Business Model Generator (BMG)

BMG Guerrilla Marketing Test

Reverse Marketing

Guerrilla Marketing- Second and Third Order Thinking

Guerrilla Marketing (GM) is used by SMEs (Small and Medium Size Enterprises) because they are in the business of subsitituting brains for cash in the marketing wars-- they want a place at the economic table but can not afford to purchase the type of mass marketing available to larger firms. So they resort to GM. GM is not limited to SMEs; larger firms have been known to engage in this type of promotional marketing.

Taco Bell's brilliant coup of floating a target in the South Pacific for Mir to hit comes to mind. Taco Bell stationed a floating rubber target off the coast of Australia which, if any pieces of the decommissioned Mir Space Station were to hit it, would entitle everyone in the continental USA to a free Taco. (Taco Bell took out insurance on this, by the way.) A photo of their floating target was carried by major news outlets across the planet.Also, Taco Bell's NYSE symbol is 'YUM'. This is more guerrilla marketing. Most companies would perhaps have used 'TBC' for Taco Bell Corporation. YUM is so much better for a food company, don't you think?

GM is often in a grey legal area, which needs careful consideration before attempting any of these types of things. One should never do anything that is illegal or unethical or places any persons or property in danger.

Here we look at some smart guerrilla marketing, guerrilla marketing research and guerrilla marketing sales. We also look at some of the dumbest guerrilla marketing ever done because for student entrepreneurs, you want to know what not to do as much or maybe even more than what to do. As Glen Sather (former Edmonton Oilers President and GM) is rumored to have once said: "The best trades you do, are the ones you don't do."

In business: "The best deals you do are the ones you don't do." or "The best investments you make are the ones you don't."

Example- Market-By-Publishing and Market-By-Press-Release

Example- Win-By-Losing Strategy

Example- SEO, Search Engine Optimization and Sub-Domains

Todd Jamieson at EnvisionOnline.ca does SEO for a fee for clients and he does it very successfully. He never pays for it either directly by paying a search engine like Google to register a client with their engine nor by buying paid search links for his clients. Instead, he uses a semantic approach where he looks at: a) what are people actually searching for (what keywords are they using) in this field, b) which keywords are already dominated by large corporations who have both paid the search engine for their listing and who have also bought paid search links (there is no way for most SMEs can afford to compete with that), c) he then avoids these keywords, d) he uses those keywords that are being searched but are not dominated by large competitors in his clients' metatags, e) he also sets up (free) canonical domains (sub-domains-- you own by license agreement with your domain name registrar everything to the left of your domain name; for example, if you own consulting.com you can set up a sub-domain like great.consulting.com for free, which will act as a new independent IP address with its own DNS that can be linked back to consulting.com) so that the # of links to the client WS goes way up. Rankings are based, in part, not on how many sites you link to but how many link to you. Why not create your own (free) affiliates? Results are terrific.

Example- Solution Selling for Tom Smith Toyota and Measuring ROI for the Client

Example- Solution Selling, Co-Branding the Legal Market and Golf Industry

Example- Stupid Marketing Surveys

Example- Anniversary Marketing: how one company exploits a publicly available data base and snail mails potential clients asking them whether they would like to celebrate an important anniversary with their product. How many people would object to being reminded that their company has reached an important milestone?

Example- Reverse (Bad) Guerrilla Marketing, the kind that gets you sued. Here is an example of a pop-up ad made to look like a Operating System warning that hijacks your PC to a web site that sells software.

Example- Earned media and reverse marketing using Human Billboards.

Example- CoBranding: Where can you find new clients? Check out the customers of firms in complementary businesses. For example, people who buy high end jewelry might also buy Lexus'.

Example- Check out some of the articles written by Todd Jamieson-- you will find them very useful.

