very interesting. It will help you
… If you give me your address I’ll send it out to you today.”
3. Get an e-mail address from each incoming call. Offer the customer a free
gift that can be sent by e-mail and then ask for the e-mail address. Your gift can be
an electronic coupon, an informational report, a screen saver, or anything you can
think of.
Get the most out of your incoming calls – that means making sales, or gathering
prospect information for later use.
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Questions and Tasks
Questions:
1. How to make outbound calls more effective?
2. What are five crucial points that have been discovered and followed by
guerrilla marketers for calling?
3. What should an employee do when answering a phone call from a current
client?
Tasks:
1. An Office Supplies Company wants to get new business clients and intends to
use telemarketing – “cold calling”. Create a script for outbound cold calling to get an
appointment or sign a contract.
2. What could be done to avoid cold calling and to have even better results?
Generate at least 3 great ideas about that.
3. You have to create a script for inbound cold calling for the same office supply
company. What you would like to find out about those who call to your company?
What instructions regarding sales promotion via phone call would you provide?
1. Rumbauskas, F. (2006). Never cold call again. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
2. Gitomer J. Please stop cold calling and get a sales life. Enterprise/Salt Lake
City. 12/3/2012, Vol. 42 Issue 18
3. Sobczak A. Don’t Sound Like a Salesperson. American Salesman. Aug2010,
Vol. 55 Issue 8, p13-16
4. Schulz G. How to make sales without cold-calling. Business First of Buffalo.
11/14/2008, Vol. 25 Issue 8
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4.4. Parthership in Marketing
In today’s economy, it is more difficult than ever for anyone, especially the small
business, to go it alone. It costs more to pay for all your own advertising, find all
your own customers and do everything using only your own resources. There is an
alternative: cooperating with and forming strategic alliances with other businesses.
This enables you to pool resources, share customers, spread the cost of marketing,
and do it in a way in which all parties win. A partnership with another company can
be simple and limited, to very involved and complex. If you make a deal with a shady
dealer, some of that stink could easily rub off on you.
Partnership in marketing can be employed by virtually any business when it
can find partners interested in mutually beneficial cooperation. Fundamentally, it
involves pooling resources - whether those resources are knowledge, expertise,
distribution infrastructure, brand recognition, reputation, or simply money - to
achieve a result that would be more costly to obtain independently.
• A car dealer recommends a mechanic, if the mechanic tells all of its
•
•
•
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customers that the car dealer has the best, most mechanically reliable cars
in town.
A hypnotherapist can tell his or her clients that getting a massage at XYZ
Health Centre will enhance relaxation and make the hypnosis process
more potent because relaxation is key to being hypnotised properly and
deeply!
A car dealer approaches a local office supplies company and offers to pay
for some of the cost of mailing its monthly invoices – if the office supplies
company agrees to enclose an advertisement for the car dealer along with
the bill. Both win. The car dealer gets a much cheaper way to distribute
direct mail, and also gets access to a large number of potential customers.
The office supplies company gets to lower its postage expense. (Also, the
envelope is guaranteed to be opened because it is a bill! One of the biggest
challenges of direct mail is getting the prospect to open it and read it!)
A florist shop which specialises in a floral arrangements for a wedding,
might put a nice advertisement showcasing a great deal on wedding cakes
from a nearby bakery. Meanwhile, someone visiting that bakery discovers
they can get a great deal on a floral arrangement from the florist. Since
each business is not competing with each other, they have found it to their
advantage to promote one another, referring customers back and forth to
increase sales.
There are dozens of ways to cooperate with other businesses. You can trade
mailing lists with others, though in some countries it is illegal. Yes, it is forbidden by
Customer rights protection laws in some countries. But there is always an option! Let
us say, if you cannot trade mailing lists, you can “rent“ them – to send official e-mails
from your mail box nicely combining promotional information of your partner. Most
often examples include:
• Partnership of non-competitive businesses. This would include the baker and
florist example given above; or a tow service, auto-repair shop, and car-rental business teaming up to offer end-to-end service to the same customer.
• Destination partnership, where hotels, restaurants, and tourist businesses
pool resources to market their location to prospective travellers.
• Technology partnership often is formed to promote a new device or concept.
In this case, firms that might potentially compete in offering new technology
face greater competition from other firms representing the existing, established alternative technology. Partnership allows these companies to create
a greater market presence to displace the old technology -and ensures that
they get to establish the standards for production of the new technology.
• Partnership to expand into new markets are particularly useful, since independent expansion requires a huge investment of resources and the development of new distribution channels. This is especially useful for tapping into
overseas markets; a company in one country can offer a product through another company already established in another country, thus tapping into the
new market immediately. This principle also works for domestic expansion.
Starbucks, for example, allied with Pepsi in order to distribute its ready-todrink beverages to gas stations, groceries, and convenience stores. Starbucks
accessed Pepsi’s established distribution network without having to build
their own; in return, Pepsi got revenue from new products (such as bottled
Frappuccino’s) that did not directly compete with their own beverages.
If you run a web design business and want to find more potential leads,
try partnering with a web hosting company. If you have a lawn-care business, try
partnering with a window washing company. Any partnership which benefits both
companies is a great idea and a great way at grabbing the attention of new potential
clients. Also a great way of giving your business targeted marketing.
133
Figure 24. Colgate partnership with pizza companies
Source: www.creativeguerrillamarketing.com
134
When J.P. Morgan Chase Bank partnered with Amazon.com to offer an Amazon.
com Rewards Visa Card, they understood the online shopping market was expanding.
What better way to cater to online shoppers than by partnering with the world’s
largest online retailer?
This partnership, also known as an affinity marketing campaign, allowed these
two companies to link their brands in a mutually beneficial relationship. These
campaigns are win - win scenarios for both parties. When one business partners
with an organisation to provide goods in exchange for access to a new market,
both parties benefit. Through their partnership, Chase Bank increases its overall
customer base, while Amazon offers incentives to those using the credit card with
their service, increasing the amount of people likely to buy products from Amazon.
D. Abingdon (2005) recommends paying attention to eight major facets on
which companies can work together on:
1. Sharing costs of advertising and other marketing;
2. Logistics (airlines carry overload parcels for international couriers);
3. Packaging (milk cartons carry the advertisements for other products and
businesses);
4. Product design (IBM computers use to recommend only Microsoft software);
5. Selling (buy only X brand washing powder with this model of washing machine);
6. Service (carpet fitter recommends carpet cleaner);
7. Geographic proximity (business furniture retailer sends customers across the
street to buy business office supplies, such as paper, pens, etc.);
8. Pricing (buy a dinner for four at the Italian restaurant and get a discount on
a haircut).
Effective partnership involves coordinating the strengths of different companies
in order to meet a market demand. This requires significant pre - planning, as well as
an ongoing effort to maintain the new business relationship.
At first, the marketing team usually identifies the business opportunity that could
potentially be met through a partnership. Next, they research prospective partners,
taking into account the likelihood of a return on investing in such a relationship.
• What can these companies provide?
• Do they have partnership with other companies, and how have they fared?
• Are they stable?
• Do they have a compatible management style?
135
When considering an international partnership, additional research must be
conducted on the other country’s economy.
• Are currency exchange rates likely to change?
• What is their projected rate of inflation?
• How are interest rates in that country projected to change?
• What are that country’s laws regarding intellectual property rights?
Once a company (or multiple companies) for a partnership is found, each
stakeholder must establish plans and expectations up front. Whether or not the
partnership involves creating a new business entity (as in a joint venture), both
businesses need a clear understanding about what each partner is expected to do,
and how management decisions will be made in cooperative efforts. Spelling
out commitments and expectations increases the amount of mutually beneficial
exchange that can take place between partners. Employees of both partners must be
on board with the program, understanding both what they are providing and what
value they are receiving from this partnership.
While partnership in marketing can be mutually beneficial, it can also be tricky
at times. Here are some pitfalls to avoid:
• win-lose agreements - avoid agreements that benefit one party more than
the other;
• leader-leader - determine how exactly decision-making will be made or
shared;
• failure- blame - if an event does not get the attendance promised, do not
point fingers at the organisers;
• prejudicial allocation of real estate - if one partner gets the event booth by the
door and another gets the back corner, find a way to compensate.
Most effective strategic partnerships operate around long-term goals. Significant
investment in another company takes time to develop, since short - term payoffs typically
do not justify the costs and risks of such an investment. Nevertheless, stakeholders
in an alliance must expect their partners to perform; if one firm fails to uphold its
commitments, it should be removed from the alliance in favour of a more active and
effective partner.
There were only few official print cartridge filling companies in Plunge (small
town in Western Lithuania). Two main problems were confusing the owner of the
company. First of all he had no money for any significant marketing campaign.
Secondly, even if he had money, there were no effective communication channels
due to business specifics (it is not profitable to provide such services to companies
based in other towns). But some great partnership ideas were found:
136
1. Barter was made with local newspaper (cartridge filling for free advertising)
2. Partnership with shops selling printers (sales promo – “by this printer and
get one cartridge filling for free at ABV company”). Shops received additional
benefit for their customers, cartridge filling company got exposure even if no printers
were sold – company name was shown in printer special offers.
3. Accountancy companies were proposed up to 3 cartridge fillings for free for
each of their clients. Therefore accountancy-service companies making cold calls
and mailings named additional benefit for their potential customers – cartridge
filling for free.
4. Sweets delivered to secretaries of all companies in the town. Sweets were
received under barter agreement.
