gurrella marketing

GUERILLA

MARKETING

How and by whom are the evolved success factors

of the Guerilla Marketing philosophy from the

1980's used today and do they stand a chance in

the business future?

Literature based thesis for attaining the

Bachelor of Business Administration Degree

at Saxion University in Enschede

1st Examiner: Drs. P. de Heus

2nd Examiner: Dhr. R. Wierda

Study Course: International Business and Management Studies

Students: Anna Drüing Katharina Fahrenholz

Isendorf 77 Kalanderplein 1-2

48282 Emsdetten 7511HX Enschede

Germany The Netherlands

Timeframe: February – June 2008

GUERILLA MARKETING – OLD PHILOSOPHY WITH FUTURE?

BACHELOR THESIS Anna Drüing ‐ Katharina Fahrenholz

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Table of Content

List of Figures…………………………………………………………………………………………..IV

Executive Summary……………………………………………………………………………………...V

Methodology…………………………………………………………………………………………...VII

1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 1

2. When did Guerilla Marketing appear and how did it develop?....................................... 3

2.1. Roots of Modern Guerilla Marketing ................................................................................ 3 2.1.1. Terminology of Guerilla.................................................................................................................. 3 2.1.2. “Guerilla” enters Marketing ............................................................................................................ 4 2.1.3. Guerilla Marketing Philosophers..................................................................................................... 4

3. How is Guerilla Marketing defined and used today? ...................................................... 7

3.1. What is Guerilla Marketing?.............................................................................................. 7 3.1.1. Definition ........................................................................................................................................ 7 3.1.2. Technological Development ........................................................................................................... 8 3.1.3. Uniformity vs. Creativity ................................................................................................................ 8

3.2. Guerilla Marketing Instruments ...................................................................................... 10 3.2.1. Out-of-Home Weapons ................................................................................................................. 10 3.2.2. Ambient Marketing ....................................................................................................................... 11 3.2.3. Guerilla Sensation ......................................................................................................................... 11 3.2.4. Ambush Marketing........................................................................................................................ 12 3.2.5. New Media Weapons .................................................................................................................... 13 3.2.6. Viral Marketing............................................................................................................................. 13 3.2.7. Guerilla Mobile ............................................................................................................................. 14 3.2.8. Low Budget Weapons ................................................................................................................... 14

3.3. Guerilla Marketing in the Marketing Mix ...................................................................... 15 3.3.1. Guerilla Promotion (70%)............................................................................................................. 16 3.3.2. Guerilla Pricing (10%) .................................................................................................................. 16 3.3.3. Guerilla Distributing (Place 10%)................................................................................................. 17 3.3.4. Guerilla Producting (10%) ............................................................................................................ 18

3.4. User Profile ......................................................................................................................... 18



III

3.5. Case Study: Bionade .......................................................................................................... 20 3.5.1. Company Profile ........................................................................................................................... 20 3.5.2. Guerilla Marketing Campaign....................................................................................................... 22

3.5.2.1. Implementation.................................................................................................................... 22 3.5.2.2. Result ................................................................................................................................... 26

3.6. Obstacles of Guerilla Marketing ...................................................................................... 27

4. How is Guerilla Marketing perceived today?................................................................. 28

4.1. Customer Perception of Guerilla Marketing................................................................... 28 4.1.1. Survey ........................................................................................................................................... 28

4.1.1.1. Purpose ................................................................................................................................ 28 4.1.1.2. Structure of the Questionnaire ............................................................................................. 28 4.1.1.3. Sample Selection ................................................................................................................. 29 4.1.1.4. Limitations........................................................................................................................... 30 4.1.1.5. Evaluation............................................................................................................................ 30 4.1.1.6. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 34

4.1.2. Expert opinion............................................................................................................................... 34 4.1.2.1. Guerilla Marketing Today ................................................................................................... 35 4.1.2.2. Future of Guerilla Marketing............................................................................................... 37 4.1.2.3. Conclusion: Future Advice .................................................................................................. 37

5. Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 39

List of References ………………………………………………………………………..….IX

Appendix……………………………………………………………………………….…...XII



IV

List of Figures

Figure 1: Guerilla Marketing Weapon Categories............................................................................................... 10 Figure 2: Marketing Mix....................................................................................................................................... 15 Figure 3: WMF Promotion ................................................................................................................................... 16 Figure 4: Kellogs Drink n' Crunch ....................................................................................................................... 18 Figure 5: Out-of-home, Bionade Poster ............................................................................................................... 23 Figure 6: Bionade Leuchtbotschafter ................................................................................................................... 24 Figure 7: Bionade Banner ................................................................................................................................... XII Figure 8: AIDA Model ..........................................................................................................................................XX



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Executive Summary Guerilla Marketing – an alternative marketing form that has been experiencing increasing

importance in the advertising landscape, ever since customers are besieged with classical

marketing communication via the traditional channels TV, Magazines, Radio and Direct

Mail. Guerilla Marketing is a brilliant idea, involving the customer in a surprising, unconven-

tional marketing activity.

The term “Guerilla” (battle) roots back to the war of independence in Spain and Portugal, the

revolution in Cuba, and the Vietnamese War. Here “Guerilla” stood for an attack strategy

based on the surprise effect and on acts of sabotage, which was used by smaller groups that

stood against a massive military force. In the 1960’s US firms brought the “Guerilla” tactics

to Marketing, when they needed new ways to outdo competitors. Then they merely attacked

weak points of competitors by implementing preliminary injunctions for their campaigns for

instance.

Only in 1983 did Jay Conrad Levinson make the term “Guerilla Marketing” known as a phi-

losophy for small and start-up companies to successfully market their business with a small

amount of money. He based the success of a marketing strategy on the use of non-traditional

marketing channels, customer proximity, insistency, and patience. Through the drastic tech-

nological development until today and its complimentary change in the advertising market,

Guerilla Marketing has developed into a marketing form mostly used for Promotion these

days. New forms such as Ambush and Viral Marketing have evolved.

The evolved Guerilla Marketing form is now used by companies of all sizes; Global Players

such as BMW use it, and start-up companies do so to create brand awareness. How this is

actually done in practice, is illustrated by the case study of the soft drink producer Bionade

Corporation in Germany, displaying various facets of the Guerilla Marketing principle.

How such Guerilla Marketing activities are perceived by the actual prospect was researched

through a customer survey. In fact a majority of the respondents stated that such advertise-

ments do catch their attention and interest, whereas they consciously avoid traditional mar-

keting as for instance TV advertisement. So Guerilla Marketing can find a way to actually



VI

reach the customer, at least in the first two steps of the AIDA Model1. This great potential of

the Guerilla Marketing was confirmed by Marketing Experts in the course of an interview.

They could imagine that the traditional Marketing Channels such as TV and magazine, who

will also be at the forefront in the future, will take over characteristics of Guerilla Marketing

in order to actually reach the customer.

Financially strong companies should use Guerilla Marketing as a complimentary tool to pre-

sent the brand in a multimodal way. Smaller firms can make use of the cost-effective strategy

to get the spotlight on their brand. Good co-operation with for instance the Public Relations

department is essential to increase the Guerilla Marketing effect enormously.

However its potential is used, it has to be done cleverly to stand out from the 3000 advertis-

ing messages a day with which today’s consumer is flooded. Guerilla Marketing will adapt

with the customers, find ways to surprise them and interest them by putting the idea in the

forefront, not the brand.

1 Appendix: AIDA model



VII

Methodology Our research is based on diverse research methods in order to gain as many different perspec-

tives on the topic as possible. Therefore we used primary as well as secondary data collection

in combination with desk and field research.

Our first part concerning the history and development of Guerilla Marketing has a theoretical

background. Since Guerilla Marketing has became popular recently, only very few authors

have written books about the topic so far. Therefore we believe that one of the best sources

for those research questions are the books and publications of the marketer Jay Conrad Lev-

inson, titled the “The Father of Guerrilla Marketing”2, who spread the knowledge of the

Guerilla concept in the 1980’s and has updated his editions until today. Al Ries’ and Jack

Trout’s perception of Guerilla Marketing, as well as Philip Kotler were taken into account.

