1.0  Definition of Guerrilla Marketing

 

         1.1    The term "Guerrilla Marketing" was developed by Jay Conrad Levinson more than a decade ago.  Marketing is generally defined by Levinson to be "everything you do to PROMOTE your business, from the moment you conceive of it to the point at which customers buy your product or service and begin to patronize your business on a regular basis."

 

         1.2    Guerrilla Marketing is predicated on the idea that "Smaller Is Better."  Smaller businesses have the advantage over larger businesses in the critical areas of size, speed, and flexibility.

 

         1.3    The primary advantage that larger companies have over smaller companies in the area of marketing is money.  Small Businesses must combat this primary disadvantage by being more creative, flexible, and adaptive.  Guerrilla Marketers must do much more with much less money!

 

         1.4    The essential strategies of Guerrilla Marketing have stayed the same, but the weapons have changed dramatically.  Guerrillas thrive on change and the unexplored opportunities, which are an inevitable byproduct of change. 

                 

                  1.4.1   The primary changes that have occurred over this past decade that directly affect the field of marketing are:

 

                              1.      The emphasis on Environmental Issues.

                              2.      The advent of Cable and Satellite television.

                              3.      Long term Economic Stagnation.

                              4.      Workforce 2000: The increasing impact of Women and minorities in the workplace.

                              5.      The Global Network.  Perhaps the biggest avenue of new exploration for marketing opportunities NOW and in the future will be the Internet.

 

         1.5    What Guerrilla Marketing is not:  "expensive, easy, common, wasteful, taught in marketing classes, found in marketing textbooks, practiced by advertising agencies, or known to your competitors."

 

 

2.0  The Marketing Needs Of Small Businesses

 

                  2.1       Perhaps one of the biggest reasons that Guerrilla Marketing has become so enormously popular with small business owners over the past decade is the focus on bottom line results.

 

         2.2    Fewer than 10% of all Small Business Owners have explored more than one or two of the many successful marketing methods available to them.  And of this 10%, far fewer still have met with any true measure of bottom line success.

 

                  2.2.1   Not knowing the insiders' secrets of successful marketing, the average small business owner usually experiments, gets burned (no immediate cash results), and quickly resolves to "never dump money down that hole again."

 

         2.3    Below are listed 25 highly profitable marketing strategies.  Most of these strategies remain untested by the average business owner.

 

How many of these strategies has 3 D Datacom used this past year?

 

How many of these strategies have 3 D Datacom never explored?

 

How many of these strategies has 3 D Datacom used successfully (produced a significant increase in targeted sales volume and market share)?

                 

                  1.         Canvassing

                  2.         Personal Letters

                  3.         Telemarketing

                  4.         Integrated Direct Marketing

                  5.         Direct Marketing

                  6.         Circulars and Brochures

                  7.         Internal Signs

                  8.         External Signs

                  9.         Yellow Page Ads

                  10.       Classified Ads

                  11.       T-shirt Campaigns

                  12.       Public Relations Campaigns                                                                            

                  13.       Fund Raising Campaigns

                  14.       Sponsorships

                  15.       Teaching and Training Videos and Seminars

                  16.       Newspapers

                  17.       Magazines

                  18.       Radio

                  19.       Television

                  20.       Specialty products (pens, coffee cups, T-shirts, etc.)

                  21.       Product Demonstrations

                  22.       Event Sponsorship (Fashion Show, Golf Outing, Celebrity Auction, etc.) 

                  23.       Trade Shows

                  24.       Conventions

                  25.       Cooperative Share Marketing

 

         2.4    Big Businesses draft 200 page Marketing Plans that research, plan, and budget for every contingency imaginable.  Big Businesses must focus on gaining a larger segment of an entire industry.  Being off a few percentage points at this level can mean the loss of millions, if not billions, of dollars.

 

2.5       Small Businesses need only gain a tiny slice of an entire industry in order to create dramatic increases in sales and bottom line profits. 

 

         2.6    Small Businesses, however, "are not just little big businesses."  This was in fact the focal point of an article published in the Harvard Business Review.  For a small business owner to survive, he must produce bottom line results without the benefit of a large marketing and advertising budget.

 

         2.7    Because expediency and efficiency of results is so critical to Small Business Owners, a 200 page Marketing Plan for a small business would do more harm than good.  Even if the Plan were prepared by the best outside Marketing Consultant available, it would not meet the needs of most small business owners.

