A SURVEY OF UNDERSTAND-

ING PEOPLE’S PERCEPTION ABOUT

GUERRILLA MARKETING

SUBMITTED BY:
Name of the Candidate : Soumya Muskara
Registration No. : A01-2112-2089-17
Roll No. : 2-28-17-0075
College Roll No. : 75
Name of College : St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata(Autonomous)

SUPERVISED BY:
Name of the Supervisor : Prof. Meenakshi Subramanian

YEAR OF SUBMISSION:
2019

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The understanding of a study like this is never the outcome of a single person. Rather
it bears the imprint of a number of persons. I would be failing my duty if I don’t say a
word of thanks to all those who have directly or indirectly helped me in completing
this study. The sincere advice & support of many people has made this project an ed-
ucative & pleasurable one.

I take immense pleasure in thanking our respected principal, Rev. Fr. Dominic Savio
for giving us an opportunity to do this project.

I would like to express my immense gratitude to Prof. Meenakshi Subramanian for

her constant support and motivation that has encouraged me to come up with this
term paper. She has patiently gone through the term paper a number of times and
made necessary changes wherever required, time to time.

I would also thank St. Xavier’s College and the faculty members of the Department
of commerce , St. Xavier’s College without whom the term paper would have been a
distant reality.

Finally, I take this opportunity to extend my deep appreciation to my family and

friends, for all that they meant to me during the crucial times of the completion of the
term paper and for the support throughout my study.

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TABLE OF CON-
TENTS
SERIAL CHAPTERS PAGE NOS.
NO.

1 INTRODUCTION 4-8
2 LITERATURE REVIEW 9-11
3 TYPES OF GUERRILLA MARKETING 12-16
4 GUERRILLA MARKETING DEVELOP- 17-24
MENT
5 NEGATIVE ASPECTS AND ETHICAL 25-26
ISSUES OF GUERRILLA MARKETING
6 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 27
7 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 28-30
8 ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 31-39
9 CONCLUSION 40-41
10 LIMITATIONS 42
11 RECOMMENDATIONS 43
12 REFERENCES 44
13 ANNEXURE 45-49

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1. INTRODUCTION

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1.1 ABOUT GUERRILLA MARKETING

In the hectic business world of today, marketing has a tendency towards continuous
formation and development. The number of companies and the level of production
grow and costs of promotion in sales are on the rise. The necessity of companies for
rapid adjustment to incipient changes has made it almost inescapable to take into ac-
count unconventional marketing such as guerilla marketing. Guerrilla Marketing is
differentiated among other generally accepted promotional tools by its unexpected ef-
fect and therefore can be titled ‘outbox’ marketing. Unconventional, unusual and in-
expensive approaches of Guerrilla marketing strategy give an opportunity for smaller
companies with limited resources to reach their target group and to stay on a competi-
tive arena lucratively. When a Guerrilla campaign is organized, an investment of cre-
ative ideas remunerates the companies with more success than massive financial in-
vestment. Although Guerrilla phenomenon has already existed for more than thirty
years, it is a relatively new concept which achieved its awareness in marketing
branch during a recent decade. Today more and more companies start to use Guerrilla
marketing weapons in order to struggle for the market domination hence it is becom-
ing an important subject to research. People do not always realize how marketing fol-
lows them during the day. When we walk down the streets, we notice a large num-
ber of various posters, stickers and billboards along the way. If the advertisement is
well implemented, undoubtedly our attention is attacked by it. The moment we think
about the message, Guerrilla marketing goal starts to work.

Nowadays, Organizations are using different instruments for effective marketing. Ac-
cording to encyclopedia Britannica, the term guerilla, etymologically comes from
Spanish word ‘Guerra’ that means ‘war’. Guerilla is the diminutive word for war and
was firstly used to describe the Spanish- Portuguese irregulars, who helped to drive
the French from the Iberian Peninsula in the early 19th century. Guerilla marketing is

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a low-cost and innovative method to attract attention and consumers to your business
without paying an arm and a leg. It became popular and widely used in 2007 and con-
tinues to be relevant today, especially for small businesses that are looking to build
brand awareness on a budget.

1.2 CHARACTERISTICS OF GUERRILLA CAMPAIGN

According to Alexander Riedl, former marketing director of Volvo Cars Middle East
and one of the world’s most-known guerrilla-marketing gurus, “There is a set of six
characteristics that every guerrilla campaign has to fulfill.” Here they are:

Completely Unexpected: Guerrilla campaign must include a surprise situation. That

situation can be created by using usual objects in an unusual place and vice versa or
by staging an event that people were not prepared to take part in. Either way, the sur-
prise factor will help raise participants’ attentiveness to the campaign and its mes-
sages.

Drastic: Guerrilla-marketing campaigns are radical in nature. Extremeness intensifies

the surprise and is helpful when trying to reach a large audience without spending a
lot (by creating a word-of-mouth effect). However, alongside the potential of achiev-
ing a high degree of interest and exposure, drastic behavior can also lead to rejection
and outrage.

Humorous: Using humor is crucial to the success of guerrilla campaigns, especially

if they involve online activity. Humor can help break the barriers between the com-
pany and the consumer, just as it often does in regular human interaction. Humor also
plays a role in turning campaigns viral, which means reaching a larger audience. Mix-
ing surprise with humor is a key strategy to a successful guerrilla campaign.