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Questions and Tasks
1. Select any existing company or choose any of ice – cream producers from
Case Study in Chapter 1.6. Think about business specifics of this company and come
up with at least few partnership ideas for each point:
a) gain access to a non-competitive businesses’ customers;
b) pool knowledge and expertise with other company;
c) combine resources and efforts to reduce inefficiencies or marketing expences;
d) turn competitors into partners;
e) reach new markets (particularly internationally).
2. You already have at least few potential partners for any goal listed in the task
above. Pick the most important, most promising goal and think though about the
following:
a) select the most suitable partners and explain your choice;
b) write down your expected partnership commitments in more detais as possible;
c) make arguments how would you “sell the partnership“ idea to the manager of
your company;
d) what long - term results could be reach and how would you measure them.
1. Abingdon, D. (2005). Out of the Box Marketing. Thorogood Publishing Ltd.
2. Gibbs R. Humphries A. (2009). Strategic Alliances & Marketing Partnerships:
Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Collaboration and Partnering. London:
Kogan Page.
3. Gherasim A. (2011). The Creation Of Partnerships - Essential Objective In
Industrial Marketing. Economy Transdisciplinarity Cognition. 2011, Vol. 14 Issue 1,
p391-401
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5. Guerrilla Marketing Toolkit
Today’s businesses suffer from a huge dilemma - they need to reach more customers in an increasingly competitive marketplace and they also have tight budgets
that demand results. It does not take much thinking to realise that this is a huge
problem for many businesses.
When money is abundant, businesses tend to make choices that are not as
effective or pragmatic. In this way, a tight budget may be beneficial in helping to
create a concise marketing plan, which targets customers who will actually purchase
company products or ask for company services rather than just be aware of them.
Here are a few basic ideas for marketing campaigns for under $100 to get started in
expanding your business (D. Heck, 2009).
To begin with, make use of marketing materials that do not cost anything. The
best way to do this is using Internet tools that help to create word of mouth about
business without having to spend. There are many websites that people use for social
networking that your business can use such as Facebook, Blogger, and Twitter. These
websites allow posting information about business - upcoming events, new products,
change of service - for free and anyone connected to your business and anyone
connected to them will hear about it. Use this as a soft campaign to generate
awareness of your business to a huge customer base.
Another option is to set up an informational website associated with your
business. Whatever you sell - cookies, janitorial service, or yoga trainings, you can
create a website that helps people learn more about your realm of service and
products without directly selling to them. This may seem contradictory, but many
people research on the web before purchasing products or services. If they happen
to learn what makes a great cookie on your website, they are more likely to buy from
you when they are ready. These sites are easy to set up and they do not take much to
maintain since there is no e-commerce applications, just simple text, pictures, and
maybe video. Actually there are even such web platforms which allow creating a
website for free. Check www.yola.com, www.wix.com and some other possibilities.
There are millions of websites created with such free tools.
Work with companies that do targeted advertising online. Unless you are selling a
very general product, you probably do business with very interested people. In order
for you to get customers who are serious buyers you need to go where they go. It is
expensive to post ads in magazines, but it is much less expensive to post ads with
companies that will only charge you based on the number of times the ad is shown on
a webpage that is topically related to your business. These companies greatly reduce
your costs and you are only paying to advertise to people who are likely to buy.
Generally speaking, think of the modern marketing campaign this way - getting the
word out to the public should be free and advertising to customers should be done
directly based on their interests. The Web has revolutionised business in so many
ways – there is no reason it cannot save you money as well.
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5.1. Getting Fast Cash
1. Sell out old stuff. If you have some old inventory which you do not use, sell
it! Sometimes it is better to lose some profit in exchange for good old cash, which you
can use to bolster advertising, direct mail and other marketing efforts.
• Instead of trying to sell the stuff one item at a time, offer the whole shooting
match to someone for one, low price.
• Sell the stuff to employees of other companies. Find a business with a large
numbers of employees. Then make an arrangement with management to
offer your inventory “exclusively“ to their employees.
• Trade dead inventory for advertising. Why not approach a media provider
and give them your inventory in exchange for some ads? You might be able
to work out a deal if your stuff is useful for any advertising company.
• Here is another idea using charities or other organisations looking to raise
funds: print up door drop leaflets announcing fantastic discounts on
a number of short stock items. Then arrange for a local charity or public
organisation to get volunteers to spread out and distribute your door drop
leaflets. Offer the volunteer organisation a percentage of the sales.
• Offer a local retailer a no-risk consignment deal. They promote the item in
their ads and in their stores and you get paid only for what they actually sell.
This means they do not have the risk of purchasing in advance and their
advertising costs will be minimal because they can incorporate the products
into their regular ads.
2. Appreciation sale. Get out your customer lists and offer a special promotion
to your best customers. Present this new promotion as an “appreciation sale“ for your
“exclusive clients“. Offer a generously discounted price or other extra major benefit,
but make sure you offer it only to your best, repeat customers. And of course, as you
give them a good discount, there is no reason why you cannot upsell them at the
same time, or make a back-end sale! If they are your best customers, you will have a
big chance of making good sales.
When you do your appreciation sale and offer a great deal, make sure you:
• show them in black and white what they are saving over original cost,
• show how you are beating a competitor’s price,
• make sure they know they are the only ones getting the deal.
3. Deal for everyone. After your special promotion to your cream of the crop
customers, get out the rest of the mailing lists and send everyone some kind of
lesser deal. Explain to them exactly why you are doing this.
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4. Sell in advance. This is something like “get your low rate now, get your
product later“. Offer an attractive discount to a customer for prepaying for a year of
your services or a year’s purchase of product in advance. Basically, you are offering
a contract to your best customers that says they get a low price NOW, if they PAY
NOW, and receive product or service later, or when they need it the most.
A good example of this tool is given by D. Abingdon (2005). Many smaller
cities and towns, in order to encourage shopping within their own community,
print their own “money“, which can only be spent in the city. For example, if the
town’s name is Bakersfield, the, Bakersfield Chamber of Commerce might print up
‘Baker’s Bucks’. These look like a cross between coupons and real currency. They
can be purchased at a central location for a percentage of their face value. If a
business wants to offer a 20% discount, Baker’s Bucks will be available to the
consumer for 80p in the pound. In other words, a Customer can get £100 in Baker’s
Bucks for £80. Then, the Baker’s Bucks cannot be used until Christmas season, or
some other future date. The money comes in now, and gets redeemed later. That is
immediate cash flow.
5. Gift vouchers. Why not put together a special mailing piece which you will
send to your customer list. In it, explain that you realise and understand that buying
gifts is a chore and a painful obligation to some people, and you have the perfect way
to get all your Christmas or birthday shopping or anniversary shopping taken care
of right away, and without effort. Let them know that you offer gift vouchers
year-round, or say you have decided to begin offering gift vouchers now because you
have never done it before. D. Abingdon (2005) pays attention that making the gift
voucher offer sweeter with a bribe is an incredibly powerful strategy. It is impossible
for an offer like that to NOT get a great response!
Dear Preferred Customer,
Have you ever scrambled at the last minute to get your Christmas shopping done
before it is too late? Have you fought your way through busy shopping malls,
battled other shoppers in the store, or felt overwhelmed by your need to get your
gift shopping out of the way? Or maybe you have no idea what to get your wife,
husband, or friend for their birthday, anniversary or special occasion this year?
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Well, we understand how you feel. That is why we offer gift vouchers as
a convenience to our best customers. Better yet, we have chosen this non-holiday
time to write to you about gift vouchers because we have a deal for you! Normally
our gift vouchers sell for face value, but now for a short time, we are offering a 15%
discount on gift vouchers as a special offer to you!
Also, for every £50 gift voucher you buy, we will give you a £5 gift voucher you
can treat yourself with right now! So why not get the gift-shopping monkey off
your back right now and get free £5 gift vouchers to spend on yourself (or someone else).
Hurry! The offer ends in seven days! We look forward to seeing you soon!
Sincerely,
Mike Businessman
6. Preferred Customer’s Club. Choose your best customers from your
customer lists and send them a letter telling them that they have been selected to be
members of your exclusive Preferred Customer’s Club, and they will enjoy special
‘membership only’ benefits that will include:
• first notification of introductory items which they can buy at a discount;
• advance notification of all special deals;
• the opportunity to buy close-outs and short stock items at a huge savings not
offered to ‘ordinary’ customers;
• credit deals not available to others;
• a personalised discount card;
• free subscription to your customer newsletter which will contain discount
coupons, etc.;
• only they will receive notification of unadvertised sales;
• any other benefits you think may be appropriate.
To join the Preferred Customer’s Club, they pay a membership fee. Make sure
you let them know the fee will be more than made up for in discounts and buying
advantages. If you make the fee 20 EUR, for example, and you sell 500 preferred
customer memberships, that 10,000 EUR in cash plus you have a list of real
customers who are willing to buy your products once discounts or new items are
offered.
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5.2. Extra Power Tools
1. Testimonials. None of your marketing techniques are complete, or as strong
as they could be, without including testimonials. A statement by a satisfied customer
is a nearly irresistible incentive for a new Customer to buy. A testimonial is powerful
because it represents an objective third-party endorsement of your product. When
a prospect confronts a testimonial he or she is not getting just another claim by the
advertiser, but a solid recommendation from an “ordinary“ guy like the prospect. A
testimonial is a peer endorsement. The prospect tends to think: “this product
obviously worked well for this person, so it will probably work for me too.“
It is important to use testimonials correctly if you want them to have maximum
effectiveness. It is far better to get a real testimonial signed by a person with their full
names, and maybe even an e-mail or phone number included with the statement.
Then you have an air tight, bona fide testimonial the prospect can verify if they want
to.
Testimonials are easy to obtain. Simply ask for one from a customer. Make sure
you get permission to use the person’s name in your advertisement and other
marketing vehicles. If you are lucky, you will get spontaneous testimonials as well.
