Gurielaa

GUERILLA
MARKETING

How and by whom are the evolved success factors
of the Guerilla Marketing philosophy from the
1980's used today and do they stand a chance in
the business future?

Literature based thesis for attaining the
Bachelor of Business Administration Degree
at Saxion University in Enschede

1st Examiner: Drs. P. de Heus
2nd Examiner: Dhr. R. Wierda

Study Course: International Business and Management Studies

Students: Anna Drüing Katharina Fahrenholz
Isendorf 77 Kalanderplein 1-2
48282 Emsdetten 7511HX Enschede
Germany The Netherlands

Timeframe: February – June 2008

GUERILLA MARKETING – OLD PHILOSOPHY WITH FUTURE?

Table of Content

List of Figures…………………………………………………………………………………………..IV
Executive Summary……………………………………………………………………………………...V
Methodology…………………………………………………………………………………………...VII

1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 1

2. When did Guerilla Marketing appear and how did it develop?....................................... 3

2.1. Roots of Modern Guerilla Marketing ................................................................................ 3
2.1.1. Terminology of Guerilla.................................................................................................................. 3
2.1.2. “Guerilla” enters Marketing ............................................................................................................ 4
2.1.3. Guerilla Marketing Philosophers..................................................................................................... 4

3. How is Guerilla Marketing defined and used today? ...................................................... 7

3.1. What is Guerilla Marketing? .............................................................................................. 7
3.1.1. Definition ........................................................................................................................................ 7
3.1.2. Technological Development ........................................................................................................... 8
3.1.3. Uniformity vs. Creativity ................................................................................................................ 8

3.2. Guerilla Marketing Instruments ...................................................................................... 10
3.2.1. Out-of-Home Weapons ................................................................................................................. 10
3.2.2. Ambient Marketing ....................................................................................................................... 11
3.2.3. Guerilla Sensation ......................................................................................................................... 11
3.2.4. Ambush Marketing........................................................................................................................ 12
3.2.5. New Media Weapons .................................................................................................................... 13
3.2.6. Viral Marketing............................................................................................................................. 13
3.2.7. Guerilla Mobile ............................................................................................................................. 14
3.2.8. Low Budget Weapons ................................................................................................................... 14

3.3. Guerilla Marketing in the Marketing Mix ...................................................................... 15
3.3.1. Guerilla Promotion (70%)............................................................................................................. 16
3.3.2. Guerilla Pricing (10%) .................................................................................................................. 16
3.3.3. Guerilla Distributing (Place 10%)................................................................................................. 17
3.3.4. Guerilla Producting (10%) ............................................................................................................ 18

3.4. User Profile ......................................................................................................................... 18

II
BACHELOR THESIS Anna Drüing ‐ Katharina Fahrenholz


3.5. Case Study: Bionade .......................................................................................................... 20
3.5.1. Company Profile ........................................................................................................................... 20
3.5.2. Guerilla Marketing Campaign....................................................................................................... 22
3.5.2.1. Implementation.................................................................................................................... 22
3.5.2.2. Result................................................................................................................................... 26

3.6. Obstacles of Guerilla Marketing ...................................................................................... 27

4. How is Guerilla Marketing perceived today?................................................................. 28

4.1. Customer Perception of Guerilla Marketing................................................................... 28
4.1.1. Survey ........................................................................................................................................... 28
4.1.1.1. Purpose ................................................................................................................................ 28
4.1.1.2. Structure of the Questionnaire ............................................................................................. 28
4.1.1.3. Sample Selection ................................................................................................................. 29
4.1.1.4. Limitations........................................................................................................................... 30
4.1.1.5. Evaluation............................................................................................................................ 30
4.1.1.6. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 34
4.1.2. Expert opinion............................................................................................................................... 34
4.1.2.1. Guerilla Marketing Today ................................................................................................... 35
4.1.2.2. Future of Guerilla Marketing............................................................................................... 37
4.1.2.3. Conclusion: Future Advice .................................................................................................. 37

5. Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 39
List of References ………………………………………………………………………..….IX
Appendix……………………………………………………………………………….…...XII

III


List of Figures

Figure 1: Guerilla Marketing Weapon Categories............................................................................................... 10
Figure 2: Marketing Mix....................................................................................................................................... 15
Figure 3: WMF Promotion ................................................................................................................................... 16
Figure 4: Kellogs Drink n' Crunch ....................................................................................................................... 18
Figure 5: Out-of-home, Bionade Poster ............................................................................................................... 23
Figure 6: Bionade Leuchtbotschafter ................................................................................................................... 24
Figure 7: Bionade Banner ................................................................................................................................... XII
Figure 8: AIDA Model ..........................................................................................................................................XX

IV


Executive Summary
Guerilla Marketing – an alternative marketing form that has been experiencing increasing
importance in the advertising landscape, ever since customers are besieged with classical
marketing communication via the traditional channels TV, Magazines, Radio and Direct
Mail. Guerilla Marketing is a brilliant idea, involving the customer in a surprising, unconven-
tional marketing activity.

The term “Guerilla” (battle) roots back to the war of independence in Spain and Portugal, the
revolution in Cuba, and the Vietnamese War. Here “Guerilla” stood for an attack strategy
based on the surprise effect and on acts of sabotage, which was used by smaller groups that
stood against a massive military force. In the 1960’s US firms brought the “Guerilla” tactics
to Marketing, when they needed new ways to outdo competitors. Then they merely attacked
weak points of competitors by implementing preliminary injunctions for their campaigns for
instance.

Only in 1983 did Jay Conrad Levinson make the term “Guerilla Marketing” known as a phi-
losophy for small and start-up companies to successfully market their business with a small
amount of money. He based the success of a marketing strategy on the use of non-traditional
marketing channels, customer proximity, insistency, and patience. Through the drastic tech-
nological development until today and its complimentary change in the advertising market,
Guerilla Marketing has developed into a marketing form mostly used for Promotion these
days. New forms such as Ambush and Viral Marketing have evolved.

The evolved Guerilla Marketing form is now used by companies of all sizes; Global Players
such as BMW use it, and start-up companies do so to create brand awareness. How this is
actually done in practice, is illustrated by the case study of the soft drink producer Bionade
Corporation in Germany, displaying various facets of the Guerilla Marketing principle.

How such Guerilla Marketing activities are perceived by the actual prospect was researched
through a customer survey. In fact a majority of the respondents stated that such advertise-
ments do catch their attention and interest, whereas they consciously avoid traditional mar-
keting as for instance TV advertisement. So Guerilla Marketing can find a way to actually

V


reach the customer, at least in the first two steps of the AIDA Model1. This great potential of
the Guerilla Marketing was confirmed by Marketing Experts in the course of an interview.
They could imagine that the traditional Marketing Channels such as TV and magazine, who
will also be at the forefront in the future, will take over characteristics of Guerilla Marketing
in order to actually reach the customer.

Financially strong companies should use Guerilla Marketing as a complimentary tool to pre-
sent the brand in a multimodal way. Smaller firms can make use of the cost-effective strategy
to get the spotlight on their brand. Good co-operation with for instance the Public Relations
department is essential to increase the Guerilla Marketing effect enormously.

