The
JAGWire
Integrated Market Strategies
JAGWire
Integrated Market Strategies
Small Businesses Can Boost Profits with Guerrilla Marketing Tactics
This interview first appeared in the Association of Competitive Technology's "Innovative Network"
Interview Conducted on May 11, 2007 by Julia A. Glenister
In an interview with The JAG Wire Group, the “Father of Guerrilla Marketing” Jay Conrad Levinson
provided some tips on how entrepreneurs can apply low-budget Guerrilla Marketing tactics to boost
visibility and sales. Levinson’s 57th book, a greatly revised and updated fourth edition of his influential
“Guerrilla Marketing” book (first published in 1984), will debut on May 22, 2007. We caught up with the
marketing guru just before he leaves on a worldwide speaking tour.
Jay, what is Guerrilla Marketing and what are its basic tenets?
Guerrilla Marketing is about going after conventional goals using unconventional means. The basic
principle is that you can market aggressively without investing money if you are willing to invest time,
energy, imagination and information. The more you are able to invest in those four areas, the less
money you will have to invest. Many people use Guerrilla Marketing to market their small businesses
with no financial investment.
The tenets of Guerrilla Marketing are really simple and there are only two. First, start with a simple plan.
Second, commit to that plan.
Most people will start with a plan. They will do everything according to plan and wait for the world to beat
a path to their door. When it doesn’t they do it again and nothing happens and they will do it for two to
three months. At that point they begin to think they are doing everything wrong, and they abandon the plan
and start from scratch.
The best marketed brand in history started very slowly. The Jolly Green Giant was not an instant
success. Nor was the Marlboro Man. None of the big campaigns took the world by storm. No one yelled
“Eureka!”
These companies ran their ads, stuck to their slogans and sat back and waited. When nothing
happened they did it again. They kept at it even though nothing happened. Eventually something
happened. They hadn’t changed anything, but their profits improved every month thereafter because they
had that commitment.
That’s the hard thing for people to do. Most people want instant gratification. Guerrilla Marketing is not for
those people. Guerrilla Marketing is for people who want certainty and balance in their lives, as well as
freedom from stress. If they want instant gratification they’re not going to get it. So the Guerrilla Marketing
tenets are to start with a plan which anybody can do, and commit to that plan, which hardly anybody can
do.
How long should companies stick it out with their marketing campaigns?
I’ll give you two examples.
1) When I worked with a book store called The BookSmith in The Haight [the historic Haight Ashbury in
San Francisco], they asked that same question. I said I didn’t think they should expect any results for the
first three months. After about two months they began to see a few people coming in as a result of their
advertising. After three months they were sure of it because enough people mentioned their advertising
or bought the books they were advertising. At the end of the year they asked if it was possible to stop
advertising. I asked ‘why would you want to do that?’ They said “because we are making far more than
we need.” Now The BookSmith does about four promotions a year. They had done enough in the
community and had enough word of mouth that they went from 0-60 in three months.
2) I was also on the creative team of Marlboro when they were the 31st largest-selling cigarette in the
country. They were perceived of as a feminine cigarette. And although more women smoked than men,
they wanted to change the perception of Marlboro to make it more masculine. We sent a couple of
photographers to a ranch in West Texas, and while they were there shooting pictures we came up with
this fictitious place called Marlboro Country, and a theme line of “Come to Where the Flavor Is.” All over
the country you could see those images of cowboys riding off into the sunset. At the end of the year
Marlboro became a cultural icon.
But the brand didn’t budge. It was still the 31st largest selling cigarette. The brand was still perceived of
as a feminine brand. Now we switch to May 2007, and we see that Marlboro is the number one selling
cigarette in America. Number one for men, number one for women. In fact it’s the number one cigarette
in the world. One out of every five cigarettes sold in the world is the Marlboro Man. They are still using the
same exact marketing and advertising that was used in the very beginning. Now in their case it took
about 18 months because cigarettes are different ─ people hold out on their cigarette brand longer. The
least product loyalty is with shampoos, where people change their shampoos as soon as they see a
new one. Marlboro took a year and a half and at the end of that year and a half it became first and it
stayed first.
So these are two examples. One where they got results in three months. The other in 18 months. In both
cases they started with a plan, and then committed to a plan. In both cases they were very successful. In
one case they were able to quit advertising.
How does Guerrilla Marketing differ from traditional marketing?
Guerrilla Marketing differs in 20 ways from traditional marketing. Guerrilla Marketing invests energy and
imagination. Guerrilla Marketing measures its performance by sales. Guerrilla Marketing measures its
performance by profits. Traditional marketers do not commit to a plan. Guerrilla Marketers develop a plan
and they stick with it.