One-Shot Game: Due to the importance of the surprise factor in it, a certain guer-
rilla-marketing concept can only be executed during a limited period of time and
should not be used twice on the same target market.

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Cheap: One of the biggest benefits of guerrilla marketing, is that it requires a small
budget in comparison to other marketing methods. Sticking to a minimal budget is
just as important as creativity and innovation to the design of the campaign. With that
said, the budget should realistically match the size of the target market.

Goodwill and Customer Benefit: Guerrilla marketing campaign should always in-
clude an act of goodwill on the part of the company in order to make consumers feel
satisfied and valued. The benefit can be tangible, for example, giving away some-
thing free as part of the campaign or intangible, such as something that makes cus-
tomers laugh, feel smarter, or feel more valued.

Guerrilla marketing is a concept that has arisen as we move from traditional media to
more online and electronic media. It is a concept that was created by Jay Conrad
Levinson when he wrote the book ‘Guerrilla Marketing’ in 1984. Traditional adver-
tising media are channels such as print, radio, television and direct mail but as we are
moving away from these channels the marketers and advertisers have to find new
strategies to get their commercial messages to the consumer. Guerrilla Marketing is
an alternative strategy and is about taking the consumer by surprise to make a big im-
pression about the brand, this in turn creates a buzz about the brand or product being
marketed. It is a way of advertising that increases engagement with the product or
service, and is designed to create a memorable experience for the consumer. By creat-
ing this memorable experience for the consumer, it also increases the likelihood that a
consumer, or someone who interacted with the campaign will tell their friends about
it and via word of mouth the product or service being advertised reaches a lot more
people than initially anticipated, and means it has more of a mass audience. This style
of marketing is extremely effective for small businesses to advertise their product or
service, especially if they are competing against bigger companies as it is inexpensive
and focuses more on reach rather than frequency. For guerrilla campaigns to be suc-
cessful companies don’t need to spend large amounts, they just need to have imagina-
tion, energy and time. Guerrilla marketing is also an effective way companies who
don’t provide a tangible service can advertise their products through the non-tradi-

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tional channels as long as they have an effective strategy. As opposed to traditional
media Guerrilla marketing cannot be measured by statistics, sales and hits but is mea-
sured by profit made. It is designed to cut through clutter of traditional advertising
and have no mystery about what is being advertised. The message to consumers will
be clear and concise, the business will not diversify the message to the consumer and
focus will be maintained. This type of marketing also works on the unconscious
mind, as purchases quite often are decided by the unconscious mind. To keep the
product or service in the unconscious mind means repetition is needed, so if a buzz is
created around a product and it is shared amongst friends it enables repetition. Two
types of marketing encompassed by guerrilla marketing are Viral Marketing and
Buzz Marketing. Unlike typical public marketing campaigns that utilize billboards,
guerrilla marketing involves the application of multiple techniques and practices in
order to establish direct contact with the customers. ] One of the goals of this interac-
tion is to cause an emotional reaction in the clients and the final goal of marketing is
to get people to remember brands in a different way than they are used to. The tech-
nique involves from flyer distribution in public spaces to creating an operation at ma-
jor event or festival mostly without directly connecting to the event but using the op-
portunity. The challenge with any guerrilla marketing campaign is to find the correct
place and time to do the operation without getting involved in legal issues.

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2. LITERATURE REVIEW

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Lun O. & Dr. Yazdanifard R. (2014) have published research paper on title, ‘Guer-
rilla Marketing; A Successful Business Model for Xiaomi’ As consumers are shifting
away from the traditional marketing campaign, companies need different marketing
campaign to continue to differentiate themselves from other companies. One of the
latest marketing trends is guerrilla marketing. Guerrilla marketing is a type of market-
ing campaign that uses unique, extreme and eye-catching to attract more customers.
This article is to explore guerrilla marketing and how it became a successful business
model for Xiaomi. Besides that, Word-of-Mouth will also be explored and how it be-
comes an important element in guerrilla marketing. This article increased the under-
standing of guerrilla marketing and how Xiaomi utilize it.

Shakeel M. and Khan M. M. (2011) have published research paper on title, ‘Impact
of Guerrilla Marketing on Consumer Perception’ this explained that Guerilla market-
ing was one of the growing marketing techniques, which were used, in advertising in-
dustry. Stealth marketing was also a most popular technique used in the Guerilla mar-
keting. There was number of techniques used in stealth marketing in which one tech-
nique, celebrity marketing was in practice mostly by the market leaders. This paper
researched the significant effect of the Guerilla marketing on the consumer percep-
tion.

Levision (1994) saw guerilla marketing as characterized by low cost effective com-
munication, co-operative efforts networking, leveraging of resources using energy
and imagination. Levision (1994) continuously notes the main characteristics of
guerilla marketing, as boosting, creative, leveraging use of available resources and a
highly targeted mix of innovative and effective communication techniques, network-
ing, using energy and imagination and low cost. The entrepreneur must never loss fo-
cus even if there is growth of business. Knowing that people want relationship,
guerilla marketing, does everything to establish and nature a bond between them-
selves and each individual customers because customers are agents of free marketing.
They know that long term relationships are the key to information dissemination.

