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Businesses throughout the United States, as well as the rest of the world, are beginning to understand and appreciate the value of guerrilla marketing. In a world where money falls hand in hand with power small businesses are discovering that it is very difficult to increase their share of the market through traditional marketing tactics. Instead small businesses have begun to adopt various forms of guerrilla marketing and even create new versions of their own.
The term ‘guerrilla marketing’ was created in 1984 by Jay Conrad Levinson in his book ‘Guerrilla Advertising.’ The term is as exactly is at sounds; guerrilla marketing means to advertise a service and/or product in low cost unconventional ways in order to attempt to achieve maximum results. Unlike other mainstream forms of marketing, the return on investment (ROI) can be much more easily recorded because less money is spent on advertising costs while guerrilla marketing. Common forms of guerrilla marketing include viral marketing; marketing through social websites, buzz marketing; word-of-mouth marketing, graffiti marketing; drawing corporate names and/or logos on sidewalks, walls, etc., and finally flash mob marketing; in which a group of people meet to promote a specific event and/or product. Newer forms of guerrilla marketing include events that have taken place throughout Los Angeles, California in order to promote the ‘Brilliant Machines’ website. Dozens of individuals recreated the lunar land rover and the Mars rover and drove them throughout downtown L.A. to gain popularity and recognition for the website. Many more individuals dressed like and imitated robots from famous sci-fi movies and television shows. Other businesses have even gone as far as to hire professional artists to draw life like images on sides of buildings and on sidewalks as a way to deceive people from everyday reality. The most recent guerrilla marketing event that caught the world’s eye was the ‘Red Bull Stratos’ campaign in which Felix Baumgartner freefell from space back to Earth. This marketing event hosted by Red Bull broke social media records with the most views on Youtube. Although this marketing technique may not directly advertise the company’s service and/or product the event regardless attracts individuals to the company sponsoring the activity. Smaller businesses can also participate in guerrilla marketing in order to achieve maximum advertising results and to save some money. For example, options such as billboard advertising during local events will help smaller businesses achieve increased recognition as well as event marketing during town fairs or parades will help smaller businesses potentially increase sales. The internet and social media marketing can also help assist smaller businesses increase awareness of their product or service being sold not just locally but globally as well. Regardless of the marketing tactic approached, the primary goal of guerrilla marketing is to advertise in the most unconventional low cost way in order to achieve the most sales possible.
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