Week #2 – MBA 6101 – Guerilla Marketing: Introduction, Chapter 1, What is Guerrilla Marketing Today?

 

In Levinson's Guerilla Marketing; Easy and Inexpensive Strategies for Making Big Profits From Your Small Business, the author suggests two tenets to guide marketing strategy.  First, relying on applying theory and taking action.  Second, consider your options.  Granted, these ideas may not seem novel, but Levinson stresses these mindsets as necessary to remain dexterous in a fluctuating business environment that relies on nimbleness to be successful. 

The digital landscape has changed how businesses engage their customers.  Levinson, argues that while some of the concepts of “old fashioned” marketing are still applicable, guerilla marketing requires they be refined, and in some cases, redefined.  For example, traditional marketing relied on a “brute force”

approach to marketing, dedicating significant financial resources towards reaching the largest possible audience.  Guerilla marketing relies on a focused, targeted approach, favoring “time, energy, imagination, and information” over distended marketing budgets. 

Another difference cited by the authors is determining metrics for success.  The focus of traditional marketing has been on metrics like sales/ revenue or store/ website traffic.  Guerilla marketing demands marketing to be viewed as a business.  Ultimately, the most important metric is profitability.     

Levinson also places emphasis on building long-term relationships with customers.  The focus of traditional marketing has typically been on “making the sale.”  Guerilla marketing stresses “fervent follow up” with existing customers and creating new relationships. 

At the heart of developing a guerilla marketing strategy is understanding how an arsenal of weapons is better suited for the current business battlefield than over reliance on
“radio, TV, newspapers, magazines, direct mail, and the internet,” the “heavy weapons of [conventional] marketing.”  Instead, Levinson, advocates for cleverly leveraging diverse, demonstrably effective tools as a force-multiplier to achieve business goals.