 

 

3.0  The Core Idea          Developing Your Marketing Blueprint:

 

         3.1    One of the basic tenets of Guerrilla Marketing is to reduce all aspects of the Plan to their most fundamental, or core level.  There are several important reasons for this:

 

                  3.1.1   The more focused the Core Idea or Principle can be stated, the easier it is to convert to specific marketing strategies. 

 

                  3.1.2   Most small business owners do not have the time, interest, or money to follow a traditional marketing plan.

 

         3.2    For Guerrilla Marketing, the Core Idea of the Marketing Plan should initially be stated in no more than 7 Sentences.  This is only the beginning; however, as the End Goal will be to state the Core Idea of your Marketing Plan in no more than 7 Words!

 

                  3.2.1   The first sentence tells the PURPOSE of your Marketing Plan.

 

                              Your PURPOSE must be stated in terms of the bottom line results that  your Marketing Plan will hold you and your employees accountable to produce.


 

                  3.2.2   The second tells HOW you will achieve this purpose, focusing on BENEFITS  (see Kramer: Features, Advantages & Benefits)

 

For example: XYZ Manufacturing will achieve its Purpose (building the highest

 

quality auto parts in the world BY: establishing purchasing contracts

with suppliers throughout the world who can offer XYZ the highest core

                              supplies at the lowest possible prices.

 

                  3.2.3   The third identifies your TARGET MARKET.

 

                              How has your Target Market changed over the past one, three, and

                              five years? 

 

                              If you think that it has not changed, or you simply don't know how it

                              has changed, the fact is that you are not keeping up with the inevitable

                              changes within your Target Market. 

 

                              Three specific markets, which have emerged as, hot markets in the late 90's are: Women, Mature Adults, Boomer Generation, and Ethnic Groups.

 

                  3.2.4   The fourth identifies the STRATEGIES & TACTICS that you will use.

 

                              This sentence should list every form of media you plan to employ in your

                              Marketing Plan.

 

                  3.2.5   The fifth identifies your NICHE within this market. 

 

                              One of the most famous people in the Advertising world was David Ogilvy.  After many years of experience, and many billions of dollars of successful advertising, Mr. Ogilvy listed the 32 most important things that his company had learned in the advertising business.  The number one item on the list, above all else, was positioning the product within the market. 

 

                              Market position should be measured against 4 Criteria:

                             

                              1.      Will the prospective customer readily perceive the Benefits?

 

                              2.      How will the customer rate the importance or value of that benefit?

                             

                              3.      How do these features and benefits separate my business from

                                       the rest of the industry?

 

                              4.      How unique and/or difficult to replicate is my product or service?

 

                  3.2.6   The sixth sentence describes your IDENTITY.

 

                              What business are you in? 

 

 

                              How do you want your business to be remembered?

 

                              Your company Identity must be based on Truth.  Any Marketing program designed to create an Identity that a company does not in fact stand behind 100%, is doomed for failure.

 

                  3.2.7   The last sentence defines your MARKETING BUDGET, defined as a

                              percentage of projected gross revenue.

 

         3.3    EXAMPLES:

                 

                  3.3.1   Levinson provides the following paragraph as an example of a                                                     Guerrilla Marketing Plan:

 

(1) The PURPOSE of ABC Publisher's marketing is to sell the maximum number of books at the lowest possible selling cost per book. 

 

(2) This will be ACCOMPLISHED BY positioning the books as being so valuable to free-lancers that    they are guaranteed to be worth more to the reader than their selling price.

 

(3) The TARGET MARKET will be people who can or do engage in free-lance earning activities.

 

(4) MARKETING TOOLS to be utilized will be a combination of classified advertising in magazines and newspapers, direct mail, sales at seminars, publicity in newspapers and on radio and television, direct sales calls to bookstores, and mail-order display ads in magazines.

 

(5) The NICHE to be occupied is one that stands for valuable information that helps free-lancers succeeds the ultimate authority for free lancers.

 

(6) Our IDENTITY will be one of expertise, readability, and quick response to customer requests.

 

(7) Thirty PERCENT OF SALES will be allocated to marketing.

 

                  3.3.2   That's it!  The whole thing.

 

                  3.3.3   Most marketing plans especially if they are reduced to one paragraph seem deceptively simple.  But unless they are simple, they are difficult to execute. 

