Guerrilla Marketing
http://www.guerrillamrketingassociation.com
‘The British are coming! The British are coming!’ That's what William Dawes shouted as he took his midnight ride in 1775. But nobody paid much attention.
Jay Conrad Levinson
Jay Conrad Levinson is the author of the Guerrilla Marketing
series of books, the most popular marketing series in history with 14 million
sold, now in 39 languages. At his www.GuerrillaMarketingAssociation.com
web site, you’ll find a new source of profit-producing ideas plus
a list of 100 guerrilla marketing weapons. Join up for telephone and online
access to the Father of Guerrilla Marketing.
WHEN PAUL REVERE took the same ride at the same time carrying the same message
as William Dawes, he mounted enough support to defeat the British in Concord
and begin the Revolutionary War. Why didn’t Dawes do what Revere did? Because
Paul Revere was a guerrilla—well-connected and known by all to be highly involved
in his community. Richard Dawes was a well-meaning, but ordinary guy. The word-of-mouth
epidemic guerrilla Paul Revere generated was a tipping-point that resulted in
a new nation, the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Trends, social behaviour, even ideas themselves, course through
society like epidemics. That’s what Malcolm Gladwell says in his superb book,
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Make a Big Difference. The book
is about social epidemics and how ideas take root. The rise and fall of crime
in New York, the sudden explosion of interest in Hush Puppy shoes and even the
popularity of the children’s television show Blue’s Clues all conform
to a set of principles. The same rules that govern the spread of Aids and spark
a successful revolution are the same as those that determine the success of
a product or service.
The principles teach us that little causes can have big effects.
Changes do not happen gradually, but suddenly, when they reach a kind of critical
mass called a tipping point. To illustrate tipping points, Gladwell shows how
one of the key steps in reducing crime in New York was simply removing graffiti
from subway cars. And that began right after Bernard Goetz, an urban guerrilla,
shot four muggers on a subway car. He was arrested and he was wrong. But his
actions were the epicentre of a tipping point.
Likewise, it turns out that a small decrease in influenza
infections can cause a raging epidemic to expire almost overnight. Gladwell
tells us that ideas and trends can be just as infectious as viruses. He takes
the idea a step further with a fascinating theory about the personalities who
transmit those viruses—the Typhoid Marys of social epidemics.
According to Gladwell, there are three personalities: ‘connectors’
collect friendships and acquaintances throughout their lives, and work deliberately
to introduce people they know to one another. They carry a special power in
spreading ideas. ‘Mavens’, on the other hand, know where to find the cheapest
rates for a plane ticket, are known for their expertise, and have a market function
of transmitting critical information to everyone they can reach, regardless
of relationship. Finally, the types that Gladwell calls ‘salesmen’ are those
with an innate gift for infecting others with the passion of their ideas.
Paul Revere was a connector, a maven, and a salesman. Richard
Dawes was a nice, quiet man. Because of the growth of viral marketing—customers
and users passing on a message to other friends and users, Gladwell’s book has
achieved critical mass.
The Tipping Point has been on the New York Times’
best seller list for several weeks and interest in his book continues to spread
like a virus. As other reviewers have proposed, The Tipping Point has
tipped and one of the main reasons for discovery by marketing people of viral
marketing.
Viral marketing uses the communication networks of your site
visitors or customers to spread the word about your site exponentially. Word-of-mouth,
PR, and network marketing are offline models. The classic example of guerrilla
viral marketing is the free email service, Hotmail. It includes a theme line
about their service at the end of every message sent out. So friends tell friends,
who tell friends who tell more friends. ‘The Free Email Is Coming!’—so to speak.
Already well past the buzzword stage, viral marketing gets
its name not because any traditional viruses are involved, but because of the
pattern of rapid adoption through word-of-mouth and word-of-mouse networks.
Hotmail grew a subscriber base more rapidly than any company
in the history of the world—faster than any new online, internet or print publication
ever. Today, Hotmail is the largest email provider in the world. In its first
one-and-a-half years, thanks to viral marketing, Hotmail signed up over 12 million
subscribers.
Yet, from company launch to 12 million users, now 30 million,
Hotmail spent less than $500,000 on marketing, advertising and promotion. This
compares to over $20 million spent on advertising and brand promotion by Juno,
Hotmail's closest competitor, with a fraction of the users.
Their marketing copy: ‘Get your free email at Hotmail.’
That’s it.
Every outbound message still conveyed an advertisement and
a subtle implied endorsement by the sender. The recipients knew that the senders
were Hotmail users, and that this new free email thing seemed to work for them.
Each new user became a company salesperson, and the message spread organically,
like a virus.
People typically send email to their associates and friends;
many of them are geographically close, and others are scattered around with
in areas of high internet connectivity. No marketing dollars required.
Customers do the selling.
Viral marketing captures the essence of multi-level marketing
and applies it to all customers. It's more powerful than many other marketing
techniques that lack the implied endorsement from a friend. Hotmail had ‘Free
email’ buttons on several other highly trafficked web sites, but they generated
negligible numbers of subscriptions.
Whenever a product involves people other than the purchaser,
then there is an opportunity to market to potential new customers. Amazon encourages
its customers to send a book as a gift to a friend. When the recipient receives
the gift book, the packaging contains a flyer for the Amazon.com service.
Because of guerrilla viral marketing—simple and inexpensive,
sensible and almost obvious, firstest with the goodest—the Hotmail juggernaut
just keeps on growing quietly and consistently on its own momentum.
Moral: the internet provides an unfair competitive advantage
to nimble startup companies. A good idea can spread like wildfire if its business
model is tailored to the medium. Guerrilla viral marketing is a good idea for
good ideas. It can be a tipping point for your company. •