Guerrilla Marketing believes in cooperation rather than competition. You are not looking to obliterate your
competition; you are looking for people who have the same kind of prospects and standards as you. In
local communities you will see lawyers and insurance brokers getting together every month to trade
leads. Guerrilla Marketers do more than anybody to spread the word and share the cost. This is called
fusion marketing. Guerrillas are intensely interested ─ much more than the average business person ─
in follow up. Guerrillas realize that the real profits come in through follow up. That’s where they are going
to win.
Another difference is that Guerrillas don’t talk about themselves on their Web sites and in their literature.
They only talk about the customer. The customer doesn’t care about you. They care intensely about
themselves. So talk to them about themselves, ask questions and listen carefully to the answers. If you
show interest, your customers will help you more. You’ve got to do whatever it takes to gain their
confidence.
If you can get a dispatch reporter to write about you, you will have reprints of articles that you can put up
on your Web site or in your place of business, and you can gain a lot of confidence that way. One of the
best ways to gain confidence is to give talks at local organizations. That establishes you as the expert,
the authority. That gives you a lot of credibility and gains confidence.
Do small businesses have any advantages over big businesses and their large corporate budgets?
Yes. Number one, desktop publishing gives them the appearance of being a big spender without the
need to spend big. You can produce your own brochures and your own proposals, and [other collateral]
that used to cost an arm and a leg to print.
Another area where small businesses have an advantage is that small businesses can offer more
personalized service than big businesses. Big business serves too many people. Guerrillas can form
relationships, making it easier to render the kind of service that brings people back.
Small businesses can do a lot of fusion marketing, connecting up with other businesses that have the
same kind of prospects and standards in their communities. They can enter into a relationship to see if
a contract works. You can’t do this with big companies. They are too bogged down with bureaucracy and
laws.
Guerrilla Marketing shows you how to get more while investing less. This is one of the biggest
advantages that small businesses have over big businesses. Big companies don’t think in terms of
spending less. Guerrillas can’t afford to spend more so they spend less.
Where should an entrepreneur start?
They should start by asking themselves if they didn’t need the money what would they be doing for a
living, and that is what they should do. If they are doing something for the money then it’s probably not
going to be a lot of fun for them.
Next, they have to make some decisions. Do I want to be big or small? I’ve been working from my home
for a three day week since 1971. I think that everybody should start with balance built into their day. I don’
t have any respect for people who work seven day weeks or 12 hour days. With your small business you
don’t have to do that.
And as with marketing you’ve got to start with a plan. It has to cover finance and personnel, not just
marketing. Business Plans don’t have to be long and boring. I’m only recommending things I would do
myself. Some recommend going out and getting a mentor. I’ve never done that.
Did you have a mentor?
Yes, when I worked at companies in San Francisco, Chicago and London. The bosses I had were
mentors to me. I was learning a lot from them so they were my mentors. We never used the word. I never
asked them to be mentors, but looking back I guess I did have them.
Is there anything else you would add for information technology entrepreneurs?
I think the Internet more than any other invention in history makes life easier for an entrepreneur. It
enables them to accomplish so much, so inexpensively, so rapidly that it has revolutionized
opportunities for small businesses. Any small business that doesn’t have a Web site should be
ashamed of itself because it’s inexpensive to set up a Web site. The hard part is developing a list of
people who want to hear from you. Then through short emails you can direct people to your Web site for
more information.
In the past you have talked about the importance of memes. Is this something that an entrepreneur
should think about early on?
Guerrilla marketing says that you need a “meme,” coined in 1976 by Richard Dawkins who wrote “The
Selfish Gene,” (Oxford Press, 1990). Memes are words and images that transmit an idea or are instantly
understandable. Examples of memes are the Jolly Green Giant and The Marlboro Man, which Levinson
helped create. International traffic symbols are memes too.
Yes, an entrepreneur just starting out should develop a meme, which is like a logo, but it conveys an
idea rather than the name of the company. The longer you use memes the better they are for you.
About Jay Conrad Levinson
Jay Conrad Levinson coined the term “Guerrilla Marketing.” He is the author of the popular “Guerrilla
Marketing” series of books and has authored 57 books that have been published in 43 languages with
15 million sold to date. Levinson was on the creative team that contributed to the success of the
Marlboro Man and the Jolly Green Giant, and during his career he has advised small businesses and
Fortune 500 companies such as Volvo, Mercedes, H&R Block, AT&T, HP, Sony and Apple. He believes
many of these large companies owe their success to Guerrilla Marketing techniques.
For more information about Guerrilla Marketing visit Jay’s Web site at http://www.gmarketing.com/.
There you will find articles, podcasts, free newsletters and information on how to join the Guerrilla
Marketing Association.