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Drucker (1986) suggests creativity and innovation in product or service development
are the hallmarks of successful entrepreneurship, not careful research into customer
needs. Therefore, entrepreneurs engage in innovative and appropriate marketing
strategies, which ensure their survival and growth. The main objective marketing is to
demand rather than responding to demand. It should be based on man psychology
rather than experience. According to Morris (2001), various observers have suggested
that entrepreneurship is the principal agent to change. Entrepreneurial marketing sees
on-going entrepreneurship as a change agent of the marketing discipline. This is the
kind of marketing that enables entrepreneurs to discover, create, motivate, satisfy and
meet the demands and desire of customers.

Kamau S. M. (2013) has published research paper on title, ‘Effects of Guerilla Mar-
keting in Growth of Beauty Shops: Case Stud y of Matuu Town, Machakos County,
Kenya’ the research analyzed that there was a relationship between buzz marketing
practices and the growth of the beauty shops. The outcome of the study on the use of
experiential marketing showed that experiential marketing strategies were used with
opinion leader being mostly used. It was evident that there was business growth after
the business owners used experiential marketing.

Chen Jie (2011) have published research paper on title, ‘Explore Guerrilla Marketing
Potentials for Trade Show’ The study introduced guerrilla-marketing methods by
both exploring the theory and identifying successful cases. At the end, specific guer-
rilla marketing guidelines were built for tradeshow marketers.

Over the years the marketing techniques have evolved and more
awareness about guerrilla marketing has been spread which has led to various re-
search being done on the effects of consumer behaviour due to guerrilla marketing
and whether brands benefit from this kind of experiential marketing. So it becomes
all the more important to carry out a research on the impact of this marketing on the
society and if startups or new companies can actually draw benefits from this tech-
nique of advertising and promotion or is it only that the big companies are its bene-
factors. The following analysis is done on these subject matters for a better view of
the actualities of guerrilla marketing.

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 3. TYPES OF
GUERRILLA MARKETING

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3.1 AMBIENT MARKETING

Ambient communication is a complex form of corporate communication that uses el-

ements of the environment, including nearly every available physical surface, to con-
vey messages that elicit customer engagement. It is a compilation of intelligence,
flexibility and effective use of the atmosphere.

Ambient marketing, which can be referred to as presence marketing can be defined

as:

"The placement of advertising in unusual and unexpected places (location) often with
unconventional methods (execution) and being first or only ad execution to do so
(temporal)

Ambient marketing can be found anywhere and everywhere from hand dryers in pub-
lic bathrooms and petrol pumps through to bus hand straps and golf-hole cups  and
can often interact with consumers.

3.2 AMBUSH MARKETING

Ambush marketing is a form of associative marketing, utilized by an organization to

capitalize upon the awareness, attention, goodwill, and other benefits, generated by
having an association with an event or property, without that organization having an
official or direct connection to that event or property.  Essentially, a company or a
product seeks to ride on the publicity value of a major event without having contrib-
uted to the financing of the event through sponsorship.

It is typically seen at major events where rivals of official sponsors use creative and
sometimes covert tactics to build an association with the event and increase aware-
ness for their brands. For example, Nike during the 2012 London Olympics, Nike
created 'find your Greatness' spots where they featured athletes from several locations
called London (but without showing the real London or referring to the Olympic

13
games) which helped in building a strong association between London Olympics and
Nike.

3.3 STEALTH MARKETING

Stealth marketing is a deliberate act of entering, operating in, or exiting a market in a

furtive, secretive or imperceptible manner, or an attempt to do so.  People get in-
volved with the product without them actually knowing that they are the part of ad-
vertisement campaign. This needs to be implemented with uttermost covertness be-
cause if the participants become aware of the campaign, it will have a negative effect
on the brand resulting in ethical doubts about its use.

3.4 VIRAL/BUZZ MARKETING

Viral marketing describes any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a mar-
keting message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the mes-
sage’s exposure and influence. Like viruses, such strategies take advantage of rapid
multiplication to explode the message to thousands, to millions. Off the Internet, viral
marketing has been referred to as "word-of-mouth," "creating a buzz," "leveraging
the media," "network marketing." But on the Internet, for better or worse, it’s called
"viral marketing."

Similarly, buzz marketing, uses high-profile media to encourage the public to discuss
the brand or product.[7] Buzz marketing works best when consumer’s responses to a
product or service and subsequent endorsements are genuine, without the company
paying them. Buzz generated from buzz marketing campaigns is referred to as "am-
plified WOM" (word-of-mouth), and "organic WOM" is when buzz occurs naturally
by the consumer.

3.5 GUERRILLA PROJECTION ADVERTISING

Guerrilla projection advertising is effectively a digital billboard that is projected at

night onto the side of a building without permission of the governing bodies (i.e.
council permits), or the permission from owner of the building.  The displays are pro-
jected on buildings in high traffic locations (i.e. people on foot and in vehicles).

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Guerrilla projection advertising is an effective addition to campaigns of a consider-
able size, for example a product launch, the release of a new film, retail promotions
etc. As with several guerrilla marketing techniques, guerrilla projection advertising
may incur fines or penalties for advertising without the consent of the building
owner. This comes at a risk to the company and/or brand. The advantages and disad-
vantages of this form of guerrilla marketing must be carefully considered before pro-
ceeding to avoid unwanted expenses.

