The other element of guerilla marketing
The first element is the guts to do things without money or bureaucratic approval.
The guerrilla marketer doesn't wait for a policy, or a developed industry or a line to form. She steps up and speaks up.
But, as Jay Levinson said from the start, more than thirty years ago, the other half is at least as important, and easy to overlook:
The core element of guerilla marketing is generosity.
You don't market at people, or even to people. We market for them and with them.
Guerrillas have long understood that it's possible to attract someone's attention. What makes it a viable approach, though, is that people are delighted once they find out what you've got going on. Effective guerrilla marketing always begins with a product or service that's worth the marketing you're going to put into it.
Hence the two tensions:
- Big company industrial marketers don't believe enough in what they sell to become guerilla marketers. Guerrilla marketing flies in the face of bureaucratic indifference.
- Many would-be guerrilla marketers spend so much time seeking attention that sometimes they forget to re-focus on the promises being made.
Next Monday is World Guerrilla Marketing Day, a holiday I just made up, guerrilla-style. What will you ship?