 

3.4        A complete marketing plan, can be accurately displayed in as little as three paragraphs.

 

 

3.4.1   The Marketing Plan (answers the 7 primary questions outlined above).

 

                  3.4.2   The Creative Plan (details the message and your identity).

 

                  3.4.3   The Media Plan; (details media costs, identifies newspapers, radio stations, dates and sizes of ads, frequency, advertising specialties, strategies for free publicity, and the identity of your business.

 

                  The more brief and concise your Marketing Plan, the more likely that you will                             follow it, the more likely your employees will understand and follow it, and the                                      more likely your customers will see it translated into your policies, products                                            and services.

 

         3.5    You must always remember that the primary purpose of your Marketing Plan is to obtain the maximum profits.

 

         3.6    The details of your Marketing Plan should also: 

 

                  Project short range and long range goals

                  Identify anticipated roadblocks and obstacles

                  Provide a plan for overcoming each of these obstacles

                  Include a Situational Analysis of your Competition

                  Identifying Your Customer Profile

                  Analysis of Marketplace conditions

                  Marketing Calendar

                  Marketing Budget

 

         3.7    The Business Plan by comparison goes into greater detail regarding the details of growth, exact expenditures, and contingencies (best case, worst case, and most likely case.)

 

         3.8    A good Marketing Plan is not designed to be flexible.  It is designed to provide a Roadmap, which if followed, will take you exactly where you want to go.

 

 

4.0  The Ten Best Kept Secrets of Guerrilla Marketing

 

         4.1    Secret # 1: Commitment

 

         Sales and Marketing Mgrs. always remain COMMITTED to their Marketing Plan

 

4.1.1       Many business executives still believe that sales and marketing are the same thing.  Basically, their attitude is that if marketing isn't the same things as sales, and if it doesn't necessarily translate dollar for dollar to the bottom line; then what good could it possibly be?  The necessarily pragmatic orientation of the typical business owner quickly leads them to the assumption that anything that doesn't produce direct and immediate bottom line results just isn't something that they can afford to waste their time and money on.

 

                  4.1.2   This is the first obstacle that every successful Guerrilla Marketer must overcome.  More than any other of these "ten secrets", this is the primary obstacle that most Small Business Owners must overcome.  Many of the best Marketing Consultants agree that most Small Business Owners with whom they work, lack the ability to understand the importance of          remaining committed to their marketing plan, and this represents their greatest obstacle to success.

 

4.1.3   AN OFFER YOU CAN'T REFUSE: One of the most outstanding examples of long-term commitment to an advertising program is the case of Union Bank of California.  Union Bank was offering a program called "Bank At Home".  This program allows the customer to pay all of their bills via electronic mail, and to check their account balance on a daily basis.  What is so unusual about this program is that Union Bank is literally gave away their services for 6 years (until the year 2001).  In fact, Union Bank advertises in all of the major newspapers and magazines that they will pay the customer $50.00 just for         signing up for this free service. 

 

                     It doesn't take a genius to figure out that this Marketing program will cost Union Bank many millions of dollars over the next five years.  The brilliant plan behind this program; however, is that it may make Union Bank the most successful and profitable bank in the state of California within the next five years.  After all, why would anybody in their right mind object to being given    $50.00 for signing up for the most convenient of all banking services and not          pay any service fees for the next five years?   

 

The answer of course is that very few people will refuse this offer.  In five years how many new customers will Union Bank have recruited through this program?  And who will those new customers be?  They will all be people who have a computer and a modem; exactly the market that Union Bank wants to target.

 

                  4.1.4   In 1885, a London Businessman offered the following description of the efforts required capturing the attention of a prospective customer.  Little has changed in the world of marketing over the past 100 years.

 