Example- Free Gas Commotion: "When my father was Sales Manager at CHRO approx. 30 years ago, the TV station launched a promotion to 'grab' the attention of existing and potential Channel 6 watchers. CHRO (now the New RO) essentially "took over" a small gas station on the corner of Carling and Maitland (in Ottawa, Canada). From 4:00pm to 5:00pm (prime drive home time), CHRO paid for customers' gas! It made headlines on radio and TV, and, of course, was included in all of the afternoon traffic reports....radio stations would say "DON'T go near Carling and Maitland...CHRO is giving away free gas!" (So of course that made it more congested!!). The stunt caused major line ups at the pumps, and all along Carling and Maitland! The Police were forced to arrive on the scene to control traffic. All along, CHRO's name was being repeated in all sorts of media, therefore promoting the brand, product and TV station itself. They even made the front page headlines of the Saturday (Ottawa) Citizen (which they did not plan for...) It was genius! (As for logistics, it should be mentionned that it is best to 'warn' local authorities of any promotions involving traffic and/or the public.....they got a slap on the wrist for that!) My Dad, Carl notes: "Your advertising is only as good as what people want to hear". People like to hear "FREE GAS!" This example could be used in any product or service that humans consume and can't live without, but hate to pay for - ie: food, toilet paper, gas, utility bills, diapers...you name it!" Signing Off ........ Lesley Jane Rochester, Client Services Manager, 5 3 C o l o u r s - S i g n s & D i g i t a l I m a g e r y, To Surf Online on Your Company's time: www.53colours.com, To actually talk to a Human Being: 613.831.5053, Just the Fax, Man....613.831.0499, To Send An Electronic "Hello" : sales@53colours.com, To write a letter the old fashioned way: 69 Iber Road, Suites 103-104, Stittsville, ON K2S 1E7

Example- Jubilee Fine Jewellers, Ottawa, Canada ran a promotion for Xmas 2004. The contest says that if the "Event" namely, 8" of snow accumulates at the Ottawa International Airport on December 31st, 2004 between the hours of 12:01AM and 11:59PM ("Rule #1") happens, then EVERYONE who has bought merchandise from them between Dec. 9th and Dec. 24th, gets a FULL refund, no matter what. Gulp. Now in a snowy city like Ottawa, that is a real possibility. (I would imagine that Jubilee got insurance to cover this possibility. To see the rules that they used, click here.)

Example- Napa Auto Parts Vehicle

When cruising down the Queensway in Ottawa last week, I took this picture out my front windshield. It's not a very good picture-- kids don't do this at home. Driving at 100 kph while looking through a 5 mm aperture is not a good idea. It's like driving while using a periscope.

Anyway, the bumper sticker on this Napa Auto Parts vehicle, reads: "How's my driving?" and gives a 1-888 phone number. One could imagine that, if you were to actually call that number, they might try to market something to you?

Bruce Firestone, September 21, 2002

Example- Canadian Taxpayers Federation

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation put 82 lawn signs (pig figures, one for each member presumably) on the lawn outside the Alberta Legislature to protest against the 'obscene' increases in Alberta politicians' pay. The cost for this stunt is about five bucks a lawn sign. They get national exposure for their story, as a result.

Example- Taco Bell Corporation

Example-- Web Site Scoring for a web development startup to use as a GM tool

Example- MostlyMakeup.com

Web sites by and of themselves don't work very well in a world of 60,000,000 domain names sold and 40,000,000 + web sites. Sure, there are always Google searches and lots of other search engines too but with paid search engine optimization rampant in the industry, the larger sites are buying their way to the top of the returned search results.

That is why, it is possible that the web may not be the democratizing force in the global economy that many people hoped for. It may be that there is only room for one eBay, one Amazon, ... that the web could be a force for monopoly rather than competitive markets.

The cost of developing a really good web site presentation layer, a solid backend, acquiring the bandwidth, establishing the order fulfillment side of the operation and doing all of this at very high levels of reliability in the murky world of the web while resisiting hackers and denial of service attacks of all types is huge.

So for smaller operators they have only one shot at it-- they need to have the ability to effectively market their web sites in RL (Real Life). Without this, they are doomed no matter how good their products, services, presentation or technology are.

They need effective, inexpensive marketing-- guerrilla marketing, if you will.

MostlyMakeup.com is a web site focused on, well, mostly, makeup. Its success though depends on its promotion in the four hair and spa stores run by its group of owners and here is what they are doing to promote it:

"We are presently working on our shirts & hats that will have our web address on them and will be a part of all our staff's wardrobe. We have 78 staff in total. Additionally, we will have some give aways and sales to clients. There is no better 24/7, non-zappable advertising available anywhere than having people walking around with your advertising on their clothing.