3.6 GRASSROOTS MARKETING

Grassroots campaigns aim to win customers over on an individual basis. A successful

grassroots campaign is not about the dissemination of the marketing message in the
hope that possible consumers are paying attention, but rather highlights a personal
connection between the consumer and the brand and builds a lasting relationship with
the brand.

3.7 WILD POSTING

Wild postings (also referred to as flyposting or bill posting) is a fundamental guerrilla

marketing campaign which uses cost effective static poster campaigns where posters
are adhered without permission to high traffic urban areas such as the side of build-
ings, walkways or alleys, shopping malls, lampposts, university campuses, on café
bulletin boards or skate parks etc. Wild posting marketing can encompass different
varieties including paper posters, tear-away posters, guerrilla cling posters (statically
charged plastic posters which can stick to most smooth surfaces), magnets, stickers
and vinyl labels.  There may be legal issues around wild posting however, if the dis-
play is not posted on a paid advertising space as it is illegal to advertise on private
property without prior consent.

3.8 ASTROTURFING

Of all the guerrilla marketing strategies, Astroturfing is among the most controversial

and has a high risk factor for the company marketing the product or service.  Astro-
turfing derives from artificial “turf”, often used in stadiums or tennis courts – also
known as fake grass. Hence, fake endorsements, testimonials and recommendations
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are all products of Astroturfing in the public relations sector. Astroturfing involves
generating an artificial hype around a particular product or company through a review
or discussion on online blogs or forums by an individual who is paid to convey a pos-
itive view. This can have a negative and detrimental effect on a company, should the
consumer suspect that the review or opinion is not authentic, damaging the com-
pany’s reputation or even worse, resulting in litigation.

3.9 STREET MARKETING

Street marketing uses unconventional means of advertising or promoting products

and brands in public areas with the main goal to encourage consumers to remember
and recall the brand or product marketed. As a division of guerrilla marketing, street
marketing is specific to all marketing activities carried out in streets and public areas
such as parks, streets, events etc. Street marketing is not limited to areas as it also en-
compasses advertising outdoors such as on shopping trollies, public toilets, sides of
cars or public transport, manhole covers, footpaths, rubbish bins etc.

Street marketing isn’t confined to fixed advertisements. It is common practice for or-
ganisations to utilise brand ambassadors who can distribute product samples and dis-
count vouchers and answer queries about the product while emphasizing the brand.
The brand ambassadors may be accompanied by a bicycle kiosk which contains the
product samples or demonstration materials, or they may be wearing a "walking bill-
board". The physical interaction with consumers has a greater influencing power than
traditional passive advertising

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 4. GUERRILLA MARKETING DE-
VELOPMENT

4.1 ORIGINS OF GUERRILLA

Initially, the expression “Guerrilla” appeared at the beginning of the 19th century
during the independence war between Spain and Portugal. This word can be trans-
lated as “battle” from Spanish and its meaning lies in a military tactic which was used
by small armed forces against the massive ones.

The term gained its publicity through Ernesto Che Guevara Lynchde la Serna (1928 –
1967), who used that guerrilla military tactic against opponents for political concept
domination. Since Che Guevara and his forces did not own many resources, like
money, weapon and advantage of fighters’ quantity, the only chance to accomplish a
successful revolution in Cuba was to base their operations on acts of sabotage. Due to
Che Guevara’s small army, it was well-coordinated and flexible which led them to
victory over enemies.

Over time the Spanish leader summarized basic principles in the book “Guerrilla
Warfare” which was written in 1961. The most important elements that he pointed
out were the following: ultimate goal, usage of surprise effects and tactical superior-
ity that subsequently had become a starting point for Guerrilla marketing principles.

4.2 GUERRILLA ‘ENTERS’ MARKETING

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Competing for the market leadership also requires new tactics. Companies’ mass
marketing with an endless flow of messages makes people easily tired of countless
print advertisements, TV commercials and other conservative approaches which be-
come less efficient today and are not able to reach potential buyers sufficiently any-
more. In a clutter of ads, people prefer to switch the TV channels or radio roads when
they hear the same promotional messages often because of being bored or non-inter-
est. There is a strong need in searching for totally new promotional tools that can at-
tract customers in adventurous ways and have a more direct focus on targeted seg-
ments. Furthermore, a strong need for marketing to create new innovative and effec-
tive methods than can be cost efficient at the same time. This is how the concept of
Guerilla marketing percolated through the marketing wars.

4.3 DEFINITION

All over the world, marketing experts and researchers attempt to find the best de-
scription of Guerrilla marketing, but there is still no official definition of the concept.
Various versions of explanations have consequently been created and almost all of
them have the following characteristics of Guerrilla phenomenon in common: untra-
ditional, creative, surprising and efficient marketing.

Guerrilla Marketing is a special type of marketing strategy which is nowadays de-

signed for marketing mix model and mainly used in ‘P’ (promotion) element. Levin-
son states that it can be described as marketing form which involves the usage of un-
traditional activities that help companies to weaken the rivals and stay successfully
on the market even with limited sources.

Guerrilla marketing campaigns demonstrate original ideas in places that are not pub-
licly accepted to be suitable and traditionally appropriate for advertisements, places
where ads would appear to be unexpected. For instance, instead of using an escalator,
Volkswagen created a "fast lane" slide that gets the traveler to the bottom of the stairs
quickly in the central metro station of Brussels. The slide was a reflection of Volk-
swagen cars’ quality and safety. The more customers are fascinated, excited or even

18
entertained by the advertisement, the longer it will remain in their memory. This is
dominantly what Guerilla’s strategy aims at - surprise effect. Like in every other form
of marketing, it is important to know your customer, thus marketing idea and human
nature should work together.

