Can Guerrilla Marketing Help Your Business?

The cannabis industry is "noisy".  Consumers are inundated with text messages with "today's specials", Twitter messages, content marketing, pop-up ads, commercials and other messaging to get them to buy, buy, buy!  In fact, it's estimated that 95-98 percent of marketing information that is thrown at consumers is NOT being absorbed.  So how do you differ yourself from the others?  How do you grab that much needed attention to drive your message home and gain new market share?  One potential solution is not new but is probably one of the most controversial types of marketing; guerrilla marketing.

Guerrilla marketing is an unconventional method of marketing that is meant to be; unconventional, surprising, original/creative, cheeky/provocative, cost-efficient, flexible, unusual/atypical, funny, spectacular and contagious.  While the term is thrown around all to often the bottom line is the three most important aspects of your next campaign are that it is unusual, contagious and cost-efficient.  

Why does it work?  Emotion.  Emotion drives people's actions.  One of the most obvious examples of this is political campaigns.  Rather than speak of boring issues that are most pertinent to our everyday lives, campaigns will focus on subjects that stir emotion, which drives action, which in that case is go to the polls and vote.  For business marketing, take a lesson from the "Trumps" and others that are talented at making people emotional and make your message one that gets them to laugh/cry/cringe/barf/second-guess their existence, share with others and create that curiosity to visit your store or website.

Guerrilla marketing effectiveness weighs heavily on the creativity juices of the authors and artists rather than spending a lot money.  This is why I strongly suggest a couple pulls off the chizzer before setting the pencil to the pad and brainstorming ideas.  Have fun with it, step outside of your comfort zone and make an impression that no one will ever forget.  The best test is show it to your mother/father/sibling/loved one and watch their face as its shown, if they laugh/cry/cringe/barf/second-guess their existence...you got a winner.  Go to print!!

Keep growing,

Gib