Week 2 – MBA6101 – Guerrilla Marketing

Chapter 2 of Guerrilla Marketing focuses on The Need for Guerrilla Marketing.  For me, the key takeaways are:

1. Ensure the quality of your product or service and build the foundation of your enterprise AND your reputation--this should be the primary order of business
2. Focus on innovation [once first bullet is solid] 
3. Solve problems in order to succeed
4. Use small size of your enterprise to deliver speed and flexibility [to market]
5. Know the difference between advertising and marketing
6. Start with a core idea and consistently apply it throughout

The first four are all about the owner of the small business that s/he/they need to focus on before any advertising or marketing is brought into the mix. I would add a seventh: find out what is uniquely you and double-down. Now you're ready for five, six, and my seventh and these come together with advertising and marketing.

Marketing

Leo Burnett, the man who started the agency with his name on the door, had many quotes: “Products are made in the factory, but brands are created in the mind.” What does that mean? By having a strong brand identity with a strong brand positioning, the net result is Brand Recognition. 

Framed another way: what are brands that have instant recognition and why?

• Coke–their bottle shape
• Nike–the swoosh and just do it slogan
• McDonald’s–golden arches
• Tiffany & Co.–blue color [fun fact: The Pantone® color is called “1837 Blue,” named after Tiffany's founding year...talk about branding!]
• Amazon–smile logo
• Target–color red and the bullseye

The common thread? They commit to what makes them uniquely them and apply it to everything: to the product, deliver trucks, retail outlet (shopping bags, door sign, shelving), uniforms, product detail pages on eCommerce site(s), and advertising.

Advertising

Leo also once said, “The secret of all effective originality in advertising is not the creation of new and tricky words and pictures, but one of putting familiar words and pictures into new relationships.” Build your brand on that. Make that connection so strong it cannot be broken, just like those big brands listed above.