Testimonials can be a short, one-sentence statement, to a full-length feature article
which tells the story of how your product made your customer’s life better. Long or
short, including testimonials is an absolute must!
2. Celebrity endorsement is a superb marketing tool because it helps you gain
instant access to the mind of consumers. Today the media is saturated with
marketing messages from all conceivable sources. When you add your bit of clutter
to all the rest, the biggest challenge is getting attention and having your marketing
message seen and heard. The average prospect’s mind is already “full“. But when a
celebrity endorses your product, the instant recognition they command cuts through
the clutter. A celebrity helps you get into the forefront of the buyer’s mind, and
a celebrity’s fame and notoriety rubs off on your product. Many people will stand
outside in the cold rain for hours just to get a glimpse of a favourite celebrity. That is
the kind of motivation you want to tap into!
3. Interviews on audio or video is an excellent way to promote yourself or
your business. The best thing is that you can stage your own interviews and put them
on audio or video tape. You do not need to wait for a reporter to take notice of you
and call you for an interview. Simply hire someone to take the role of interviewer,
provide a script and do the interview. The questions can be scripted, but your answers
do not have to be your natural talk. Simply talk about your business because you
already know it best - though you should plan specific points to cover, including
giving reasons for others to do business with you.
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For example, let us say John Tomson is a successful used car trader, and let us
say a business reporter wants to sit John down for a discussion about useful tips
how to choose the best car when you buy used car. In the course of the interview,
the reporter covers a wide range of topics, including what it takes to be a success
in this field. If John gives insightful answers to the reporter’s questions, what you
have is an excellent and informative presentation that others interested in buying
used car can learn from. It can also attract new customers because those who see
or hear the interview will come to view John as an expert in his field, and they will
be eager to do business with him – because he is one of the best or at least already
“known guy“.
The interview format is a pleasant and informative way to distribute information
about what you do, build your image as an expert, and attract new customers. Once
your interview is on tape, you have a superb selling tool which you can distribute in
any number of ways, from direct mail to live distribution. A video interview can be
put on your website, YouTube, Facebook and any other social network.
4. Referrals. Ask any experienced seller and they will tell you that most of his
business comes from referrals. It is a fact that more business probably comes from
referrals than any other source – more than your advertising, more than direct mail,
more than articles in most popular magazines or newspapers. You get referrals from
three sources: current customers, inactive customers and anyone who has contact
with your Customer or potential customers.
D. Abingdon (2005) reveals six conditions that are necessary for the above three
to generate referrals:
• the referral agent must have frequent contact with your customers;
• the referral agent must be trusted and respected by customers;
• the referral agent must be actively prompted to make referrals;
• the referral agent should be able to weed out poorly qualified customers;
• the referral agent must like you, and trust you;
• the referral agent must have some motivation to do what you want – make
referrals.
So the key for you is to identify prime referral agent candidates and then meet
with them. Give them a reason to refer customers to you. It might take a cut of the
business, like a small commission on each sale, or something less tangible. There are
many ways for one person to scratch your back if you scratch theirs. An agreement
between two non-competing business to send customers to each other is a superb
idea.
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5. Affinity sales. What business has an affinity for yours? For example, a car
mechanic has an affinity with a car seller. A restaurant has an affinity with a movie
theatre. A music shop has an affinity with an e-shop. All of these businesses can get
together and help sell each other’s customers. For example, lots of people go out for
dinner and a movie. A restaurant can offer free or discount tickets to a movie with a
meal, or vice versa. This way the cinema and the restaurant can send more customers
to each other.
Affinity selling is another twist on joint venture or fusion marketing. You find
where your interests intersect with another complementary business, and develop
ways that you can help each other get more business. Do not limit your search to a
partner with just one other business – look for an affinity relationship with a dozen
or more businesses and you can create an avalanche of new business for yourself, and
your partners.
6. Joint advertising is yet another joint venture kind of activity that helps each
participant reach more customers at less expense. If you are a supplier, offering to pay
for 15%-50% of your retail outlet’s advertising means they sell more product and buy
more from you. You also get to advertise your products for 15-50% less! You can pay
in either cash or merchandise. If you are a retailer, make sure you ask your supplier
for a co-op advertising deal. Many retailers never ask their supplier to help pay for
ads, even when the offer is standard and available from the supplier!
Another way to co-op advertise is to get together with several other businesses
and buy a full page ad. Each participant gets a portion of the page, and all share in
the cost of an ad.
Yet another way to co-op ad is to get another advertiser to place a plug for you
directly on his ad. This works best when each player has something in common. A
car dealer can work with a tyre shop. A beauty shop can advertise someone’s hair
care products within their ads. A pet shop can include information on dog food for
a grocery store.
Use your imagination, and you can come up with many ways to cut your advertising costs by teaming up with another business in a win-win situation.
7. Associate e-marketing. Combining your effort with other web entrepreneurs is a win-win strategy that can do wonders for your business. Imagine gaining
access to thousands of new customers instantly! You do that by exchanging your
web-based customer base with another web seller’s customer base. If your businesses
are complimentary, the results can be swift and profitable. Make an agreement to let a
friend sell to your customers if you can sell to theirs. Use each other’s captured e-mail
lists to piggy-back your marketing messages on each other’s. Combining efforts in
this way can cost almost nothing, but generate amazing income. That is an opportunity just too rich too ignore. Start searching for a web partner today and explore the
possibilities. Make sure you link up with an entity you can be proud to be associated
with, and also do your best to represent your partner well. The two of you together –
or three or four of you together - multiply your individual efforts accordingly. This is
one of the fastest ways to bolster cash flow and find new markets.
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Medical tourism could be taken for example. Clinics would like to get new
clients from abroad, therefore spends some budget on advertising. But hotels,
local travel agencies, museusm, rehabilitation establishments also are willing to get
new toursits from abroad. So one of the fastest ways to start associate e-marketing
would be cooperation into one big, but customisable service package. Each
company woudl promote this package in their website and using their marketing
budget as well. So if 5 companies would combine their e-marketing efforts, they
would be still selling their services, but their marketing budget has grown up 5
times!
8. Customer mailing list is one of the most potential marketing tools, because
you have already sold to them and it is your richest, easiest source of future sales. To
each person named on your list, you are already known. That means no cold selling.
Also, if you have provided a high quality product and excellent customer service,
those people will want to continue doing business with you.
Your customer list must go beyond mere names, addresses and telephone numbers. In fact, the more detailed information you have about each name, the more
powerful the customer list becomes. Here are some “must have“ customer information items as J.C. Levinson (2007) suggests:
• Type of dwelling: house, apartment, rented house?
• Size of house; number of rooms?
• Special amenities of dwelling: pool, two-door garage, solarium, exercise
room?
• Special interests and/or hobbies?
• How many cars, and what kind of cars?
• Pets? How many? What kind?
• Favourite kind of movie or TV shows preferred?
• What do they read and subscribe to? Newspaper, magazine: what kind of
magazines? What kind of books do they like? Romance, classic literature,
horror?
• Where do they go on holiday?
• Birthdays and anniversaries?
• Town or country?
These kinds of details allow you to make your marketing messages highly
specific. Why is knowing a birthday helpful, for example? If you send a birthday card
to a customer who never expected one from you, they will be flattered and delighted.
If you also include a small gift and a coupon that they can use to buy a present for
themselves, the customer is going to feel very special indeed. People that own houses
tend to have more disposable income than renters, so you can sell higher ticket items
to them.
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A customer list is built up over time. Every time you make a new sale, you add
a name. You can use direct mail to get more names. You can hold a prize drawing
which prompts people to fill in all their information for your list database.
9. Consultations as bait. One of the best ways to lure new clients is to offer a
free consultation. This works especially well for professionals, such as lawyers,
accountants, chiropractors, and others. It also works well for skilled service providers,
such as beauty shops, clothing stores and mechanics. You can make your free
consultation offer stronger by putting a price on it, then offering it free: “Come in
for a 150 EUR consultation free, Tuesday only!“ A time limit can make the offer even
more irresistible because it creates a sense of urgency for the client to act quickly. A
consultation is an opportunity for you to access a client’s needs and problems, then
offers your services to meet those needs or solve those problems.
10. Prize draws are simple kind of contest in which you invite people to
submit their names, usually in a collection box set up in a store, for a chance to win
something by random drawing. It is an excellent way to capture names and contact
information, and other vital customer information for future selling. Make sure you
get as much information as you can on the submission form. Go beyond name and
phone number – get birthdays, ask for a product preference (make a simple check-off
list) etc. Customers need to be present to win. Make the box prominent and easy to
see. Offer an exciting prize to get a good response.
There was an exclusive event in Lithuania called “Forum one” – Sir Richard
Branson and many other highly respected businessmen and speakers have visited
Lithuania. The event took place in sports arena because there was no other place
where to seat more than 3.500 people. There were various options while selling
tickets (i.e. buy one ticket today and get one for free for your friend and etc.).
Therefore organisers of this even did not have contacts of most of participants.
The prize draw was announced – one person from those who will put his or
her business card in the bowl will win a diamond ticket and can enjoy the show
in the first row, to have coffee brakes with speakers and even to have a photo with
Sir Richard Branson. At the end of the day bowls were full of business cards. The
best thing here is, that the prize was so great for participants, but cost nothing to
organisers (there were few vacant seats in any case). Contacts were collected very
successfully (according to primary estimation, they should have received at least
1.000 valuable personal contact of those people who are interested in business and
leadership development. Few weeks later all participants received thank you letters
and new offers to other seminars.)