For further analysis of the development of Guerilla Marketing secondary data such as arti-

cles, publications, and examples of activities were used. We also utilized selected case stud-

ies to underline our theoretical findings, especially on the example of Bionade.

As a foundation for our section about the current use of Guerilla we used input from Market-

ing newspapers, trade journals and other publications. However, since journalists just started

to pay attention to this trend, we analyzed numerous Guerilla Marketing activities to formu-

late conclusions.

For the conclusion of our report we wanted to find an answer concerning the future perspec-

tive of Guerilla Marketing. In order to bring additional objectiveness to our report we also

included the results from expert interviews as well as from a customer survey.

One of the qualitative interviews will be held with Bionade Product Manager Christian Rath.

Bionade successfully used the Guerilla Marketing approach in the past. Furthermore we were

in contact with some Marketing professionals that already worked with Guerilla Marketing

and showed interest in our work. They shared their experiences, opinions, and their publica-

2 Guerilla Marketing International



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tions on rather subjective questions for which the answers could not be found in public arti-

cles.

Since we believe that the future of Guerilla Marketing will also be strongly determined by

the current perspective and perception of the customers, we conducted a questionnaire that

gave us some interesting insights into the perception of traditional and alternative marketing

forms.



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1. Introduction

Guerilla Marketers can get you anywhere – on your way home from work, in the car, bus and

train, on the streets, strolling or relaxing at a café terrace, in front of your house, or at major

events. It is like love: You will find it at the moment you do not expect it at all! And at the

moment you notice the advertisement and start thinking about its message they have what

they want – your attention and interest.

Guerilla Marketing distinguishes itself from other promotion tools by its surprise effect and it

has become a very popular marketing strategy in current times. The name “Guerilla” origi-

nally describes a group that uses a violent approach to achieve the implementation of their

beliefs and ideology. Their opponents are often a tremendous force consisting of more people

and even of more resources such as weapons or money. The Guerilla fighter’s only advan-

tage is the fact that only they know where and when they will strike.

The original approach of Guerilla Marketing is an alternative marketing strategy that suits

small and medium-sized companies to act like the Guerilla fighters have in the past: hit vul-

nerable targets of larger enemies by taking them by surprise. The unexpected and unusual

Guerilla Marketing campaigns helped smaller companies to successfully reach their target

group, even though their bigger market competitors had a larger marketing budget, more ex-

perience, and a better spread to advance the market by using traditional marketing strategies.

Many small and medium-sized companies started with Guerilla Marketing and established

their business lucratively. Through constant growth rates they have the means to also afford

traditional marketing tools to gain more and more market share, continuing to attack the

market leaders.

Those accomplishments drew the attention of larger companies to Guerilla Marketing. Now

this alternative approach is used by companies of all sizes. Various agencies have specialized

in developing Guerilla strategies. Within the advertising branch it is almost something like a

remedy that every business can use successfully.



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This development leads to some interesting questions:

Is this trend going to continue?

Will all companies be able to use it in the future?

Will customers still be surprised and show the desirable reactions even though many

companies already use Guerilla Marketing today?

Do small companies have a chance with their Guerilla Marketing approach when lar-

ger companies are willing to spend a fortune on their Guerilla Marketing activities?

This report gives an insight into the origin of Guerilla Marketing as being a tool for small to

medium-sized companies to achieve large impacts with little resources. Further it will show

its development, focusing on the current market situation, where many Big Players use this

alternative method as well. The conclusion will answer the question if the developed concept

of Guerilla Marketing can also be successfully applied in the future.



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2. When did Guerilla Marketing appear and how did it develop?

2.1. Roots of Modern Guerilla Marketing

2.1.1. Terminology of Guerilla

The term “Guerilla” first appeared during the war of independence in Spain and Portugal at

the beginning of the 19th century. It is a Spanish expression which can be translated as “bat-

tle”. Guerilla stands for a combat operation that was used by smaller groups that stood

against a massive military force.

The term and the connected operations became famous through Ernesto Che Guevara Lynch

de la Serna (1928 – 1967), best known as Che Guevara, who used and defined this military

tactic. He belonged to a small militia group which wanted to put their political concept

through. They were clearly in the weaker position and their only chance to achieve a success-

ful revolution in Cuba was to fight the national military. Since Che Guevara and his follow-

ers did not possess as many resources such as weapons, money, or fighters as their oppo-

nents, they based their operations on the surprise effect and on acts of sabotage. Due to their

size they had the advantage of being more flexible, having a quicker coordination and know-

ing the territory better. The usage of unconventional weapons and activities helped them to

destabilize their rivals and led them to their final success.

Che Guevara defined and shaped basic principles for his fighters and summarized them in the

book “Guerilla Warfare” that he wrote in 1961. These are the most important elements that

can be pointed out:

• Ultimate goal: victory over the enemy

• Usage of surprise effects

• Tactical superiority3

During the 1960’s the United States of America faced major difficulties in the Vietnam War.

Even though Vietnam was theoretically much weaker, the US were not able to bring the en-

emy down. Especially the Vietcong force was unbeatable, because they used the Guerilla

tactics that destabilized the American forces constantly. The Vietcong’s operations were

3 Guerilla Marketing Portal



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similar to Che Guevara’s activities. They also used the surprise effect, were much more

flexible than their enemies, fought on Vietnamese territory, and used unusual means. This

was the first time that Americans got to know the principles of Guerilla.

2.1.2. “Guerilla” enters Marketing

At the same time America’s marketing experts were looking for new approaches to gain the

attention of customers. The consumer’s behaviour had changed and businesses had to come

up with offers that fit their consumers’ needs and not only their own. Consequently market-

ing experts had to find realizable concepts for businesses with limited resources; something

that lets one company stand out in the crowd.

The only promising way was to use an anti-marketing concept that included attrition and at-

tack strategies in order to gain as much attention as possible and to weaken competitors con-

siderably. This was not only realized by aggressive marketing efforts, but also through legal

means such as preliminary injunctions for campaigns of competitors. 4

2.1.3. Guerilla Marketing Philosophers

Levinson

Of course Guerilla Marketing did not conquer the marketing world over night. The new strat-

egy needed some years to develop and to become an integral part of business strategies. Dur-

ing the 1980s the US market was flooded with 11 million new founded companies. 10.8 mil-

lion of them were small-sized companies that needed a strategy to fight their bigger competi-

tors with a small budget. In order to make the Guerilla idea accessible to everybody Jay Con-

rad Levinson defined the root idea in his book “Guerrilla Marketing” in 1983. His publica-

tions provided not only an explanation of the essential marketing ideas, but also a philosophy

for small business owners who wanted to follow the Guerilla Marketing idea. He introduced

new ways of advertising and presenting a business well with a small budget and based the

success of a marketing strategy on the use of non-traditional marketing channels, customer

proximity, insistency, and patience. A company should create as many points of contact with

customers and prospects as possible in order to stay in their memory. He further believed that

a long-lasting campaign will bring the desired competitive advantage.

4 Schulte



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Levinson’s book explains the basic pillars of Guerilla Marketing in a simple way and made

him the “Father of Guerilla Marketing”. It was sold over 1 million times and translated into

37 languages. Updated versions of the book are released every few years. The revised pas-

sages mainly deal with new technologies and marketing channels that change over the years

and offer new possibilities.5

Ries/Trout

Only three years after Levinson released his first edition in 1983, the American Marketing

experts Al Ries and Jack Trout specified the root idea of Levinson, but they also developed

some opposed elements. Like Levinson, Trout and Ries believed that Guerilla marketing best

suits small and medium-sized companies. Trout pointed out that the market size also has to

be manageable with the limited and available resources. Therefore he suggests specializing

and investing in a niche product and/or market niche.