However its potential is used, it has to be done cleverly to stand out from the 3000 advertis-
ing messages a day with which today’s consumer is flooded. Guerilla Marketing will adapt
with the customers, find ways to surprise them and interest them by putting the idea in the
forefront, not the brand.



1 Appendix: AIDA model
VI


Methodology
Our research is based on diverse research methods in order to gain as many different perspec-
tives on the topic as possible. Therefore we used primary as well as secondary data collection
in combination with desk and field research.

Our first part concerning the history and development of Guerilla Marketing has a theoretical
background. Since Guerilla Marketing has became popular recently, only very few authors
have written books about the topic so far. Therefore we believe that one of the best sources
for those research questions are the books and publications of the marketer Jay Conrad Lev-
inson, titled the “The Father of Guerrilla Marketing”2 , who spread the knowledge of the
Guerilla concept in the 1980’s and has updated his editions until today. Al Ries’ and Jack
Trout’s perception of Guerilla Marketing, as well as Philip Kotler were taken into account.

For further analysis of the development of Guerilla Marketing secondary data such as arti-
cles, publications, and examples of activities were used. We also utilized selected case stud-
ies to underline our theoretical findings, especially on the example of Bionade.

As a foundation for our section about the current use of Guerilla we used input from Market-
ing newspapers, trade journals and other publications. However, since journalists just started
to pay attention to this trend, we analyzed numerous Guerilla Marketing activities to formu-
late conclusions.

For the conclusion of our report we wanted to find an answer concerning the future perspec-
tive of Guerilla Marketing. In order to bring additional objectiveness to our report we also
included the results from expert interviews as well as from a customer survey.

One of the qualitative interviews will be held with Bionade Product Manager Christian Rath.
Bionade successfully used the Guerilla Marketing approach in the past. Furthermore we were
in contact with some Marketing professionals that already worked with Guerilla Marketing
and showed interest in our work. They shared their experiences, opinions, and their publica-

2 Guerilla Marketing International

VII


tions on rather subjective questions for which the answers could not be found in public arti-
cles.

Since we believe that the future of Guerilla Marketing will also be strongly determined by
the current perspective and perception of the customers, we conducted a questionnaire that
gave us some interesting insights into the perception of traditional and alternative marketing
forms.

VIII


1. Introduction
Guerilla Marketers can get you anywhere – on your way home from work, in the car, bus and
train, on the streets, strolling or relaxing at a café terrace, in front of your house, or at major
events. It is like love: You will find it at the moment you do not expect it at all! And at the
moment you notice the advertisement and start thinking about its message they have what
they want – your attention and interest.

Guerilla Marketing distinguishes itself from other promotion tools by its surprise effect and it
has become a very popular marketing strategy in current times. The name “Guerilla” origi-
nally describes a group that uses a violent approach to achieve the implementation of their
beliefs and ideology. Their opponents are often a tremendous force consisting of more people
and even of more resources such as weapons or money. The Guerilla fighter’s only advan-
tage is the fact that only they know where and when they will strike.

The original approach of Guerilla Marketing is an alternative marketing strategy that suits
small and medium-sized companies to act like the Guerilla fighters have in the past: hit vul-
nerable targets of larger enemies by taking them by surprise. The unexpected and unusual
Guerilla Marketing campaigns helped smaller companies to successfully reach their target
group, even though their bigger market competitors had a larger marketing budget, more ex-
perience, and a better spread to advance the market by using traditional marketing strategies.

Many small and medium-sized companies started with Guerilla Marketing and established
their business lucratively. Through constant growth rates they have the means to also afford
traditional marketing tools to gain more and more market share, continuing to attack the
market leaders.

Those accomplishments drew the attention of larger companies to Guerilla Marketing. Now
this alternative approach is used by companies of all sizes. Various agencies have specialized
in developing Guerilla strategies. Within the advertising branch it is almost something like a
remedy that every business can use successfully.

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This development leads to some interesting questions:
Is this trend going to continue?
Will all companies be able to use it in the future?
Will customers still be surprised and show the desirable reactions even though many
companies already use Guerilla Marketing today?
Do small companies have a chance with their Guerilla Marketing approach when lar-
ger companies are willing to spend a fortune on their Guerilla Marketing activities?

This report gives an insight into the origin of Guerilla Marketing as being a tool for small to
medium-sized companies to achieve large impacts with little resources. Further it will show
its development, focusing on the current market situation, where many Big Players use this
alternative method as well. The conclusion will answer the question if the developed concept
of Guerilla Marketing can also be successfully applied in the future.

2


2. When did Guerilla Marketing appear and how did it develop?
2.1. Roots of Modern Guerilla Marketing
2.1.1. Terminology of Guerilla
The term “Guerilla” first appeared during the war of independence in Spain and Portugal at
the beginning of the 19th century. It is a Spanish expression which can be translated as “bat-
tle”. Guerilla stands for a combat operation that was used by smaller groups that stood
against a massive military force.

The term and the connected operations became famous through Ernesto Che Guevara Lynch
de la Serna (1928 – 1967), best known as Che Guevara, who used and defined this military
tactic. He belonged to a small militia group which wanted to put their political concept
through. They were clearly in the weaker position and their only chance to achieve a success-
ful revolution in Cuba was to fight the national military. Since Che Guevara and his follow-
ers did not possess as many resources such as weapons, money, or fighters as their oppo-
nents, they based their operations on the surprise effect and on acts of sabotage. Due to their
size they had the advantage of being more flexible, having a quicker coordination and know-
ing the territory better. The usage of unconventional weapons and activities helped them to
destabilize their rivals and led them to their final success.

Che Guevara defined and shaped basic principles for his fighters and summarized them in the
book “Guerilla Warfare” that he wrote in 1961. These are the most important elements that
can be pointed out:

• Ultimate goal: victory over the enemy
• Usage of surprise effects
• Tactical superiority3

During the 1960’s the United States of America faced major difficulties in the Vietnam War.
Even though Vietnam was theoretically much weaker, the US were not able to bring the en-
emy down. Especially the Vietcong force was unbeatable, because they used the Guerilla
tactics that destabilized the American forces constantly. The Vietcong’s operations were

3 Guerilla Marketing Portal
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similar to Che Guevara’s activities. They also used the surprise effect, were much more
flexible than their enemies, fought on Vietnamese territory, and used unusual means. This
was the first time that Americans got to know the principles of Guerilla.

2.1.2. “Guerilla” enters Marketing
At the same time America’s marketing experts were looking for new approaches to gain the
attention of customers. The consumer’s behaviour had changed and businesses had to come
up with offers that fit their consumers’ needs and not only their own. Consequently market-
ing experts had to find realizable concepts for businesses with limited resources; something
that lets one company stand out in the crowd.