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11. Fish Bowl Business Cards. You know the fish bowls at stores offering
to choose a random card for a free lunch? Well, there are two ways to benefit from
this. First - put your card in the fish bowl (hey, a free lunch is a free lunch, and who
knows, the owner of the store might need your services). Second - ask the store to let
you have the losing cards each week/month which will generate a ton of free leads
for you.
12. Hold a Contest – This could have 1-10 winners which helps the word-ofmouth promotion everyone needs and wants. You can gain free press for starting the
contest, plus publishing the winners is great for more press coverage.
13. Association memberships might be a source of useful in formation, could
help to build your credibility and even to find new clients.
Let us say, if you sell haulage equipment, such as truck trailers, you will find
plenty of new prospects at a trucker’s association convention. Attend their meetings
and conventions, or even get yourself invited as a speaker. While there, network
aggressively. Meet people, make friends and connections. Ask your new friends
who they think might need your product, and you will get plenty of leads. When
you sell to one person, bring along a list of names of fellow association members
and ask your new customer, “John, who else on this list do you think might need
what I am selling?” As John will know many of the names on your list, you will
get some hot leads. Better still, when you meet with the new prospect, you can tell
them “John sent you.” This is just an excellent, sometimes even effortless, way to
sell.
14. Writing your own book is a big project, but very worthwhile for the person
who wants to achieve a whole new level of selling success. First, a book is a fantastic
positioning tool. If you write a book, you will be positioned as an expert in your field.
Second, a book can be a tool to sell more products, and advertise your business.
A used car dealer can write a book titled, let us say “How to Get a Great Deal
on a Used Car“. In the book, the author can refer readers to his web page, get them
to call his free phone number, and of course, encourage them to come to his place
of business in person.
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A book also lends itself to back-end sales. If people will buy a book, they may
subscribe to a newsletter on a similar topic. List your newsletter at the back of the
book, and you will get subscribers.
Now you have an additional vehicle to stay in contact with your customers, to
advertise more of your products and keep the sales chain reaction going. If you are
not a writer, or do not have time to write your own book, hire a ghost-writer. Doing
so is a time-honoured tradition in the publishing world. A good ghost-writer will be
able to write your book in about six weeks, depending on the length of your book.
Ghost-writer fees vary widely and you could start checking it on freelancer platforms
like www.elance.com or www.freelancer.com. You will most likely self-publish your
book. This has many advantages: you control all content, copyright, earnings and
everything else.
If your book sells well, you will earn a lot of money while enjoying the positioning
and marketing advantages afforded by your book. Do not forget the opportunity to
sell some advertising positions in your book.
15. Client Appreciation BBQ. Invite your past clients to a BBQ and let
them invite 1 or 2 friends to come with them. This will help your customers LOVE
you even more than they already do, as well as bring some new faces into contact
with you as potential clients.
16. Holiday Greetings. Send e-mails or better real post cards to your past clients wishing them happy holidays (Christmas, New Years, Easter, and National Day).
This helps them keep your business name in their head as well as standing out from
the other people they have done business with before.
17. The Calendar. There are not end of ideas in the calendar for things you can
do to find customers and make an impact. Why not recruit some aspiring actors from
the local college to put on a little flash mob skit promoting your product? Any other
action could be planned and arrange from time to time in you wisely chosen area.
Finally, a book is a marketing tool with a long shelf life. Your book can build
your image and sell your products for years to come, so even if you put a lot of time,
money and effort into getting your book published, it is almost always worth it.
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5.3. Getting Free Publicity
1. Fake publicity stunt – you could have people picket your storefront with
signs that read “This business is too nice” or “Company X is too good at their job”.
There is a million fake publicity stunts, use your imagination and I bet it will work no
matter how weird or out of the box it seems.
2. Blood Drive – Host a blood drive, contact newspapers, TV news, radio, etc.
have 1-2 banners up with your website information and also have business cards at
the sign in table. Everyone loves to help their country, city, state, etc. and giving blood
is the easiest way for some people to do that. Putting yourself in the forefront of your
cities next blood drive would make your business very visible to a whole range of new
potential clients and word-of-mouth advertisers.
3. Sponsor an event – doing this is at most times, very inexpensive and also
GREAT for publicity, especially if it is a big event. You normally get your logo and
business mentioned in all of the events promo material which is tons of publicity you
normally would not get. Be at the event to add extra stickiness to your business name
and interact with the guests.
4. Blog - is simply a public diary online. It is also a wonderful marketing tool.
It works like a newsletter; it provides free, useful information to people while generating
hot leads. Blogs are effective at attracting qualified prospects because they are not
selling anything. They are simply outlets for the author’s thoughts. While most sites
are meant to sell something, a blog merely sets out to inform and entertain. People
are less resistant to a non-commercial site like a blog and are more likely to read it.
Setting up a blog is very easy because, unlike a Web site, there is nothing to design
or lay out unless you specifically want to. There are even several free blog services. It
is a simple matter of registering, choosing a layout, entering a title and your About
Me page, and you are all set. It is one of the simplest things you can do online.
5. Guest blogging – This is for the bloggers out there, or even the freelance
writers. Guest blog on other blogs largely related, or semi-related to your websites
niche. Opening other people’s eyes to your name and your website is always good
promotion, especially if you are an awesome writer. Not to mention networking with
other bloggers is great for business as well.
6. Free Web Site Content. It can be articles, web site directories, search engines,
free stuff directories, message boards, web blogs, chat rooms, online games, web
audio, web video, etc.
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7. Free Reprint Articles or small pieces of information that you allow other
online publishers to republish free of charge if they include your resource box or a
small ad underneath the article. You can submit your articles directly to the publishers
via e-mail, display them on your Web site/e-zine or submit them to free reprint
article directories/e-mail lists.
Closely related to a free reprint article is a press release. It usually contains
information related to your business that is newsworthy. The media will sometimes
publish the whole press release or use bits and pieces to write an article about it.
8. Free e-zines can be compared to e-mail or HTML versions of print newsletters or short magazines. They are both sent by e-mail directly or indirectly, just telling
the subscriber the Web site where he or she can read the issue. E-zines can also just
be opt-in or announcement lists. The publisher may announce new product releases,
Web site updates, contests, news alerts, etc.
There are also user - generated e-zines commonly called e-mail discussion lists.
Everyone who subscribes can send content, questions and answers to the list. All
the subscribers will get the discussion or content messages as they are sent, unless
they subscribed to a digest version that allows them to get all the messages grouped
together, usually once a day.
9. Free e-courses are a divided series of articles, lessons or other information
that are published on a follow-up autoresponder. When a person e-mails the autoresponder address, he will receive his first lesson via e-mail within seconds or a few
minutes. Then usually every one or two days they will receive another lesson until the
e-course is complete. There are e-courses that have ranged from one lesson clear up
to 20 or even more lessons long. The most common are 3 - 7 lesson e-courses.
10. Free seminars. In setting up a free seminar, you must keep it to a size that
is manageable and affordable for you. As time goes on and you make more money
as a result of these methods, you can expand the size and scope of your events. Start
small - find restaurants near concentrations of potential prospects that have private
rooms you can reserve for free and affordable lunch menus, and present to groups of
a dozen or so people.
There are any number of ways to announce your free seminar, but invitations
are most effective when you can target them to a geographic area that is very close
to the site of your event. Few people will drive across town to attend unless they are
extremely interested in the topic of choice, but even those with only a mild interest
or curiosity will go somewhere that is only a few minutes away. You can always send
out an announcement to your entire list, but chances are only those who are nearby
will attend.
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If you get a poor response to your invitations, you may have made it sound like
a sales pitch. You may have also failed to put enough emphasis on the incentive. Do
not just say, “Lunch will be provided at no cost.” Say something like, “You’ll enjoy the
sumptuous creations of XY Restaurant, compliments of us!” Avoid any sales lingo.
Use a neutral title for yourself, such as consultant. Never use “account executive” or
anything similar.
The next question is how many flyers to distribute. More is better, and too many
is better than not enough. Do not expect a tremendous response; distribute as many
as possible. If you do not get enough responses, you will wind up having to cancel
the event. On the other hand, if you get too many, you can accept as many attendees
as you can accommodate and inform the rest that the event is already fully booked
but another will be coming up soon. This does two things: First, it gives you a list of
people you already know will want to attend the next one, and second, it raises your
value because everyone wants what is in demand.
The final aspect is timing. It is usually recommend 10 days to 2 weeks before.
Any sooner and the chances are too high that people will already have prior commitments. Any longer and people will forget or lose interest and fail to show up. The day
before, call every attendee to confirm that they will be in attendance. If anyone cancels, and you were lucky enough to get a good response and sell out, you can call one
of your “alternative attendees”. You can also e-mail a reminder a few days before.
Once you have finished, be sure to sincerely thank each person for coming as
they leave. Several will ask you to contact them, which is why it is important
to remember names right from the start! You do not want to be in your office the
next day with a stack of cards and no clue as to who is who. You will probably also
be contacted by some of the attendees requesting more information. Whatever you
do, do not try to sell or set appointments while people are leaving; all you want to do
is to let them know they can call or e-mail you anytime if they have questions or an
interest in buying.
Once your seminar is complete, it is time to turn your attendees into customers.
Mail or e-mail a thank-you note to everyone who came. This is a nice gesture,
especially since you gave them something for free and there is no expectation for you
to thank them for coming. Wait a week, then call each of them to set up an appointment.
This is one of the few exceptions to my usual rules on calling; since they have met
you, you should call personally. Some will accept an appointment and some will not.
For those who are not interested or who have no current need, get their okay to add
them to your newsletter list. When the time comes that they do have a need, you will
be certain to get the sale.