In general small business owners should use their advantageous flexibility even more. Both

Ries and Trout suggest that a small business should try to use every product and/or market

niche that becomes available and furthermore not hesitate to change their approach in case

they believe that another strategy would be more profitable. Therefore insistency and pa-

tience is not one of the essential elements anymore like it was in Levinson’s opinion. Fur-

thermore Ries emphasized that a lean organizational structure with a centralized top man-

agement makes it easier for a growing company to continue to save costs and to keep their

flexibility.6

Kotler

The marketing expert Kotler also analysed the Guerilla tactics in the 1990s. Kotler suggests

that such a competitive strategy should be adopted by market challengers that try to increase

their own profitability by gaining more market share from other companies in the same in-

dustry. A competitive advantage over the challenged company is the foundation for a good

strategy, but also involves high risks, especially when the potential gain is high, warns Kot-

ler. Mainly smaller and financially weaker companies are then using an aggressive Guerilla

attack. Such a campaign can even be a tool to fight the current market leader. Unlike Levin-

5 Levinson 6 Ries; Trout



6

son, Ries, and Trout, Kotler believes that the main purpose of Guerilla Marketing is to desta-

bilize the opponent – or best to destroy the competitors with the help of attrition tactics. 7

7 Kotler, Wong, Saunders, Armstrong



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3. How is Guerilla Marketing defined and used today?

3.1. What is Guerilla Marketing?

3.1.1. Definition

Around the globe, marketing experts, researchers, and discoverers eagerly try to find the all-

embracing description of Guerilla Marketing, since no official definition of the term exists so

far. Many explanations have thus been created and even though they vary in their wording,

they mostly have the following characteristics of Guerilla Marketing in common: Creative,

unconventional, surprising and efficient.8

Guerilla Marketing is a marketing strategy, nowadays predominantly used for the Marketing

Mix “P” Promotion.9 It is a marketing form, which involves the consumer in the advertising

experience. Guerilla Marketing campaigns display creative ideas dynamically with uncon-

ventional methods at places where advertising would be least expected. The aim is to irritate,

fascinate, and animate the consumer. The surprise effect belongs to the root philosophy. It is

advisable not to repeat a Guerilla action as it might not be surprising anymore, but rather

annoying. Guerilla Marketing should stand out from the saturated advertising landscape by

being fun and not bothersome. Classical marketing communication via TV commercials,

Newspaper Ads, Radio Spots, and Direct Mail does not really excite the customer anymore.

Unconventional forms on the other hand can accomplish excitement. Guerilla Marketing,

Viral Marketing, and Word-of-Mouth Marketing are concepts that gain rising importance,

especially through one increasingly important marketing channel: the Internet.

Significant for Guerilla Marketing is to reach maximum customer attention with minimal

costs. It is central to emphasize the brand’s strengths and minimize its weaknesses in order to

attack competitors. Thereby the Guerilla Marketing strategy is based on imagination, uncon-

ventionality, and flexibility instead of market power, enterprise size, and marketing budgets.

A false conclusion would be to think that the lower budget means the Guerilla marketing

activities require less effort. The involvement for successful Guerilla Marketing is high. En-

ergy and time are the main ingredients.

8 Guerilla Marketing Portal 9 Bieri; Handschin; Siegenthaler; Spycher



8

So far the beginning and the current definition of Guerilla Marketing was described. In the

1980s it was seen as an integral part of the business strategy, while now in the 21st century it

is mainly a communication strategy. The following part will link the two sides and explain

what influenced the Guerilla Marketing to develop to its current usage.

3.1.2. Technological Development

“Markets today are changing fast. Price-sensitive customers, new competitors, new distribu-

tion channels, new communication channels, the Internet, wireless commerce, globalization,

deregulation, privatization… the list goes on. And it is not only markets that are changing,

but the technologies that support them: e-commerce, e-mail, mobile phones, fax machines,

sales, and marketing automation, cable TV, videoconferencing. It is imperative that compa-

nies think through the revolutionary impact of these new technologies.“10

These developments have changed for instance the way customers behave. Increasing trans-

parency through the internet enables buyers to acquire product information, compare them

directly with competitors, and easily make worldwide purchases. Businesses adapt their pro-

cedures according to the market and technology development. Especially in Marketing inno-

vative ways of promoting products and brands have come up. An example are blogs, pod-

and nanocasting in the online marketing scene. Within these developments Guerilla Market-

ing experienced increasing importance since more and more businesses demand practice ori-

ented solutions for short term results.11 In times of globalisation the competitive pressure is

high and the free market economy is tough. Marketing has to carry out more and more tasks

with tight budgets. Thereby it is a thin line between annoying and attracting customers.

3.1.3. Uniformity vs. Creativity

It was always the aim of marketers to attract new customers and to keep the existing custom-

ers loyal, but since the market and the environment have changed so immensely, the way to

get through to the customer has also changed. During the 1980s marketers – among them Jay

C. Levinson with his Guerilla Marketing strategy – supported the belief that prospects have

to be exposed to the same marketing message as often as possible. Research showed that

people need to see an advertisement up to 13 times before they understand what the product

10 Kotler, Jain, Maesincee 11 Levinson, 2007



9

is and that it can be beneficial for them. Consequently business owners were urged to publi-

cise their name, logo, and message at every possible opportunity. To take the early forms of

Guerilla Marketing as an example, small companies had over 200 different marketing weap-

ons that allowed them to catch their customers’ attention over and over again. Furthermore a

chosen strategy had to be kept for a long period even if it did not bring the desired success

immediately. Levinson motivated this guideline with the fact that only a certain number of

exposures can bring the customer to a final purchase. Simply put, Marketing takes time and

consequently business owners have to wait. A hasty change in strategy would reset the cus-

tomers mind and the invested time and money would have been wasted. 12

Even though the explanation sounds logical it is not realizable anymore today. The market

and the environment change rapidly and all companies try to get the attention of the customer

as often as possible. As a result every customer is confronted with 3000 sales messages every

day. What makes it even worse is the fact that advertising messages from the same compa-

nies are repeated several times a day – up to 50 times. Companies achieved what they

wanted. Customers cannot go anywhere without being swamped with advertising. Unfortu-

nately customers are not interested in such classical marketing communication like they used

to be. Consequently they do not perceive and remember the message afterwards. Of course

for businesses this is a very costly activity that does not bring the desired success.13

Still companies all over the world invest billions in traditional activities, which are often not

affordable for smaller companies. The solution is a cost-effective marketing form that stands

out in the crowd of advertisings and catches the attention of the customer even in the rapidly

changing marketing world of today. Marketers always have to come up with new ideas to

spotlight their brand and protect the surprise effect of every Guerilla Marketing activity. In

the end the surprise effect can create the most positive reaction from the customer. The aim is

to create more brand awareness. The aspects of Guerilla Marketing also fit these needs of

today - away from uniformity and insistency towards creativity and flexibility.

12 Levinson 13 Marketing Partner



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3.2. Guerilla Marketing Instruments

Over the years Guerilla Marketing has developed and created many forms, so called weap-

ons. These weapons should support the root philosophy of Guerilla Marketing which entails

creative, witty inspiration. As we know Guerilla Marketing is a dynamic way to create brand

awareness. Done with simple tools those actions should be spectacular and clever to catch the

attention of a certain target group.

To get an overall picture of the potential of Guerilla Marketing weapons we have classified

them by categories: Out-of-Home, New Media, and Low Budget Weapons. Again no official

definition exists, but the following distinction by experts of Guerilla Marketing Portal (GMP)

has been build up logically and is therefore referred to in this paper14:

Figure 1: Guerilla Marketing Weapon Categories

3.2.1. Out-of-Home Weapons

As the name “out-of-home” suggests, these weapons refer to marketing activities that are

actually realised at public locations. At best it does not only catch the interest of people who

pass by, but media interest as well. Newspaper reports about the action can create extra pub-

licity for the advertised company and stimulates that people talk about the product. The ex-

pansion of brand awareness is the aim. The most successful weapons in the category out-of-

home are Guerilla Sensation, Ambient Media, and Ambush Marketing.

