Jay Conrad Levinson - Guerrilla Marketing: Easy and Inexpensive Strategies for Making Big Profits from Your SmallBusiness

Copyright 2007 by Jay Conrad Levinson

All rights reserved

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

www.hmhco.com

The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

Levinson, Jay Conrad.
Guerrilla marketing : easy and inexpensive strategies for making big profits from your small business / Jay Conrad Levinson with Jeannie Levinson and Amy Levinson.4th rev. ed.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN -13: 978-0-618-78591-9
ISBN -10: 0-618-78591-4
1. Marketing. 2. Small businessManagement. 3. Advertising. I. Levinson, Jeannie. II. Levinson, Amy. III. Title.
HF5415.L477 2007
658.8dc22 2006033833

e ISBN

v3.0117

I DEDICATE THIS BOOK TO

... GUERRILLAS EACH AND EVERY ONE

I remember the shock I felt at age fifty when I learned that the average college graduate is better informed than the average fifty-year-old. But unless that fifty-year-old studied all the important new books and all the magazines, newspapers, TV documentaries, Web sites, and webcasts, he or she would know less than that college guy or gal, whose daily curriculum diet included the cream of the new information.

This fourth edition of Guerrilla Marketing, a scion of the first edition, which I wrote as a service to my college students at the University of California, Berkeley Extension Division, is like that college grad. Its got all the new and good stuff about marketingsome timeless, some brand newall insights that can give you the upper hand in the marketing battles.

Marketing continues to evolve and mature, just like that former student. This edition is a chip off the old guerrilla block. Its not going to abandon its principles, as humans have not abandoned their natures. But it is going to give you a clue or two about the multitude of ways that marketing has changed since I wrote the first edition and each edition after that.Cest la guerre.

Take heart that every change can represent money in your life if you learn about it and do something about it. There is no way that you can capitalize on all the changes, so youll have to pick and choose. If youre as bright as you look, youll pick some of the tried and true marketing weapons and tactics and more than a smattering of the new ways to leave your competitors standing on scorched ground.

Im intentionally going out on a limb by cautioning you that failure to upgrade your marketing effort is a symptom of corporate demise. Success-found companies are either growing and changing or dying. Failure to adapt is the leading cause of death.

This new edition is all about the adaptations you can make to power up your marketing. Its also about the attitudes and attributes that are mandatory in the current and coming business environment. A key to prospering with guerrilla marketing is the art of paying attention. Youve got to be constantly attuned to the media, the competition, the customers, the current events, the whole scene. If youre not paying close attention, youll nibble on your popcorn at the movie while the on-screen hero reaches for a box of your competitors snack treats. Thats the kind of attention I mean. Thats the kind of marketing I mean. Thats the kind of buzz you want. Thats the kind of change I mean.

Youll read some of the guerrilla marketing advice in this book and say to yourself, I knew that. Youll read other revelations and say, We could do that!

I dont blame you for being excited. Ive been excited since I first thought of bringing guerrilla marketing into the b-age, the age when entrepreneurs think of billions rather than millions. Marketing experts see today as two separate ages. One requires the age-old principles of patience and commitment for the eventual profit. The other requires a cant-refuse offer, a large and responsive mailing list, and online dexterity for the quick profit. The guerrilla marketer of today operates comfortably in both ages.

Guerrilla marketers are delighted that marketing is undergoing so many changes. These marketeers are aware that most of their competitors are looking the other way when it comes to modernizing their marketing and getting it to bloom in the sunshine rather than simply look pretty.

But to get it to bloom, youve got to be the sun. Youve got to be the energy that keeps your marketing alive. Lean closer and become intimate with the reality of the next two sentences.

Guerrilla marketing is about theory and action. I supply the theory. What kind of action are you supposed to take? The first is gaining an understanding of what marketing really is and why guerrilla marketing is putting so much money into so many bank accounts around the world.

Become aware of your options as a guerrilla marketer. With so many new options now available to guerrillas, its almost too easy to succeed. But I know thats your job, and its my job to help. So lets get going.

PART I

1

Marketing is every bit of contact your company has with anyone in the outside world. Every bit of contact. That means a lot of marketing opportunities. It does not mean investing a lot of money.

The meaning is clear: Marketing includes the name of your business; the determination of whether you will be selling a product or a service; the method of manufacture or servicing; the color, size, and shape of your product; the packaging; the location of your business; the advertising, public relations, Web site, branding, e-mail signature, voicemail message on your machine, and sales presentation; the telephone inquiries; the sales training; the problem solving; the growth plan and the referral plan; and the people who represent you, you, and your follow-up. Marketing includes your idea for your brand, your service, your attitude, and the passion you bring to your business. If you gather from this that marketing is a complex process, youre right.