4.4 GUERRILLA MARKETING VS. TRADITIONAL MARKETING

In order to understand the principles of guerrilla marketing performance, the signifi-

cant differences between traditional marketing and guerrilla marketing have to be
identified. Big businesses with correspondingly substantial budgets are potential par-
ticipants of traditional marketing who measure its success only by sales and number
of responses or store traffic. Traditional marketers neglect future relationships with
customers since the purchase is made by, concerning mostly about short-term value
from marketing. In contrast, Guerrilla strategies are mostly oriented towards small or
middle-sized firms with tiny budgets and remind that only the size of profits can mea-
sure what you are striving for.

Additionally, instead of concentration on “me” marketing and talking only about a

business, guerrilla approach encourages customers to gain consent with marketing in
order to build a future devotion to customer follow-up. Gallagher explains an explicit
difference as: “What matters in guerrilla marketing is, rather than what the firm does
to be successful but what it does to differentiate itself from its rivals and its success in
reaching a broader customer potential”. According to Levinson, there is a summariz-
ing of the main differences between two ways of marketing in the Table 1 below.

TABLE 1. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN TRADITIONAL AND GUERRILLA

MARKETING

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4.5 GUERRILLA MARKETING TOOLS AND CORRESPONDING EFFECTS

The concept of guerrilla approach is based on effective money spending on product

promotions and increasing the firm’s profits by creating a different perception of a
product in the consumer’s mind. It does not suggest the usage of direct sales parame-
ters (discounts), but through utilizing completely different and non-traditional tools
(flash-mobs, stickers bombing, graffiti etc).

The aim of guerrilla campaign is drawing a long lasting attention of people and it is
achieved by evoking a surprise effect and a diffusion effect while keeping the costs
low. In order to awake customer’s attention, a set of different marketing instruments
is used. There is a short summary of major instruments of Guerrilla marketing with
their corresponding effects in Table 2 below.

TABLE 2. GUERRILLA MARKETING INSTRUMENTS AND CORRE-

SPONDING EFFECTS

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4.5.1 SURPRISE EFFECT

Both ambient and sensation marketing tools which are described below account for
surprise effect, which can be explained as the divergence of expectations and percep-
tions, which in turn leads to the change in the mental activation. As Derbaix and Van-
hamme (2003) explained, a surprised person stops his previous activity and switches
his attention on the surprising event. Marketers utilize this effect by making effective
usage of humor, absurdity and shocking in the ad message. Also, awakening people’s
attention is constructed successfully by implementing ad campaigns at different un-
usual locations with unfamiliar means of media and promotion techniques. Surprised
individual is much more likely to process intended advertising message.

AMBIENT MARKETING

Ambient marketing is the guerrilla version of outdoor advertisement. The goal of this
instrument is to surprise customers by placing advertisements at different unusual
places where they do not expect to see them. In order for this instrument to work, ad-
vertisements should be located at the social environment of the target population
(Hoffmann and Hutter, 2011).

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There is a wide range of opportunities with ambient marketing, ranging from low cost
fly posting and graffiti on walls to different ads in public bathrooms. Additionally,
size and scale of advertised objects largely vary. For instance, to advertise a casino,
the airport baggage reclaim was rebuilt in the form of roulette wheel. Opposing ex-
ample is a 127 centimeters tall fuel dispenser at a gas station, next to the original one,
symbolizing minimization of gas consumption. According to Shankar and Horton
(1999), ambient marketing is one of the fastest growing low cost marketing sectors.

SENSATION MARKETING

Explained by Hoffmann and Hutter (2011), sensation marketing is aiming towards

surprising pedestrians in public places by different activities that surpass the familiar-
ity levels. For instance, actors may perform a play right in front of the theatre to at-
tract people’s attention to the theatre. Also, various flash mobs are used, which refers
to a group of anonymous individuals, who meet apparently inexplicably at a public
place for performing a pointless action which lasts only a few minutes.

Marketers grasped this concept and made it useful commercially in order to surprise
pedestrians and passengers by and draw their attention to conveyed marketing mes-
sage. Sometimes, ambient marketing is called hit and run action, mostly because it re-
quires no installations for a specific time and it is happens to be irreproducible one-
time action.

4.5.2 DIFFUSION EFFECT

It is highly important to mention that in the traditional advertising, such as TV, radio
or print media, the price of an advertising campaign depends on the number of the fi-
nal recipients of intended message. However, guerrilla marketing provides possibility
to reach large number of individuals without necessarily increasing the total cost of a
campaign. Thus, the so-called diffusion effect is attained in cost-efficient and goal-
oriented manner (Levinson and Lautenslager, 2005). In order to stimulate general
public to share and diffuse the message, the ad should trigger the emotion surprise,
since it motivates people to share their experiences.

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VIRAL MARKETING

This type of marketing involves various methods that stimulate a communication

process which in turn spreads similar to virus amid potential consumers. Marketers
can trigger the diffusion effect either through direct communication by addressing
consumers who will forward the message to others or indirectly via different media.
Due to emergence of innovations in information and communication technologies
during the recent years, new viral techniques have also evolved. The most popular
type of viral marketing is video clips which enable marketers to embed message of
any unconventional, provocative, sexual, humorous or taboo-breaking content, which
will ensure the diffusion effect among consumers. It is notable to mention that the
price level for a video clip is moderate compared to traditional TV-spots.