The only promising way was to use an anti-marketing concept that included attrition and at-
tack strategies in order to gain as much attention as possible and to weaken competitors con-
siderably. This was not only realized by aggressive marketing efforts, but also through legal
means such as preliminary injunctions for campaigns of competitors. 4

2.1.3. Guerilla Marketing Philosophers
Levinson
Of course Guerilla Marketing did not conquer the marketing world over night. The new strat-
egy needed some years to develop and to become an integral part of business strategies. Dur-
ing the 1980s the US market was flooded with 11 million new founded companies. 10.8 mil-
lion of them were small-sized companies that needed a strategy to fight their bigger competi-
tors with a small budget. In order to make the Guerilla idea accessible to everybody Jay Con-
rad Levinson defined the root idea in his book “Guerrilla Marketing” in 1983. His publica-
tions provided not only an explanation of the essential marketing ideas, but also a philosophy
for small business owners who wanted to follow the Guerilla Marketing idea. He introduced
new ways of advertising and presenting a business well with a small budget and based the
success of a marketing strategy on the use of non-traditional marketing channels, customer
proximity, insistency, and patience. A company should create as many points of contact with
customers and prospects as possible in order to stay in their memory. He further believed that
a long-lasting campaign will bring the desired competitive advantage.

4 Schulte
4


Levinson’s book explains the basic pillars of Guerilla Marketing in a simple way and made
him the “Father of Guerilla Marketing”. It was sold over 1 million times and translated into
37 languages. Updated versions of the book are released every few years. The revised pas-
sages mainly deal with new technologies and marketing channels that change over the years
and offer new possibilities.5

Ries/Trout
Only three years after Levinson released his first edition in 1983, the American Marketing
experts Al Ries and Jack Trout specified the root idea of Levinson, but they also developed
some opposed elements. Like Levinson, Trout and Ries believed that Guerilla marketing best
suits small and medium-sized companies. Trout pointed out that the market size also has to
be manageable with the limited and available resources. Therefore he suggests specializing
and investing in a niche product and/or market niche.

In general small business owners should use their advantageous flexibility even more. Both
Ries and Trout suggest that a small business should try to use every product and/or market
niche that becomes available and furthermore not hesitate to change their approach in case
they believe that another strategy would be more profitable. Therefore insistency and pa-
tience is not one of the essential elements anymore like it was in Levinson’s opinion. Fur-
thermore Ries emphasized that a lean organizational structure with a centralized top man-
agement makes it easier for a growing company to continue to save costs and to keep their
flexibility.6

Kotler
The marketing expert Kotler also analysed the Guerilla tactics in the 1990s. Kotler suggests
that such a competitive strategy should be adopted by market challengers that try to increase
their own profitability by gaining more market share from other companies in the same in-
dustry. A competitive advantage over the challenged company is the foundation for a good
strategy, but also involves high risks, especially when the potential gain is high, warns Kot-
ler. Mainly smaller and financially weaker companies are then using an aggressive Guerilla
attack. Such a campaign can even be a tool to fight the current market leader. Unlike Levin-

5 Levinson
6 Ries; Trout
5


son, Ries, and Trout, Kotler believes that the main purpose of Guerilla Marketing is to desta-
bilize the opponent – or best to destroy the competitors with the help of attrition tactics. 7

7 Kotler, Wong, Saunders, Armstrong
6


3. How is Guerilla Marketing defined and used today?
3.1. What is Guerilla Marketing?
3.1.1. Definition
Around the globe, marketing experts, researchers, and discoverers eagerly try to find the all-
embracing description of Guerilla Marketing, since no official definition of the term exists so
far. Many explanations have thus been created and even though they vary in their wording,
they mostly have the following characteristics of Guerilla Marketing in common: Creative,
unconventional, surprising and efficient.8

Guerilla Marketing is a marketing strategy, nowadays predominantly used for the Marketing
Mix “P” Promotion.9 It is a marketing form, which involves the consumer in the advertising
experience. Guerilla Marketing campaigns display creative ideas dynamically with uncon-
ventional methods at places where advertising would be least expected. The aim is to irritate,
fascinate, and animate the consumer. The surprise effect belongs to the root philosophy. It is
advisable not to repeat a Guerilla action as it might not be surprising anymore, but rather
annoying. Guerilla Marketing should stand out from the saturated advertising landscape by
being fun and not bothersome. Classical marketing communication via TV commercials,
Newspaper Ads, Radio Spots, and Direct Mail does not really excite the customer anymore.
Unconventional forms on the other hand can accomplish excitement. Guerilla Marketing,
Viral Marketing, and Word-of-Mouth Marketing are concepts that gain rising importance,
especially through one increasingly important marketing channel: the Internet.

Significant for Guerilla Marketing is to reach maximum customer attention with minimal
costs. It is central to emphasize the brand’s strengths and minimize its weaknesses in order to
attack competitors. Thereby the Guerilla Marketing strategy is based on imagination, uncon-
ventionality, and flexibility instead of market power, enterprise size, and marketing budgets.

A false conclusion would be to think that the lower budget means the Guerilla marketing
activities require less effort. The involvement for successful Guerilla Marketing is high. En-
ergy and time are the main ingredients.

9 Bieri; Handschin; Siegenthaler; Spycher
7


So far the beginning and the current definition of Guerilla Marketing was described. In the
1980s it was seen as an integral part of the business strategy, while now in the 21st century it
is mainly a communication strategy. The following part will link the two sides and explain
what influenced the Guerilla Marketing to develop to its current usage.

3.1.2. Technological Development
“Markets today are changing fast. Price-sensitive customers, new competitors, new distribu-
tion channels, new communication channels, the Internet, wireless commerce, globalization,
deregulation, privatization… the list goes on. And it is not only markets that are changing,
but the technologies that support them: e-commerce, e-mail, mobile phones, fax machines,
sales, and marketing automation, cable TV, videoconferencing. It is imperative that compa-
nies think through the revolutionary impact of these new technologies.“10

These developments have changed for instance the way customers behave. Increasing trans-
parency through the internet enables buyers to acquire product information, compare them
directly with competitors, and easily make worldwide purchases. Businesses adapt their pro-
cedures according to the market and technology development. Especially in Marketing inno-
vative ways of promoting products and brands have come up. An example are blogs, pod-
and nanocasting in the online marketing scene. Within these developments Guerilla Market-
ing experienced increasing importance since more and more businesses demand practice ori-
ented solutions for short term results.11 In times of globalisation the competitive pressure is
high and the free market economy is tough. Marketing has to carry out more and more tasks
with tight budgets. Thereby it is a thin line between annoying and attracting customers.

3.1.3. Uniformity vs. Creativity
It was always the aim of marketers to attract new customers and to keep the existing custom-
ers loyal, but since the market and the environment have changed so immensely, the way to
get through to the customer has also changed. During the 1980s marketers – among them Jay
C. Levinson with his Guerilla Marketing strategy – supported the belief that prospects have
to be exposed to the same marketing message as often as possible. Research showed that
people need to see an advertisement up to 13 times before they understand what the product

10 Kotler, Jain, Maesincee
11 Levinson, 2007
8


is and that it can be beneficial for them. Consequently business owners were urged to publi-
cise their name, logo, and message at every possible opportunity. To take the early forms of
Guerilla Marketing as an example, small companies had over 200 different marketing weap-
ons that allowed them to catch their customers’ attention over and over again. Furthermore a
chosen strategy had to be kept for a long period even if it did not bring the desired success
immediately. Levinson motivated this guideline with the fact that only a certain number of
exposures can bring the customer to a final purchase. Simply put, Marketing takes time and
consequently business owners have to wait. A hasty change in strategy would reset the cus-
tomers mind and the invested time and money would have been wasted. 12

Even though the explanation sounds logical it is not realizable anymore today. The market
and the environment change rapidly and all companies try to get the attention of the customer
as often as possible. As a result every customer is confronted with 3000 sales messages every
day. What makes it even worse is the fact that advertising messages from the same compa-
nies are repeated several times a day – up to 50 times. Companies achieved what they
wanted. Customers cannot go anywhere without being swamped with advertising. Unfortu-
nately customers are not interested in such classical marketing communication like they used
to be. Consequently they do not perceive and remember the message afterwards. Of course
for businesses this is a very costly activity that does not bring the desired success.13

Still companies all over the world invest billions in traditional activities, which are often not
affordable for smaller companies. The solution is a cost-effective marketing form that stands
out in the crowd of advertisings and catches the attention of the customer even in the rapidly
changing marketing world of today. Marketers always have to come up with new ideas to
spotlight their brand and protect the surprise effect of every Guerilla Marketing activity. In
the end the surprise effect can create the most positive reaction from the customer. The aim is
to create more brand awareness. The aspects of Guerilla Marketing also fit these needs of
today - away from uniformity and insistency towards creativity and flexibility.

