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The succes factors of guerrilla marketing
Today’s clued-in consumers can no longer be targeted
effectively through mass media. They see through
standardised messages, are fickle, hard to pigeon-hole,
and always keep brand managers second guessing.
Companies are therefore increasingly turning to forms of
advertising that ensure some level of attention, such as:
buzz marketing, viral marketing, ambush, stealth, grassroots, etc. All these advertising techniques come under
the umbrella term ‘guerrilla marketing’.
Well-known examples of guerrilla marketing are clothing store chain Suit Supply's stunt of having men in their underwear hitchhike for a ride to one of Suit
Supply's stores, and Hans Brinker Budget Hotel’s campaign of sticking little
flags in little piles of dog poo across Amsterdam. Or the two disappointed Dutch
football fans with orange face paint cheering on the German team on a World
Cup 2006 website (Heineken). But what conditions have to be met to ensure
guerrilla marketing success? What are the pitfalls, and what exactly are the
benefits? In his book: 'Guerrilla Marketing’ Hospes lists a number of dos and
don’ts, which we have summarized in the following. A successful guerrilla campaign meets five essential conditions, according to Hospes, namely: reach, clarity, relevance, the right timing and be eye-catching.
Reach refers to both direct and indirect reach. Brand managers turn to guerrilla
marketing to reach as many people as possible on the spot. A streaker during a
sports event can, for example, make this happen. But the effect will be even
greater when the media start writing about it or report on it in broadcasts (indirect range).
Furthermore, a guerrilla marketing idea should not be too contrived/ difficult
(clarity). Passers-by or visitors should get it right away. Lynx’s sticker campaign,
for example, which saw stickers depicting running women slapped on emergency exit signs as if the women were running after the symbol of the man making
an emergency exit, hence depicting Lynx’s irresistible effect on women.
Guerrilla campaigns should also be relevant. An example of a campaign that fell
short on this point was Q-Music’s gold bar campaign. This radio station had frozen a bar of gold with a value of 25,000 euros into a block of ice at the
Beursplein square in Rotterdam, with viewers subsequently asked to guess how
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many minutes it would take for the gold bar to fall out of the melting block of ice.
This is an example of a fun PR stunt devoid of any relevance to the brand in
question.
And finally, for a guerrilla campaign to work, it also needs good timing and to be
eye-catching. When these factors are lacking, ideas are too contrived or not
natural, a guerrilla campaign may, in the eyes of Hospes, even yield negative
publicity. But when brands manage to do something consumers enjoy, they are
creating direct PR and generating media attention. And when campaigns are
devised that consumers start talking about, the indirect route via the press is not
even necessary.
Reference(s)
Hospes, C. (2007), Guerrillamarketing; nieuwe sluiproutes naar het hart van je
klant [Guerrilla marketing; new shortcuts to your customer’s heart].
Uitgeverij Haystack, Zaltbommel, The Netherlands. *
* : Available in the EURIB library.
© 2009 EURIB (www.eurib.org)
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