Comprehensive Literature Review: Guerilla Marketing in Modern Business

This literature review examines guerilla marketing as a cost-effective strategy for businesses to increase sales through unconventional and creative promotional tactics. It explores various techniques, including word-of-mouth, buzz marketing, viral marketing, ambient marketing, and ambush marketing, highlighting their effectiveness in gaining brand exposure and influencing consumer behavior. The review emphasizes the importance of planning, setting specific goals, and understanding the target audience. It also discusses the advantages of guerilla marketing, such as low cost and the potential for surprise and diffusion effects, while acknowledging potential drawbacks like ethical concerns. The review also highlights the influence of guerilla marketing on consumer buying behavior and the importance of measuring campaign effectiveness through analysis of consumer purchase intentions.

LITERATURE REVIEW
(GUERILLA MARKETING)

TABLE OF CONTENTS
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................1
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

LITERATURE REVIEW
Guerilla marketing is regarded as an effective tool of marketing to raise the sales of the
organisation without a much spending on the promotional processes. This method is focused on
the low-cost unconventional tactics that yields the maximum output. Marketing, (2016)
explained that the use of these tactics in the business promotion helps in getting exposure to the
brand name. In addition to this, all types of businesses can make use of the effective guerilla
marketing for achieving their purposes.
Source: (Marketing, 2016)
The allowance of sending creative messages to the people helps in drawing their attention
towards the offerings. It is highly helpful for the businesses that wants an inexpensive but
creative promotion of their goods and services. However, it should be recognise that a high
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Illustration 1: Sticker guerilla marketing by a fund raising company

energy for the campaign is required along with the good understanding of the needs and demands
of audience.
Further, this method of marketing helps in making the advertisement memorable. This
helps in attracting a large costumer base that benefits the organisations by increasing its business
value. In addition to this, Jährig, and et. al., (2017) said that the use of guerilla techniques for the
marketing should be regarded as a revolutionary tool for the small businesses. Initially they were
used by the small scale enterprises because of the small budget investment. later, large size
entities also started using them because of the effectiveness they brought to the business value.
Guerilla marketing can render an impelling way in which business can be directed to
grow, however this promotion type required effective strategies for this. In this order, firstly it is
require to plan an effective and strong campaign that can draw the attraction of people. Further, it
is required to set specific goals and clear focus on the idea. There exists various tools that
organisations can use while guerilla marketing. Mifsud, and et. al.,(2014) stated that the most
effective technique of the guerilla marketing is the word of mouth. The idea behind this type of
strategy is to use unexpected promotional activities to influence people discussing about the
company. For this, customers should be made aware about the products. It is highly effective
tools for the small business organisations as it helps in giving them brand recognition. On the
other hand (Nufer, G., 2013), said that the most effective guerilla marketing strategy that should
be used by the companies is Buzz marketing. As per this tactic, the promotion should be started
with oral communications. Nowadays, the social media platforms has replaced this buzz.
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Source: (Hutter,and Hoffmann, 2011)
Organisations can use the buzz marketing by involving celebrities in the promotion.
Further, Hutter, and Hoffmann, (2011) explained that the guerilla strategy that highly raise the
brand image and thus, company sales is the viral marketing. It is quite similar to the word of
mouth, the only difference is that when a consumer understand the efforts are for viral marketing
then they promotes it. The customers then share it with the other people and these people
performs the same operation. In this way, a chain is form which helps in increasing the name
recognition of the firm. This, in turn, increases the company sale sand raises profitability.
There exist one more strategy under this promotional category and it is, "ambient
marketing". In this, the competitive advantage is considered as major tactic. It is emphasised that
the consumers always show interest in something new. In ambient marketing, the placement of
advertising is different. Also, by making use of unconventional method, unexpected places are
selected for the advertisements. However, Gambetti, (2010) presented that the most effective tool
for guerilla marketing is ambush. This marketing method is generally used for the bigger sport
events so that a big audience can be gathered. Some common examples in which Ambush
Guerilla marketing is done are The Olympic Games, Super Bowl, etc.
However, Behal, and Sareen, (2014) stated that there are some things that are required to
be considered by the entities before undergoing this marketing operations. Firstly, it is necessary
to consider the foot traffic to analyse the area where maximum exposure can be gathered.
However, it should be recognise that this exposure is to the right people. It it will be not so then
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Illustration 2: Strategy used by Colgate