12 Levinson
13 Marketing Partner
9


3.2. Guerilla Marketing Instruments
Over the years Guerilla Marketing has developed and created many forms, so called weap-
ons. These weapons should support the root philosophy of Guerilla Marketing which entails
creative, witty inspiration. As we know Guerilla Marketing is a dynamic way to create brand
awareness. Done with simple tools those actions should be spectacular and clever to catch the
attention of a certain target group.

To get an overall picture of the potential of Guerilla Marketing weapons we have classified
them by categories: Out-of-Home, New Media, and Low Budget Weapons. Again no official
definition exists, but the following distinction by experts of Guerilla Marketing Portal (GMP)
has been build up logically and is therefore referred to in this paper14:

Guerilla Marketing
Weapons

Out-of-Home Weapons New Media Weapons Low Budget Weapons
Ambient Marketing Viral Marketing Clever ideas for small and
Guerilla Sensation Guerilla Mobile medium-sized companies
Ambush Marketing

Figure 1: Guerilla Marketing Weapon Categories

3.2.1. Out-of-Home Weapons
As the name “out-of-home” suggests, these weapons refer to marketing activities that are
actually realised at public locations. At best it does not only catch the interest of people who
pass by, but media interest as well. Newspaper reports about the action can create extra pub-
licity for the advertised company and stimulates that people talk about the product. The ex-
pansion of brand awareness is the aim. The most successful weapons in the category out-of-
home are Guerilla Sensation, Ambient Media, and Ambush Marketing.

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3.2.2. Ambient Marketing
The term became well-known in the 1990s. Ambient Media refers to non-traditional out-of-
home advertising. While other out-of-home Marketers advertise on large-scale billboards,
ambient advertisements are posted on manhole covers, cranes, pizza cartons, free postcards
in bars and so on. They are all a little more unusual displays. Until today newer ambient me-
dia have come up, such as messages on large-format screens in subways or handles of su-
permarket trolleys. There are no limits to formats there.15

The American Mark Hughes had what is probably one of the most profitable ideas concern-
ing the placement of an advertisement. He used the blank backside of the fortune cookie slips
given out in Chinese restaurants for an advertising message. These – in production cheap -
marketing messages reached 7 million restaurant guests in one week and were therefore very
profitable. Mark Hughes has been able to make a lot of money by selling this noticed adver-
tising space to companies. 16

The important aspect is to seek out the target group at their preferred location in an entertain-
ing way. Ambient Marketing tries to approach the customer individually through the place of
contact. Some experts claim that Ambient Marketing does not belong to Guerilla Marketing,
since it does not fulfil the typical characteristics of being surprising and dynamic. Indeed
Ambient is more static, one-sided marketing. Still it can also be a medium with good poten-
tial to bring attention to a brand or product in a creative way.

3.2.3. Guerilla Sensation
Guerilla Sensation is very similar to Ambient Marketing. Therefore it is easier to show the
difference. As described above, Ambient Marketing positions advertising at unusual places.
Hereby the main focus is not necessarily on the idea, but on the advertising space itself. Peo-
ple are confronted with advertisements where and when they do not expect it.

In general Guerilla Sensation works with the same principle, but it is only used on a very
limited number of events and activities. The number of prospects that are exposed to the ad-
vertisement is therefore relatively small compared to a few million people that might get in

15 Webguerillas
16 Streitz
11


contact with an Ambient Marketing campaign as the example of the Fortune Cookies de-
scribed above. But such Guerilla Sensation actions can gain further, non-regional attention by
making it to the media. Often newspapers are looking for extraordinary, unusual pictures,
which are often delivered by Guerilla Sensation activities. Through good Public Relations
controversial or very original Guerilla ideas of a brand can be a widely discussed issue in the
media as well.

Of course the line between Ambient Marketing and Guerilla Sensation is thin. Some Guerilla
Sensation activities become an Ambient Marketing activity, because modern technologies
spread the message. Guerilla Sensation characteristics are those described in the Guerilla
Marketing definition. 17

3.2.4. Ambush Marketing
Ambush means attack out of the blue, reminding at the Guerilla Attacks from Che Guevara.
It stands for a sneaky out-of-home marketing method, which promotes a brand at huge events
without paying a sponsorship fee. At many major events one brand of a particular category
pays a high price to be the exclusive sponsor, which leaves their competitors be left in the
dark. Ambush Marketers then still find a way to make notice of their brand in connection
with the event, since it attracts the attention of thousands of visitors and even viewers on TV.
Pepsi for instance placed a huge oversize Pepsi bottle close to a soccer game which was
sponsored by Coca Cola. Giving out company material on a fair without having a stand is
also Ambush Marketing. The legal boundaries can be thin as Vodafone experienced in Aus-
tralia in 2002. The rugby match between the All Blacks from New Zealand and the Wallabies
from Australia was interrupted by two naked streakers whose bodies were painted with Vo-
dafone logos. The bizarre details unsheathed the wrongful behaviour of Vodafone. The CEO
of the Australian Vodafone division knew that something provocative would happen and
agreed to the proposal of an anonymous caller. He even agreed to take care of all arising
costs and legal issues. Furthermore Vodafone was the sponsor of the participating Australian
team, but his main competitor Telstra gave the arena its name. Apart from the legal difficul-
ties that Vodafone had to face, the success of the campaign was arguable, since the match
might have been influenced by the interruption and upset many fans.18

18 Spiegel online
12


3.2.5. New Media Weapons
New technologies change our lives and they often make it easier due to mobile phones, inter-
net, unlimited information, and shopping possibilities that enable customers to access the
resources of the world with a click on the computer mouse. Of course this also gives busi-
nesses the possibility to use the advantages that technology provides. Two very strong in-
struments that use the modern possibilities are described below: Viral Marketing and Guerilla
Mobile.

