Guerrilla Marketing, The Right Way
Thursday, February 15th, 2007 at 4:54 pm by Matt Van Atta
Maybe you’ve heard about the bomb scare in Boston that resulted from the placement of electronic devices throughout the city as a promotion for Cartoon Network’s “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” program.
Opinions can vary on whether the promotion was well or poorly thought out, or whether the Boston authorities may have overreacted. Regardless, the case serves as a perfect example of what guerrilla marketing is – and perhaps, what it isn’t.
Guerrilla marketing’s purpose is to achieve maximum return in terms of exposure, at minimum cost in terms of money and resources. It’s geared particularly toward small businesses with limited budgets, although major corporations such as Sony, General Electric, Citigroup – and Cartoon Network – have used the approach.
Some guerrilla marketing efforts have led people to question the ethics of its practitioners. Boston Mayor Thomas Menino even called for a citywide ban on guerrilla marketing campaigns, calling it a “nitwit technique.” It makes me wonder if Cartoon Network and other large corporations are giving guerrilla marketing a bad name, but that’s another story.
Guerrilla marketing does not follow traditional marketing guidelines, which emphasize white space, short and snappy copy, and “sizzle” over “steak.” Its often unconventional tactics cost little if any money and stress the importance of imagination and hard work – taking time and effort to understand one’s customer base and creatively marketing to that base.
Sound familiar?
It should, because that’s what affiliate marketing is about. Affiliate marketing ventures should never draw the attention of Homeland Security. But through effective, substantive content and targeted promotions, many of which cost little money to produce, such ventures fit the guerrilla marketing definition to the proverbial “T.” In fact, guerrilla marketing guru Jay Conrad Levinson, in “The Myths of Affiliate Marketing” offers many pearls of wisdom about this. One in particular stands out:
“Affiliate marketing educates, informs, announces, enlightens and influences human behavior. Because it does this, affiliate marketing has an obligation to offend nobody, to present its material with taste and decency, to be honest and to benefit customers. If it does that and earns profits too, it is true guerrilla affiliate marketing.”
The more value you offer your target audience, the more effective your affiliate marketing efforts will be. Viral marketing reports, email newsletters, and other creative will do more for you than can traditional marketing methods – and more than distributing devices that might resemble explosives.
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