In every previous era, the markets had experienced a time of over-saturation. The current times are not an exception, as this occurrence is present and visible right now. The overly saturated market of products and services is typical for being unaccessible to newcomers, who often struggle to capture and retain the attention of a potential customer. This is one of the reasons why the marketing experts perpetually look for new ways to popularize their products[1] or the products of their clients. Approximately, in the last twenty years, primarily abroad, but also in the states of the former eastern bloc, the approach of guerilla marketing has been gaining momentum, as its forms and dissemination waves significantly resemble viral marketing. It is based on advertisement and propagation of products, ideas and services via unconventional techniques, appropriated to the target groups.
Guerilla marketing is in its core based on the previously verified and tested marketing principles, which are now, however, adequately enriched by new supplementary, creative, and original uses. The research by A. I. Maniu and M. M. Zaharie[2] proves that the originality of the guerilla marketing approach has a significant effect on the improvement of effectiveness of communication with the target groups. The research results show, that this aspect of originality tends to be well-received, especially if the new media are also utilized[3]. At the same time, guerilla marketing improves positive attitudes towards advertisement. However, as N. Sinan, P. Aytekin and C. Ay[4] pointed out, it is necessary to keep in mind the ethical aspects of advertisement (especially for the advertisements that use fear-inducing tactics), to avoid loss of effectivity stemming from the non-acceptance of the advertisement from the recipients.
Guerilla marketing is dedicated especially to small and medium-sized organizations[5], even though we currently could identify such initiations even from corporations and organizations that have national, even global reach. Companies and organizations have been utilizing guerilla marketing in recent years, as they have registered its (relatively) low financial requirements for a high effectivity in propagation[6]. Various forms of guerilla marketing attract attention of clients[7] ̶ campaigns focused on creating the moment of surprise, using presentation of new, unconventional ideas[8], or unexpected, sudden activities.[9]
Hutter and S. Hoffman (2011) therefore present the potential benefits of guerilla marketing in its financial advantages and cost-effective characteristics as two of the primary incentives for companies and organizations. (See Scheme 1.)
Scheme 1: Idiosyncratic model according to K. Hutter and S. Hoffman (2011)[10]
The primary benefits brought by guerilla marketing stem in the principle of improved capturing of attention of potential clients and consumers. Authors of campaigns focus on creation of a surprise effect in the initial phases of their activities, using new, unconventional ideas[11]. The moment of surprise, regardless whether it is positive or negative, never leaves a viewer unaffected by what they witness, by what the communiqué encompasses. Campaigns in the ambient forms do not plan on buyin media space in the classical meaning, as they rather use the effect of new sensations.
A sensation should be spread among the widest possible auditorium with the help of recipients, who thus become multipliers for the spread. Consequently, the second phase of the diffusion effect comes. Its task is to stimulate the needs of consumers in a way that would support spread of the communiqué’s message. This system builds on the low cost effect, as the moment of surprise is mediated by the target group members, effectively reducing the costs connected to traditional marketing and its dissemination channels. These mechanisms are presented in Scheme 2.
Scheme 2: Basic effects of guerilla marketing according to K. Hutter and S. Hoffmann (2011)[12].
The basic principle of the moment of surprise is the aforementioned capture of attention of potential consumers, using unexpected and unpredicted activities in an effort to produce the feeling of surprise[13]. This can also be used for the sole purpose of reminding of the brand or the idea presented. Surprise itself is the difference between expectation and reality. In order to reach this result, absurdity, humor and even shock are often utilized, as it is generally rather difficult to surprise consumers of the contemporary overly saturated market. The modern consumer is better-educated and more aware of marketing efforts that are in place, and thus guerilla marketing often has to include a camouflage among its objectives – hiding the marketing aim behind the objective to create sensation.
To reach the sufficient diffusion effect, it is necessary to first reach expansion of the communicated message in order for it to become a naturally spreading occurrence among recipients, the potential clients and consumers, which is the principle on which the reduction of financial costs stands. Another aspect of reaching the expected rate of success accounts for the effect of inducing an emotional response, that would motivate the recipients to spread the message – to share their own emotional experiences with others, using the word of mouth spread channel. Diffusion effect is best stimulated via the viral marketing strategies, buzz marketing[14], which can be classified as a part of viral marketing, or through the shady practices of astroturfing marketing, in which the marketer tries to induce a false or misleading impression in order to positively affect consumers, fans and/or other recipients (this can be used for products, services, political ideas and more).
The low-cost effect is also reachable via two more strategies. The first is to initially reach a wide audience for a relatively low cost, effectively reducing the marketing cost per persona. This approach is dominant in ambush marketing, which as an approach is often labeled as malicious, parasitic and unfair. This approach often creates an artificial connection between an event and the brand, without having the brand as actual partner of the event (and this can be possibly done in a way that is legal). This practice is most commonly seen at big sports events.