BUZZ MARKETING

Ahuja et al. (2007) defined buzz as “a multi-dimensional communication process that

involves sending persuasive messages out via buzz agents (senders) to buzz targets
(receivers) in the form of word of mouth (offline and online) conversations and re-
trieving market research information from buzz agents on the particulars of these
buzz marketing experiences”. In buzz marketing it is emphasized that regular con-
sumers are acting as market researchers, advertisers, distributors and have major in-
fluence on other consumers’ final buying decisions. In order to make buzz marketing
campaigns work highly effective, the message should be directed towards specifically
targeted customer groups.

GUERRILLA PR

This method is utilized to spread the intended message through the editorial segment
of the media, which appears to be more credible source of information for customers
than regular advertisement. In addition, while increasing the number of people, this
type of marketing is provided at hardly any costs. Guerrilla PR campaigns should be
executed in an appealing manner involving eye-catching installations or sensation
marketing activities (Hutter and Hoffmann 2011).

23
4.5.3 LOW COST EFFECT

According to Hutter and Hoffmann (2011), there are two main characteristics ac-
countable for low-cost effect. First one is the diffusion effect, when consumers pass
on to their peers and friend the advertising message. Second is the requirement of lit-
tle monetary efforts to launch a campaign. For instance, some marketers use almost
illegal free riding approach, when company directly benefits from placing its adver-
tisement at popular events, such as soccer games without paying for it, increasing the
quantity of people exposed to the ads and minimizing costs at the same time.

AMBUSH MARKETING

This is the most outstanding guerrilla marketing tool that is directed towards ex-
tremely low levels of expenditures. Ambush marketing is defined by Meenaghan
(1994) as the practice where a company tries to capitalize on the publicity surround-
ing particular massive event, depriving public attention from a competitor and draw-
ing attention towards itself. Ambush marketing and sponsorship are similar in that
they both are targeted towards product and brand promotion through the use of a pub-
lic event. However, unlike sponsorship, ambush marketing aims at capitalizing on the
event without having legal permission for it or legal duties of an official sponsor.
This kind of campaigns tries to improve own brand image and deteriorate that of a di-
rect competitor.

5. NEGATIVE ASPECTS AND ETHICAL IS-

SUES OF GUERRILLA MARKETING

24
Although Guerrilla marketing has numerous advantages for building a successful
marketing strategy, bad sides and critics of the concept are present. First, prior to im-
plementation, management should be aware of ethical, legal and societal aspects and
make sure that general audience will not be negatively affected by any means. De-
spite the possibilities of great successes using guerrilla strategies, if they are directed
to the wrong group of people or nor executed properly, they can indeed seriously hurt
the company’s brand image.

The most common drawbacks of guerrilla marketing are: “trespassing on private

property, defacing private or public property, and not getting permission from the
property owners when required”. For instance, attaching Burger King’s stickers to the
bus schedule in Singapore may be interpreted as an act of vandalism. Thus, compa-
nies should be able to get approvals not only from private owners, but also from local
government to execute campaigns in public places (Curran & Seaton, 2007).

Since the main goal of some advertisements is to evoke a range of negative emotions,
such as fear and anger, guerrilla campaigns may lead to highly negative attitudes to-
wards the brand or the whole company. It is crucial for marketers to decide on the
right amount of fear-appeal that should be used in ads, for instance, strong fear-ap-
peals used in products related to security and health provide better effects than weak
fear-appeal messages. Some authors argue that overuse of fear-related marketing
campaigns may cause the overall effectiveness of advertisement to decline (Guerrilla
Marketing. 2010).

Sometimes, guerrilla advertisements have a negative impact on social life aspects.

For instance, billboards placed in the middle of the highway or places with the high
traffic congestion may cause traffic accidents. To illustrate some ethical issues re-
garding guerrilla ads, I will provide examples of two companies and ethical concerns
25
of the public that may arise. First one is the pesticide firm called D.D. Dirin which
promoted their insect-exterminating products in an unusual and provocative manner.
It used fake cockroaches attached to the doors of houses. When a person enters the
house, he sees the cockroach and attempts to kill it, but realizes that it is not alive. On
the other side of the roach there is a brochure with contact information of a company
and with a note that states how easy for unwelcomed insects to enter a house. The
ethical and moral problems that arise after exposure to such advertisement are the in-
tensive feelings of irritation and disgust that people unwillingly experienced.

The second example is the ad used to promote ‘Kill Bill’ movie. A shocking image
was used in the restroom of a movie theatre, seen outside of the toilet cabin. It was a
realistic image of the blood leaking from under the door of the cabin. However, when
the door is being opened, person realizes that it is just a sticker with the release date
of the movie on it. Such type of an ad does not necessarily pose threat to psychology
of an adult, although it may sometimes cause problems to that of a child, which may
result even in inability of a kid to go to the toilet alone.

6. OBJECTIVES OF THE
STUDY
26
1) Guerrilla Marketing Development over the years.
2) If Guerrilla Marketing is a suggestively better technique of promotion for new
companies, rather than other forms of marketing.
3) Negative aspects and ethical issues of Guerrilla Marketing.

