Future Belongs to Guerrilla Marketing

You are passing through the road with random people and equally random thoughts buzzing and an illuminated advertisement of a product stares from the road at you. Suddenly, a single glare on the product silences the clamor of surroundings and the entire focus shifts to the infant product on the road. Now, that is Guerilla Marketing.

 The advent of development carried with itself, the winds of civilizations, which gave rise to various needs and wants. These demands, paved way for broad scopes of trade and entrepreneurships. The call for every product to be heard gave rise to the concept of marketing.

Jay Conrad Levinson coined guerilla marketing as a term in 1983. The term Guerilla relies on the warfare tactics that the Cuban Revolutionist Che Guevara successfully employed against the Government and later the Vietnamese soldiers against the Americans in 1960. The methods strictly relied on taking the enemies by surprise and sabotaging their operations. Since, Guevara was fighting a government, they had minimal soldiers as opposed to their large army, but these ironically helped the guerrilla warfare, as the army was flexible. Even with less money and unconventional artilleries, the strategy of ambushing the enemies led their success.

The advent of new markets and possibilities has led to the intense competitions amongst the various companies. Each firm is bombarding the consumer with various advertisements through the conservative medium of marketing like television, radio, billboards etc. Every commercial institute is vying for such spaces. The consumer is saturated with so much of every product that he puts most of these advertisements in the trash by either closing or overlooking them.

Moreover, research shows that every individual needs to be exposed to a simple advertisement to at least 13times to induce any kind of positive reaction from him. This leaves the entire amount of advertising that a company spends at a risk. Small and medium companies cannot afford so much of loss.

The objective of guerilla marketing is to gain maximum attention at minimum cost, which it successfully delivers. As Levinson rightly puts it, “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.”

Guerilla marketing is the cheapest and the most attention seeking form of advertising the product. 
Here, the visual surprises the consumer by advertisements on whacky outdoor places like trolleys, roads, pavements, subways with graffiti, stickers etc. Such advertisements leave the consumer unprepared and invariably catch his attention.

The future of guerilla advertising looks promising because of the sheer amount of advertisements that are being wasted on the conventional mediums with disappointing results. The medium has not been exploited yet. There is a huge potential for Guerilla marketing. It is a boon for the small companies to advertise their products.

Next time, do not be surprised if you come across stickers of advertisements above your working desk, staring in a manner, which seems like you owe to him!