3.2.6. Viral Marketing
Viral Marketing is a very important weapon of Guerilla Marketing. The beginning of Viral
Marketing in Germany is often linked to the computer game “Johnnie Walker Moorhuhn”,
where the player gets to shoot grouses (German: “Moorhuhn”) in the Scottish highlands. The
game was developed to promote the Scotch Whiskey brand Johnnie Walker in the German
gastronomy sector. In 1999 it was shown in some German bars and then offered as a free
download on the internet. Unexpectedly the game became so popular that people of all ages
actively played it. The clue which makes this example Viral Marketing is that the game play-
ers recommended “Moorhuhn” to friends by forwarding the link or by word-of-mouth. The
game downloads had exponentially increased within a very short time and the brand name
Johnnie Walker was spread free of charge to millions of individuals.19

This example vividly shows how successful Viral Marketing can be. The idea is to get an
advertising message to as many contacts as possible and as fast as possible. This is realised
by human multipliers who are animated to pass the message along for free. The challenge for
a Viral Marketer is to build a motivation in a message for people to spread it. If that is suc-
cessful, the snowball effect starts and the potential for the viral message’s exposure and in-
fluence is produced. The message rapidly spreads, similar to the way email jokes and soft-
ware viruses are sent around to the online community. It has to be mentioned that Viral Mar-
keting is not a computer virus, it is harmless.

Encouraging people to pass the message along to others for free is an art. A personalised
message or a motivational prize are often successful tools. In any way, the campaigns should
be smart and extraordinary, since a conventional advertisement might not be accepted and

19 Wikipedia
13


spread. Winning is often the usage of sex, humour, scandal, and provocation. In the B2B sec-
tor downloadable White Papers are doing well.

The Viral Marketing concept is not dependent on a certain media. Communication between
two persons has always existed in various ways. Then the message often spread by word-of-
mouth, but through the internet Viral Marketing has experienced a boom. The impact, cover-
age, and pace that this media offers today is astonishing.

Especially Hotmail is often mentioned as the showcase for Viral Marketing. This free email
service by Microsoft was one of the first to gain remarkably from Viral Marketing. Hotmail’s
brand awareness and market share increased rapidly, when they started to add a frank mes-
sage to the footer of all E-Mails sent out by Hotmail users. For example : “Join the world's
20
largest free e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com“. Hotmail users thus
automatically became sales promoters for their e-mail service provider. From its start in 1996
to its 12 millionth user, hotmail only spend 500.000 US-Dollar on advertising, while com-
petitors spent 20 Million US-Dollar and did not nearly manage to attract that many custom-
ers. Other successful viral formats are for instance Facebook applications and viral videos on
YouTube.

3.2.7. Guerilla Mobile
Not only the PC offers unlimited possibilities to marketers. Since the number of mobile
phones exceeds the number of inhabitants in many countries, the cell phone is a permanent
companion of prospects. Therefore it was only a matter of time until marketers took the op-
portunity to reach customers and prospects at any place at any time. The wireless connection
provides the possibility to present marketing messages in different ways via SMS, MMS,
Bluetooth, or Infrared.

3.2.8. Low Budget Weapons
This Weapon refers to Guerilla Marketing for new, small, and medium-sized companies, who
only possess a small marketing budget. Like Levinson already pointed out in the 1980’s that
does not necessarily mean that those companies have a disadvantage compared to financially
strong competitors. But since their capital is low, the top priority is to use it as efficiently as

20 http://www.viz.co.nz/viral‐marketing.htm
14


possible. Guerilla Marketing should put this into practice by focusing on the local culture
with its geographical, sportive, social network, its rituals, needs, habits, norms, traditions, and
values. Clever ideas appear through unconventional methods which are supposed to catch the
attention of the target group.

3.3. Guerilla Marketing in the Marketing Mix
Guerilla Marketing changed over the years. In the past it was a business philosophy that in-
fluenced all aspects of the business equally. Today Guerilla Marketing is often only used in
the form of a campaign. Companies often operate according to their traditional marketing
philosophy, but Guerilla Marketing for single campaigns is different. There the balance in the
marketing mix shifts towards one of the 4 P’s. The figure 2 shows that 70% of the campaigns
put their focus on promotion. The remaining 30% place their focus equally on price, place,
and product.21

Marketing
Mix

Promotion Price Place Product
70 % 10% 10% 10%

Figure 2: Marketing Mix

The following examples show campaigns where the focus is on one of the 4 P’s. Here it is
essential to outline that sometimes only one of these 10% of the Marketing Mix are designed
according to the Guerilla Marketing principles. The remaining 90% can belong to a tradi-
tional Marketing approach.

21 Bieri; Handschin; Siegenthaler; Spycher

15


3.3.1. Guerilla Promotion (70%)
In most cases Guerilla Marketing appears in the form of promotion. Even though Guerilla
Marketing tries to be different than the traditional marketing strategies, it uses the same
channels to bring the message across such as public relations, advertising, sales promotion, or
direct mail as well as the specific instruments described before. Actually the possibilities do
not have limits. The non-profit organization WMF supplies one of the numerous examples of
Guerilla Marketing promotion with its slogan: “save paper – save the planet”.

Figure 3: WMF Promotion22

By pulling the paper towel out of the box, the level of the overall paper towel pile decreases.
The user cannot only see the decreasing pile, but also the effects that the use of the paper
towels has on the rain forests in South America. With this simple example WMF tries to redi-
rect the attention of the user towards WMF’s interest to maintain the rain forests.

3.3.2. Guerilla Pricing (10%)
The focus of Guerilla Marketing strategies can also be pricing. Even though we live in a
world where prices play a big role within the purchase decision, only 10% of all Guerilla
activities focus on price. It describes a new way to differentiate itself from the rest of the

22

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://minus3.ch/blog/wpcontent/uploads/2007/10/mini_guerilla_marketing_2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.minus3.ch/
blog/&h=225&w=360&sz=116&hl=de&start=12&um=1&tbnid=g3DOMkCxNmw6nM:&tbnh=76&tbnw=121&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dguerilla%2Bmarketi
ng%2Bmini%26um%3D1%26hl%3Dde%26lr%3D

16


competition. A competitive offer is still a success factor for some campaigns as the following
witty idea shows.

Customers of the electronic retailer Media Markt were promised to get back their money if
they bought TV’s before the Soccer European Championship in case that the German soccer
team won the tournament. Many people took the opportunity and bought one or more TV’s.
In the end Germany did not even get into the final round and the customers did not receive
their money back. Media Markt was the winner.

3.3.3. Guerilla Distributing (Place 10%)
The distribution of a product can also be a special experience for the customer. A good dis-
tribution can boost sales tremendously. Even though books have a hard time to survive in
competition with to other media, the famous Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling showed
that even books can make the day of retailers and delivery services. Especially young readers
were waiting for the new book release and wanted to buy the book at the day of publication.
Book shops, retailers, and delivery services in many countries offered customers to buy or to
receive the book at midnight in order to be one of the first to own the book. A lot of fans
even came in costumes to book stores to buy the first copies. Others were willing to pay extra
to get the book delivered to their homes at midnight.

17


3.3.4. Guerilla Producting (10%)
Also the packaging, the form, and the brand can be a vehicle for Guerilla Marketing. One
example introduced Kellogg’s with its Drink ‘n Crunch cup shown in the picture below.

Figure 4: Kellogs Drink nʹ Crunch23

The cup allows the customer to have cornflakes-to-go. The one-person-portion in the cup
only needs milk in addition to make it a snack that can be enjoyed not only at home. This
makes the cornflakes an alternative to chocolate bars and other sweets.