27
 7. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter identifies how the research was done, and its aim is
to describe the research strategy and methods applied in the study, and to discuss
their suitability within the context of various research philosophies, models and
methodological approaches. This includes a general overview of the overall research
philosophy employed in carrying out the research, justification of the chosen ap-
proach, provisions of the operational construct definitions and specification of their
indicators, and a discussion of the data collection and analysis methods.

Sampling technique was used to select the members of the study.

The sampling technique used in this research is a non probability sampling method,
namely:

Quota Sampling - This procedure was adopted to select the suitable candidates for
this research so as to obtain authentic and reliable data. These candidates were gener-
ally college students, undergraduates, postgraduates, and young newly recruited em-
ployees.

28
 The population under study is a finite one and a large sample has been
taken to conduct the primary data in the form of questionnaire for the collection of
data. The data collected has been analysed in the form of percentages. A set of 13
questions were prepared mostly using likert scale and sent through electronic media
and the respondents were personally asked to fill it. Once all this data was collected,
it was then sorted out and statistically analysed. A graph or a chart of each aspect
contained in the questionnaire was made so as to get an exact percentage of the find-
ings. Conclusions, based on the outcome, hereby obtained were drawn and decisions
were taken about the said objectives.

7.1 SAMPLE SIZE

For this research, a sample of 60 people could be taken as not much people were
aware about this form of marketing or this particular topic in totality.

7.2 PERIOD OF STUDY

The period of study for this research dates from 7th March, 2019 to 4th April, 2019.

7.3 SOURCES OF DATA COLLECTION

7.3.1 PRIMARY SOURCE :
The primary source of raw data collection for the research is the questionnaire which
contains 13 questions. The questions have been made using the simplest and easiest
language that will be understandable to the respondents without any trouble, and
would thereby lead to quick responses. There are no open ended questions kept ex-

29
cept for the name and mostly the likert scale has been used to form the questionnaire
properly.

7.3.2 SECONDARY SOURCE :

The secondary data used for this research has been collected through research papers,
thesis, journals, and articles.

7.4 METHOD OF ANALYSIS

The method of analysis used in this research are:

(4) Pie Charts

(5) Bar Graphs
(6) Histograms

8. ANALYSIS AND FIND-

INGS

30
 Majority of the respondents prefer Guerrilla Marketing over
the other forms of marketing namely, advertising, publicity,
etc. Very less percentage of people are either unsure or do not
prefer this type of marketing maybe because they are not well
aware of this particular subject matter or may be they do not
like this form of marketing at all.

31
In this question; 1-2 meant not really, 3 meant moderately,
and 4-5 meant definitely. According to the responses ob-
tained, we see that the maximum amount of people find
guerrilla marketing to be a good form of experiential mar-
keting implying that the effect of the marketing imparts a
good experience for the consumer.

32
 Maximum people i.e. 78.3% of people feel that startups
should take up this marketing technique as it is low-cost,
unique, and creative and can be easily carried out without
much of a hassle whereas on 3.3% of people deny that star-
tups should adopt this type of marketing.

33
When companies compete through guerrilla marketing, it be-
comes quite aggressive and may become too much sometimes
for the consumers. So in this research we found that maxi-
mum percentage of people like it and only 7.3% of people
dislike it.

34
It can be observed that 34.5% people are attracted to graffiti
marketing technique and find the least attractive source of
marketing to be newspapers. A considerable percentage of
people also buy goods based on celebrity endorsements.

35
 It has been seen that sometimes the negative impact of guer-
rilla marketing takes a toll on the company as consumers stop
buying those products for at least sometime. But there is a
good 21.7% of people who are the loyal customers and any
kind of marketing does not affect them in order to make them
stop buying the product.

36
45% people prefer to advertise their products ,if they start a
business, through public artworks and 20% through location
bombs but only 10% of them would do it through graffiti al-
though the maximum of them are attracted most to graffiti
marketing technique.

37
Majority of the respondents i.e. 58.3% agree that right timing,
clarity and relevance are important for a successful guerrilla
marketing. But these also pose a challenge on the marketer
due to discrepancies and skepticism leading to delayed deci-
sion making.

38
 Majority of the people i.e. 46.7% believe that Guerrilla Mar-
keting is beneficial to the society but a considerably large
number, 40% seem to be neutral since they think of the limi-
tations to also be equally important. Although 11.7% of the
people are in strong support of this marketing technique de-
spite the cons it poses.

9. CONCLUSION

Guerrilla Marketing is more than just an emerging trend today. It is a current mar-
keting instrument that is utilized by companies of all sizes. This research study in-
volves qualitative method of data collection due to relatively hard nature of measur-
ing quantitatively the effects of guerrilla marketing campaign. It involves measure-
ment of such factors as customer satisfaction and brand perception, which is diffi-
cult task to do with time and resources constraints and can only be observed in
practice.

The guerrilla marketing explores every possibility and beyond, in order to implement
the best possible business combination. Personal sale, personal letters, telemarket-
39
ing, circulars and brochures on bulletin boards, section ads, external advertising, bill-
boards, yellow pages, newspapers and magazines, radio and television, mail offers,
promotional peculiarities like emblazoned pens, free samples, seminars and promo-
tions, sponsor relationship, exhibitions and fairs, t-shirts with a logo, public rela-
tions, and word-of-mouth advertising.