Sports teams have already figured this out-- people pay to buy their clothing to advertise the team. Sounds like viral marketing in real life to me," ciao, Joseph, Byblos et al

Example- Intel, American Express

Many companies have entered into litigation with holders of the acmecompanysucks.com domain name registrants. The automatic knee-jerk response is that the (insert your company name here)sucks.com holder is infringing on your company trade mark right? The www.sucks.com people (Dan Parisi) have maintained that these sites are places and spaces where people can go to vent their sometimes legitimate complaints- that the right to freedom of expression will, in effect, outrank the right of the trademark holder, a rather persuasive argument.

Other companies like Intel and American Express are a lot smarter- rather than sue, they say the sites are o.k. They provide management with feedback that they probably couldn't get any other way. Middle mamangers usually aren't as forthcoming as, say, an irate customer. It is a form of inexpensive, independent product research- guerrilla marketing research, if you will.

Example- CIRA, Canadian Internet Registration Authority

Example- Les Ailes de la Mode

This upscale fashion retailer came out of nowhere to create a sensation in its industry. They were the first to issue a credit card, which thanks to a microchip in it, allowed the retialer to give each of its 80,000 card holders an electronic $10 coupon every month, no questions asked.

Example-- How a web development startup creates their own Clients

Example- Grade A Student

gradeAstudent.ca goes to the home of the Ottawa Senators (the Corel Centre) and unveils a huge banner saying "Go Sens Go". In smaller type, "Grade [A] Student". 1. "Go Sens Go"is political cover. 2. The management might think that "Grade [A] Student" are a bunch of students (they are) and not a real business (they are-- they do on-site computer service). 3. They also hand out their business cards at the exits. 4. They pay nothing for the evening (even their tickets are donated). 5. Prices for signs at the Corel Centre go from $20,000 to $375,000 per season.

Example- Leveraging your Assets (Turning cost centres into 'profit' centres- seeing assets where before there were only liabilities!)

Roger has a small real estate company in Ottawa. He is budgeting $50,000 for marketing in this calendar year. His accountant, Bill, notes that the ads that Roger's company is running often mention partners; people like home builders, framers, landscapers, lawyers, well drillers, other clients and customers. Bill goes on to point out: "This is like the 'mini-office' concept applied to our newspaper ads and our on-site signage too. Roger, you have seized the 'high' ground- we now 'own' very valuable space at the bottom of the Business to Business Classified section every Wednesday and you have bought it at a 'wholesale' price. Perhaps you can lay off some of our costs on our clients and partners so that we acquire space at a reduced cost.This is Guerrilla Marketing 101! Regards, Bill."

It is thinking like this, which is at a micro scale that, when applied enterprise-wide (i.e., at a macro level), can make a huge difference to the profitbility of the business. It requires creativity and attention to detail. You can become more creative by training yourself to look at problems with a view to spotting opportunities where before you saw only the negatives. You must force yourself to look, and look again and again- creativity requires focus and time; time to let your subconcious work on the problem too.

Student Note: Guerrilla marketing and leveraging your assets are important tools for entrepreneurs to use. Having said that, it is also important for the new entrepreneur to ensure that they respect the property, copyright, intellectual property and all of the laws, rules and regulations of their country of operation. In the case cited above, "Roger" should make sure that he brings in his partners and others in a co-op advertising program, which is a well accepted practice. He should ensure that he is not reselling or 'subletting' if you will the advertising space he has contracted for.

Example- Reducing Your Costs

Ottawa-Carleton Transpo (OC Transpo) is caught in a cost squeeze. Costs of operating their bus transit system are up and ridership is down. To make matters worse, in January 2001, the city and its environs are merged by the provincial governement (Ontario) into a new super city to be called simply the "new City of Ottawa". The old Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton ceases to exist and, hence, their name 'OC Transpo' must change. This means repainting hundreds of buses, a cost they can't afford. Instead, OC Transpo management run a rename-the-company contest with one interesting proviso: the new name must use the old 'OC' initials. The result is the eminently practical new name for the bus company: "OC Transpo" short for Ottawa Canada Transpo.

Example- Sharing Costs (More Leveraging)

A young entrepreneur in the security business (they photo ID homeowner and commercial possessions using encrypted CD ROMs) writes to his B. School Prof:

"Here is something that happened today that I am pleased about.

Guerilla marketing is the topic.

