Week 1 - MBA 6101 - How Does Guerilla Marketing Differ From Traditional Marketing?

To understand the difference between traditional and guerilla marketing strategies we must first understand what guerilla marketing is. Jay Conrad Levinson provides a comprehensive overview of the concept in his book of the same title, Guerilla Marketing. The idea is simple, any marketing strategy that can be put in place by any individual or small business would qualify as a guerilla marketing technique. These can include business cards, social media sites, company websites, fliers on bulletin boards, mailers, brochures, and many more options.

While certain strategies used by the "guerilla" can also be leveraged by larger companies, for the most part these strategies will be used by smaller companies due to the nature of their needs. With limited funding, traditional strategies may not be successful if implemented by the small business or individual. This is because traditional methods rely on a large budget to create television advertisements, billboards, magazine advertisements, and even sponsoring events that may all appeal to the customer base. In fact, many traditional marketing strategies may not be fully understood by an individual or small business because they have been shrouded in mystery as the well kept secret of marketing managers who require extensive training and fancy degrees.

By contrast, guerilla marketing techniques can be effectively implemented by anyone seeking to gain customers. Most often the place to start is through word of mouth. Of course, word of mouth can either increase your bottom line or shut your company down before it has even gotten off the ground. For this reason it is imperative that you ensure your products or services are of a high quality. The last thing you want is to have word of mouth circulating that your products or services are shoddy or that you are not providing adequate support to your customers.

The primary reason that large corporations are unable to leverage the majority of the guerilla techniques is they are too big to have their feet on the ground to see the real time impact of their marketing strategy. Small businesses or individuals, on the other hand, typically know the specific details impacting their bottom line at any given minute. They are able to shift quickly if they see that a certain aspect of their strategy are not hitting the mark, or worse still, impacting their customer relations. These techniques can be just as effective as traditional techniques, as long as they are managed accordingly.