14 Guerilla Marketing Portal

Guerilla Marketing

Weapons

Out-of-Home Weapons Ambient Marketing

Guerilla Sensation

Ambush Marketing

New Media Weapons Viral Marketing

Guerilla Mobile

Low Budget Weapons Clever ideas for small and

medium-sized companies



11

3.2.2. Ambient Marketing

The term became well-known in the 1990s. Ambient Media refers to non-traditional out-of-

home advertising. While other out-of-home Marketers advertise on large-scale billboards,

ambient advertisements are posted on manhole covers, cranes, pizza cartons, free postcards

in bars and so on. They are all a little more unusual displays. Until today newer ambient me-

dia have come up, such as messages on large-format screens in subways or handles of su-

permarket trolleys. There are no limits to formats there.15

The American Mark Hughes had what is probably one of the most profitable ideas concern-

ing the placement of an advertisement. He used the blank backside of the fortune cookie slips

given out in Chinese restaurants for an advertising message. These – in production cheap -

marketing messages reached 7 million restaurant guests in one week and were therefore very

profitable. Mark Hughes has been able to make a lot of money by selling this noticed adver-

tising space to companies. 16

The important aspect is to seek out the target group at their preferred location in an entertain-

ing way. Ambient Marketing tries to approach the customer individually through the place of

contact. Some experts claim that Ambient Marketing does not belong to Guerilla Marketing,

since it does not fulfil the typical characteristics of being surprising and dynamic. Indeed

Ambient is more static, one-sided marketing. Still it can also be a medium with good poten-

tial to bring attention to a brand or product in a creative way.

3.2.3. Guerilla Sensation

Guerilla Sensation is very similar to Ambient Marketing. Therefore it is easier to show the

difference. As described above, Ambient Marketing positions advertising at unusual places.

Hereby the main focus is not necessarily on the idea, but on the advertising space itself. Peo-

ple are confronted with advertisements where and when they do not expect it.

In general Guerilla Sensation works with the same principle, but it is only used on a very

limited number of events and activities. The number of prospects that are exposed to the ad-

vertisement is therefore relatively small compared to a few million people that might get in

15 Webguerillas 16 Streitz



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contact with an Ambient Marketing campaign as the example of the Fortune Cookies de-

scribed above. But such Guerilla Sensation actions can gain further, non-regional attention by

making it to the media. Often newspapers are looking for extraordinary, unusual pictures,

which are often delivered by Guerilla Sensation activities. Through good Public Relations

controversial or very original Guerilla ideas of a brand can be a widely discussed issue in the

media as well.

Of course the line between Ambient Marketing and Guerilla Sensation is thin. Some Guerilla

Sensation activities become an Ambient Marketing activity, because modern technologies

spread the message. Guerilla Sensation characteristics are those described in the Guerilla

Marketing definition. 17

3.2.4. Ambush Marketing

Ambush means attack out of the blue, reminding at the Guerilla Attacks from Che Guevara.

It stands for a sneaky out-of-home marketing method, which promotes a brand at huge events

without paying a sponsorship fee. At many major events one brand of a particular category

pays a high price to be the exclusive sponsor, which leaves their competitors be left in the

dark. Ambush Marketers then still find a way to make notice of their brand in connection

with the event, since it attracts the attention of thousands of visitors and even viewers on TV.

Pepsi for instance placed a huge oversize Pepsi bottle close to a soccer game which was

sponsored by Coca Cola. Giving out company material on a fair without having a stand is

also Ambush Marketing. The legal boundaries can be thin as Vodafone experienced in Aus-

tralia in 2002. The rugby match between the All Blacks from New Zealand and the Wallabies

from Australia was interrupted by two naked streakers whose bodies were painted with Vo-

dafone logos. The bizarre details unsheathed the wrongful behaviour of Vodafone. The CEO

of the Australian Vodafone division knew that something provocative would happen and

agreed to the proposal of an anonymous caller. He even agreed to take care of all arising

costs and legal issues. Furthermore Vodafone was the sponsor of the participating Australian

team, but his main competitor Telstra gave the arena its name. Apart from the legal difficul-

ties that Vodafone had to face, the success of the campaign was arguable, since the match

might have been influenced by the interruption and upset many fans.18

17 Guerilla Marketing Portal 18 Spiegel online



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3.2.5. New Media Weapons

New technologies change our lives and they often make it easier due to mobile phones, inter-

net, unlimited information, and shopping possibilities that enable customers to access the

resources of the world with a click on the computer mouse. Of course this also gives busi-

nesses the possibility to use the advantages that technology provides. Two very strong in-

struments that use the modern possibilities are described below: Viral Marketing and Guerilla

Mobile.

3.2.6. Viral Marketing

Viral Marketing is a very important weapon of Guerilla Marketing. The beginning of Viral

Marketing in Germany is often linked to the computer game “Johnnie Walker Moorhuhn”,

where the player gets to shoot grouses (German: “Moorhuhn”) in the Scottish highlands. The

game was developed to promote the Scotch Whiskey brand Johnnie Walker in the German

gastronomy sector. In 1999 it was shown in some German bars and then offered as a free

download on the internet. Unexpectedly the game became so popular that people of all ages

actively played it. The clue which makes this example Viral Marketing is that the game play-

ers recommended “Moorhuhn” to friends by forwarding the link or by word-of-mouth. The

game downloads had exponentially increased within a very short time and the brand name

Johnnie Walker was spread free of charge to millions of individuals.19

This example vividly shows how successful Viral Marketing can be. The idea is to get an

advertising message to as many contacts as possible and as fast as possible. This is realised

by human multipliers who are animated to pass the message along for free. The challenge for

a Viral Marketer is to build a motivation in a message for people to spread it. If that is suc-

cessful, the snowball effect starts and the potential for the viral message’s exposure and in-

fluence is produced. The message rapidly spreads, similar to the way email jokes and soft-

ware viruses are sent around to the online community. It has to be mentioned that Viral Mar-

keting is not a computer virus, it is harmless.

Encouraging people to pass the message along to others for free is an art. A personalised

message or a motivational prize are often successful tools. In any way, the campaigns should

be smart and extraordinary, since a conventional advertisement might not be accepted and

19 Wikipedia



14

spread. Winning is often the usage of sex, humour, scandal, and provocation. In the B2B sec-

tor downloadable White Papers are doing well.

The Viral Marketing concept is not dependent on a certain media. Communication between

two persons has always existed in various ways. Then the message often spread by word-of-

mouth, but through the internet Viral Marketing has experienced a boom. The impact, cover-

age, and pace that this media offers today is astonishing.

Especially Hotmail is often mentioned as the showcase for Viral Marketing. This free email

service by Microsoft was one of the first to gain remarkably from Viral Marketing. Hotmail’s

brand awareness and market share increased rapidly, when they started to add a frank mes-

sage to the footer of all E-Mails sent out by Hotmail users. For example : “Join the world's

largest free e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com“. 20 Hotmail users thus

automatically became sales promoters for their e-mail service provider. From its start in 1996

to its 12 millionth user, hotmail only spend 500.000 US-Dollar on advertising, while com-

petitors spent 20 Million US-Dollar and did not nearly manage to attract that many custom-

ers. Other successful viral formats are for instance Facebook applications and viral videos on

YouTube.

3.2.7. Guerilla Mobile

Not only the PC offers unlimited possibilities to marketers. Since the number of mobile

phones exceeds the number of inhabitants in many countries, the cell phone is a permanent

companion of prospects. Therefore it was only a matter of time until marketers took the op-

portunity to reach customers and prospects at any place at any time. The wireless connection

provides the possibility to present marketing messages in different ways via SMS, MMS,

Bluetooth, or Infrared.