                              1.      The first time a man [or woman] looks at an ad, he/she doesn't see it.

                              2.      The second time, he/she doesn't notice it.

3.           The third time, he/she is conscious of its existence.

                              4.      The fourth time, he/she faintly remembers having seen it.

                              5.      The fifth time, he/she reads the ad.

                              6.      The sixth time, he/she turns up his nose at it.

                              7.      The seventh time, he/she reads it through and says, "Oh brother!"

                              8.      The eighth time, he/she says, "Here's that confounded thing again!"

                              9.      The ninth time, he/she wonders if it amounts to anything.

                              10.    The tenth time, he/she will ask his neighbor if he has tried it.

                              11.    The eleventh time, he/she wonders how the advertiser makes it pay.

                              12.    The twelfth time, he/she thinks it must be a good thing.

                              13.    The thirteenth time, he/she thinks it might be worth something.

                              14.    The fourteenth time, he/she remembers that he wanted such a thing for a long time.

                              15.    The fifteenth time, he/she is tantalized because he cannot afford to buy it.

                              16.    The sixteenth time, he/she thinks he will buy it someday.

                              17.    The seventeenth time, he/she makes a memorandum of it.

                              18.    The eighteenth time, he/she swears at his/her poverty.

                              19.    The nineteenth time, he/she counts his/her money carefully.

                              20.    The twentieth time he/she sees the ad, he/she buys the article or instructs his wife [her husband] to do so.

 

         Only those Small Business Owners who remain steadfastly committed to their long-term Marketing Plan will eventually reap their due rewards on the bottom line.


 

Ten Reasons Why You Must (ABM) Always Be Marketing

 

         1.      The Market Is Always Changing.  New families, new prospects, new lifestyles change the marketplace.  Nearly 18% of the people in the United States changed their residency in 1992.  Nearly 7 million people will get married this year.  When you stop advertising, the merry go round keeps going without you.

        

         2.      People Are Not Elephants.  Maybe elephants never forget but people forget quite quickly.  Unlike elephants, the average human being is bombarded by more than 2,700 messages each day. 

 

         3.      Your Competition Hasn't Quit.  Someone is always gaining the upper hand in the world of business.  If it's not your business, you can be sure it will be your competition.

 

         4.      Marketing Strengthens Your Identity.  When businesses stop marketing customers lose confidence, and your business reputation and identity suffers.

 

         5.      Marketing Is Essential To Your Survival And Growth. 

 

6.            Marketing Enables You To Hold On To Your Old Customers.  Repeat Business and Referrals are the key to profitability for many businesses, and maintaining your existing customers is critical.

 

         7.      Marketing Maintains The Morale Of Your Business.

 

         8.      Marketing Gives You An Advantage Over Your Competition.  Especially in adverse economic times, you can gain a much bigger share of your Target Market if your competition decides to ease off on their marketing efforts.

 

         9.      Marketing Allows Your Business To Continue Operating.

 

         10.    Marketing Protects The Investment You Have Already Made In Your Business.

 

         4.2    Secret #2:  Investment

        

                  Marketing Mgrs. think of Marketing as an INVESTMENT.

 

                  4.2.1            Successful Marketing is a Blue Chip Investment, NOT a Speculative Investment.  Like all Blue Chip Investments, the smart money is always invested for the long haul.  Sound Stock Market advice applies here as

                                       well; "if you can't stand the market's ups and downs, then you shouldn't be in the Market."

 

4.2.2            Unfortunately, most Small Business Owners treat their Marketing investment as a "pure speculative investment."  Because speculative investments are high risk, and high volatility, investors tend to "dabble, get burned, and get out."  This is in fact the reaction of most Small

                                       Business Owners to their past marketing efforts.

 

         4.3    Secret # 3 Consistency:                                                                                           

        

Sales and Marketing Mgrs. make sure that their Marketing program is CONSISTENT.

 

4.3.1            The identity of 3 D Datacom and its message must remain constant.  Remember, the big payoff in marketing only come to those who are in it for the long haul.  By constantly changing marketing identity, strategy, and message, many Small Business Owners guarantee their own failure.  This becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy for those business owners who simply don't believe in the value and impact of marketing in the first place.

 

                  4.3.2            THE TEENY TINY AD THAT PRODUCED GREAT BIG PROFITS!

                                       The owner of a retail furniture store was going bankrupt.  She had run it in the ground by pouring many dollars into Television advertising.

 

   Because she could only afford two commercial slots per week, she wasn't       gaining enough exposure to make any impact, and was subsequently throwing her money away.

 

                                       The Marketing Consultant convinced her that "consumer confidence          gained through consistency of image over a long period of time" should be her primary objective.  Therefore, she began to run a teeny tiny advertisement every Sunday in her local newspaper.  After several years of consistently running this ad, her sales have quadrupled and her profits have followed suit.  Now she runs ten television commercials per day, but she credits all of her success to that teeny tiny ad that developed a                                    consistency of image for her store.

 

         4.4    Secret # 4: Confidence

 

Sales and Marketing Mgrs. make their prospects CONFIDENT in their Company.