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11. Radio and TV interviews are an excellent way to get free publicity. Become
available for interviews by radio and TV reporters. The key is getting invited. How
do you do that?
First, make sure you are listed in professional directories. When reporters need
an expert to come in, they often look in “Who is Who” or other directories to find
an expert.
Second, if you position yourself as an expert, you will be on the media shortlist
for an interview. If you write a book in your field and send it to all media people, you
will be considered a good interview on the subject you have written about. Giving
frequent seminars and publishing a newsletter is another way to position yourself in
your community as an expert. Make sure all reporters are on your newsletter mailing
list, and that they get invited to your seminar.
Another key to getting on radio or TV is to know what their content needs are,
and provide it. For example, many radio and TV news programs have health
segments, which provide healthy living information to the audience. This is a golden
opportunity for dentists, health food stores owners, chiropractors, doctors and more
to get invited for an interview about the latest health topic. Send a press release to
the editor of the health news segment and suggest a topic, and offer yourself as an
interviewee. This method works extremely well, and is not limited to any one field.
A businessman, an auto mechanic, a pet store owner, a hair stylist – all can provide
newsworthy info in their respective fields that would make good radio and TV
feature material.
12. Letters to editors. The key is to work a promotional message into your
letter, without making it look that way. This would seem to make it impossible to use
a letter to the editor as a pitch for your business. Well, maybe you cannot work in a
pitch, but you can get your name, and the name of your business in print in one of
the most highly read sections of the newspaper. The best idea is to respond to a story
that has already run in the paper, or better yet, one of the newspaper’s editorials, or a
response to a letter from another reader. You can also write a letter on a topic of high
interest, relevance which is on people’s minds.
It is very important that you do not write an angry, controversial letter, or blast
someone else for something they did or said you do not agree with. Rather, write a
positive letter making constructive comments and suggestions. It is okay if you “hit a
nerve“ as long as you are sure most people will agree with the way you do it!
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… The intersection at XYZ St. and ABC Avenue is in dire need of a new set
of pedestrian lights. Hundreds of children must cross there each day on their way
to school and back. There have been too many close calls lately, so I think the rate
payers of this town should foot the bill for traffic lights that will make crossing safe
and easy for our children. As a person who sells cars in this town, the last thing I
want is someone getting hurt by a motorist that didn’t have greater reason to slow
down or stop with so many children around.
Sincerely,
John Tomson
When people read this letter, they will see that John Tomson sells cars! It is not
an ad, it is not hard sell – but it is Bob’s name in print, and it also states his business.
That is one more bit of publicity that puts John on the path to becoming a household
name in his geographic marketing arena. If John made a point to write at least a
dozen letters a year, the impact of getting his name on the highly read editorial page
is going to be significant. Do not underestimate the value of getting your name in
print as often as you can, and in a positive light. Letters to the Editor are one way of
doing just that.
13. Newspaper or magazine column is a superb marketing tool, especially in
such businesses where you need to build-up your reputation. First, a column, like a
book, is a powerful positioning tool. When your name and thumbnail photo appears
over your column week-to-week, you build your reputation as an expert in your field.
When it comes time to buy, your name will be front and centre in the customer’s
mind. Furthermore, you will be perceived as superior to your competitors because
you are the guy who writes that column! Second, every column you publish is better
than any ad you can buy, especially if you cleverly work your marketing messages
into your objective information. A news or informational column is not perceived as
an ad, and thus, turns off the buyer’s natural mental ad filter.
The tough part is getting a newspaper or magazine to agree to run your column.
Publishers absolutely hate handing out free ink to anybody, and they will not like
your column if it is a blatant attempt to plug your business. A good, subtle writer can
work in ‘hidden’ pitches for his or her products, but it must be done with the utmost
finesse. Offer your column for free to any publisher who will run it. That way they get
something and you get something. If they run your column, you have a blockbuster
tool for garnering new business, and you will solidify your image as the best at what
you do! Tagging your free phone number at the end of your column may be all you
need to get your phone ringing.
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Practical task
You are a marketer of an ice-cream company which wants to enter new market
(for that purpose choose the country you like).
1. Make a research of your chosen country – what magazines and newspapers
could be suitable for you. Decide what kind of topics you could offer to Publisher
(make a list of first 5 topics).
2. Write a letter to which you would send to editor of your chosen magazine or
newspaper. Make it as good as possible to “open your“ gates to free ink.
3. Prepare a script of telephone conversation which you would use in case if
you did not receive a positive reply from an editor within 2-3 days.
14. Fundraising and charity donations. Donate some of the profits you
generate every month to charity. Great for promotion in the media and clients to
feel like they are helping out the charity by purchasing from you. Helping out with a
fund raiser for a good cause will help out your marketing cause as well. Again, when
you do good works, you bolster your image as a company who cares, and you
create opportunities for free media coverage. Get hooked up with a charity that best
matches your customer demographic. Ask what you can do to help. Every fundraising contact you make should also contain a plug for your business – just be sure you
do not make yourself look like you are more concerned with the marketing than the
fundraising. A great way to raise funds for charity and sell your products simultaneously is to donate a set amount for each purchase made. For example, you might say:
“One pound of every purchase will be donated to the ABC Children Hospital”. You
tie selling to a good cause, and everybody wins!
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1. Breakfast seminar. If you are going to conduct a seminar, consider a
breakfast seminar. The early morning hours are when you will get people at their
best, most optimistic, most willing to pay attention and learn. A breakfast seminar
on Monday morning is even better. People jump at a chance to start their work week
with something different. Also, breakfast tends to be the cheapest meal of the day. So
over a plate of eggs and some good coffee, you will have a bright, cheerful attentive
audience glad to be there, feeling aggressive about starting a new week. Breakfast
seminars work best for the bosses – those that can make their own schedules and
arrange their calendars accordingly. And when you get these people, you get the
movers and shakers – the people that can make decisions, and make something
happen. It is a golden opportunity for you to make connections with the people you
most need to connect with.
2. Private event. If you are getting ready to bring out a new product, you may
want to consider making the event an exclusive, private affair, inviting only those
people who can make things happen for you. You are going to reveal your new item
to the world sooner or later, but why not create some buzz and add a little drama to
the event? Such an event is especially enticing to the press. If you want some
free media coverage, conduct an exclusive, private event – and tell the press you are
willing to let them in the back door! Tell your press contact that they can be the first
to get a line on your latest thing, and that there will also be other important people
they can gain access too.
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5.4. Unusual Advertising Channels
1. Business Cards – STOP! Do not skip this one. So many people see this and
think you are going to tell them to print cards and hand them out. What you do with
these cards is head to every library or book store in your city and find the section that
relates to your business. Open each and every book and place a business card
somewhere in the book. This is great targeted marketing and only costs you a few
bucks for the cards and an afternoon of placing the cards.
Your business card can and should do a lot more than simply announce who
you are and where people can call you. They can do all the work of an ad, and do it
very well. Think of your business cards as a mobile, one-dimensional version
of yourself. Put your picture on your card. It will help people associate your name
with you and remember you because they can now picture you. Remember that your
business card may the first impression people get of you and your company. You only
get one chance to make a good first impression! A business card works to build your
image, convey your personality, and is a solid and powerful reflection of you and
your business.
Figure 25. Original business cards
Source: C. Wilson (2012)
Here are some advices that business cards should have:
• Make sure all your contact info is listed, including phone, fax, postal
address and definitely your web page address.
• Include your picture and logo.
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• Include your company motto, mission statement, or unique selling proposition).
• Use coloured stock or coloured ink.
• Put a discount coupon on the back of your card, or use the back to run an outright ad!
• List helpful information on the back of your card, such as emergency numbers,
a calendar, and helpful tips: this will give a reason for people to hold onto your
card rather than toss it out at the first opportunity.
Some advices what should be avoided in a business card:
• Do not cross out outdated info by hand. Reprint new cards as soon as you need
to change information.
• Do not go overboard with wild colours. No neon or glowing in the dark. Keep
it light.
• Do not use fancy script fonts that are difficult to read.
• DO NOT USE ALL CAPS.
• Do not use many different kinds of fonts.
• Do not make your design too cluttered – do not try to do too much, while at the
same time, develop a quick impact message that does more than just tell who
you are.
2. In - package advertising. If you have made a sale and you are shipping a
product anyway, it only makes sense to use that vehicle for more of your marketing materials to ride along with it. Insert your best direct mail materials inside the
package you are shipping to a sold customer, and go for the second sale right away.
Not including more sales materials in your packages is a lost opportunity to up-sell,
back-end sell, and add-on sell – and it is these latter kinds of sales where real profits
are really made!
3. Package advertising. What is on the outside of your packages? Nothing, you
say? Why? Why are you wasting a space you know your customer is going to look
at? Why not print ads, your free phone number or even a coupon on the outside of
the package? You can also attach a sealed envelope to the outside of the package. The
customer will almost always open it. They may think it is an invoice or some other
important information about the purchase they have just received. But if they open
it and get something they never expected to get – like a coupon with a nice discount
on a future purchase – you will enjoy that added value effect which works so well in
selling.
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4. Bumper stickers are great because they can go anywhere, not just on your
car. Bathroom stalls, street poles, etc. Get creative with where you place them, they
can grab people’s attention when placed in the right spots. Bumper stickers are a good
way to advertise because they:
• are like a travelling business card,
• reach a captive audience,
• message is brief and easy to absorb,
• can generate curiosity,
• make people think,
• can generate word of mouth,
• easily capture attention.