3.2.8. Low Budget Weapons

This Weapon refers to Guerilla Marketing for new, small, and medium-sized companies, who

only possess a small marketing budget. Like Levinson already pointed out in the 1980’s that

does not necessarily mean that those companies have a disadvantage compared to financially

strong competitors. But since their capital is low, the top priority is to use it as efficiently as

20 http://www.viz.co.nz/viral‐marketing.htm



15

possible. Guerilla Marketing should put this into practice by focusing on the local culture

with its geographical, sportive, social network, its rituals, needs, habits, norms, traditions, and

values. Clever ideas appear through unconventional methods which are supposed to catch the

attention of the target group.

3.3. Guerilla Marketing in the Marketing Mix

Guerilla Marketing changed over the years. In the past it was a business philosophy that in-

fluenced all aspects of the business equally. Today Guerilla Marketing is often only used in

the form of a campaign. Companies often operate according to their traditional marketing

philosophy, but Guerilla Marketing for single campaigns is different. There the balance in the

marketing mix shifts towards one of the 4 P’s. The figure 2 shows that 70% of the campaigns

put their focus on promotion. The remaining 30% place their focus equally on price, place,

and product.21

Figure 2: Marketing Mix

The following examples show campaigns where the focus is on one of the 4 P’s. Here it is

essential to outline that sometimes only one of these 10% of the Marketing Mix are designed

according to the Guerilla Marketing principles. The remaining 90% can belong to a tradi-

tional Marketing approach.

21 Bieri; Handschin; Siegenthaler; Spycher

Marketing

Mix

Promotion

70 %

Price

10%

Place

10%

Product

10%



16

3.3.1. Guerilla Promotion (70%)

In most cases Guerilla Marketing appears in the form of promotion. Even though Guerilla

Marketing tries to be different than the traditional marketing strategies, it uses the same

channels to bring the message across such as public relations, advertising, sales promotion, or

direct mail as well as the specific instruments described before. Actually the possibilities do

not have limits. The non-profit organization WMF supplies one of the numerous examples of

Guerilla Marketing promotion with its slogan: “save paper – save the planet”.

Figure 3: WMF Promotion22

By pulling the paper towel out of the box, the level of the overall paper towel pile decreases.

The user cannot only see the decreasing pile, but also the effects that the use of the paper

towels has on the rain forests in South America. With this simple example WMF tries to redi-

rect the attention of the user towards WMF’s interest to maintain the rain forests.

3.3.2. Guerilla Pricing (10%)

The focus of Guerilla Marketing strategies can also be pricing. Even though we live in a

world where prices play a big role within the purchase decision, only 10% of all Guerilla

activities focus on price. It describes a new way to differentiate itself from the rest of the

22

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://minus3.ch/blog/wpcontent/uploads/2007/10/mini_guerilla_marketing_2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.minus3.ch/

blog/&h=225&w=360&sz=116&hl=de&start=12&um=1&tbnid=g3DOMkCxNmw6nM:&tbnh=76&tbnw=121&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dguerilla%2Bmarketi

ng%2Bmini%26um%3D1%26hl%3Dde%26lr%3D



17

competition. A competitive offer is still a success factor for some campaigns as the following

witty idea shows.

Customers of the electronic retailer Media Markt were promised to get back their money if

they bought TV’s before the Soccer European Championship in case that the German soccer

team won the tournament. Many people took the opportunity and bought one or more TV’s.

In the end Germany did not even get into the final round and the customers did not receive

their money back. Media Markt was the winner.

3.3.3. Guerilla Distributing (Place 10%)

The distribution of a product can also be a special experience for the customer. A good dis-

tribution can boost sales tremendously. Even though books have a hard time to survive in

competition with to other media, the famous Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling showed

that even books can make the day of retailers and delivery services. Especially young readers

were waiting for the new book release and wanted to buy the book at the day of publication.

Book shops, retailers, and delivery services in many countries offered customers to buy or to

receive the book at midnight in order to be one of the first to own the book. A lot of fans

even came in costumes to book stores to buy the first copies. Others were willing to pay extra

to get the book delivered to their homes at midnight.



18

3.3.4. Guerilla Producting (10%)

Also the packaging, the form, and the brand can be a vehicle for Guerilla Marketing. One

example introduced Kellogg’s with its Drink ‘n Crunch cup shown in the picture below.

Figure 4: Kellogs Drink nʹ Crunch23

The cup allows the customer to have cornflakes-to-go. The one-person-portion in the cup

only needs milk in addition to make it a snack that can be enjoyed not only at home. This

makes the cornflakes an alternative to chocolate bars and other sweets.

3.4. User Profile

In the battle for customer attention small companies as well as Global Players want Guerilla

Marketing to stand out from competitors in a cost-effective way. Thereby small companies

focus on using a small budget, while big enterprises utilize Guerilla Marketing in combina-

tion with classical advertising strategies to make branded goods a real experience.

Guerilla Marketing is a solution for companies of all sizes and all budgets. The classical ver-

sion of Guerilla Marketing that was mainly developed by Levinson is still usable for small

and medium-sized companies that are looking for a philosophy that fits their financial limita-

23 http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.frederiksamuel.com/blog/images/bananaj.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.frederiksamuel.com/blog/category/p

acka-

ging/page/2&h=462&w=450&sz=76&hl=de&start=43&um=1&tbnid=h64qrsAJSSAlKM:&tbnh=128&tbnw=125&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dguerilla%2Bpacka

ging%26start%3D40%26ndsp%3D20%26um%3D1%26hl%3Dde%26lr%3D%26sa%3DN



19

tions and high desires. Little tricks and years of experience make a successful start for a

company possible. On the other hand it is not only an alternative for smaller companies.

Puma, Lycos, Vodafone, BMW: they all do it. Actually there is no size of company and no

field of industry that does not try to use the advantages of Guerilla Marketing. Even though

the budgets of the companies that use Guerilla Marketing vary widely, they all find a way to

get through to their customers. Furthermore low-budget activities can be extended by putting

in more money than necessary, for example by placing advertisements in additional cities.

Internationally the top 5 countries with the highest advertising expenditure are firstly the

USA, then China, Japan, UK, and on the fifth position Germany. Over the last 10 years ex-

penditures in those countries have all risen tremendously, in China for instance by 1218%, in

the US by 53% and in Germany by 6%. Guerilla and Viral Marketing concepts are mostly

used in the US. In Germany 35% of the companies use unconventional advertising forms.

The outcome of a Robert&Horst24 research was that 46% of the top 3000 Marketing Decision

Makers in Germany have or will use alternative marketing forms in the future. It becomes

clear, that they see alternative marketing forms as cost-effective means, since they do not

want to invest much of their budget on such forms. One third is willing to spend 5% and only

one fourth will spend 10% of their marketing funds.

The main difference between small and bigger firms, next to the size of their budget, is the

way Guerilla Marketing is used. Global players and other established companies cannot in-

herit the philosophy of Guerillas one-to-one since the strategy is made for small companies

and consequently addresses only a limited customer base. Some additional and personalized

services cannot be offered by businesses that serve millions of clients. Consequently these

enterprises only use Guerilla Marketing with all its facades for a specific time in the course

of a campaign. They use the main characteristics of Guerilla Marketing that are still impor-

tant today. Creativity and flexibility, the surprise effect, and the unexpected are the main key-

words here.

A Guerilla Marketing campaign does not change the whole marketing strategy of a company.

Larger companies do not have to opt for Guerilla Marketing like smaller companies some-

24 Robert&Horst Marketing GmbH



20

times have to. They choose it as an additional way of promoting their products and it is used

complimentary to the traditional marketing mix which works for the company.

3.5. Case Study: Bionade

So far the background, development, and usage of Guerilla Marketing have been outlined. To

complement this progress, the case study will exemplify how Guerilla Marketing is imple-

mented today. The company chosen is Bionade. They have used many facades of the strategy

in the course of a campaign. Their example nicely illustrates how wit, creativity, and diver-

sity can help a rising company to succeed in a saturated market.

