Master's Thesis: Guerrilla Marketing Effects on Consumer Behavior

This Master's thesis examines the impact of guerrilla marketing on consumer behavior and brand awareness within the Indian e-commerce sector. The research explores the current competitive market and the need for companies to grab consumer attention through unconventional marketing strategies. The study investigates the effects of guerrilla marketing on consumer buying behavior and brand awareness, using both quantitative and qualitative data collected from e-commerce company employees. It explores the different guerrilla marketing strategies used by companies while launching a product and recommends suitable strategies to enhance brand awareness and positively affect consumer buying behavior. The thesis includes a comprehensive literature review, research methodology, findings and analysis, and conclusions, offering valuable insights into the effectiveness of guerrilla marketing techniques.

Master’s Thesis
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

“Guerrilla marketing and its effects on consumer behaviour and
brand awareness”

Table of Content
Executive Summary............................................................................................................... 5
Chapter 1: Introduction.........................................................................................................10
1.0 Introduction..................................................................................................................... 10
1.1 Background of the research...........................................................................................10
1.2 Research Problem..........................................................................................................11
1.3 Research Purpose..........................................................................................................11
1.4 Research Objectives......................................................................................................12
1.5 Research Questions.......................................................................................................12
1.6 Research Hypothesis.....................................................................................................12
1.7 Scope............................................................................................................................. 12
1.8 Dissertation Structure.....................................................................................................13
1.9 Summary........................................................................................................................ 13
Chapter 2: Literature Review................................................................................................14
2.1Introduction..................................................................................................................... 14
2.2 Guerrilla marketing.........................................................................................................14
2.3 Consumer Behaviour......................................................................................................16
2.3.1 Consumer Purchase Intention.....................................................................................16
2.3.2 Consumer decision making process............................................................................17
2.3.3 Online consumer behaviour.........................................................................................18
2.4 Brand Awareness........................................................................................................... 19
2.4.1 Achieving brand awareness.........................................................................................22
2.5 Impact of guerrilla marketing on consumer buying behaviour and Brand Awareness.....22
2.7 Conceptual framework....................................................................................................24
2.8 literature gap.................................................................................................................. 25
2.9 Summary........................................................................................................................ 25
Chapter 3: Research Methodology.......................................................................................26
3.1 Introduction..................................................................................................................... 26
3.2 Research philosophy......................................................................................................26
3.3 Research Approach........................................................................................................26
3.4 Research Design............................................................................................................ 27
3.5 Data Collection and Analysis..........................................................................................27
3.6 Sampling........................................................................................................................ 28
3.7 Reliability and Validity.....................................................................................................28
3.8 Ethical Consideration......................................................................................................29
3.9 Summary........................................................................................................................ 29

Chapter 4: Findings and Analysis.........................................................................................30
4.1 Introduction..................................................................................................................... 30
4.2 Reliability and validity.....................................................................................................30
4.3 Quantitative Data............................................................................................................35
4.4 Descriptive analysis........................................................................................................56
4.5 Correlation...................................................................................................................... 58
4.6 Regression analysis.......................................................................................................66
4.7 Cross tabulation............................................................................................................. 72
Chapter 5: Conclusion..........................................................................................................93
5.1 Conclusion and Key Findings.........................................................................................93
5.2 Recommendation........................................................................................................... 95
5.3 Research limitation.........................................................................................................95
References........................................................................................................................... 96
Appendix............................................................................................................................ 101

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This research had examined the influence of guerrilla marketing on the buying behaviour of
the consumers and the brand awareness. The current market had become highly
overcrowded and competitive which had made it necessary for the companies in the global
market to seek new opportunities to grab the attention of the market consumers. In the
modern era, consumers are being exposed thousands of promotional messages on a daily
basis which makes it difficult for the organizations to retain their existing consumers. The
analysis of the past literature had clearly shown that there had been lack of analysis on the
impact of guerrilla marketing on brand awareness. The study conducting the studies on the
impact of guerrilla marketing on the consumer buying behaviour have taken only point of
contact sales for analysis. There is lack of analysis on the impact of guerrilla marketing on
the online buying behaviour of the consumers. The study had developed a single research
design where the data has been collected from employees working in ecommerce
companies. The sample size in the research was 100 respondents. The findings clearly
showed that there is positive impact of guerrilla marketing on the brand awareness and
consumer buying behaviour.