3.4. User Profile
In the battle for customer attention small companies as well as Global Players want Guerilla
Marketing to stand out from competitors in a cost-effective way. Thereby small companies
focus on using a small budget, while big enterprises utilize Guerilla Marketing in combina-
tion with classical advertising strategies to make branded goods a real experience.

Guerilla Marketing is a solution for companies of all sizes and all budgets. The classical ver-
sion of Guerilla Marketing that was mainly developed by Levinson is still usable for small
and medium-sized companies that are looking for a philosophy that fits their financial limita-

23
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.frederiksamuel.com/blog/images/bananaj.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.frederiksamuel.com/blog/category/p
acka-
ging/page/2&h=462&w=450&sz=76&hl=de&start=43&um=1&tbnid=h64qrsAJSSAlKM:&tbnh=128&tbnw=125&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dguerilla%2Bpacka
ging%26start%3D40%26ndsp%3D20%26um%3D1%26hl%3Dde%26lr%3D%26sa%3DN

18


tions and high desires. Little tricks and years of experience make a successful start for a
company possible. On the other hand it is not only an alternative for smaller companies.
Puma, Lycos, Vodafone, BMW: they all do it. Actually there is no size of company and no
field of industry that does not try to use the advantages of Guerilla Marketing. Even though
the budgets of the companies that use Guerilla Marketing vary widely, they all find a way to
get through to their customers. Furthermore low-budget activities can be extended by putting
in more money than necessary, for example by placing advertisements in additional cities.

Internationally the top 5 countries with the highest advertising expenditure are firstly the
USA, then China, Japan, UK, and on the fifth position Germany. Over the last 10 years ex-
penditures in those countries have all risen tremendously, in China for instance by 1218%, in
the US by 53% and in Germany by 6%. Guerilla and Viral Marketing concepts are mostly
used in the US. In Germany 35% of the companies use unconventional advertising forms.
The outcome of a Robert&Horst24 research was that 46% of the top 3000 Marketing Decision
Makers in Germany have or will use alternative marketing forms in the future. It becomes
clear, that they see alternative marketing forms as cost-effective means, since they do not
want to invest much of their budget on such forms. One third is willing to spend 5% and only
one fourth will spend 10% of their marketing funds.

The main difference between small and bigger firms, next to the size of their budget, is the
way Guerilla Marketing is used. Global players and other established companies cannot in-
herit the philosophy of Guerillas one-to-one since the strategy is made for small companies
and consequently addresses only a limited customer base. Some additional and personalized
services cannot be offered by businesses that serve millions of clients. Consequently these
enterprises only use Guerilla Marketing with all its facades for a specific time in the course
of a campaign. They use the main characteristics of Guerilla Marketing that are still impor-
tant today. Creativity and flexibility, the surprise effect, and the unexpected are the main key-
words here.

A Guerilla Marketing campaign does not change the whole marketing strategy of a company.
Larger companies do not have to opt for Guerilla Marketing like smaller companies some-

24 Robert&Horst Marketing GmbH
19


times have to. They choose it as an additional way of promoting their products and it is used
complimentary to the traditional marketing mix which works for the company.

3.5. Case Study: Bionade
So far the background, development, and usage of Guerilla Marketing have been outlined. To
complement this progress, the case study will exemplify how Guerilla Marketing is imple-
mented today. The company chosen is Bionade. They have used many facades of the strategy
in the course of a campaign. Their example nicely illustrates how wit, creativity, and diver-
sity can help a rising company to succeed in a saturated market.

In the following paragraphs it will be described why and how the Bionade Corporation im-
plemented Guerilla Marketing to create brand awareness for their product: Bionade. To fa-
miliarise with the product, a company background will be given first.

3.5.1. Company Profile
Bionade Corporation is a German company which sells soft drinks under the brand name
“Bionade”. The product is currently available in 5 flavours. Bionade differentiates itself from
common refreshments by being “the first and only non-alcoholic refreshment drink produced
by a purely organic process.”25 It is fermented like a beer, according to the German purity
law “Reinheitsgebot” which is a regulation for beer quality standards and originates from the
16th century. Bionade is produced with natural ingredients of organic quality. Thus it stands
for a non-alcoholic refreshment, which does not taste as sweet as other soft drinks. It also
differentiates itself from competitors by its uncommon flavours. Regional growers provide
the natural ingredients such as herbs and fruits. Current flavours are: Elderberry, Lychee,
Herbs, Ginger-Orange and Aktiv.

From a slow seller to a moneymaker
The story of the company’s success can be read like a fairytale. It all started at the end of the
1980s, when the family-owned beer brewery Peter in Bavaria was experiencing stagnating
turnover in the beer sector. The owner’s husband Dieter Leipold wanted to find a solution to
survive in the market. In the evenings after work he experimented on inventing a non-

25 Bionade
20


alcoholic drink by fermentation. It took him 8 years and 3 million Euro of investment to cre-
ate the drink Bionade. “Bio” stands for biological/organic, and “nade” reminds of lemonade.
The brand name was also chosen since it can be used internationally. In 1995 the soft drink
Bionade was ready to be sold. Unfortunately even the best development does not sell auto-
matically. Sales started slowly. Then the company got lucky. By mistake Bionade bottles
labelled in Hungarian were delivered to a client in Hamburg, Germany. There advertisers got
a hold of Bionade and saw its potential. It might have been the brand label; it might have
been the fact that Bionade is filled in beer bottles. In any case, trendsetter in Hamburg saw
Bionade as cult, and it became a scene drink in bars and clubs. That was the beginning of
their track record.

By now Bionade Corporation has become successful in all of Germany. 200 million bottles
were sold in 2007, among others at McCafé, Starbucks, Ikea, and in the majority of super-
markets and bars. Coca Cola offered a nine-figure range amount to take over the company,
but Bionade Corporation rejected. “Selling the company will not be an option for our proud
family business”26, said CEO Peter Kowalsky, Leipold’s stepson, who leads the Bionade
Corporation, since it was founded in 1995. The next step for Bionade Corporation is to extent
their sales to the global market. A second production plant will be built in Iowa, USA in
2009. Bionade is the first soft drink after Red Bull to be exported to the USA.27

Ongoing success through clever marketing
Bionade Corporation developed from a scene drink in Hamburg to where they are positioned
now, and not merely by luck. Part of the success can be attributed to their low-budget com-
munication strategy. Wolfgang Blum, Chief of Marketing, transformed the brand Bionade
from a purely organic product into a lifestyle drink.

Since the company only had a low Marketing budget, Blum successfully used a viral market-
ing- and communication strategy on the basis of product sponsoring, media publicity, and
word-of-mouth marketing. Through public relations the company started to get national at-
tention. Major German economy magazines and newspapers, such as Financial Times
Deutschland, printed the Bionade company profile and interviews with the CEO Peter
Kowalsky. Thereby the emphasis was purposefully put on the enormous success story: An

26 Emsdettener Volkszeitung
27 Emsdettener Volkszeitung
21


almost bankrupt family-owned brewery in the middle of nowhere is saved through 8 years of
research and development. Readers sympathised with the company, promotional material
was provided to bars, and Bionade further engaged in attracting opinion leaders by sponsor-
ing student parties and regional sport teams. The word about the unusual product spread;
Blum’s viral marketing plan started to work out. The strategy now is to sustain Bionade’s
position as being an original: Firstly to be a competition to Coca Cola28, secondly to give
plagiarism no chance.