In the following paragraphs it will be described why and how the Bionade Corporation im-

plemented Guerilla Marketing to create brand awareness for their product: Bionade. To fa-

miliarise with the product, a company background will be given first.

3.5.1. Company Profile

Bionade Corporation is a German company which sells soft drinks under the brand name

“Bionade”. The product is currently available in 5 flavours. Bionade differentiates itself from

common refreshments by being “the first and only non-alcoholic refreshment drink produced

by a purely organic process.”25 It is fermented like a beer, according to the German purity

law “Reinheitsgebot” which is a regulation for beer quality standards and originates from the

16th century. Bionade is produced with natural ingredients of organic quality. Thus it stands

for a non-alcoholic refreshment, which does not taste as sweet as other soft drinks. It also

differentiates itself from competitors by its uncommon flavours. Regional growers provide

the natural ingredients such as herbs and fruits. Current flavours are: Elderberry, Lychee,

Herbs, Ginger-Orange and Aktiv.

From a slow seller to a moneymaker

The story of the company’s success can be read like a fairytale. It all started at the end of the

1980s, when the family-owned beer brewery Peter in Bavaria was experiencing stagnating

turnover in the beer sector. The owner’s husband Dieter Leipold wanted to find a solution to

survive in the market. In the evenings after work he experimented on inventing a non-

25 Bionade



21

alcoholic drink by fermentation. It took him 8 years and 3 million Euro of investment to cre-

ate the drink Bionade. “Bio” stands for biological/organic, and “nade” reminds of lemonade.

The brand name was also chosen since it can be used internationally. In 1995 the soft drink

Bionade was ready to be sold. Unfortunately even the best development does not sell auto-

matically. Sales started slowly. Then the company got lucky. By mistake Bionade bottles

labelled in Hungarian were delivered to a client in Hamburg, Germany. There advertisers got

a hold of Bionade and saw its potential. It might have been the brand label; it might have

been the fact that Bionade is filled in beer bottles. In any case, trendsetter in Hamburg saw

Bionade as cult, and it became a scene drink in bars and clubs. That was the beginning of

their track record.

By now Bionade Corporation has become successful in all of Germany. 200 million bottles

were sold in 2007, among others at McCafé, Starbucks, Ikea, and in the majority of super-

markets and bars. Coca Cola offered a nine-figure range amount to take over the company,

but Bionade Corporation rejected. “Selling the company will not be an option for our proud

family business”26, said CEO Peter Kowalsky, Leipold’s stepson, who leads the Bionade

Corporation, since it was founded in 1995. The next step for Bionade Corporation is to extent

their sales to the global market. A second production plant will be built in Iowa, USA in

2009. Bionade is the first soft drink after Red Bull to be exported to the USA.27

Ongoing success through clever marketing

Bionade Corporation developed from a scene drink in Hamburg to where they are positioned

now, and not merely by luck. Part of the success can be attributed to their low-budget com-

munication strategy. Wolfgang Blum, Chief of Marketing, transformed the brand Bionade

from a purely organic product into a lifestyle drink.

Since the company only had a low Marketing budget, Blum successfully used a viral market-

ing- and communication strategy on the basis of product sponsoring, media publicity, and

word-of-mouth marketing. Through public relations the company started to get national at-

tention. Major German economy magazines and newspapers, such as Financial Times

Deutschland, printed the Bionade company profile and interviews with the CEO Peter

Kowalsky. Thereby the emphasis was purposefully put on the enormous success story: An 26 Emsdettener Volkszeitung 27 Emsdettener Volkszeitung



22

almost bankrupt family-owned brewery in the middle of nowhere is saved through 8 years of

research and development. Readers sympathised with the company, promotional material

was provided to bars, and Bionade further engaged in attracting opinion leaders by sponsor-

ing student parties and regional sport teams. The word about the unusual product spread;

Blum’s viral marketing plan started to work out. The strategy now is to sustain Bionade’s

position as being an original: Firstly to be a competition to Coca Cola28, secondly to give

plagiarism no chance.

3.5.2. Guerilla Marketing Campaign

In 2007 Bionade Corporation used cross medial advertising for the first time. Cross media

means the interaction of different media. Done cleverly, it can produce added value and save

costs. 29 The company’s aim was to attain wide brand awareness and image profiling in Ger-

many. With a budget in the lower seven-figure range, they targeted children and adults be-

tween 14 and 49 years of age, and used crossmedial advertising, including out-of-home,

online marketing, radio and public relations. The skilful interaction between the different

communication channels is vital. 30

3.5.2.1. Implementation

In March 2007 Bionade Corporation started to implement the Guerilla Marketing campaign

in cooperation with advertising agencies. The theme was, “Bionade. The official drink of a

better world“31 , and aimed to spread a positive attitude for instance through welfare actions

that made people connect the brand to good deeds.

Radio

The radio campaign “Telephone Calls for a Better World” is a main pillar of the cross-medial

Bionade advertising. A variation of eight different radio spots were produced and broad-

casted in three intervals from March till September 2007 at 138 private radio stations in

Germany. 32 Every spot displays one phone call, in which a caller (always the same man)

surprises a normal person with kind words, a joke, or amusing honesty. The called persons

28 Reich 29 Holzapfel

30 Active Mobile Media AG 31 Seissler 32 Radio Marketing Service



23

often have a stressful job and thus reacted happily. An example will clarify how this was

done:

Radio Spot “Batteries”

The content of the “Batteries” spot is the following: The man calls the service point of an

electronic retailer and tells the woman who answers that he was in the store last week and

stole a package of batteries, because he felt a need for a thrill. He claims to have had a bad

conscience and says that he came back this morning and secretly placed the batteries back in

the shelf. She should not wonder if the stock counts one more battery package in the evening.

The woman laughs and says: “I don’t know what to say. Well Done.”33

The content of the spots varied, though the message was similar: doing something good,

based on the theme, with which every spot ended: “Bionade. The official drink of a better

world”.

Poster

Beginning at the time of the second interval of the radio spots, the product behind the spots

was shown by a poster advertising campaign. Huge bills in four different styles were posted

on various locations in 15 large German cities. People in Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Munich,

Stuttgart or Frankfurt were able to see four different posters, each presenting one bottle of a

Bionade flavour, decorated with the slogan: “Das offizielle Getränk einer besseren Welt”.

The reference to the website www.stille-taten.de was also printed at the bottom.

Figure 5: Out‐of‐home, Bionade Poster34

33 Radio Marketing Service 34 Bionade



24

Guerilla Sensation

But Bionade also tried to make their advertising an unusual event. With the help of a so-

called “Leuchtbotschafter” (literally translates to “illuminated messenger”), a person who

walks through the streets and projects Bionade messages to house walls, pavements, and ve-

hicles with a mobile beamer, they brought their messages as close as possible to their cus-

tomers.

Figure 6: Bionade Leuchtbotschafter35

Projected messages such as, “Smile”, “Write it Down”, “Be here”, “Wake up and Dream”,

“Give and don’t ask for something in return”, and “Wishing helps” aimed to inspire good

feeling. “Elderberry is underestimated”, “Let your stomach decide”, “Give fruits more funny

names, like lychee”, rather focused on the product. The Bionade crown cap at the bottom of

the display and the blue coloured background are connections to the brand, whereas the name

does not play as big of a role. “Bionade” is displayed infrequently between the other mes-

sages.