Guerilla marketing strategies are connected to offensive marketing and the records indicate they first emerged on the North American market. In marketing as a whole, this method emerged in 1910, even though the term guerilla marketing was not initially used in connection to the meaning common nowadays. Since the beginning of the 20th century and up to the forties and fifties, advertisers assumed that a consumer needs to be educated and their main objective was to include the consumer in the education in a playful manner, for example by interaction. Advertisements of this era insisted on relatively elaborated texts, in comparison to today’s reduced, more professionalized contents of advertisement communiqués.
Up until the late sixties, the controversial forms of advertisement had not become common. Until then, advertisement was oriented around ordinary budgets, huge and frequented expositions, catchy jingles and visually demanding projects. It was at this time when the advertisers began to realize that their viewers had become more resistant to marketing and the classical forms of advertisement had become less effective.
The marketing sphere became ready for the evolution in the form of guerilla marketing in the late sixties of the 20th century[15]. In 1965, the first definitions of guerilla marketing connected to the transformation of the business-oriented market to the consumer-oriented market emerged. At this time, budgets for advertisement had risen, with particular focus on radio and print, thanks to which new market opportunities rose and companies had to adapt to new contexts.
The principal change in understanding of the modern market understands the necessity to investigate relationships between the company, the society, the institutions, and the competition, and extends its focus to also research activities of competitors. The classical marketing was connected to the consumed products and the tools of sales. The offensive marketing, however, implements the strategies metaphorically inspired by warfare, adapting the principles for fighting against competitors and for development of marketing communication[16]. The reason is that the term guerilla marketing itself stems from the warfare terminology, referring to partisan tactics and methods used in warfare, with a special regard to partisan troops and small, paramilitary groups that fight against the odds, and are generally out-numbered and/or have to face a huge technical disadvantage[17].
The word guerilla comes from the Spanish word guerra (and the original Latin noun werra) that means war. The word guerilla itself could be freely translated as partisan war. As such, guerilla marketing is counted among the unconventional forms of marketing, which aims to capture attention of potential clients while retaining its low financial costs. The costs themselves are relative, however, as the sizes of budgets vary tremendously, and as the huge international companies have also begun utilizing the methods of guerilla marketing, while they can invest substantial amounts of money even into strategies that should be methodically counted among the guerilla marketing forms.
In principle, however, guerilla marketing strategies should be low-cost, relatively independent from the size of the budget. The objective is to capture the attention of clients without them initially noticing they are being addressed by a marketing propagation form.
One of the adequate and well-known examples of guerilla marketing, using commotion and viral spread, was the Blair Witch Project[18]. The American film titled the Blair Witch Project (1999) belongs to the psychological horror genre. The authors of the film were absolvents of the University of Central Florida. The authors only had a very limited budget for the film (60.000 USD) and a single camera. Two of the authors created an internet campaign, which spread a fictive legend about a witch from Blair. Internet pages dedicated to the witch aimed to reach potential audiences, using narratives that often spelled information such as: “In October 1994, three students of film-making disappeared in the forest near Burkittsville, Maryland, while making a documentary film… a year later, the footage they created was found.” (Poster about the alleged disappearance).
The Blair Witch Project film globally earned almost 250 millions USD and is counted among the five most-earning horror films of all time. Marketing strategies implemented in this fashion, copying war tactics based on surprising, unpredictable fighting tactics and unexpected irregular strikes instead of classic forms of warfare, have been gradually implemented in modern marketing and marketing communication[19]. Another example could be Austrian extreme sportsman Felix Baumgartner, who alongside with the Red Bull brand set the record for the highest parachute jump in history. The campaign carried the title Red Bull Stratos and it was based on the parachutist jumping from the altitude of 39.045 km, reaching the falling velocity of 1432.8 km/h (The Red Bull Stratos Project). The important part, nevertheless, was the preparation presented by the brand and the live stream from the event. On the day of the jump, the Red Bull Stratos campaign was available for live streaming and users could follow it on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. On the first day alone, more than 8 million comments were posted. This campaign proves that an extraordinary event with well-prepared communication can gain millions of views, comments and interactions. At the same time, the Red Bull brand specializing in energy drinks gained on both reputation and visibility[20].
The first time the guerrilla marketing term was used with the same meaning and with the same contents, that are commonly used today, was in 1984 by Jay Conrad Levinson[21] in a book titled Guerrilla Marketing. He defined it as an unusual, unconventional form of advertisement with a low budget, which aims at conventional earnings, revenues and growth, but uses unconventional tools, for example widening of the inventory in suboptimal economic times, in order to inspire consumers and increase liquidity (Levinson 2003 )[22]. For comparison, we might consider Ives’ view (2004)[23], who defines guerilla marketing as a wide scale of advertisement methods, which try to reach people where they least expect it. Publicity stunts always capture our attention, and thus marketing experts and experts of the mainstream marketing use guerilla tactics with increasing frequency, as it is ever more difficult to reach potential consumers with traditional advertisement.
This new approach to marketing communication leans on energy, creativity and ideas. The main objective of guerilla marketing used to be enabling small companies in competition with huge corporations that possess unlimited financial capacities. Guerilla marketing activities therefore hold the basic premise: minimum effort, minimum investment, maximum efficiency.