There are two trade shows that are coming up in the next two months. They are the Spring Home Show in Ottawa and the Ontario Camping Association (OCA) show. In regards to the OCA show, I had a good response last year and I made some money from this niche. So I am thinking, the booth costs $500, I think I should go but I need to rethink all my strategies that I have used in the last year. During the night, when I was awake, I thought of an idea. I made a very good contact with the head insurance broker for all the camps across Canada. I emailed her this morning suggesting we share a booth. As we both have something in common. She sells insurance, I sell a service that can help during an insurance claim. She emailed me back a few hours later say she thought that was a fine idea. I think this was good, all Camp Directors will talk to Nancy and I will be there right beside her.

So after a long story, thank you about making me aware of guerrilla marketing. I pay for half a booth and I get to build a stronger relationship with Nancy.

Regards, Al"

Example-- How Billy Crystal Finds an Apartment in Manhattan

In When Harry Met Sally, Billy Crystal's character tells Meg Ryan that finding an apartment in Manhattan is easy: "Read the obits and tip the Bellman". Creating your own clients is like that too-- follow the trail of bad marketing upstream to the source and solve their problem with your products and services.

Example-- Goodwill Ambassadors

The Ottawa Senators and the Corel Centre use retired persons as Goodwill Ambassadors-- they are volunteers who greet guests at every home game. They give out free promotional material (bobble head dolls of players being all the rage in 2002) to fans, answer questions, help people find lost children and generally charm folks in the arena. It costs the team practically nothing but is a heck of a marketing tool in terms of making the event a safe, enjoyable night out. For the Goodwill Ambassadors, it is a chance to get out and be part of the community and, btw, watch a pretty good team too (at least in 2002/03).

Example- Attack Web Site

A large company is stuck with a huge environmental hearing and implaccable enemies. It creates a web site sponsored by its suppliers, customers and others in the community to create third party support for the Company's expansion plan. The expansion is reasoned, well planned and well studied.

The opponnents (anti-globalist fanatics) al;ready have web sites that serve to attack this company and others. Their sites are money makers really- they attack high profile companies to generate media coverage- this drives people to their web sites and once there, they make contributions.

They are not registered with the IRS; they are simply money machines.

The company creates this third party sponsored web site which simply expresses support for their workers. By pinging the site, emails are generated automatically that go to the enemies list. Used to having it all their own way, the enemies react explosively and email the site laying out their entire strategy in advance of the hearing. The attack site acts as a one way mirror with information flowing one way.

In war and business, this can be a distinct advantage.

The web site cost less than $10,000 to set up.

Example- Faces Count

In cyberspace, the metaverse, in mainstream media, faces count. People will pass over hundred thousand dollar, full page spreads showing, for example, fancy cars but they will look at your teensy ad showing a face. It can be your face (remember when Loblaw President's Choice used to use Dave Nichol's face everywhere?) or your nephew or niece- an image for your company that personalizes your product. People buy from people they like (and trust). I suggest to people on the web, use faces! Put a photo of your team on your web site. Even in the stateless world of the metaverse, faces count.

Example: Mazda Miata

Over a urinal at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, there is a poster of a fine automobile- the Mazda Miata. The byline is "Miata Here." pronounced: "Me ... A ... Outta Here!" Now that has to appeal to students in their last year.

The Mazda.ca web site allows you to select english or french. They don't just use "Enter" or "Click Here". Instead they say: "Move me in English." For a car company, that is pretty cool- a triple meaning.

Example- Truely Guerrilla Marketing 1

A local high tech company doesn't have the marketing budget to put inserts into the local newspaper for distribution to their target market. Early one morning, the founders go out with abundant pocket change and they open the paper boxes and insert their marketing brochure; then close up the boxes and wait for the phone to ring.

Student note: this is probably illegal. Don't do this but it is an example of clever thinking nonetheless.

Example- Truely Guerrilla Marketing 2

In the early days of a local business publication, they dress up an employee in an outrageous costume and he goes about town putting money into parking meters before the parking police can ticket the vehicle. They call up the local radio and TV stations and get blanket coverage. The Mayor denounces the practice but citizens feel good about the new good samariatan in town and the paper presumably too.

Example- Truely Guerrilla Marketing 3

A local tech company puts up hundreds of $2 placards along the main drag where techies tend to go advertising their web site and for recruitment purposes too. They put them up on a Friday night after the city workers go home and they remain up for five days before the City has the (illegal) signs removed. The campaign is cheap, cheerful and successful.