In the course of the Bionade campaign, the Leuchtbotschafter has been deployed in several

major German cities to create brand awareness and profile the Bionade image.36 Mostly at

dusk during the summer, he approached crowded places such as café terraces. Next to that, a

video about the Leuchtbotschafter in action has been created by the advertising agency Kolle

& Rebbe. This video is spread on the internet and can be viewed on the websites of Bionade,

35 Bionade 36 Schulz



25

Kolle&Rebbe, diverse Online Newspapers, and also on You Tube. Alone on the latter web-

site the video has been viewed nearly 5000 times.37

Banner

Bionade advertisment banners38 were placed at diverse German Lifestyle, Sport, and Well-

ness Portals on the internet. They are in the same style as the outdoor posters and also point

to the website www.stille-taten.de which is another clever part of the campaign:

Stille Taten

“Stille Taten” can be translated to “silent doings”. The idea behind the initiative is to bring

joy and hope to people. This is based on a voluntary favour that people do one another. They

surprise others in their daily lives with little, wonderful doings though they stay anonymous,

to create speculation and discussion. He or she only leaves the “Stille Taten” postcard at the

scene. The website documents what “good” people have done to others and also how the re-

ceivers experienced the silent doings. Examples are dropping a nice CD in a mailbox, or pol-

ishing shoes that are standing in front of an apartment.

The website is not a campaign by Bionade, but Bionade Corporation supports the initiative.

Thus people do not feel to be an instrument of a Bionade marketing campaign, but neverthe-

less link to the brand to the good doings of people. Some silent doings even reach more than

one person. A “Hug Zone” was drawn with chalk in a city’s shopping street. It attracted the

attention of pedestrians and after some time people actually stepped into the “zone” and

hugged each other with a happy smile on their faces. The silent addresser of this action de-

signed the Bionade crown cap on the sign that points to the “Hug Zone”. Thus he or she ad-

vertised for the brand Bionade for free. A video of the action can be seen on the internet,

which creates potential for viral marketing. On You Tube it has been watched almost 9000

times.39

Response

The Bionade campaign was implemented only a few days before the G8-Summit in Germany

started. The slogan “Bionade. The official drink for a better world” felt right for hundreds of

37 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hb13uMKKlN0 38 Appendix: Online Bionade Banner 39 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbPFt7xil7Y



26

thousands of protesters of the G8-Summit, who called Bionade their favourite drink. News-

papers, radios, and TV channels reported about the protests, about Bionade, about their slo-

gan. Bionade Corporation distances themselves from political statements, but in fact they

stand for social and environmental responsibility. People should interact with themselves and

their surroundings more consciously.40 Topics of conversation about Bionade rose and that

attention was used for the campaign. The media mix of out-of-home, online marketing, radio,

and public relations media was well chosen and it came into play at a critical time to create

rising tension.

3.5.2.2. Result

In 2007, the year of the Guerilla Marketing campaign, Bionade Corporation tripled their sales

from 2006 to 200 million sold bottles41. The aided brand awareness42 was 10% in 200643 and

increased to almost 50% in 200744. German customers refer to Bionade as a lifestyle drink

which is healthier than common soft drinks.45 The characteristics which come to mind when

talking about Bionade now, are far from the original image of being a drink solely sold in

health-food shops. Thus it can be concluded that the goal of the campaign to achieve wide

brand awareness and image profiling for Bionade was reached.

The cross-medial advertising created added value and cost only a few million Euros. For

those results the budget is not high. “Minimal costs for maximal output”, just like the defini-

tion of Guerilla Marketing. Bionade Corporation, the small company from Bavaria, now

holds a good position in the saturated beverage market, thanks to the Guerilla Marketing

Strategy of being creative and having wits among other things. Bionade acknowledged that

the skilful interaction between the different communication channels is vital and used it to

their advantage. 46 Online and offline activities should be linked, since individuals today

communicate through all available media. 47

40 Convenience Shop 41 200 million sold bottles achieved a turnover of 48.6 million € in 2007 42 Aided awareness occurs when you show or read a list of brands and the person expresses familiarity with your brand only after they hear or see it (http://www.davedolak.com/articles/dolak4.htm) 43 MSN News 44 Reich 45 Results from Consumer Questionnaire Chapter 4

46 http://www.activemobile.ch/_admin/4_upload/_files/Factsheets.05/Crossmedia.pdf

47 Holzapfel



27

3.6. Obstacles of Guerilla Marketing

Guerilla Marketing goes another way than traditional marketing. Therefore it is often diffi-

cult to recognize the fine line between provocation and offence, between drawing the atten-

tion to a company and to create a negative reputation, to get new customers and to lose pros-

pects.

The following example shows a Guerilla Marketing campaign that failed. There are some-

times invisible limits that a company should not cross:

A company promoted its new comedy series by placing a large electronic billboard featuring

an adult character in the city centre of Boston, MA. Lose cables were hanging out of the bill-

board. People passing by believed that they were explosives and panicked. They called the

police and an anti-terror unit was sent to disarm the billboard which was wrongly interpreted

as a bomb. The city centre and all access roads were closed. Later that day the mistake was

uncovered and it resulted in two arrests and costs of 500,000 US$.48 Even though the adver-

tising was already in the city for some days and was also placed in other major US cities and

did not cause any excitement there, it is obvious that those in charge should have dealt with

this topic in a more sensitive way.

New technologies – like many things – are a blessing and a curse at the same time. Viral and

Mobile Marketing are the most successful marketing trends that spread the word so fast that

it often cannot be retraced or controlled anymore. As described in the example above a crea-

tive idea can quickly turn into bad publicity. Especially in these cases it would be beneficial

if the advertising could be just erased and would thereby limit the number of people that see

it. Thus an even greater damage could be avoided. But in times of Viral Marketing and media

coverage from all over the world, it is almost impossible to let something “disappear“ that

was presented to the public once before. Consequently this means that every publication that

has not been thought through carefully can damage the reputation of the company and can

result in the loss of customers.49

48 Spiegel Online 49 Dr Prof Zerr



28

4. How is Guerilla Marketing perceived today?

4.1. Customer Perception of Guerilla Marketing

4.1.1. Survey

4.1.1.1. Purpose

In order to get an idea about the future of marketing, especially about the future of Guerilla

Marketing, we can only draw conclusions from the people that are going to decide over the

success of Marketing in the future – the customers. Therefore a field research gives us the

best picture of the reality.

It is of course difficult for people to have an idea about how they will perceive advertisings

in 5 or 10 years. On the other hand a general acceptance or rejection now, that can be uncov-

ered through a survey, can give some hints about the future trends. Marketing experts also

have to deal with the question of how customers are going to perceive advertising in the fu-

ture. They would be a good alternative to a quantitative survey, but their conclusions are also

only a result of feedback from customers. Therefore it is best to get the information from the

initial source directly, the customers.

4.1.1.2. Structure of the Questionnaire50

At the beginning of the questionnaire the respondents are welcomed and are given a short

introduction to the purpose and the general topic. Basic instructions to answer the questions

correctly are also given.

The questionnaire can be divided into four parts. The first three parts refer to Guerilla Mar-

keting campaigns by three different brands. The respondent can see pictures of the first two

activities and in the last example he or she can also listen to a radio spot that was part of a

campaign. Within the three parts mainly closed questions have to be answered. The answers

can be chosen from various possibilities which were ranked according to a Likert scale. The

questions should clarify if the respondents like the idea and if they have actually seen or

heard about the campaign. It is also essential to find out if they understand the message and if

they are able to connect the information from the current campaign with the attributes and

50 Appendix: Consumer Questionnaire



29

advertisings from former campaigns. Open questions that ask for associations show if the

goal of the companies have been met.

The fourth and last part gives the respondent the possibility to evaluate their own perception

of advertising in general and which aspects are important for their purchase decisions. Some

questions were closed questions and offered various answers. Others let the respondents rate

the given answers according to their importance. The relevant instructions were given with

every question. A specification about gender and age concluded the questionnaire.

4.1.1.3. Sample Selection

A determination of a target group that should preferably answer the questionnaire is difficult.

Every product targets different groups, but the survey is not about a specific product or its

advertising, but about marketing and its perception in general. The population that has to be

taken into consideration is comprised of everybody that is exposed to advertising and that

includes almost all of mankind.

