Week 4 – MBA6101 – Guerrilla Marketing

Developing a Guerrilla Marketing Plan is the topic of Chapter 4 of Levinson's Guerrilla Marketing book. He emphasized that one must "start with a plan and commit to that plan" in order to succeed in business. That is true with just about anything in life: weight loss is a goal but the plan to bring that to fruition requires eating healthier foods, working out more, getting enough rest, etc.

In business, Levinson is absolutely correct that "Positioning is the key to marketing." And he has four questions that must be answered in order to measure your (product or service)'s position in the market. These are:

1. Does [your product or service] offer a benefit that my target audience really wants?
2. Is it an honest-to-goodness benefit?
3. Does it truly separate me from my competition?
4. Is it unique and/or difficult to copy?

The benefit is best identified as the problem the consumer has which your product or service is the solution for. If it does not benefit the consumer, it is not an honest-to-goodness benefit. Your product or service exists, so what? It's the best in the nation/world. Why? It's 10x more effective than brand Y. Why should I believe that? No one else can say "x,y,z" like we can because [ fill in the blank ]...now you might capture their attention. You are giving the consumer the RTB, reason-to-believe. Tell them about the problem they didn't know they had, crystalize it in such a way that they are compelled to take action. There's a reason those made-for-TV infomercials are so effective, and I bring it up to make a point: these hit all the points. Watch one, at 3 AM when you cannot sleep. You'll go down a rabbit hole. And if it's less than $20, you'll buy it because that's the threshold for spending money and not feeling gipped or fleeced.

So bottom line is: knowing what your brand is/represents is key to differentiation and authenticity--two things that are crucial to an enterprise with a value proposition. Know how you are, where you are going, and how you will get there. It's that simple (in theory) and requires effort (in practice).