Dear Dave:

My boss keeps talking about guerilla marketing. She wants our marketing department to scale back our budget and ”attack” different markets with little campaigns to see where we get the most traction. What does this mean?

Signed,

Fatigued by War Metaphors

Dear Fatigued:

It means your boss doesn’t know your target audience or how to reach them. In fact, your boss is speaking in a secret code. What she’s really saying is she’s a spy for the competition, has infiltrated your unit, and is about to wipe you out by destroying your marketing efforts. What she calls guerrilla marketing is actually a classic clown act called juggling: throw up a bunch of balls and see which ones stay in the air.

If you’re looking for a way to throw away marketing money, plan a weak, one-shot campaign into many different markets. You won’t raise your brand visibiliy or credibility, reinforce your value proposition, or establish the consistency needed to generate qualified leads. Imagine doing that for several different market sectors at once!

Guerrilla marketing may be low-budget marketing, but what it lacks in funding it makes up for in imagination, research, hard work, and targeting. Instead of going scatter shot at several markets, you’d be better off conducting some upfront customer or market research, choosing a sector, and going at it using referrals, social marketing, and a combination of other tactics that will help you reach your target audience without breaking the budget.  

Also, I suggest you immediately declare war on your boss. Perhaps an anonymous note to the boss that the military is looking for a few good warriors might lead to a change in leadership at your company, as well as demonstrate your grasp of guerrilla marketing.

For David Klein Marketing, I’m Dave