3.5.2. Guerilla Marketing Campaign
In 2007 Bionade Corporation used cross medial advertising for the first time. Cross media
means the interaction of different media. Done cleverly, it can produce added value and save
costs. 29 The company’s aim was to attain wide brand awareness and image profiling in Ger-
many. With a budget in the lower seven-figure range, they targeted children and adults be-
tween 14 and 49 years of age, and used crossmedial advertising, including out-of-home,
online marketing, radio and public relations. The skilful interaction between the different
communication channels is vital. 30

3.5.2.1. Implementation

In March 2007 Bionade Corporation started to implement the Guerilla Marketing campaign
in cooperation with advertising agencies. The theme was, “Bionade. The official drink of a
better world“31 , and aimed to spread a positive attitude for instance through welfare actions
that made people connect the brand to good deeds.

Radio
The radio campaign “Telephone Calls for a Better World” is a main pillar of the cross-medial
Bionade advertising. A variation of eight different radio spots were produced and broad-
casted in three intervals from March till September 2007 at 138 private radio stations in
Germany. 32 Every spot displays one phone call, in which a caller (always the same man)
surprises a normal person with kind words, a joke, or amusing honesty. The called persons

28 Reich
29 Holzapfel
30 Active Mobile Media AG
31 Seissler
32 Radio Marketing Service
22


often have a stressful job and thus reacted happily. An example will clarify how this was
done:
Radio Spot “Batteries”
The content of the “Batteries” spot is the following: The man calls the service point of an
electronic retailer and tells the woman who answers that he was in the store last week and
stole a package of batteries, because he felt a need for a thrill. He claims to have had a bad
conscience and says that he came back this morning and secretly placed the batteries back in
the shelf. She should not wonder if the stock counts one more battery package in the evening.
The woman laughs and says: “I don’t know what to say. Well Done.”33

The content of the spots varied, though the message was similar: doing something good,
based on the theme, with which every spot ended: “Bionade. The official drink of a better
world”.

Poster
Beginning at the time of the second interval of the radio spots, the product behind the spots
was shown by a poster advertising campaign. Huge bills in four different styles were posted
on various locations in 15 large German cities. People in Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Munich,
Stuttgart or Frankfurt were able to see four different posters, each presenting one bottle of a
Bionade flavour, decorated with the slogan: “Das offizielle Getränk einer besseren Welt”.
The reference to the website www.stille-taten.de was also printed at the bottom.

Figure 5: Out‐of‐home, Bionade Poster34

33 Radio Marketing Service
34 Bionade
23


Guerilla Sensation
But Bionade also tried to make their advertising an unusual event. With the help of a so-
called “Leuchtbotschafter” (literally translates to “illuminated messenger”), a person who
walks through the streets and projects Bionade messages to house walls, pavements, and ve-
hicles with a mobile beamer, they brought their messages as close as possible to their cus-
tomers.

Figure 6: Bionade Leuchtbotschafter35

Projected messages such as, “Smile”, “Write it Down”, “Be here”, “Wake up and Dream”,
“Give and don’t ask for something in return”, and “Wishing helps” aimed to inspire good
feeling. “Elderberry is underestimated”, “Let your stomach decide”, “Give fruits more funny
names, like lychee”, rather focused on the product. The Bionade crown cap at the bottom of
the display and the blue coloured background are connections to the brand, whereas the name
does not play as big of a role. “Bionade” is displayed infrequently between the other mes-
sages.

In the course of the Bionade campaign, the Leuchtbotschafter has been deployed in several
major German cities to create brand awareness and profile the Bionade image.36 Mostly at
dusk during the summer, he approached crowded places such as café terraces. Next to that, a
video about the Leuchtbotschafter in action has been created by the advertising agency Kolle
& Rebbe. This video is spread on the internet and can be viewed on the websites of Bionade,


35 Bionade
36 Schulz
24


Kolle&Rebbe, diverse Online Newspapers, and also on You Tube. Alone on the latter web-
site the video has been viewed nearly 5000 times.37

Banner
Bionade advertisment banners38 were placed at diverse German Lifestyle, Sport, and Well-
ness Portals on the internet. They are in the same style as the outdoor posters and also point
to the website www.stille-taten.de which is another clever part of the campaign:

Stille Taten
“Stille Taten” can be translated to “silent doings”. The idea behind the initiative is to bring
joy and hope to people. This is based on a voluntary favour that people do one another. They
surprise others in their daily lives with little, wonderful doings though they stay anonymous,
to create speculation and discussion. He or she only leaves the “Stille Taten” postcard at the
scene. The website documents what “good” people have done to others and also how the re-
ceivers experienced the silent doings. Examples are dropping a nice CD in a mailbox, or pol-
ishing shoes that are standing in front of an apartment.

The website is not a campaign by Bionade, but Bionade Corporation supports the initiative.
Thus people do not feel to be an instrument of a Bionade marketing campaign, but neverthe-
less link to the brand to the good doings of people. Some silent doings even reach more than
one person. A “Hug Zone” was drawn with chalk in a city’s shopping street. It attracted the
attention of pedestrians and after some time people actually stepped into the “zone” and
hugged each other with a happy smile on their faces. The silent addresser of this action de-
signed the Bionade crown cap on the sign that points to the “Hug Zone”. Thus he or she ad-
vertised for the brand Bionade for free. A video of the action can be seen on the internet,
which creates potential for viral marketing. On You Tube it has been watched almost 9000
times.39

Response
The Bionade campaign was implemented only a few days before the G8-Summit in Germany
started. The slogan “Bionade. The official drink for a better world” felt right for hundreds of

37 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hb13uMKKlN0
38 Appendix: Online Bionade Banner
39 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbPFt7xil7Y

25


thousands of protesters of the G8-Summit, who called Bionade their favourite drink. News-
papers, radios, and TV channels reported about the protests, about Bionade, about their slo-
gan. Bionade Corporation distances themselves from political statements, but in fact they
stand for social and environmental responsibility. People should interact with themselves and
their surroundings more consciously.40 Topics of conversation about Bionade rose and that
attention was used for the campaign. The media mix of out-of-home, online marketing, radio,
and public relations media was well chosen and it came into play at a critical time to create
rising tension.

3.5.2.2. Result

In 2007, the year of the Guerilla Marketing campaign, Bionade Corporation tripled their sales
from 2006 to 200 million sold bottles41. The aided brand awareness42 was 10% in 200643 and
increased to almost 50% in 200744. German customers refer to Bionade as a lifestyle drink
which is healthier than common soft drinks.45 The characteristics which come to mind when
talking about Bionade now, are far from the original image of being a drink solely sold in
health-food shops. Thus it can be concluded that the goal of the campaign to achieve wide
brand awareness and image profiling for Bionade was reached.