Everybody likes them because they tend to be funny. Nonetheless funny does not
necessarily sell; benefits sell and activation information bring people to your store,
or gets them to call you. Maximise your bumper sticker effort by transferring your
message to T-shirts, hats, cup holders, pens, etc.
Figure 26. Social advertising for safe driving
Source: www.creativeguerrillamarketing.com
5. Temporary Tattoos will last for X amount of days and would be perfect for blog
expos or other events where tons of people will be. Placing it in a weird place
(forehead, neck, full back, foot, etc.) is also a great way to get it noticed. Hey, if people
talk about it, that is the whole point, right?
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6. Do Not Disturb – Heading to a blog expo anytime soon? Get some door
hangers printed up with your business information on it and possibly a link to something
free on your site. Get the attention of everyone in your market this way, and it is
super cheap as well. No one else I know has been doing this, thus you will stand out
for sure.
7. Pay it forward – when you are heading into the movie theatre, pay the persons
way behind you and tell the cashier to give them your business card. You are not
guaranteed that the person will become a client but I bet the word of mouth on that
one would be pretty big.
8. Print Calendars could be given to each of your clients or left in a store for
people to take for free. Print your website address and a little slogan or client testimonial
on each month’s picture for exposure every day. The people using your calendars will
even help you out when they have company over who will see the calendar, especially
if the images you use are high end and visually appealing.
9. Magazine inserts magazine inserts take the form of a card stapled or placed
loose into the binding of the magazine. They have the advantage of irritating the
reader. Why is that an advantage? Because it forces the reader to confront the card,
and deal with it – most often throw it out. But before they do that, they will almost always
look at it, and if they like what they see, they will take action on it. The magazine
insert is vastly underused by most sellers today. They have the tremendous advantage
of being highly audience specific, while newspapers are for general audiences. If you
are selling high-tech wood burning stoves, finding a home improvement magazine
will deliver the perfect audience. Perhaps the biggest drawback of magazine inserts
is expense. High profile magazines with national audiences do not come cheap, and
many will reject your insert anyway. But look for smaller, regional magazines. These
are a golden opportunity to use as a vehicle for your inserts. You will get a more
targeted audience, both by geography and subject.
10. Window decals. You can get a custom printed window decal on your car
with your logo/website and possibly a slogan. It looks professional and is great when
your car stops for red lights.
11. T-Shirts are great for turning yourself or others into walking billboard. You
can give the t-shirts away as prizes which is also another great way of gaining word of
mouth promotion. Your t-shirts for the prizes do not need your website address on it.
Just give away a great, fashionable shirt and that will have people eager to tell friends
and family where they got it from.
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You can combine a T-shirt ad campaign with the concept of getting something
free if you offer a complementary T-shirt with the purchase of a specific amount or
a particular product. Or, you can use them to get people to come to a special sale:
“come in and get a free T-shirt today!“ Make sure you design a T-shirt that works to
sell. That means more than just your name or logo – try to get some activation
information, like a free phone number included. If you are clever enough, you can
design your T-shirt to be both attractive to wear, and have enough utility to get the
work of promotion done.
The better effect you will reach if you make something strange and unusual with
your company T-shirt. Here is an egzample from German ad group Scholz & Friends
where they sugest special T-shirts for plumbers. Customers are often afraid to
encounter the plumber’s crack and to make this sight a bit more attractive, apparently
suggested the following T-shirt.
Figure 27. Plumber‘s T-shirt
Source: http://blog.guerrillacomm.com
12. Your store window is like a billboard that can scream out a message to
the street, so do not waste this space with a mere display of your products. Use
your window to give customers a reason to stop and come in. That means putting
up bright, easy-to-see signs that grab attention, and then saying something specific.
Use the element of ‘free.’ Put up a window signs that says: “Free Ear Piercing Here!“
Or, “Get a Dinner for Two for a Test Drive!“ Also, make use of attention getting flashing
lights – or maybe put a live person in your window to wink at people as they walk buy.
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Whatever you do, make your window on the world pull its weight by doing
something exciting and different to make people stop, look, and come in.
As for example, the broken-glass sticker was placed on the window of an Apple
Store to promote the release of new product - iPod Hi-Fi.
Figure 28. Apple Store broken-broken window
13. Creative use of stickers is not only an innovative way to attract attention, it is
also an extremely cost-effective way to create a lasting impression. Many companies,
whose only form of advertising is stickers, have seen an increase in business by as
much as 550% (R. Lum, 2010). The great thing about these stickers is that they can be
easily customised and this is probably one of the main reasons why they have become
so popular.
Figure 29. Coins with Cilit BANG stickers
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The household cleaning product Cillit BANG placed transparent stickers on 5
Cent coins, they gave out as change to consumers, that were half way cleaned by Cillit
BANG and half way dirty.
Figure 30. Cruel but very effective sticker on a Bus
This sticker was placed on the front of a bus to encourage pedestrians to look
both ways before crossing!
Figure 31. Razor blade advertising on eggs
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Wilkinson Quattro Titanium placed transparent stickers of masculine faces on
the eggs and put an advertising flyer with a promotion on the back in every box.
14. Supermarket boards. Just about everybody goes to the supermarket now
and then. Better yet, the person who goes to the supermarket most often is very likely
to be the person who makes all the buying decision for the family. In supermarkets
you will find bulletin boards cluttered with hundreds of postings. The good thing
about this board is that it is a venue for free advertising for you. The bad thing is
all the clutter. If you are lucky, you will find a spare patch of board that is not covered
by some other scrap of paper with the picture of a lost pet or an old car for sale.
So the challenge is to stand out, like it is with so much other advertising. You
are going to post a vivid sign with an attention grabbing headline that will make
people stop and look further, as beneath your headline will be compelling sales copy
(chapter 4.2). Beneath that a free phone number in large print. You will also include
a pocket of take-ones with your complete contact information on it. Stapled to each
take-one will be your business card. After you post your piece, stand back and look
at the board from a distance. Does your posting leap out from the pack and attract
attention? If not, it is time to make changes until it does stand out. Do not forget to
conduct a test of your supermarket board ad. If it brings no results, you need to go
back to the drawing board and find something that works. But once you get a board
ad that works, it is time to get them up in every supermarket board, and other public
bulletin boards in the region. If you are going to use public bulletin boards, do it all
the way, do it right, and do not stop testing until you make it pull results.
15. On -vehicle advertising. Your vehicle can be a travelling billboard for your
business. A magnet sign on your vehicle, or having your message painted directly
on your vehicle is like getting a free ad every time you drive your car, van or truck.
Broad-sided vehicles like trucks and vans can blast exciting, high-visibility, high
impact messages to the public. Make sure you put your free phone number on your
vehicle, and even your web page address. Simply putting your company name on
your vehicle is not enough. It does nothing to prompt action. Get your phone
number, address, and even a picture of your product on the vehicle, too. If you are
going to use your vehicle for advertising, make the most of it. As for example, if
municipality allows for zoo to have its free advertising on one of the city busses, think
about something original and grabbing attention!
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Figure 32. Zoo advertisement on city bus
Source: http://signsvancouverbc.com/decals-and-stickers
16. On-hold messages. If you have to put people on hold, why waste time playing
them some mindless music when you can use the time to deliver a sales message
to them? If a person is willing to hold, you have their attention. And when you
have attention, you are very close on your way to a sale. Record a short advertising
message to play and repeat during hold, and you will make sales even while your
employees are doing something else. The drawback is that you risk turning the caller
off. The hang-up rate for hold is more than 80% – yet of those that do stay on hold,
85% listen to the entire message (D. Abingdon, 2005).
Thus, you have little reason not to try this automated way to make more sales,
especially if you are already putting people on hold anyway.
A music shop used hold to play samples of newly released CDs. A bookstore
used hold to read passages from new books. It is a great way to give customers a
taste of something you would like them to buy.
17. Sticky Notes. There is another way to use your stamper or even your printer.
Sticky notes are noticeable anywhere because people know what they are for; notes.
Put these on local business doors, offices, cars, or above mail boxes in apartment
complexes and people will take notice.
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18. Placemats in restaurants are looked at by people waiting to eat. They get
looked at when two people are on a date and they run out of conversation. They
might as well be looking at your ad. Placemat ads probably work best for businesses
with an affinity to restaurants, such as cinemas, theatres, entertainment venues, such
as bowling alleys or night clubs. If people are out to eat, they may be up for other
activities as well. Can you sell insurance, a computer or a luxury car on a placemat?
The thing is that more likely, paper placemats are for everyday restaurants that serve
the common crowd. You should think about using this tool if it is your target audience.
19. Bag stuffers. When you bag up your customer’s purchases, do not miss
an opportunity to slip marketing materials along with everything else. You know
customers are going to look into the bag (that is a prime goal of direct marketing)
getting them to look! Print up flyers, ad sheets, brochures, or just about anything with
a great offer on it. Do not forget a discount coupon. Nothing will get them to come
back faster than a coupon they can bring in for savings. You can also place a free gift
in the bag. This has the powerful ‘I never expected to get something extra’ impact that
works so well to make customers adore you and come back for more. A free item can
also double as an advertising vehicle: a T-shirt with your logo on it, a pen with your
name and number on it, a cup with your info on it and lots of other stuff you can
think of on your own. Just remember, customers are going to look in that bag. Give
them something to find, and bag more sales!
20. Gift basket. A free gift is a great marketing tool, and a gift basket is more of
the same, except stronger and better! Everyone likes to get something for free from a
business, but an entire gift basket has an even stronger impact. Before you start
worrying about cost, your gift basket does not have to cost appreciably more than a
single free gift, it just needs to have the perception of costing more. You can fill a gift
basket with a large number of very inexpensive items. With a gift basket, people do
not see quality, they see quantity. Gift baskets are excellent for holidays and special
promotions. Better still, when you advertise a ‘free gift basket’ that sounds better than
just a ‘free gift.’ The increased advertising pull alone can make up for any extra cost
you may have to put into developing your gift basket.