Guerrilla marketing has been hailed as the renegade king of advertising methods for
many years now. But, like all advertising models, this one will eventually lose its ef-
fectiveness and be replaced by the next big thing. Since we are so inundated with ad-
vertising these days, most of us have learned to simply ignore it. We can walk right
past billboards bearing the name and image of some fantastic product and never know
they’re there. We can skip commercials altogether in our own homes. From the long
term perspective in the marketing communication discipline there is question when
guerrilla marketing becomes less effective. The answer depends on when it will be-
come normality. Key factor of surprise and shock is in creating unexpected cam-
paigns. There is possibility that particular tools of guerrilla marketing will suffer of
clutter as we know it from TV advertising, banner blindness and so on. Guerrilla mar-
keting is not a salvation tool. Company should always think about communication
possibilities and how to analyze the current situation, consider its options and finally
executives can make their own decision.

In the battle for consumer attention, guerrilla marketing is an opportunity to use ad-
vertising to appeal to a target audience when they are not expecting it, and catching
an audience unawares gives the advertiser a positive advantage over the competition.
During guerrilla marketing, emotional triggers such as humor are often employed to
achieve marketing goals, and such emotional experiences both help consumers to no-
tice the advertising and make the experience more memorable.

Guerrilla marketing actions can attract enhanced attention, and thus have the potential
to spread virally. But guerrilla marketing can also be risky if the brand fit is unsatis-
factory or if ambush marketing attempts any particularly audacious exploits. Guerrilla
40
marketing frequently operates in legal grey areas, and companies overstepping the
mark can sometimes trigger a public outrage on social media.

To sum up, guerrilla marketing is not a new trend in advertising but it’s become bit
more popular nowadays because of the innovative ideas and creative thinking of the
promoters. When we think it from the financial aspect, there is a huge difference to
both traditional way and guerrilla way and guerrilla reaches the customer in a much
more effective way.

This marketing has a huge scope but it will only be useful after taking proper
steps to overcome the constraints Guerrilla Marketing has got. Once that’s taken
care of then the technique will definitely benefit everyone. Guerrilla Marketing is
known for its quickness and its impact and that assurance of its impact will bene -
fit the today’s generation of consumers and marketers.

10. LIMITATIONS

1) There is still need to create awareness about guerrilla marketing among the
masses.

41
2) It has been agreed by almost all of the people that startups should take up this
marketing strategy but this has only been inferred after they have been made
aware of the existence of such a marketing technique.

3) It has quite a lot of legal procedures to follow before marketing the product
through this marketing technique which somewhat restricts the advertiser from
taking up this technique.

4) Due to its location specifics or since it cannot be carried out everywhere, many-a-
times the marketing takes a lot of time to reach to the prospective clients and
maybe it can not even reach some prospective customers.

5) If a guerrilla marketing technique for a product goes wrong, the product and the
company can suffer for a long time. As the customer trust would be gone and the
company would always be linked to the particular incident even in their future
endeavours leading to skepticism.

11. RECOMMENDATIONS

42
There is a huge need for educating the customer towards product promotion

activity. A huge portion of society is seemed to be illiterate of the concept. So

as a marketer one should take necessary steps to educate the general public to-

wards their promotional activities so that the promotion activity will not go

waste. More exaggeration of the product may lead to slip concentration of

viewers so one has to adopt some kind of realistic approach which helps the

customer’s drive in. Guerrilla Marketing definitely reaches younger crowd

which now makes it the ideal time to concentrate to convince them more and

when we compared it with the traditional way of advertisement it is cost effec-

tive so one needs to give importance to it in the promotion process. Also star-

tups should be encouraged to take up this form of marketing and help in in-

creasing the awareness in the society.

12. REFERENCES
[1] ANSOFF, I., 1965. Corporate strategy. US: McGraw-Hill Inc. ISBN 978-
0070021112.
43
[2] COULTER, N., I. MONARCH and S. KONDA, 1998. Software engineering as
seen through its research literature: a study in co-word analysis. Journal of the Ameri-
can Society for Information Science, 49. ISSN 1532-2890

[3] EGAN, J., 2007. Marketing communications. London: Thomson learning. ISBN
1844801217

[4] MALHOTRA, N. K., 1982a. Information load and consumer decision making.
Journal of Consumer Research, 8, 419-430. ISSN 0093-5301.

[5] ROY, A. and S. P. CHATTOPADHYAY, 2010. Stealth marketing as a strategy.

Business Horizons, 53, 69-79. ISSN 0007-6813.

[6] SMITH, T., J. R. COYLE, E. LIGHTFOOT and A. SCOTT, 2007. Reconsidering

models of influence: the relationship between consumer social networks and word-of-
mouth effectiveness. Journal of advertising research, 47, 387-397. ISSN 0021-8499.

[7] SMITH, T., J. R. COYLE, E. LIGHTFOOT and A. SCOTT, 2007. Reconsidering

models of influence: the relationship between consumer social networks and word-of-
mouth effectiveness. Journal of advertising research, 47, 387-397. ISSN 0021-8499.

[8] LEVINSON, J. C., 2009. Guerilla marketing. Brno: Computer press. ISBN 978-
80-251- 2472-7.

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 13. ANNEXURE

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46