it will harm the overall effectiveness of the campaign. It is also needed that the creative factors
developed by the companies should align with their goals. In addition to this, these promotions
should not annoy the customers otherwise it will leave a bad impact on the business value. In
addition to this, guerilla marketing should used to compliment the online marketing. The
message design of the content that is to be used in the advertisements should be appropriate and
relevant to the products and services. For this, companies are suggested to follow AIDA, under
this, the effective planning of the marketing campaign can be done. The major stages of this are
attention, interest, desire and action.
As per the views of Išorait, (2010), there present a list of advantages that are brought by
the guerilla marketing to the companies. These benefits helps in increasing the company sales by
promoting the products and services in an effective manner. The positive effects of the marketing
strategy are divided into three main categories, these are: surprise, diffusion and low cost. In
order to provide surprise effects to the customers, organisations can use ambient or sensational
strategies of the promotion. In this, the subject matter is placed at unusual location. This is a
outdoor marketing style and the common approaches that are used by companies to surprise
employees are graffiti, stickers, flyers, creative hoardings, etc. On the other hand, in diffusion
effect, the companies focus on the increment in the number of individuals associated with the
campaign without increasing its cost. In case if the marketing idea of the company will be liked
by the consumers then they will share it with the other. This states the beginning of the diffusions
stage of say, Word of mouth. The effect is said nothing but the viral marketing. Other strategies
that contributes in the diffusion effect are buzz marketing, guerilla PR, etc. As per the views of
Hutter, (2015.), the biggest advantage of using guerilla technique for the business promotion is
that it save the money. This advantage is termed as the low cost effect. The tool that is keeping
the investments associated with the marketing low is the ambush strategy. For instance:
Companies can promote their inventory at the large sized sports and other events. For this, they
can share their flyers, posters, etc. to the local people that visits the events. There are numerous
companies using ambush strategy of guerilla marketing (Marketing, 2016)
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In contrary to this, Solomon, (2014) explained that the guerilla marketing is not a perfect
tactic to rely upon. There exist a number of flaws in this marketing system. These effects can
event lead marketers to face ethical issues. For instance: the guerilla marketing is focused to
draw the emotional attention of the consumers that may cause ethical roles. In addition to this, if
the campaign don't went right then it may make consumer irritated which will reduce the
company sales. In this way, the overall business value will went down. In addition to this, the
brand image can also be suffered. Also, if the required considerations are not taken seriously, the
the effectiveness of the campaign may fade which will have negative effects on the overall
business value.
According to the views of Malik, and et. al., (2013) guerilla marketing plays a major
influence on the consumer buying behaviour. This advertising method is regarded as the most
effective tool to draw the attraction of large audience. The attention given by consumers helps
company in providing an opportunity to showcase their products and services. In addition to this,
there are different attractive tactics that are liked by consumers. This attraction later helps in
increased sales. It should be moreover recognised that the guerilla marketing strategies help in
displaying the offers, schemes, services, products, etc. The buzz, ambient, ambush campaigns of
marketing are highly appreciated as revolutionary tactics This further, helps in increasing the
sales of the entity. This, in turn, will raise the profitability of the organisation. In addition to this,
by making use of social media tools, the guerilla marketing can be enhanced. There exist a large
range of people who access internet on daily basis. In these campaigns will be launches on
internet platforms then it will help in influencing a large customer base. These promotional
activities are unique in themselves and developed with a totally different concept. Consumers are
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Illustration 3: Positive impacts of Guerilla marketing strategies