21. Postcard mailings are an excellent direct marketing vehicle with many
advantages. First, they are less expensive to mail than sales letters in envelopes.
Postcards are in-your-face advertising because they do not have to be opened. People
cannot help but look at them, even as they throw them away. Postcards work
extremely well as a follow-up mailer to those who did not respond to your first sales
letter mailing. Postcards can have bright, attention grabbing, full-colour pictures on
one side and your sales copy on the other side. Postcards can be used to say thank
you, to carry a discount coupon, to announce a sale or a new location, and more.
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As according to D. Abingdon (2005), studies show that “junk postcards“ get read
with much higher rates than do direct mail pieces in envelopes. Also, oversised
postcards pull better response than smaller postcards. In fact, postcards are much
more effective because they are read not only by the person to who it is addressed.
Postman will see the postcard; if it is sent to the Office, than secretary and maybe
even few colleagues will see; if you send a postcard to person at home, his family
members and maybe even neighbours or friends will see it.
Figure 33. Happy birthday postcard with advertising
Source: www.madgreens.com
22. Petrol pump ads is a good way to force an advertising message on a
prospect. As they wait for their car to fill with petrol, they cannot help but see and
maybe even stare at an ad you have strategically placed somewhere on or near the
pump handle. This is another excellent place to put your free phone number.
Hundreds of people will see the ad everyday, and it will be a target sampling from a
wide cross section of life. You can also place a small box or poster with a pouch to
provide a receptacle for your flyers.
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Practical task
Which of those tools you could use for ice-cream advertising? Let us say, you
have to introduce to the market new flavour of energy ice-cream with caffeine and
taurine. Main feature of those ice-cream that they really give feeling of additional
energy.
What message would you transfer through these channels?
How would you make those advertising solutions to be catchy and original?
5.5. Tools for Sale Support
1. Free samples. Experienced marketers know that if they can just get a sample
of their product into the hands (or the mouth!) of a prospect so they can experience
it directly, a sale is not far away. That is why car dealers urge people to come in for a
test drive. That is why so many sellers let you try product for free for 30 days or pay
nothing. It is why perfume sellers pay sky-high advertising rates to put a “scratch
and sniff “ sample of their heavenly scent in the pages of a magazine. They know an
actual physical sample in the hands of the prospect is 100 times better than a mere
picture of a product in a catalogue, or a description of a product in advertising sales
copy. When the prospect can see, hear, smell, touch and taste the product, they will
literally sell themselves. Also, people love to get something for free. Free samples are
an excellent way to draw people in, and get them closer to the product so they can
experience it, then buy it.
New pizzeria was opened in the office districts in Vilnius few years ago. There
were many office buildings in the area, but there were many competitors as well –
starting from national and Chinese restaurants, finishing fast food bars. Competition was so high that some of the establishments could not bear it – you could
always find that one or another of them has been closed and premises are for rent.
New pizzeria seemed to have nothing outstanding which could attract clients
during the lunch time. But within two weeks since it was opened, there were
no vacant seat during the lunch time! Company counted, that it is “one week
marketing campaign“ fit in 150 EUR budget!
How they succeeded? They gave free samples”, but did it in guerrilla way. Most
of office buildings had security staff which does not allow any outsiders to enter the
building and furthermore to distribute any kind of advertising. Pizzeria made as
many pizzas as pizza guy could take with him.
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When the pizza guy came to the security officer, he simply said, that he delivered pizza for companies A and B. So the first filter was passed. Pizza guy visited
each company in the building and gave a big (family size) pizza to secretaries or
anyone else who was available at the office during the lunch time for free.
Undoubtedly, the packaging had an advertisement inside saying that new fantastic pizzeria is finally opened just 5-10 min. away from this office building.
When colleagues came from lunch and had a surprise from secretary sharing
delicious pizza, highly positive emotions were associated with this new pizzeria.
The pizza guy dis this only for one week and within couple of weeks their establishment was fully booked during lunch time. No other advertising was used at that
time!
2. Demonstrations. If you got a service business, this might be perfect for you.
Find a local store that pertains to your services and put on a free demo of your
services. Your service involve outdoors? Contact news stations and let them know
you will be offering a BBQ and free service demonstration. The BBQ could get a little
costly, but the amount of press and promotion could really pay off.
3. Catalogue in USB Drive. Maybe it is time to put some excitement into giving your catalogues to potential customers? Creating a catalogue in USB Drive would
increase sales appeal. Also, USB Drive catalogues can be targeted and easily personalised
for each client. USB Drive enables you to do what no paper catalogue could ever do
– use moving pictures, animation, sound, and full-colour, mind-blowing special
effects. Based on what you know about your customer’s buying habits, each USB
Drive can be programmed to appeal to those individual habits.
A USB Drive can also be programmed to interact live with the Internet. It can
send customers to your site, and recognise them when they get there. Customers can
also take advantage of special offers and custom designed discounts you have placed
on each disc.
Practical task
You represent a new ice-cream company which wants to enter Lithuanian
market. Check the situation from case analysis in Chapter 1.6. There are only 4
major supermarket chains and up to 10 networks of small shops in Lithuania. Sales
manager is preparing to visit each of them and introduce new ice-cream. The goal
of Sales manager is to get his ice-cream in fridges of supermarkets and smaller
shops. The main problem is that space in fridges is limited and other ice-cream
producers already have taken the place. So the Sales manager will have to provide
strong arguments why shops should start selling his ice-creams.
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Your task is to provide and explain an idea:
1. how should the sales presentation look like;
2. how should the catalogue in USB Drive look like;
3. any other additional benefits and supporting items are welcome.
Let us say, you have a designer in your team and he or she will implement your
ideas. But you cannot allow yourself to spend more than 300 EUR for preparing
this presentation and catalogue in USB Drive. Find the best suitable USB Drive and
check if your recommended ideas fit in budget which remains from purchasing
USB Drive.
4. On-line catalogues are a new way to reach existing and new markets. They
cost relatively little to establish. They can leverage existing databases, processes, and
marketing techniques. Anything that can be sold through mail-order can be sold
on-line and D. Abingdon (2005) provides major tips:
• Get to know the web well first by becoming a frequent Web surfer. If you are
going to be involved with building an on-line catalogue, you must know the
playing field well, and be comfortable there.
• Understand that the web is its own unique marketing and sales medium.
That means using a pull method to get customers to your on-line catalogue,
rather than a push method.
• Your on-line catalogue will be a two-way communication medium. Use it to
build relationships with customers.
• Do not be static. Create a useful, informational, interactive and wellorganised Web experience. Your on-line catalogue should not be merely an
electronic version of your paper catalogue. Interesting content, interactivity,
easy navigation, and a solid, secure, on-line shopping process is a must.
• Your sales, service, marketing and fulfilment processes and systems will
need to be modified to serve the web customer.
• Test everything! Conduct a testing period with a limited number of customers
for usability, impression, understanding content, and for making sure things
are functioning properly before you go big time and spend a lot of money.
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Practical task
Choose any business and find the best online catalogue provided by company,
working in your that business sector. Answer the following questions:
1. Why this online catalogue is the best according to you?
2. What would you improve, if it was yours?
3. If you were a competitor of this company, what decisions you would take regarding your own online catalogue? Have in mind that your budget is limited and
you cannot hire well paid web programmers (hint: check freelancer prices in other
countries through freelance systems like www.freelancer.com). If you decide to
create your online catalogue, please explain, how it will be better than the best
currently available? And why customers should buy from your catalogue, not from
any other?
4. Voice mail. Setting up a voice mail number people can call to hear your sales
pitch is a non-labour intensive way to reach thousands of people fast and inexpensively.
Write a two minute sales pitch people can call free and listen to. Then advertise your
number aggressively, and wait for the calls to pour in. Your voice mail does the selling
for you, can take orders, and complete the entire sales process. You can sell to
thousands of people while you spend your time doing something else. The key is to
have a compelling script that sells well. Your voice mail can also be used for advertising,
and prompt the caller to come in, or order your more complete marketing package.
Voice mail is a technology that sells, and also frees you to spend time on other forms
of selling – but if it works really well, you could spend your time on the beach while
your voice mail generates the cash!
5 Surveys. The more you know about the customer, the easier it is to sell. A
survey is also a way to sell. Let us say you call a 1.000 people and conduct a quick
customer survey. You are not selling at this point, merely gathering information. You
may offer a gift to thank the prospect for taking part in your survey. The next time
you call, it is not going to be a cold call. The prospect knows you, and you know a
lot about the prospect, including their needs and wants, so you can fulfil those needs
and wants, and make sales. You can conduct surveys from a public booth, at trade
shows, by using a contest or prize drawing. You can mail a survey and offer a free gift
to all who respond. Those who do respond will be very hot prospects. Now you have
got a good customer list to send your direct marketing materials to. Some of the big
companies hire marketing research firms to conduct surveys to determine the lay of
the land – that is, if a particular geographic area is ripe for what the company sells. It
is expensive, but it pays off because the company is no longer selling blind.
171
They are not wasting their precious marketing budget on an area that is not likely
to yield sales. You do not have to hire a professional research agency to do your
surveys. You can design and do it your own. You can also hold workshops and focus
groups – great ways to learn customer information, and build your selling list at the
same time. Do your own surveys on whatever level you can afford. It will not be a
waste of time, and you will find new customer sources you may never have
discovered otherwise.