List of tables
Table 1: Reliability Statistics.................................................................................................31
Table 2: Item Statistics.........................................................................................................32
Table 3: Item-Total Statistics................................................................................................33
Table 4: KMO and Bartlett's Test..........................................................................................33
Table 5: Communalities........................................................................................................34
Table 6: Total Variance Explained........................................................................................35
Table 7: Component Matrixa.................................................................................................36
Table 8: Gender................................................................................................................... 36
Table 9: Age......................................................................................................................... 37
Table 10: Tenure.................................................................................................................. 38
Table 11: Marketing experience...........................................................................................40
Table 12: Promotional activities more memorable................................................................41
Table 13: Unique way...........................................................................................................42
Table 14: Minimum resources..............................................................................................43
Table 15: Move out of the pattern.........................................................................................44
Table 16: Synergy between multiple influences....................................................................45
Table 17: Eye catching marketing activities..........................................................................46
Table 18: key part of digital marketing..................................................................................47
Table 19: Brand recall..........................................................................................................48
Table 20: Brand recognition.................................................................................................49
Table 21: Brand awareness..................................................................................................50
Table 22: Integrated guerrilla marketing...............................................................................51
Table 23: larger audience.....................................................................................................52
Table 24: Brand awareness..................................................................................................53
Table 25: purchase intention................................................................................................54
Table 26: retention rate........................................................................................................55
Table 27: Adoption of new trends.........................................................................................56
Table 27: Descriptive Statistics............................................................................................58
Table 28: Descriptive Statistics............................................................................................59
Table 28: Correlations..........................................................................................................62
Table 29: Correlations..........................................................................................................65
Table 30: Correlations..........................................................................................................67
Table 31: Regression model summary.................................................................................68
Table 32: ANOVA................................................................................................................. 69
Table 33: Coefficientsa..........................................................................................................69

Table 34: Residuals Statisticsa.............................................................................................70
Table 35: Regression model summary.................................................................................71
Table 36: ANOVA................................................................................................................. 72
Table 37: Coefficientsa..........................................................................................................72
Table 38: Residuals Statisticsa.............................................................................................73

List of Figures
Graph 1: Gender.................................................................................................................. 38
Graph 2: Age........................................................................................................................ 39
Graph 3: Tenure................................................................................................................... 40
Graph 4: Marketing experience............................................................................................41
Graph 5: Promotional activities more memorable.................................................................42
Graph 6: Unique way............................................................................................................43
Graph 7: Minimum resources...............................................................................................44
Graph 8: Move out of the pattern..........................................................................................45
Graph 9: Synergy between multiple influences.....................................................................46
Graph 10: Eye catching marketing activities.........................................................................47
Graph 11: key part of digital marketing.................................................................................48
Graph 12: Brand recall.........................................................................................................49
Graph 13: Brand recognition................................................................................................50
Graph 14: Brand awareness.................................................................................................51
Graph 15: Integrated guerrilla marketing..............................................................................52
Graph 16: larger audience....................................................................................................53
Graph 17: Brand awareness.................................................................................................54
Graph 18: purchase intention...............................................................................................55
Graph 19: retention rate.......................................................................................................56
Graph 20: Adoption of new trends........................................................................................57

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.0 INTRODUCTION
This research has examined the influence of guerrilla marketing on the buying
behaviour of the consumers and the brand awareness. The current market has become
highly overcrowded and competitive which has made it necessary for the companies in the
global market to seek new opportunities to grab the attention of the market consumers. In
the modern era, consumers are being exposed thousands of promotional messages on a
daily basis which makes it difficult for the organizations to retain their existing consumers.
This depicts the exponential increase in advertisements in the past decade. The lifetime
value of a customer has been identified as a key factor by most of the companies where the
key differentiator is customer satisfaction.
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE RESEARCH
Guerrilla marketing has been described as the unconventional method of achieving
conventional goals such as investing in energy instead of capital. This concept was first
adapted by smaller companies which helped them in getting noticed due to their budget
limitations. However, it became more popular among larger brands such as IKEA, Nike and
Audi. These brands have implemented this strategy in various stages of the marketing
campaigns (Gökerik et al., 2018). Guerrilla marketing consists of advertising activities which
are untraditional in nature such as product placements that are surprising, memorable
events and street graphics that are eye catching. These methods are considered to be one
of the most effective ways of grabbing the attention of the consumers. This has resulted in
the development of unconventional form of marketing and the research has selected the
example of guerrilla marketing to analyse its impact on the buying behaviour of the
consumers and brand awareness.
Even though, Guerrilla marketing has been considered as one of the most effective
ways of influencing the consumers but the major disadvantage its lack of addressing large
number of consumers at the same time (Dinh & Mai, 2016). Marketers use traditional
channels of marketing to penetrate into huge target market segments but guerrilla marketing
is used to address only nearby consumers. However, this has changed with the advent of
web 2.0 where companies have use the power of digital media to reach a wider range of
consumers. Social media has become one of the most effective ways of implementing
guerrilla marketing strategies which has changed the nature of marketing drastically in the
past few years.