always attracted towards something new. This, in turn, will impact on their purchase intentions.
Moreover, the diffusion effect created by this marketing tactic will help in making a chain and
they can easily be influence with the product range campaigned (Jährig, and et. al., 2017).
After implementing the tactics for the guerilla marketing for the promotion of the
products or services, it is essential to measure the effectiveness of the campaign. For this, it can
be done that the purchase intentions of the consumers are analysed. Today, in the market
literature the purchase intention is also discussed because it gives company to what consumer
want help with decisions about what quantities to produce. It is extremely important for a
company to be aware of the Consumer attitude towards the brand and these attitudes can
strengthened. They online consumer review, their persuasive impact depends on both their
quality and their quantity, negatively influenced by reference price. The result demonstrates that
a trade off between perceived price and perceived quality leads to perceived value is a primary
factor influenced the purchase intention. Both 'purchase intention' and willingness to pay more
for a relatively new healthy and high price effectively (Mifsud, and et. al.,2014) .
They specifically environmental initiative on a consumer behavioural is both
contradictory and equivocal. Performance of a company and purchase intention they determine
whether this relationship is moderated by the degree of consumer environmental involvement
(EI) and relative price of company product. PEP and consumer purchase intention are the
strongest relationship affirms that developing and managed the brand image and appropriately
communicated to consumer. They affect not only product whose brand name is synonymous with
its flavour or quality but also product which acquire a wide range of marketing and development
research.
To established scale development procedure to create a multi items scales for the non
price product. Those relating to perceived product attitude and attribute towards counterfeiting
affect consumer intention to purchase a counterfeit product. The relationship among corporate
social responsibility to identify and purchase intention to practice emerged as significant
predicator of the corporate dimension value of identity. In a society with high uncertainty
avoidance and individual trends to organised more formal rules and does not tolerate deviant
ideas and behaviours. Standardised product being different from others is not desirable through
the consumer are likely top be satisfied (Hutter,and Hoffmann, 2011). The tendency to seek a
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personalized product and designed for oneself due to less uncertainty avoidance. Maintaining
and conservatism are related to the power distance, that the tendency to accept these values is
likely to induce individuals to accept the standard product. Individual are more like to buy a
standard product in more power distant countries and those in less power distant countries. It will
help the readers to come across the work done by various authors and to knowing the brand at
one place will affect the consumer making decision when they buying the product from the
market.
As per the views of Papadopoulos, and Heslop, (2014), there are various tools that can be
used by the companies to measure the consumer buying behaviour. These tactics further helps in
suggesting the direction of the production. In addition to this, the effectiveness of the existing
campaign can also be analysed by measuring the consumer buying behaviour. By examining the
appropriateness of the campaign, it can be either continued of modification can be made. Jin, A.
and Phua, (2014) explained that, Funnel Model can be used by the organisation to identify the
purchase behaviour of the customers. The intention are measure of individual, plans, gaols or
expectation about what they will do in future and how to measure intention why forecasters
should be caution when using intention. .
The respondent who recalls the time of their last purchase inaccurately may make biased
prediction of their future purchase. In generally organic production emphasis the use of
renewable resources, preservation of the environment and conservation of energy with the use of
pesticides and fertilizers. The Consumer intention of organic foods is the first steps in developing
demand and organic food product. There is a huge gap between stated and actual buying
behaviour in the case of organic food. The study shows 50% of the consumer says they buy a
organic food but in reality only 15% buy what they say. Theory of Planned behaviour has been
regularly applied in the food choice domain and also to model organic food. It has been deemed
at the donative components of attitude while behavioural intention refers to an individual
subjective like hood of performing some certain behaviour. Based on this theory purchase
intention is determined by three factors, attitude towards that the person holds involving the
behaviour. This intention is deemed as the direct determined of the corresponding behaviour. It is
a commonly found that positive attitude towards organic food in regard to health and
environment benefits, and higher level income of education, on organic food purchase intention.
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There is a significant positive relation between the organic and buying the organic food and
intention to buy (Hutter,and Hoffmann, 2011). In the competitive market the consumer products
manufacturing industries to pay attention on customer purchase intention for maintain their
repute in the market and goodwill. Purchase intention is preference to consumer to buy the
product or services. Many factors affect the consumer intention while selecting the product and
the ultimate decision depends on consumer intention with a large external factors. The selection
of brand based on group member also affect the decision to skip the existing brand and to move
on the purchase those brand those it other group members.
Thus, guerilla marketing should be regarded as an effective that entities can use with low-
capital investment to raise the sales. There exist various strategies of these type of promotion that
helps in influencing a large base of consumers. Further, as per the business requirements, size,
scope and purposes there exist different guerilla strategies that organisations can use to attain the
desired goals and objectives. This report covers all those benefits that guerilla marketing brings
to the business value. In addition to this, negative effects of the strategies are also discussed. In
addition to this, role of cite marketing technique in influencing consumer buying behaviour is
explained.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Behal, V. and Sareen, S., 2014. Guerilla marketing: A low cost marketing strategy. International
Journal of Management Research and Business Strategy. 3(1). pp.1-6.
Gambetti, R.C., 2010. Ambient communication: How to engage consumers in urban touch-
points. California Management Review. 52(3). pp.34-51.
Hutter, K. and Hoffmann, S., 2011. Guerrilla marketing: The nature of the concept and
propositions for further research. Asian Journal of Marketing. 5(2). pp.39-54.
Hutter, K., 2015. Unusual location and unexpected execution in advertising: A content analysis
and test of effectiveness in ambient advertisements. Journal of Marketing
Communications. 21(1). pp.33-47.
Išorait, M., 2010. Guerilla marketing strategy realization assumptions. In 6th International
Scientific Conference. Vilnius, Lithuania.
Jährig, E., and et. al., 2017. Guerilla Marketing Using Social Media as a Success Strategy in
Crowdfunding Campaigns: Towards a Research Model.
Jin, S. A. A. and Phua, J., 2014. Following celebrities’ tweets about brands: The impact of
Twitter-based electronic word-of-mouth on consumers’ source credibility perception,
buying intention, and social identification with celebrities. Journal of Advertising. 43(2).
pp.181-195.
Malik, M. E.,and et. al., 2013. Impact of brand image and advertisement on consumer buying
behavior. World Applied Sciences Journal. 23(1). pp.117-122.
Marketing, G., 2016. What is guerrilla marketing. Official Website of Creative Guerrilla
Marketing.
Mifsud, M., and et. al.,2014. The effects of guerilla marketing on brand awareness(Bachelor's
thesis, University of Malta).
Nufer, G., 2013. Guerrilla Marketing—Innovative or Parasitic Marketing?. Modern
Economy. 4(09). p.1.
Papadopoulos, N. and Heslop, L. A., 2014. Product-country images: Impact and role in
international marketing. Routledge.
Solomon, M .R., 2014. Consumer behavior: Buying, having, and being (Vol. 10). Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
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