Startup Guide to Guerrilla Marketing. Jay Levinson Conrad
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Think of a seagull. It flies endless circles in the sky, endless circles in quest of food. When it finally spots the food, the seagull lands and eats its fill. Then it rises again to the sky, only to fly in endless circles again and again. Once more, it flies in quest of food. The seagull does this because it is it’s most powerful instinct.
Guerrilla marketers have an instinct for constant learning. They’ve learned that knowledge equates with success.
Guerrilla marketers have an instinct that is just as powerful, just as never ending. Do you know what it is? It is the instinct for constant learning. Guerrillas learn and learn, and then learn some more. They are endlessly learning for they’ve learned that knowledge equates with success.
They realize that they are no longer in an age when they ought to learn all there is about a topic, but an age when they ought to be learning one thing after another. As marketing changes lightning fast, guerrillas do all in their power to continue learning about the changes in marketing. At the same time, they are learning about the peripherals of marketing: psychology, the internet, technology, and the globalization of business.
Whatever they are learning, it is a constant endeavor, just as searching for food is a constant activity of seagulls. We have never seen an exception to this observation. Each guerrilla leader that we encounter seems to be engrossed in learning new things. Truly, that is a crucial trait in all guerrillas. We hope and suspect that it is also a personality characteristic of yours.
Trait 10: Love of People
The people we have met who are running successful and profitable marketing programs know that all people are fascinating, all people are interesting, and all people—you have to dig a bit to find this one—have a lovable side. “The softer side of Sears” is how that company termed it. The idea here is that all people have a softer side.
Guerrillas look for and discover that softer side, that fascinating side, that lovable side. This interest in people is apparent in their marketing, in their marketing people, and in their treatment of clients. Guerrillas have learned that every person has a story. By being superb listeners—a key characteristic of guerrillas—they learn those stories and adjust their marketing to fit the deeper and inner core of those stories. They are also able to adjust their own stories so that they are equally fascinating, equally lovable—or at least likeable.
Guerrillas have learned that every person has a story, and adjust their marketing to fit the deeper and inner core of those stories.
Guerrillas know that every person is unique, each one someone’s son or daughter, father or mother, brother or sister. They honor those uniquenesses by not treating every person alike. Their honest interest in people makes them masterful communicators. And that masterful communication makes the guerrillas themselves enjoyable to hear, to listen to, to learn from.
People who are not interested in other people are often not interesting themselves for they tend to talk about themselves. And that’s rarely someone else’s main field of interest. People‘s prime field of interest is their own self. And they tend to listen to people who will talk about them, talk to them, care about them.
Show us a self-centered person and we’ll show you someone who is not a true guerrilla marketer. Of course, everyone is not a guerrilla marketer. But all the people who run winning marketing programs certainly are.
Trait 11: The Ability to Maintain Focus
Many large and respected companies, with well-known names and abundant respect, figured that their business expertise would enable them to succeed in areas far from where they had been demonstrating their core competencies. Most of those companies, later having lost millions of dollars, realized that they were in over their heads because they allowed their corporate egos to ride herd over their common sense.
Guerrilla marketers don’t make that mistake. They are skilled at their core competencies as well as skilled at maintaining their focus. They do not worship at the shrine of diversification, but instead at the shrine of excellence. Instead of going off into unchartered territories, they concentrate on adding even more excellence to their current endeavors. They strive to do what they’ve always been doing, only doing it better than they have before.
Guerrilla marketers are skilled at their core competencies as well as skilled at maintaining their focus. They do not worship at the shrine of diversification, but instead at the shrine of excellence.
Technology and experience enable them to succeed at that goal. Those factors enable them to keep their focus while making it even more acute. Mind you, it’s not easy to maintain your focus. In today’s world, distractions abound. Side tracks woo many a leader from his or her chosen path. Almost always, trouble lurks at the end of those roads.
Maintaining your focus sounds easy but is hard. This does not mean that you should resist change but that you should accept it if it helps to keep you on track, on target, and on the money. But if it causes you to veer from your target and diffuse your focus, steer clear of it. We have seen many train wrecks caused by following tracks that led off the edge of the cliff.
We have also seen many century-old companies earning more than ever because they were able to resist the temptation of novelty and corporate confusion while staying the course. A word of warning to start-up businesses: You will be tempted often to go for the gold at the expense of your focus. We have nothing to say against gold and only four golden words to say about focus: Maintain it or else.
Trait 12: Taking Action
In seminars, presentations, and assorted trainings we have done around the world, we have learned by simple before-and-after observation that people have one-way brains or two-way brains. People with one-way brains read books, attend seminars, take copious notes during presentations, pay rapt attention during trainings, study the internet, learn from mentors, listen to CDs, watch DVDs, take courses, participate in tele-seminars, and learn as much as is humanly possible. The information they absorb is assimilated, memorized, and understood. But it remains within them, which is no place for important information to reside.
Guerrilla marketing is not a spectator sport.
People with two-way brains absorb the same information, but then they take action on it. They know darned well that guerrilla marketing is not a spectator sport. They realize that information not acted upon is wasted information. They act on the advice they are given. They breathe life into the concepts they have learned. They experiment. They know that action is the name of the game to guerrillas. Because they have two-way brains, they do something about what they have learned.
While others may learn by hearing, guerrillas learn by doing. They are a very hands-on group of people. That laying on of the hands is one of their many secrets of success. If your personality does not include the proclivity to take action, change that aspect of your personality.
We are not writing this book as an academic exercise, but as a method for you to learn exactly what you must do with guerrilla marketing. The key word in that sentence is “do.”
PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS OF GUERRILLAS
1. Patience
2. Imagination
3. Sensitivity
4. Ego strength
5. Aggressiveness
6. Embraces change
7. Generosity
8. Energetic
9. Constant learning
10. People person
11. Maintains focus
12. Takes action