An accountancy service company in Lithuania had no efficiency with cold
calling. If they called to the company and tried to offer accountancy services, they
almost every time faced the same answer – we already have an accountant or a
contract with accountancy company and we are happy with what we have.
Other marketing tools were applied (like contextual advertising, web ads and
etc.), but the company had a person who could make cold calling every day at least
3-5 hours. So why not using that?
A survey idea was developed. The girl was calling and sending e-mails to
potential clients, but this time she was not selling anything. Instead she had
prepared conversation script and e-mail text introducing the survey. The main idea
was to give as more as possible importance for manager of the company (potential
client), avoid selling anything and grant a gift for their time – 1 hour (90 EUR
worth) consultation from financial expert for free, as a thank you gift for giving 5
minutes for survey. After making test calling to 110 potential clients the result was
much much better than ever before:
1. More than 30% companies have filled the survey providing such important
information for sales as what accountancy software they are using, do they
hire accountant or an accountancy company, what major issue do thy face and etc.
2. Even 5 company managers registered for free consultation which was held in
the head office of an accountancy company and one of them became a client!
6. Top 10 reasons to choose YOU – instead of leaving business cards or other
promo material at a business or in someone’s email box, create a list of the top 10
reasons why the prospect should choose your company. Make them 100% true,
humorous and memorable. Use at least few of them or even all of them in any of your
marketing tools.
7. Anything Else? – No, the list is not done yet. These are two words to say right
before you exchange money with a client/customer. This will make them think and
could open doors to a larger pay day.
172
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Appendixes
Appendix No. 1
200 Weapons for Guerrilla Marketing
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
Marketing plan
A marketing calendar
Identity
Business cards
Stationery
Personal letters
Telephone marketing
A toll-free number
A vanity phone number
The Yellow Pages
Postcards
Postcard decks
Classified ads
Per-order and per-inquiry advertising
Free ads in shoppers
Circulars and flies
Community bulletin boards
Movie ads
Outside signs
Street banners
A window display
Inside signs
Posters
Canvassing
Door hangers
An elevator pitch
A value story
Backend sales
Letters of recommendation
Attendance at trade shows
Advertising
Direct mail
Newspaper ads
Radio spots
Magazine ads
Billboards
Television commercials
A computer
A printer or fax machine
101. Your employees and reps
102. A designated guerrilla
103. Employee attire
104. Your social demeanour
105. Your target audience
106. Your circle of influence
107. Your contact time with customers
108. Saying “Hello” and “Goodbye”
109. Your teaching ability
110. Stories
111. Sales training
112. Use of downtime
113. Networking
114. Professional titles
115. Affiliate marketing
116. Media contacts
117. “A”-List customers
118. Your core story
119. A sense of urgency
120. Limited time or quantity offers
121. A call to action
122. Satisfied customers
123. A benefits list
124. Competitive advantages
125. Gifts
126. Service
127. Public relations
128. Fusion marketing
129. Barter
130. Word-of-mouth
131. Buzz
132. Community involvement
133. Club and association memberships
134. Free directory listings
135. A tradeshow booth
136. Special events
137. A name tag at events
138. Luxury box at events
139. Gift certificates
177
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
51.
52.
53.
54.
55.
56.
57.
58.
59.
60.
61.
62.
63.
64.
65.
66.
67.
68.
69.
70.
71.
72.
73.
74.
75.
76.
77.
78.
79.
80.
81.
82.
83.
84.
85.
86.
87.
178
Chat rooms
Forums
Internet bulletin boards
List building
Personalised e-mail
An e-mail signature
Canned e-mail
Bulk e-mail
Audio and video postcards
A domain name
A web site
A landing page
A merchant account
A shopping cart
Auto-responders
A search engine ranking
Electronic brochures
RSS feeds
blogs
Podcasting
A personal e-zine
Ads in other e-zines
E-Books
Content provision
Webinars
Joint ventures
Word-of-mouse
Viral marketing
eBay and other auction sites
Click analysers
Pay-per-click ads
Search engine keywords
Google AdWords
Sponsored links
Reciprocal link exchanges
Banner exchanges
Web conversion rates
Knowledge of your market
Research studies
Specific customer data
Case studies
Sharing
Brochures
Catalogues
Business directories
Public service announcements
A newsletter
Speeches
140. Audio-visual aids
141. Flip charts
142. Reprints and blow-ups
143. Coupons
144. A free trail offer
145. Guarantees
146. Contests and sweepstakes
147. Baking or crafts ability
148. Lead buying
149. Follow-up
150. A tracking plan
151. Marketing-on-hold
152. Branded entertainment
153. Product placement
154. Being a radio talk show guest
155. Being a TV talk show guest
156. Subliminal marketing
157. A proper view of marketing
158. Brand name awareness
159. Intelligent positioning
160. A name
161. A meme
162. A theme line
163. Writing ability
164. Copywriting ability
165. Headline copy talent
166. Location
167. Hours of operation
168. Days of operation
169. Credit card acceptance
170. Financing availability
171. Credibility
172. Reputation
173. Efficiency
174. Quality
175. Service
176. Selection
177. Price
178. Upgrade opportunities
179. Referral program
180. Spying
181. Testimonials
182. Extra value
183. Adopting a noble cause
184. Easy to do business with
185. Honest interest in people
186. Good telephone demeanour
187. Passion and enthusiasm
88. Free consultations
89. Free demonstrations
90. Free seminars
91. Articles
92. Columns
93. Writing books
94. Publishing-on-demand
95. Workshops
96. Teleseminars
97. Infomercials
98. Constant learning
99. Marketing insight
100. Yourself
188. Sensitivity
189. Patience
190. Flexibility
191. Generosity
192. Self-confidence
193. Neatness
194. Aggressiveness
195. Competitiveness
196. High energy
197. Speed
198. Focus
199. Attention to details
200. Ability to take action
179
Appendix No. 2
150 Triggers for Emotions
1) making or wining money
2) increasing profits
3) increasing sales
4) high investment returns
5) getting a raise
6) gaining a promotion
7) working from home
8) having a fulfilling career
9) working less
10) eliminating debt
11) having excellent credit
12) paying bills before they’re due
13) getting a bargain
14) retiring early
15) spending money without worry
16) buying whatever they want
17) being successful
18) losing or paying a lot of money
19) small profits
20) low investment returns
21) getting fired
22) working long hours
23) having a dead-end career
24) going bankrupt
25) having no credit
26) paying bills late or having late fees
27) paying a high price
28) working only to make ends meet
29) being on a budget or
30) only being able to afford their needs
31) being unsuccessful
32) being beautiful/attractive
33) being in good health
34) living a long life
35) being pain-free
36) being muscular
37) being full of energy
38) being strong
39) being drug-free
40) being ugly/unattractive
41) being in bad health
42) dying at a young age
43) having physical pain
44) being out of shape
45) lacking energy
180
46)
47)
48)
49)
50)
51)
52)
53)
54)
55)
56)
57)
58)
59)
60)
61)
62)
63)
64)
65)
66)
67)
68)
69)
70)
71)
72)
73)
74)
75)
76)
77)
78)
79)
80)
81)
82)
83)
84)
85)
86)
87)
88)
89)
90)
being weak
being addicted to drugs
being smart/intelligent
being a leader
being an expert
looking credible
being informative
gaining knowledge
being educated
being dumb/unintelligent
being a follower
not being credible
being ignorant
being uneducated
collecting whatever they want
being famous
being in fashion
being popular
being trendy
being sociable
being in first place
losing one’s famous status
being out of style
being a loser/unpopular
not being trendy
being unsociable/independent
being in last place
finding or losing love
getting married
getting divorced
attracting men/woman
being unattractive to men /women
having a girlfriend/boyfriend
breaking up with girlfriend/boyfriend
being an excellent parent
being a bad parent
having sex
having no sex
saving or gaining time
accomplishing a goal
not accomplishing a goal
gaining a talent/skill
losing a talent/skill
fulfilling a craving/taste
not fulfilling a craving/taste
91) fulfilling hunger
92) not fulfilling hunger
93) quenching thirst
94) not quenching thirst
95) losing weight
96) gaining weight
97) fulfilling a dream/fantasy
98) not fulfilling a dream/fantasy
99) being clean/sanitary
100) not being clean/sanitary
101) being organised
102) being disorganised
103) being free
104) not being free
105) having pleasure
106) having pain
107) getting over obstacles
108) not getting over obstacles
109) owning rare possessions
110) not owning rare possessions
111) being entertained
112) not being entertained
113) being in trouble
114) not being in trouble
115) having friends
116) not having friends
117) being safe
118) not being safe
119) looking younger/older
120) not looking younger/older
121)
122)
123)
124)
125)
126)
127)
128)
129)
130)
131)
132)
133)
134)
135)
136)
137)
138)
139)
140)
141)
142)
143)
144)
145)
146)
147)
148)
149)
150)
being informed
not being informed
having convenience
not having convenience
being understood
not being understood
feeling younger/older
not feeling younger/older
having things easier
not having things easier
belonging to a certain group
not belonging to a certain group
completing a project/task
not completing a project/task
changing something/themselves
not changing something
having authority
not having authority
gaining benefits/features
losing benefits/features
solving a problem
not solving a problem
breaking a bad habit
gaining a good habit
gaining an advantage
having a disadvantage
thinking positively
thinking negatively
quick or instant results
slow or no results
181
Donatas Jonikas
GUERILLA MARKETING
Course handbook
ISBN 978-9955-648-29-1
Order no. 150202995
S. Jokužys Publishing-Printing House. 2015.
Nemuno str. 139, LT-93262 Klaipeda
www.spaustuve.lt
182

guerilla marketing

Transcription

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