Sunday, July 27, 2008

Guerrilla Marketing: What is it? Does it really work?

There are two well-known marketing and public relations books with similar titles: Guerrilla Marketing by Jay Levinson and Guerrilla P.R. by Michael Levin. Both give readers advice on using unconventional, low-cost tactics in marketing products and gaining visibility for small businesses.

In fact, the concept has evidently been so successful that since Guerrilla Marketing was first published in 1984, Levinson has written a number of spin-off books including Guerrilla Advertising, Guerrilla Marketing for Free, Guerrilla Marketing Weapons, The Guerrilla Marketing Handbook, Guerrilla Publicity, and Guerrilla Marketing in 30 Days.

But do these unconventional tactics really work? In particular, do they work for agricultural businesses?

In my past job with the state ag department, I worked on quite a few promotions that employed what might be called guerrilla marketing tactics. Or maybe you would call them publicity stunts. Take your pick.

One time, for example, a coworker and I put together baskets of farmers' market produce and brought them to Boston area radio stations. The basket included a statewide listing of farmers' markets. One popular rock music station invited us right into the studio, the DJs put us on the air and we were able to plug visiting local farmers' markets during the growing season.

Another time, we did a promotion for local maple products that involved sending an information packet, recipes and a small sample of maple syrup to food writers at daily newspapers. That effort did result in several maple stories in newspaper food sections.

Working with various associations over the years, there have been promotions that involved delivering squash, potatoes, cut flowers, poinsettias, and coffee cake to food editors, business editors, radio stations and television studios. There have been tomato contests, cider taste-offs, zucchini races, pumpkin carvings, corn boils, giant strawberry shortcakes, farm-to-farm bike rides, and all kinds of farm tours.

While many of these efforts have been fruitful in terms of generating publicity and in turn, hopefully, sales for farms, sometimes they're not. While guerrilla tactics are usually low cost, they are often require a lot more work than, say, conventional advertising. If successful, the pay-off can be great, but if not you might be left wondering why you went to all that trouble.

A few things to keep in mind:

1. You're competing with many other businesses and organizations for the attention of the news media and the public. Find a way to make your product stand out and don't get discouraged; be persistent but don't over-do it.

2. When sending product samples to reporters and editors, make sure that they are just samples. Some media organizations have policies against accepting gifts that could be construed as bribes in exchange for coverage. You just want them to have a little taste of your product for evaluation purposes.

3. Showing up at a radio station, especially without an appointment, doesn't guarantee that you'll get on the air. They may just thank you for stopping by and for your product sample and information. Don't be too disappointed or angry; the effort may pay off later on.

4. Sometimes radio and television stations tie appearances on certain programs to advertising. So, if you're not an advertiser, you might not get on. This doesn't apply to news, though.

And sometimes publicity stunts can go wrong. Earlier this year a popular juice company was introducing a new line of frozen juice pops. To get publicity, they created what they hoped would be certified by Guinness as the world's largest frozen pop and planned to erect it in New York City's Union Square on the first day of summer. As it turned out, it was a hot day and the pop started to melt, sending sticky goo all over Union Square. Pedestrians and cyclists started slipping and sliding in it, and a woman was taken to the hospital with a sprained ankle.

That stunt may not qualify as strict guerrilla P.R. since it surely cost quite a bit to stage but is an example of an unconventional tactic that certainly did generate news coverage...perhaps more than if the thing had remained frozen.

Maybe you've been involved in these kinds of guerrilla activities, too, on your farm or through an association. I'd be willing to wager that farmers are particularly adept at guerrilla marketing and publicity tactics because of their natural ingenuity, a need to keep costs down and products that are well suited to this approach. After all, fresh farm products can be fun, wholesome, nostalgic, unusual, trendy, beautiful and always tasty. Which make for irresistible combinations.

Copyright 2005 by Diane Baedeker Petit. This article originally appeared in the October 2005 issue of Growing Magazine.