The cross-medial advertising created added value and cost only a few million Euros. For
those results the budget is not high. “Minimal costs for maximal output”, just like the defini-
tion of Guerilla Marketing. Bionade Corporation, the small company from Bavaria, now
holds a good position in the saturated beverage market, thanks to the Guerilla Marketing
Strategy of being creative and having wits among other things. Bionade acknowledged that
the skilful interaction between the different communication channels is vital and used it to
their advantage. 46 Online and offline activities should be linked, since individuals today
communicate through all available media. 47


40 Convenience Shop
41 200 million sold bottles achieved a turnover of 48.6 million € in 2007
42 Aided awareness occurs when you show or read a list of brands and the person expresses familiarity

with your brand only after they hear or see it (http://www.davedolak.com/articles/dolak4.htm)
43 MSN News

44 Reich

45 Results from Consumer Questionnaire Chapter 4

46 http://www.activemobile.ch/_admin/4_upload/_files/Factsheets.05/Crossmedia.pdf

47 Holzapfel

26


3.6. Obstacles of Guerilla Marketing
Guerilla Marketing goes another way than traditional marketing. Therefore it is often diffi-
cult to recognize the fine line between provocation and offence, between drawing the atten-
tion to a company and to create a negative reputation, to get new customers and to lose pros-
pects.

The following example shows a Guerilla Marketing campaign that failed. There are some-
times invisible limits that a company should not cross:
A company promoted its new comedy series by placing a large electronic billboard featuring
an adult character in the city centre of Boston, MA. Lose cables were hanging out of the bill-
board. People passing by believed that they were explosives and panicked. They called the
police and an anti-terror unit was sent to disarm the billboard which was wrongly interpreted
as a bomb. The city centre and all access roads were closed. Later that day the mistake was
uncovered and it resulted in two arrests and costs of 500,000 US$.48 Even though the adver-
tising was already in the city for some days and was also placed in other major US cities and
did not cause any excitement there, it is obvious that those in charge should have dealt with
this topic in a more sensitive way.

New technologies – like many things – are a blessing and a curse at the same time. Viral and
Mobile Marketing are the most successful marketing trends that spread the word so fast that
it often cannot be retraced or controlled anymore. As described in the example above a crea-
tive idea can quickly turn into bad publicity. Especially in these cases it would be beneficial
if the advertising could be just erased and would thereby limit the number of people that see
it. Thus an even greater damage could be avoided. But in times of Viral Marketing and media
coverage from all over the world, it is almost impossible to let something “disappear“ that
was presented to the public once before. Consequently this means that every publication that
has not been thought through carefully can damage the reputation of the company and can
result in the loss of customers.49


48 Spiegel Online
49 Dr Prof Zerr

27


4. How is Guerilla Marketing perceived today?
4.1. Customer Perception of Guerilla Marketing
4.1.1. Survey
4.1.1.1. Purpose

In order to get an idea about the future of marketing, especially about the future of Guerilla
Marketing, we can only draw conclusions from the people that are going to decide over the
success of Marketing in the future – the customers. Therefore a field research gives us the
best picture of the reality.

It is of course difficult for people to have an idea about how they will perceive advertisings
in 5 or 10 years. On the other hand a general acceptance or rejection now, that can be uncov-
ered through a survey, can give some hints about the future trends. Marketing experts also
have to deal with the question of how customers are going to perceive advertising in the fu-
ture. They would be a good alternative to a quantitative survey, but their conclusions are also
only a result of feedback from customers. Therefore it is best to get the information from the
initial source directly, the customers.

50
4.1.1.2. Structure of the Questionnaire

At the beginning of the questionnaire the respondents are welcomed and are given a short
introduction to the purpose and the general topic. Basic instructions to answer the questions
correctly are also given.

The questionnaire can be divided into four parts. The first three parts refer to Guerilla Mar-
keting campaigns by three different brands. The respondent can see pictures of the first two
activities and in the last example he or she can also listen to a radio spot that was part of a
campaign. Within the three parts mainly closed questions have to be answered. The answers
can be chosen from various possibilities which were ranked according to a Likert scale. The
questions should clarify if the respondents like the idea and if they have actually seen or
heard about the campaign. It is also essential to find out if they understand the message and if
they are able to connect the information from the current campaign with the attributes and


50 Appendix: Consumer Questionnaire
28


advertisings from former campaigns. Open questions that ask for associations show if the
goal of the companies have been met.

The fourth and last part gives the respondent the possibility to evaluate their own perception
of advertising in general and which aspects are important for their purchase decisions. Some
questions were closed questions and offered various answers. Others let the respondents rate
the given answers according to their importance. The relevant instructions were given with
every question. A specification about gender and age concluded the questionnaire.

4.1.1.3. Sample Selection

A determination of a target group that should preferably answer the questionnaire is difficult.
Every product targets different groups, but the survey is not about a specific product or its
advertising, but about marketing and its perception in general. The population that has to be
taken into consideration is comprised of everybody that is exposed to advertising and that
includes almost all of mankind.

Even the resulting sample would be much too big. The selected examples were chosen to
make it easier for respondents to evaluate GM ideas. Since they mainly target teenagers and
adults up to 50 years, we chose our respondents according to their age group. Our respon-
dents were between the age of 12 and 35. We intentionally chose examples of Guerilla Mar-
keting that are targeted at young adults, because those who belong to this age group are going
to be the ones with the highest purchase power within the next decades. Consequently they
will be the ones that are going to face the future marketing efforts.

The chosen examples show Guerilla activities of products that were released on the German
market. To fill in the questionnaire with reliable data, the respondents needed to have the
chance to be exposed to the products and brands before. This can only be guaranteed if the
respondents live in Germany. In general the population and sample size cannot be determined
and therefore a non-probability sampling technique was chosen. The survey was sent by
email to people of this age group with the request to redirect it to other people with the same
important characteristics – in this case they have to be in the same age group.

29


Due to time and budget limitations it was not possible to conduct a representative research.
With the snowball effect the questionnaire was passed on to other respondents. Feedbacks
were collected for three weeks and 100 replies revealed a general trend.

4.1.1.4. Limitations

To weight the results of the survey the research quality has to be analysed. As mentioned
above the resources available for the conduction of the research were limited. Therefore the
number of replies does not allow the results to be generalized. An evaluation can only show a
trend.

The answers of the respondents were handled anonymously. Nevertheless it has to be taken
into consideration that a contamination of the answers cannot be out of question. The small
group of the respondents we know personally might have hesitated in giving definite answers
and therefore might have caused a participant bias. Furthermore not all answers that were
given could be taken into the evaluation since the respondents did not answer the questions
according to the instructions given. Even though the instructions were precisely stated, there
were some issues in the design of the questionnaire that could have avoided these mistakes.

4.1.1.5. Evaluation

The 100 filled in questionnaires that we received back within three weeks are the basis for
the results that we use to highlight trends. The results are going to influence the overall con-
clusion of the report and will help to answer the question: Can Guerilla Marketing be suc-
cessful in the future? In order to make it easier for the reader to understand the essential re-
sults of the customer survey, the most crucial points are summarized under various headings
below.

Guerilla Marketing Examples
The respondents were asked to rate how much they like the examples that were shown. All
three examples showed different products that are sold on the German market. The first was
the well-known detergent Mr. Clean, the second showed a Guerilla campaign from the airline
Swiss Air. In the last example the respondents could listen to a radio spot from the Bionade
Guerilla Marketing campaign that was described as a case study in this report before. Since

30

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