Interview: May 11, 2007
This interview first appeared in the Association of Competitive Technology's "Innovative Network"
Interview Conducted on May 11, 2007 by Julia A. Glenister
In an interview with The JAG Wire Group, the “Father of Guerrilla Marketing” Jay Conrad Levinson
provided some tips on how entrepreneurs can apply low-budget Guerrilla Marketing tactics to boost
visibility and sales. Levinson’s 57th book, a greatly revised and updated fourth edition of his influential
“Guerrilla Marketing” book (first published in 1984), will debut on May 22, 2007. We caught up with the
marketing guru just before he leaves on a worldwide speaking tour.
Jay, what is Guerrilla Marketing and what are its basic tenets?
Guerrilla Marketing is about going after conventional goals using unconventional means. The basic
principle is that you can market aggressively without investing money if you are willing to invest time,
energy, imagination and information. The more you are able to invest in those four areas, the less
money you will have to invest. Many people use Guerrilla Marketing to market their small businesses
with no financial investment.
The tenets of Guerrilla Marketing are really simple and there are only two. First, start with a simple plan.
Second, commit to that plan.
Most people will start with a plan. They will do everything according to plan and wait for the world to beat
a path to their door. When it doesn’t they do it again and nothing happens and they will do it for two to
three months. At that point they begin to think they are doing everything wrong, and they abandon the plan
and start from scratch.
The best marketed brand in history started very slowly. The Jolly Green Giant was not an instant
success. Nor was the Marlboro Man. None of the big campaigns took the world by storm. No one yelled
“Eureka!”
These companies ran their ads, stuck to their slogans and sat back and waited. When nothing
happened they did it again. They kept at it even though nothing happened. Eventually something
happened. They hadn’t changed anything, but their profits improved every month thereafter because they
had that commitment.
That’s the hard thing for people to do. Most people want instant gratification. Guerrilla Marketing is not for
those people. Guerrilla Marketing is for people who want certainty and balance in their lives, as well as
freedom from stress. If they want instant gratification they’re not going to get it. So the Guerrilla Marketing
tenets are to start with a plan which anybody can do, and commit to that plan, which hardly anybody can
do.
How long should companies stick it out with their marketing campaigns?
I’ll give you two examples.
1) When I worked with a book store called The BookSmith in The Haight [the historic Haight Ashbury in
San Francisco], they asked that same question. I said I didn’t think they should expect any results for the
first three months. After about two months they began to see a few people coming in as a result of their
advertising. After three months they were sure of it because enough people mentioned their advertising
or bought the books they were advertising. At the end of the year they asked if it was possible to stop
advertising. I asked ‘why would you want to do that?’ They said “because we are making far more than
we need.” Now The BookSmith does about four promotions a year. They had done enough in the
community and had enough word of mouth that they went from 0-60 in three months.
2) I was also on the creative team of Marlboro when they were the 31st largest-selling cigarette in the
country. They were perceived of as a feminine cigarette. And although more women smoked than men,
they wanted to change the perception of Marlboro to make it more masculine. We sent a couple of
photographers to a ranch in West Texas, and while they were there shooting pictures we came up with
this fictitious place called Marlboro Country, and a theme line of “Come to Where the Flavor Is.” All over
the country you could see those images of cowboys riding off into the sunset. At the end of the year
Marlboro became a cultural icon.
But the brand didn’t budge. It was still the 31st largest selling cigarette. The brand was still perceived of
as a feminine brand. Now we switch to May 2007, and we see that Marlboro is the number one selling
cigarette in America. Number one for men, number one for women. In fact it’s the number one cigarette
in the world. One out of every five cigarettes sold in the world is the Marlboro Man. They are still using the
same exact marketing and advertising that was used in the very beginning. Now in their case it took
about 18 months because cigarettes are different ─ people hold out on their cigarette brand longer. The
least product loyalty is with shampoos, where people change their shampoos as soon as they see a
new one. Marlboro took a year and a half and at the end of that year and a half it became first and it
stayed first.
So these are two examples. One where they got results in three months. The other in 18 months. In both
cases they started with a plan, and then committed to a plan. In both cases they were very successful. In
one case they were able to quit advertising.
How does Guerrilla Marketing differ from traditional marketing?
Guerrilla Marketing differs in 20 ways from traditional marketing. Guerrilla Marketing invests energy and
imagination. Guerrilla Marketing measures its performance by sales. Guerrilla Marketing measures its
performance by profits. Traditional marketers do not commit to a plan. Guerrilla Marketers develop a plan
and they stick with it.
