Table of Contents
Dedication
With pride, gratitude and real lovewe dedicate this Remix to the guerrillas who were part of the mixpart of the lore that has become and is becoming guerrilla marketing. Those guerrillas are the guerrilla co-authors whose names appear in this book and whose gleaming words of advice and knowledge generously flow from these pages.
Jay and Jeannie Levinson
Foreword
J AY INVENTED IT.
You dont get to say that very often (not the Jay part, of course, the invented part). Jay invented modern marketing. Jay invented the guerrilla mindset. Jay invented the notion that advertising and marketing werent the same thing. Jay figured out how to take this brilliant idea and turn it into hundreds of brilliant ideas and dozens of books.
This book is just the tip of the iceberg. Its not a short book, but its ultimately too short, because theres too much to cover.
The world of marketing is a better one because Jay made it that way.
Seth Godin
Author, Poke the Box
Seth Godin
45 Main Street 3R
Hastings on Hudson, NY 10706
http://www.sethgodin.com (click on my head!)
part 1
INSIGHT INTO GUERRILLA MARKETING
chapter 1
What Marketing Really Is
I TS THE PRECIOUS CONNECTION between you and whoever buys what you sell.
The connection is made online, in person, by phone, by mail, at a show, on a sign, by hearing, by reading or by seeing. It lasts from the moment the customer learns about you until he or she gets enticed away from you by a cagier guerrilla. But if youre a guerrilla, that probably wont happen to you.
You know what guerrillas knowthat you knock yourself silly winning a customer, and you dont lose that customer no matter what. That means you realize that the precious connection comprises what marketing really isan entire experience.
Your job as a guerrilla: Make every single moment of the experience satisfying, simple, and worthwhile for the customer. When you do that, youre truly a practitioner of guerrilla marketing.
Marketing isthe precious connection between you and whoever buys what you sell.
It isnt easy to be that good. To give you a powerful competitive advantage, were giving you the pure gold weve mined from the treasury of guerrilla marketing. In our opinion, its all gold, but in these pages appear the nuggets that are purest and newest, the most leading edge and timeless of all.
Marketing really isan entire experience.
Marketing begins the second that you know youve got a product or service to sell to a person. In that second, crucial questions pop up: What is the name of what youll be selling? Where can people buy it? How much will it cost? How will people pay? How much will it cost you to produce it? What color will be on the website and the shelf?
The answers to these questions change like the wind because marketing changes the same way. That ability to change is part of the DNA of guerrilla marketing.
There are two other parts to that DNA: The first is the ability to operate according to a very simple plan. Everybody can do that.
The second part is committing to that plan. Not everybody can do that. Most people expect quick answers, which dont happen; instant results, which dont happen; and high profits at the outset, which dont happen. So they abandon their plan, making certain that it wont happen. And then they complain that marketing doesnt work for them.
But marketing works for everyoneif they do it right. This Guerrilla Marketing Remix exists to help you do it right.
Guerrilla marketing has made the transition from a maverick kind of marketing to mainstream marketing. It has taken its message from a single place in California to the majority of the world. It has been embraced by both small and large businesses on our planet for two straightforward reasons:
Marketing without a plan is like going into battle under a commander who says: Ready... fire!... aim.
1. It simplifies a seemingly complex topic.
2. It works every time if you do it right.
Guerrilla marketers have mastered the craft of doing it right. The purpose of this remix is to transform you into a guerrilla marketer. After the transformation, youll understand that marketing is all contact anyone representing your company has with anyone who does not represent your company. Marketing is not just the blaring trumpets. Its also the easily overlooked details. But guerrillas dont overlook them.
Marketing isthe truth made fascinating.
Guerrillas understand that today, marketing is the truthalways the truthmade fascinatingalways fascinating. In the past, much of marketing was not the truth. And certainly, most of it was not fascinating.
What a lot of people fail to understand about marketing is that it is a process. It is not an event. Guerrilla marketing has a beginning and a middle but rarely an endunless you sell your business. Even then, it should not have an end, unless you sold your business to a half-wit.
Marketing is also a business more than an art. Sure, It embraces all art formsmusic, writing, acting, dancing, video, painting, illustrating, photography, singingbut dont delude yourself thinking that youre an artist. Youre a guerrilla, and your focus is on the profits of your business. If theres any emotional gratification involved, its because of the steady and robust rise of those profits, not because of any awards or compliments you receive along the way.
Marketing isa process, not an event.
A great artistic performance is often followed by applause and cheering. A great marketing performance is often followed by apathy and inaction. Why is that? Thats because it is marketing and not an artistic performance. Yet, many non-guerrillas, failing to hear the applause, figure that their marketing isnt working. Marketing hardly ever works instantly. If you need instant results, go into farming. Often, that works faster than marketing. But even the best farmers cant rush the process of planting, fertilizing, and harvesting.
Marketing isan opportunity to educate prospects and customers on how to succeed at achieving their goals.
Guerrilla marketing works consistently and eventually. It hardly ever works immediately. Were glad were clearing that part up right at the outset. We dont want to see any long faces on business owners who have everything it takes to succeed except for patience.
Heres what else marketing is: Its a big chance for you. Its your sparkling opportunity to educate your prospects and customers on how to succeed at achieving their goals. Whether those goals are to earn more money, grow a business, shrink a waistline, play better golf, attract a mate, or lose weight, marketing is your chance to show people how to make their dreams a reality. Were living smack-dab in the middle of the Information Age, so you can give away free information to help your target market hit their own bulls-eyes.
Perhaps you can do it with information. Or marketing success might lie in the products you offer or the services you render. Whatever it takes, your product can probably solve the problems of your audience. So consider yourself a problem solver. When you do, youre well on your way to being a guerrilla marketer.
Of course, in addition to being a craft for a problem solver, we must admit marketing also involves an element of art. Truth be told, marketing is the art of getting people to change their minds; its a way to persuade them to see it your way, to stop doing things the way theyve been doing them and begin doing them your way because doing them your way will make their lives easier, will help them achieve their goals, will help them be happierwhatever that takes. So one of your jobs as a guerrilla is to see what it really does take.