Guerrilla Marketing for Indian Startups

Most people feel Marketing is the most expensive and complex subject. But here I present to you Guerrilla Marketing which, if dealt with atmost creativity can not only save but earn you a fortune. Big Problem that a startup can face is Capital to develop the product or service they want to offer, and then comes the marketing stuff which if you ignored, the world will never notice you, no matter how great a product or service that you offer.

What is Guerrilla Marketing

In his own words from the Father of Guerrilla Marketing, Jay Conrad Levinson, this describes guerrilla marketing: Achieving conventional goals, such as profits and joy, with unconventional methods, such as investing energy instead of money. Now that should make you happy if you are a startup,” investing energy(which you have tremendous :)) and not money”.

Guerrilla Marketing is changing the lives of the people in small and medium businesses around the world. It has been proven in action to work for small businesses around the world. It works because it’s simple to understand, easy to implement and outrageously inexpensive.In this clueless world the aim of this kind of marketing is to give you quality marketing rather than quantity because ultimately your best marketing strategy should be a satisfied customer and nothing else.

Guerrilla Marketing Strategy

Many a times Guerrilla marketing is mistaken with the large billboards, nowadays big Brands spend lot of money on that to pull attentions towards them, but the main purpose of this kind of Guerrilla marketing is to use time, energy and creativity ‘instead of money’. Though i cannot give you a clear cut plan for marketing your business but yeah surely i can give you some pointers on how to implement it.

Before giving pointers, let me give you one excellent example.

An adhesive company puts a coin on the road which is glued to the road using their product and people bend down to pick it (not able to pull it out) and see the company label there. How cool is that, you instantly got one person sure about your product and his/her ‘word of mouth’ publicity too, they will surely tell about this event to their family and friends.

Rules of Guerrilla Marketing plan

• It should be based on human psychology rather than experience, judgement, and guesswork.
• Target smaller groups for more effectiveness
• You should not try to sell your product, but bring brand awareness
• Remember that people do not pay attention to advertising. They pay attention only to things that interest them.
• The reasons people will want to buy from you should give you a clue as to the inherent drama in your product or service.
• Sell the benefits of your product, Ex: People do not buy cars; people buy speed, status, style, economy, performance, and power.
• To make guerrilla marketing work, you must tell people exactly what you want them to do.
• Last but not the least Remember it does not begin with a headline, graphic idea, special effect or jingle; it begins with an idea.

We have all seen MTV Bakra i guess, when they can create a drama in public to make people laugh, why not you come up with a great plan to build Brand awareness about your startup and product. This will be a great way to meet your customers and build relationship too. Will try to cover in depth on this topic in my later articles, till then stay tuned! All the Best.

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