Guerrilla Marketing believes in cooperation rather than competition. You are not looking to obliterate your
competition; you are looking for people who have the same kind of prospects and standards as you. In
local communities you will see lawyers and insurance brokers getting together every month to trade
leads. Guerrilla Marketers do more than anybody to spread the word and share the cost. This is called
fusion marketing. Guerrillas are intensely interested ─ much more than the average business person ─
in follow up. Guerrillas realize that the real profits come in through follow up. That’s where they are going
to win.
Another difference is that Guerrillas don’t talk about themselves on their Web sites and in their literature.
They only talk about the customer. The customer doesn’t care about you. They care intensely about
themselves. So talk to them about themselves, ask questions and listen carefully to the answers. If you
show interest, your customers will help you more. You’ve got to do whatever it takes to gain their
confidence.
If you can get a dispatch reporter to write about you, you will have reprints of articles that you can put up
on your Web site or in your place of business, and you can gain a lot of confidence that way. One of the
best ways to gain confidence is to give talks at local organizations. That establishes you as the expert,
the authority. That gives you a lot of credibility and gains confidence.
Do small businesses have any advantages over big businesses and their large corporate budgets?
Yes. Number one, desktop publishing gives them the appearance of being a big spender without the
need to spend big. You can produce your own brochures and your own proposals, and [other collateral]
that used to cost an arm and a leg to print.
Another area where small businesses have an advantage is that small businesses can offer more
personalized service than big businesses. Big business serves too many people. Guerrillas can form
relationships, making it easier to render the kind of service that brings people back.
Small businesses can do a lot of fusion marketing, connecting up with other businesses that have the
same kind of prospects and standards in their communities. They can enter into a relationship to see if
a contract works. You can’t do this with big companies. They are too bogged down with bureaucracy and
laws.
Guerrilla Marketing shows you how to get more while investing less. This is one of the biggest
advantages that small businesses have over big businesses. Big companies don’t think in terms of
spending less. Guerrillas can’t afford to spend more so they spend less.
Where should an entrepreneur start?
They should start by asking themselves if they didn’t need the money what would they be doing for a
living, and that is what they should do. If they are doing something for the money then it’s probably not
going to be a lot of fun for them.
Next, they have to make some decisions. Do I want to be big or small? I’ve been working from my home
for a three day week since 1971. I think that everybody should start with balance built into their day. I don’
t have any respect for people who work seven day weeks or 12 hour days. With your small business you
don’t have to do that.
And as with marketing you’ve got to start with a plan. It has to cover finance and personnel, not just
marketing. Business Plans don’t have to be long and boring. I’m only recommending things I would do
myself. Some recommend going out and getting a mentor. I’ve never done that.
Did you have a mentor?
Yes, when I worked at companies in San Francisco, Chicago and London. The bosses I had were
mentors to me. I was learning a lot from them so they were my mentors. We never used the word. I never
asked them to be mentors, but looking back I guess I did have them.
Is there anything else you would add for information technology entrepreneurs?
I think the Internet more than any other invention in history makes life easier for an entrepreneur. It
enables them to accomplish so much, so inexpensively, so rapidly that it has revolutionized
opportunities for small businesses. Any small business that doesn’t have a Web site should be
ashamed of itself because it’s inexpensive to set up a Web site. The hard part is developing a list of
people who want to hear from you. Then through short emails you can direct people to your Web site for
more information.
In the past you have talked about the importance of memes. Is this something that an entrepreneur
should think about early on?
Guerrilla marketing says that you need a “meme,” coined in 1976 by Richard Dawkins who wrote “The
Selfish Gene,” (Oxford Press, 1990). Memes are words and images that transmit an idea or are instantly
understandable. Examples of memes are the Jolly Green Giant and The Marlboro Man, which Levinson
helped create. International traffic symbols are memes too.
Yes, an entrepreneur just starting out should develop a meme, which is like a logo, but it conveys an
idea rather than the name of the company. The longer you use memes the better they are for you.
About Jay Conrad Levinson
Jay Conrad Levinson coined the term “Guerrilla Marketing.” He is the author of the popular “Guerrilla
Marketing” series of books and has authored 57 books that have been published in 43 languages with
15 million sold to date. Levinson was on the creative team that contributed to the success of the
Marlboro Man and the Jolly Green Giant, and during his career he has advised small businesses and
Fortune 500 companies such as Volvo, Mercedes, H&R Block, AT&T, HP, Sony and Apple. He believes
many of these large companies owe their success to Guerrilla Marketing techniques.
For more information about Guerrilla Marketing visit Jay’s Web site at http://www.gmarketing.com/.
There you will find articles, podcasts, free newsletters and information on how to join the Guerrilla
Marketing Association.
Interview: May 11, 2007
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| JAGWIRE Group Tel: 415.459.3688 inquiry@jagwiregroup.com |