Example- Truely Guerrilla Marketing 4

A local Subway franchisee takes over a loser of a location. Every day at 10:30 am he sneaks over to the megamall parking lot and puts $1 off sub coupons under the windshield of 500 cars. He runs back to his shop and waits for the traffic to come in the door. He also visits every local office within three kilometres between 11:00 am and noon weekdays over an 18 month period. He brings in a huge platter of finely cut subs and a bunch of $1 off coupons. He talks his way past the recepitonists and gets into even highly secure buildings and hands out free food and coupons by the bucket load. Within two years that location alone is making over 100 grand for him and his family.

Example- Using Your Existing Assets

What type of car do you drive? If it is relatively new and if you keep it clean, then you could consider adding your corporate logo and web address to the passenger side, driver's side, rear and front (in mirror image). This is free advertising for you that works 7 days per week. But is has to be done well. DO NOT USE THOSE HORRIBLE RUBBER MAGNETIZED MATS THAT STICK TO THE CAR. This would be reverse marketing.

Bill Renaud, one of Ottawa's most successful real estate agents, uses his vehicles this way. If you do it, it has to be done well and depending on what type of business you are in, it can be done in an understated kind of way.

Example- How to Collect Email Addresses With the Permission of and Indeed the Willing Participation of Your Target Market (From Jeff Ward)

Here is an email that a lot of people have been getting from their friends. Not only does Labatt look good, direct people to the beer.com site, they get to collect e-mail and contact information, plus friends spam one another with
the email. All at almost no cost. Nice....

"Subject: Another Long Weekend!

Labatt Blue Light is petitioning the Ontario government for a new long weekend in June. This is serious...they're really
doing it.

The petition comes on the heels of a national survey that says about HALF of Canadians don't have enough free time
and that they have less free time than they did five years ago.

Make your voice heard now. Go to http://www.enlist.com/cgi-bin/re/freeyourtime and sign the petition. And pass this along!"

(Editor's Note: This is an example of guerrilla marketing by Labatt that uses a supposedly third party to promote Labatt Blue and it uses the power of the web for geometric growth.)

Example- Students Design Clinic, School of Architecture, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.

Example- Digital Guard

Digital Guard provides a secure, visual home inventory for insurance and estate purposes for $99. Who beneits? The insurance companies do. So DG should ask the insurance companies to: a) promote the service to their agents and brokers, b) offer $20 off coupons for purchase of the DG service (50% paid by DG and 50% paid by the insurance company) to their agents' and brokers' clients who purchase DG services (note that the insurance companies only pay (50%) for coupons that are actually used), c) give their clients who use the DG service a one time $99 off either their premiums or, even better, $99 off their first deductible claim (better because unless they make a claim, they don't get the $99.) Better yet, let Digital Guard evolve into a claims processing utility, reversing out the work to insurance company clients and customers in return for a percentage fee of all claims.

Digital Guard also stamps the backs of friends' business cards giving people free Outside/Garage digital photos valued at $25. Every time someone gives out their b. card, they are also promoting DG. Also, DG knows how people heard of them because the customer has to hand in the b. card to get the free service-- DG can thus incent their friends too this way-- a cheap offline affiliate program to say the least.

Example- Instant Web

Set up a booth in the local market. Sell people and SMEs on first time web sites. Your real business is web hosting- making money while "lying on a beach"- a scalable business that becomes independent of your hourly wage slave lifestyle.

Example- Selling a Commercial Building

The best place to find someone to buy your shopping plaza is by talking to your tenants. Instead of asking them to buy your building, which might frighten them, ask them if they want a build-to-suit next door on vacant land you own. Your downside is that they do, in which case you have sold a new piece of land and made a fee on managing their new construction. Your upside is that they conclude it is too expensive or difficult or takes too long but they enquire about buying their existing location.

Example- No Money Down Startups, Making Money on the Internet and Momentous.ca

Example- Market By Personality and Celebrity

Ottawa Senators- Voice Intros by Rod Bryden for the Bear Radio Station

Auto Trader ads

Starflyers and Wayne Gretzky

Miss Canada International and Federicos

Grade [A] Student radio ads

CJOH TV, Bushnell Communications, Schock Theatre and Dave Patrick- Television with Personality (Dinner & a Movie)

Small Business Management Front Page

Entrepreneurialist Culture Front Page

DramatisPersonae.org