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Guerrilla marketing

Guerrilla marketing, as described by J. Levinson in his popular 1984 book Guerrilla Marketing, is an unconventional way of making profits. In particular it is a way of performing marketing activities (primarily promotion) on a very low budget.

Levinson claims that small entrepreneurial firms are very different than large firms. He quotes a Harvard Business Review article by Welsh and White in which it says that small business is not a little version of big business. There is much more to it than just a question of scale. The biggest difference is the relative “resource poverty” of small businesses. Because of this lack of resources, small business must use an altogether different set of marketing strategies and tactics than big business.

A typical entrepreneur should use such guerrilla tactics as:

It is up to the guerrilla marketer to be creative and devise unconventional methods of promotion. One must use all their personal contacts, both professional and friends/family. One must examine their company and its products looking for sources of publicity. Some forms of publicity can be very inexpensive.

It is argued that if you use these guerrilla tactics, you will find your small size is an advantage. You will be able to obtain publicity easier than a large company. You will be closer to your customer and more agile.

Although guerrilla marketing was originally crafted for small business, it can be applied to large businesses also.

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