Guerilla marketing builds on nonstandard techniques, currently more often than not utilizing modern technologies, placements and activities in real-life living conditions and at adequate times. Information about products, services and ideas presented this way spread naturally, similarly to urban legends, and in various forms of direct contact. Since the elementary trait of this form of marketing is creativity, it is required for the creators to apply their creativity in unique ways. Creativity thus becomes the only limit for guerilla marketing, more precisely, lack of creativity does – which has proven to be an unbeatable obstacle for many companies. Guerilla marketing tends to succeed in companies that are not afraid to take risks.
[1] The product, in this case, means any result of creative activity – including ideas only.
[2] MANIU, A.-I., ZAHARIE, M.-M. (2014). Advertising creativity – the right balance between surprise, medium and message relevance.
[3] This might lead to the impression that this type of advertisement will be better accepted, especially by young people, who are closer to these technologies.
[4] SINAN, N., AYTEKIN, P., AY, C. (2010). Guerrilla Marketing Communication Tools and Ethical Problems in Guerilla Advertising.
[5] E. C. Bigat (2012) indicates that it is guerilla marketing as a tool with low budgets that enables small and medium businesses to compete against big companies and corporations. Naturally, other opinions have emerged, for example see Z. Yuksekbilgili (2014) and his associated concluded that most of the smaller and medium Turkish firms have not utilized and do not plan on utilizing the tools of guerilla marketing in their future marketing plans.
[6] HUTTER, K., HOFFMANN, S. (2011). Guerilla-Marketing – eine nüchterne Betrachtung einer vieldiskutierten Werbeform.
[7] SHANKAR, A., HORTON, B. (1999). Ambient media: advertising’s new media opportunity?
[8] CSIKSZENTMIHALYI, M. (1996). Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention.
FRANKOVÁ, E. (2011). Kreativita a inovace v organizaci.
FICHNOVÁ, K. (2013). Psychology of Creativity for Marketing Communication.
[9] MEYER, W.-U., NIEPEL, M. (1994). Surprise.
DERBAIX, C., VANHAMME, J. (2000). The ‚you know what?‘ syndrome – how to use surprise for gaining success.
[10] HUTTER, K. a HOFFMANN, S., (2011). Guerrilla Marketing: The Nature of the Concept and Propositions for Further Research. s. 46.
[11] FICHNOVÁ, K. (2013). Psychology of Creativity for Marketing Communication.
FRANKOVÁ, E. (2011). Kreativita a inovace v organizaci.UNCTAD, (2004). Creative Industries and Development.
SZOBIOVÁ, E., (2004). Tvorivosť – od záhady k poznaniu. Chápanie, zisťovanie a rozvíjanie tvorivosti.
CSIKSZENTMIHALYI, M. (1996). Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention.
[12] HUTTER, K. a HOFFMANN, S., (2011). Guerrilla Marketing: The Nature of the Concept and Propositions for Further Research. p. 42.
[13] DERBAIX, C. a VANHAMME, J. (2000). The ‚you know what?‘ syndrome – how to use surprise for gaining success.
MEYER, W.U. a NIEPEL, M. (1994). Surprise.
[14] HUGHES, M. (2008). Buzzmarketing: Get People to Talk About You Stuff.
[15] During these times, the debate over the US troops fighting in Vietnam was still important, and as such, the term guerilla marketing entered the debate from the discussions about the war. Guerilla marketing strategies were connected to success in conflict. As such, the initial guerilla marketing strategies often focused on liquidation and destruction of marketing activities of competitors (especially smaller companies against huge corporations).
[16] HESKOVÁ, M. a ŠTARCHOŇ, P. (2009). Marketingová komunikace a moderní trendy v marketingu.
[17] The word guerilla originated in the Peninsular War (1808-1814), in which the Spanish-Portugal asymmetrical forces called the guerrilleros helped in pushing the French from the Iberian Peninsula. Throughout the history, such asymmetrical forces were also called the rebels, insurgents, partisans or just mercenaries. See: <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/248353/guerrilla-warfare>
[18] It was, however, not the first film to use the so-called found footage approach. The first successful experiment with the found footage that also included a beforehand prepared mystery with a big reveal was the film Cannibal Holocaust (1980, directed by Ruggero Deodato), which did not use internet marketing.
[19] BANYÁR, M. (2011) Teoreticko-historicko-etické aspekty guerilla marketingu.
[20] Two years of this event sponsored by Red Bull, one of Google’s top managers, Alan Eustace, beat the record by a jump from the altitude of 41.425 km (October 24th, 2012).
[21] Levinson used to be the vice-president an advertisement agency Walter Thompson (US) and also a creative director of the Leo Burnett Advertising Europe advertisement agency. He used to give lectures about guerilla marketing at the University of California in Berkeley. He was the first author to set the theoretical basis for the guerilla marketing term.
[22] LEVINSON, J.C (2003). Guerrilla Marketing in a Tough Economy: To succeed during an economic rough patch, you have to think and act like a successful guerrilla marketer.
[23] IVES, N. (2004). Guerrilla campaigns are going to extremes, but will the message stick?