Comparison between Guerilla Marketing and Viral Marketing Essay Example

a product's benefits, features, and usage. Unlike traditional sales approaches relying on a company's employees for promotion purposes, viral marketing depends on customers transmitting the message from one customer to another.The central concept of viral marketing is to create a network of people who spread the news or message while the firm supports and expands this network. According to Tibia, Andrew, and Freed (2011), viral marketing involves transmitting an idea from one person to their friends, who then pass it on to others, ultimately reaching a large audience. In the past, face-to-face communication was the primary method for viral marketing but faced challenges with transportation and time. However, modern viral marketing has shifted towards visual forms rather than verbal ones because the public tends to ignore verbal promotional methods without any benefits. The internet plays a significant role in enhancing the power of viral marketing, especially through social media platforms. Participants do not face restrictions based on background or age as long as they are internet users. By utilizing appropriate advertising material, timing, and target audience, a promotional campaign can quickly become viral within days. An example that illustrates this is P's heart-touching video about motherly love during the 2012 Olympics. Prior to this event, P was unknown; however, after revealing the video during the Olympics, P gained widespread recognition with an astonishing 6 million views.Guerilla marketing, derived from its namesake term "guerilla," offers effective strategies for business survival. This adaptable and successful method can be implemented through various means such as people, media, events, and sponsorships. It draws inspiration from war strategist Mao Tweeze Tuning. To achieve success in guerilla marketing, there are seven

essential guidelines: (1) Dominating customers temporarily by focusing on a specific place, time, or event. (2) Upholding the product's ideology. (3) Analyzing and surpassing existing marketing trends instead of following them. (4) Identifying any additional effects of the marketing campaign. (5) Eliminating doubts within the marketing team regarding the plan. (6) Seeking alternative routes and avoiding direct paths. (7) Remaining flexible to adapt to any variables in the plan.

These methods challenge traditional marketing rules but have proven effective in practice by going against prevailing trends to capture sudden attention from the public. Unlike standard marketing methods that strictly adhere to conventional norms and prohibit anything deviating from them, guerilla marketing recognizes that people are attracted to fresh and novel experiences in today's world.While traditional marketing strategies often receive minimal attention, unconventional street tactics can easily capture people's curiosity and interest. For instance, stumbling upon an empty wallet with only a business card promoting an upcoming warehouse sale would pique one's curiosity and serve as an example of guerrilla marketing. Unlike traditional methods, guerrilla marketing aims to create intrigue around the underlying ideology of a product rather than simply promoting its features. To effectively engage customers, companies must creatively embed their product's benefits and ideology in people's minds. One effective tactic is using short and humorous videos that leave a lasting impression on viewers' memories, such as Axe deodorant ads featuring attractive women suggesting that using the deodorant will make them naturally drawn to you.Guerilla marketing aims to emotionally influence customers' purchasing decisions by appealing to their attraction factors. Implementing appropriate marketing strategies is crucial for customer retention as the length of time they remember a

promotion or advertisement determines whether they continue supporting a business. Customers are compared to antiques, growing more valuable with time. Retaining customers requires providing excellent service throughout their lifetime, from first-time customer to loyal lifelong customer. Attracting first-time customers is the initial step in building a loyal customer base. Many firms fail at retention due to insufficient impact on encouraging them to stay. Therefore, a firm's promotional campaign plays a vital role in attracting the public and creating awareness about the product. The question arises: what appeals to the public and motivates their participation? The campaign itself offers something not typically accessible, achieved through incentives, competitions, current trends, and even sports. The idea of involving the public or using crowd participation amplifies messages primarily driven by trends.Trends are primarily influenced by peer group competition, where someone's "cool" actions pique the interest of their friends. A current example is the breast cancer awareness campaign on the social media platform Backbone. The campaign starts with a host sending messages to female users, asking them to share their foot size and hair washing time in inches. Once 10 people participate, the trend spreads rapidly as more women join in to avoid feeling left out. As posts about measurements and time intervals flood Backbone, male internet users become curious and start questioning what is happening. The goal of this campaign is to raise public awareness about breast cancer, even though sharing measurements does not directly relate to the disease itself. Nonetheless, people remember the underlying concept of the game and begin searching for symptoms of breast cancer. This event occurred on October 1st during Breast Cancer Awareness Month and