The ecommerce industry have transformed the ways the business is conducted in
India. The ecommerce industry in India is expected to grow by more than USD 200 billion by
the end of 2026 (Ibef.org, 2019). This depicts the exponential growth of the organization in
the ecommerce sector which is mostly triggered by the penetration of internet and
smartphones. The internet user base in India is expected to increase to 821 million by 2021.
The annual growth rate of the industry is expected to be 51 percent annually which shows
the prospect and the competition in the market (Ibef.org, 2019). Moreover, the past record
shows that the retailed industry has grown by three times in the past few years and
contributes to almost 3% retail sales. Quarter of a population in India has become digital
shoppers and this number is expected to increase to more than 40% by the end of 2022
(S.H., 2018).
This clearly shows that the potential of the Indian online retail industry is huge and it
has enhanced the need for effective marketing strategies to grab the attention of the
consumers. Brand awareness is key for the consumers to relate to story the organization
wants to portray. Consumers associate themselves with brands which reflect upon their own
values so it has become critical to use offbeat marketing strategies to grab the attention of
the consumers as the switching cost has decreased significantly due to the existence of
large number of players in the ecommerce market. Therefore, it is essential to use
unconventional strategies to gain competitive advantage. In light of this context, the research
has aimed to examine the impact of guerrilla marketing strategies on the consumer buying
behaviour and brand awareness.
1.2 RESEARCH PROBLEM
Guerrilla marketing has been considered as one of the most non-traditional and
effective way of gaining the attention of the consumers. This research has used the context
of the ecommerce companies in India to examine the possible ways, guerrilla marketing can
be used to increase the brand awareness and influence the purchasing behaviour of the
consumers. The competition in the Indian ecommerce industry is fierce with the presence of
global and local companies. Moreover, due to the increase in rapid growth of the economy,
major foreign ecommerce companies have entered into the foreign market. The majority of
the companies have been using marketing based strategies to penetrate into the market and
this research has aimed to address the way guerrilla marketing has impacted the purchasing
decision of the Indian consumers. Brand awareness is also critical for the consumers in
making purchase decisions so the research has also aimed to evaluate the impact of
guerrilla marketing on brand awareness.

1.3 RESEARCH PURPOSE
The purpose of the research is to examine the advertisements strategies
implemented by the companies in the modern market to understand its influence on
enhancing the awareness of the brand and influencing the purchasing behaviour of the
consumers. The research has aimed to increase awareness of the companies in the global
market by highlighting the significance of guerrilla marketing in developing sustainable
competitive advantage in the market. This has also facilitated in understanding the ways the
target market respond to the marketing approaches. This has served as a way of developing
new approaches for endorsing and supporting their products in a more effective way for the
entities in the global market.
1.4 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
The objectives of the research are as follows:
 To examine the impact of guerrilla marketing on the consumer buying behaviour and
brand awareness
 To highlight and evaluate the different types of guerrilla marketing strategies used by
companies while launching a product
 To recommend suitable strategies to enhance brand awareness and positively affect
consumer buying behaviour
1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Primary question
How does guerrilla marketing impact the consumer’s buying behaviour and brand
awareness?
Secondary questions
What are the different types of guerrilla marketing strategies used by companies while
launching a product?
What are the advantages of using Guerrilla marketing?
1.6 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
H01: There is no significant positive impact of guerrilla marketing on consumer buying
behaviour
H12: There is significant positive impact of guerrilla marketing on consumer buying behaviour
H02: There is no significant positive impact of guerrilla marketing on brand awareness

H12: There is significant positive impact of guerrilla marketing on brand awareness
1.7 SCOPE
The main scope of the research is to examine the impact of the guerrilla marketing
on the consumer buying behaviour and brand awareness in Indian ecommerce industry.
The research has focused on the use of guerrilla in context to the ecommerce industry in
India. This means that the data collected and analysed will developed results that holds true
for the Indian market. Moreover, the research is a cross sectional study where data has
been collected only once due to the shortage of time and cost of performing the research.
Moreover, the research has considered guerrilla marketing as the independent variable and
brand awareness and consumer buying behaviour as the dependent variable so the focus
has been on these variables only and other elements are out of scope.
1.8 DISSERTATION STRUCTURE
The dissertation has been divided into five chapters and they are introduction,
literature review, research methodology, findings and analysis and conclusion. The
introduction chapter provides an overview of the research context which comprises of the
background, research problem, objective, research question and hypothesis. This chapter
defines the scope of the study and the key focus area of the research.
The next chapter is the literature review which provides detailed critical analysis of
the past literature examines the arguments and opinions provided by various researchers.
This facilitates in evaluating the depth of analysis conducted in the past research and the
gap within those researches. This section develops the conceptual framework which is
tested later on in the fourth chapter.
The third chapter in the dissertation is the research methodology section which
determines the research methods, instruments and frameworks needed for successfully
accomplishing the objective of the research.
The fourth chapter is the data analysis and findings which provides a detailed
analysis of the data collected based on the prescribed methodology. The final chapter is the
conclusion and recommendation which links the findings to the objectives to draw relevant
conclusions.
1.9 SUMMARY
The introduction chapter highlighted that guerrilla marketing is one of the most
effective and unconventional ways of grabbing the attention of the consumers. Studies have
shown that consumers are influenced by the guerrilla marketing and has significant impact