has proven effective in generating increased donations. This example illustrates how customer attraction often stems from peer pressure, motivating customers to engage in marketing campaigns without firms needing to persuade them explicitly.Instead of physically executing the campaign, companies have the option to employ psychological tactics as the mind has an influence on the body. While customers may be encouraged to join the campaign, their initial intention may not necessarily be to purchase the product. By using psychological tactics in marketing campaigns, companies can effectively convey their product's ideology to customers, making it easier to sell. This strategy can be compared to customer attraction techniques used in viral marketing and guerrilla marketing. The main question is which type of marketing - viral or guerrilla - is more captivating for attracting and retaining customer interest? Immunization involves turning customers into temporary salespeople for the company. Traditional viral marketing had limitations as messages could only spread verbally through word of mouth. However, with the rise of the internet, viral marketing has become a more powerful strategy. Viral marketing offers benefits such as instant transmission of information about a product or ideology through the internet. With billions of people using the internet daily, there is a wide opportunity for coverage and promotion through viral marketing. Additionally, viral marketing self-replicates online with random links appearing to advertise products.
These frequent pop-ups serve as a reminder of the product even without direct contact. However, viral marketing is limited to online platforms. If viral marketing strategies are applied in a shopping mall and a host asks people to spread the message, their response will likely be superficial as they continue shopping. Viral marketing

was less effective before the internet because it lacked effectiveness when done verbally. Moreover, another disadvantage of viral marketing is that it has no control over message distribution on the internet (Cruz and Fill, 2008). Since the message self-replicates among internet users, any misinterpretation can harm the firm's image. As previously mentioned, viral marketing can only be conducted online. This means that products firms wish to promote remain virtual for internet users who cannot physically experience them or try them out. Purchasing the product becomes an afterthought.

In contrast, guerilla marketing offers more flexibility and can be implemented in creative ways to surprise customers and gain temporary dominance over them. This approach allows customers to have a longer-lasting memory of the product. Guerilla marketing fails when it solely focuses on the features or appearance of the product; instead, it is the concept behind the product that resonates with customers.
Nike's slogan "Just Do It" is memorable because it is associated with great football players wearing Nike shoes. Wearing Nike shoes can make people feel stronger, like the athletes in the commercials. However, using unconventional and strange marketing tactics can raise ethical concerns. Commercials need to create an emotional connection with customers to influence their purchasing decisions. Emotional advertisements are effective and appealing, but if they try to provoke or scare the public, they may have negative consequences. Fear-based advertisements can turn customers away from the company's product.

Guerilla marketing involves quick and impactful actions that can either be highly successful or disastrous. On the other hand, viral marketing reaches internet users but doesn't reach non-internet users as potential targets. Guerilla marketing offers flexibility in terms of location, target

audience, scenarios, events, and online platforms. However, these campaigns may be provocative to some customers if the firm wants a strong impact on the public.

Discussion: Research shows that during a promotional campaign, activities or marketing channels need to be visually striking and innovative for consumers in order to capture maximum customer attention.Customers are mainly interested in the concept behind a product rather than its technical specifications, which can be complex and confusing to remember. The ideas associated with a product, like Nike's "Just Do It", Canon cameras' "Delighting you always", and Samsung ISIS' "Designed for humans", tend to stick with customers. Celebrity endorsements in camera commercials can have a lasting impact on customers. Viral marketing is effective in reaching a wide range of users through the internet, but firms have limited control over how their message is distributed, making it difficult to correct any misunderstandings. Despite more non-internet users than internet users, viral marketing still has limitations within its market. On the other hand, guerilla marketing is flexible and attention-grabbing, although it may have slightly higher overall campaign costs compared to viral marketing. Guerilla marketing uses surprise effectively to make customers remember the firm's product but also has limitations depending on specific events or crowded places where it can be implemented.Both viral marketing and guerrilla marketing are crucial for successful advertising. However, the main objective of guerrilla marketing is to leave a lasting impression on customers by evoking emotions and provoking audiences. This approach allows for highly creative execution, with customers willingly participating out of curiosity. Although these campaigns may sometimes provoke or emotionally stimulate viewers, they ultimately prove effective.

On the other hand, viral marketing

typically done online often elicits unenthusiastic reactions that lack persuasiveness. Pop-up advertisements can be highly irritating and disrupt users' tasks. While viral marketing does offer effective techniques for gaining customer attention through reinforcing ideas or products, excessive reinforcement can lead to customer annoyance.

In contrast to viral marketing's origins as an afterthought strategy for capturing attention, guerrilla marketing was specifically designed with this purpose in mind – giving it the upper hand in comparison.