Even the resulting sample would be much too big. The selected examples were chosen to

make it easier for respondents to evaluate GM ideas. Since they mainly target teenagers and

adults up to 50 years, we chose our respondents according to their age group. Our respon-

dents were between the age of 12 and 35. We intentionally chose examples of Guerilla Mar-

keting that are targeted at young adults, because those who belong to this age group are going

to be the ones with the highest purchase power within the next decades. Consequently they

will be the ones that are going to face the future marketing efforts.

The chosen examples show Guerilla activities of products that were released on the German

market. To fill in the questionnaire with reliable data, the respondents needed to have the

chance to be exposed to the products and brands before. This can only be guaranteed if the

respondents live in Germany. In general the population and sample size cannot be determined

and therefore a non-probability sampling technique was chosen. The survey was sent by

email to people of this age group with the request to redirect it to other people with the same

important characteristics – in this case they have to be in the same age group.



30

Due to time and budget limitations it was not possible to conduct a representative research.

With the snowball effect the questionnaire was passed on to other respondents. Feedbacks

were collected for three weeks and 100 replies revealed a general trend.

4.1.1.4. Limitations

To weight the results of the survey the research quality has to be analysed. As mentioned

above the resources available for the conduction of the research were limited. Therefore the

number of replies does not allow the results to be generalized. An evaluation can only show a

trend.

The answers of the respondents were handled anonymously. Nevertheless it has to be taken

into consideration that a contamination of the answers cannot be out of question. The small

group of the respondents we know personally might have hesitated in giving definite answers

and therefore might have caused a participant bias. Furthermore not all answers that were

given could be taken into the evaluation since the respondents did not answer the questions

according to the instructions given. Even though the instructions were precisely stated, there

were some issues in the design of the questionnaire that could have avoided these mistakes.

4.1.1.5. Evaluation

The 100 filled in questionnaires that we received back within three weeks are the basis for

the results that we use to highlight trends. The results are going to influence the overall con-

clusion of the report and will help to answer the question: Can Guerilla Marketing be suc-

cessful in the future? In order to make it easier for the reader to understand the essential re-

sults of the customer survey, the most crucial points are summarized under various headings

below.

Guerilla Marketing Examples

The respondents were asked to rate how much they like the examples that were shown. All

three examples showed different products that are sold on the German market. The first was

the well-known detergent Mr. Clean, the second showed a Guerilla campaign from the airline

Swiss Air. In the last example the respondents could listen to a radio spot from the Bionade

Guerilla Marketing campaign that was described as a case study in this report before. Since



31

most of the questions were identical in every example the results are presented in summa-

rized percentages.

The interviewees evaluated the advertisement rather positive than negative. 27.9% liked the

advertisings and even 17.2% liked them very much. But most respondents (36.6%) rated

them as being fair.

Almost all respondents knew the products and brands that were shown and approximately

80% of all answers named obvious attributes and elements, that are partly also presented in

other advertisings of the brand.

Even though most respondents tended to like the advertisings that were shown and knew

which brands were presented, many would not tell their family or friends about the excep-

tional advertisings. Thereby it did not matter if they saw or heard it in reality or just on the

pictures and the spot presented in the questionnaire. Only 8.3% were sure to tell at least

somebody about the Guerilla marketing activities. In fact 24.1% were sure that they would

not spread the word about the unusual advertising. Most of them - in total 28.6% - did not

decide weather or not to tell other people.

Result: Guerilla Marketing seems to be something that amuses people and inspires them to

take a closer look. 59.5% believe that they would have taken a closer look if they had seen or

heard such advertising in reality. A closer look would mean that they would remember the

information they saw better and that might influence their purchase decision later on.

This is the ultimate goal of advertisements. It is a myth that an advertisement can push a per-

son into the next shop to buy a product. Customers have to be exposed to advertisements up

to 15 times before they feel the wish to buy a product. Normally this process can be best il-

lustrated with the help of the AIDA model51. In the best case scenario an advertisement gets

the attention of a prospect, arises his or her interest and later the desire to own it, which will

lead to an action: the purchase. Guerilla Marketing seems to be the right way to get the first

two steps of the AIDA model, the attention and the interest of customers, even at the first

contact. Often advertisements need several contacts before they get the attention or even the

interest of a prospect.

51 Appendix: AIDA Model



32

The viral effect on the other hand does not work as good as expected. Not everybody is shar-

ing his or her experience with Guerilla advertising. Even though the survey does not go into

detail, it is most likely that the viral effect is most effective on the internet, because it is eas-

ier and quicker to spread information online. Often companies even offer the possibility to

“tell a friend” with just one click.

Influence on purchase decision

With every example the respondents were asked to think about the possibility to buy the

product for the first time. Next to those that had already bought the product before, only 2

persons indicated that they would buy the product because of the advertising they just saw or

heard. In total 70.8% of all respondents never bought the products before and did not choose

the option to buy it in the future.

Another question in the survey requested the respondents to choose two purchase decision

factors from a list: one that influences them the most and one that persuades them the least.

For none of the respondents “advertising” was the most relevant element within the purchase

decision process. Quite the contrary is true: 20.7% chose that advertising is the factor that

influences them the least.

Result: Even though the survey revealed that people spend some thought on unexpected and

unusual advertisings, the survey also shows that people do not necessarily consider buying

the product – at least not right away. Even though the desire and the action are not inspired

yet, the huge effects of Guerilla Marketing on the attention and the interest of a customer

leads one to suspect that a prospect does not need as many contacts with the advertisement as

with other marketing strategies to bring them to a final purchase.

Essentials of Advertising

According to the AIDA model52, the first goal of advertising is to get the attention of the cus-

tomer. If this goal is not met, the further goals - interest, desire and action - cannot be

reached. Respondents rated the „design” of the advertising with 59.3% by far as the most

relevant element that directs their attention towards an advertisement. The second fundamen-

tal aspect is the “content” with 21.3%.

52 Appendix: AIDA Model



33

Result: Design and content are the keywords. To get the interest of the customer it has to be

something innovative that stands out from all the other advertisings. Since people are used to

certain standard formats like TV or radio spots, something new and unusual has to be created

in order to be the one advertisement that is noticed out of a thousand others.

Price/Quality Ratio in Combination with Traditional Tools

Price and quality are the most essential elements that influence the purchase decision. For

42.1% of all of these interviewees quality is the most crucial factor, for 29.5% it is price.

Other decision factors like packaging or reputation are not as important as price and quality.

The usual advertisement, that is seen everyday for thousands of times, was predominantly

connected to negative aspects. Mainly the words “bothering” and “obtrusive” were associated

with advertising. Almost half of all the respondents chose one of these words. But still, the

respondents most likely notice advertisement on traditional channels that mainly show tradi-

tional advertisement. The following channels were rated as the most (or second most) impor-

tant ones: TV (41.4%), magazines (20.4%), radio (15.1%) and posters (13.5%). Other chan-

nels, that are already used infrequently, such as events, e-mails, internet and give-away arti-

cles are not the locations where the respondents notice advertisement that much.

Result: Traditional advertising has the goal to inform customers and prospects about their

benefits. Obvious and exaggerative fashion advertisings are focusing on the best taste, the

perfect fit, the lowest price or on long-lasting performance. But people are not interested in

these ways of advertisings anymore. They are tired of seeing offerings that are almost too

good to be true.

Conscious persuasibility through advertising

The survey revealed that consumers believe that they are influenced by advertising. 39% an-

swered that they are probably influenced by it. 22% are sure that advertising is an integral

part of their purchase decision process. Only 2% believe that they are not affected at all.

Result: These results show that the respondents know what most advertisements try to do – to

push them towards a purchase. If somebody knows that a factor is trying to push into one



34

direction, it can result in a sceptical attitude towards what is said. The customer is then not

without prejudice and not open to persuasions.

4.1.1.6. Conclusion

The customer survey revealed that the respondents are looking for something different than

what is presented to them in daily advertisements. Advertising needs a comeback as an ele-

ment that influences people towards a purchase. Even though quality and price are the essen-

tial factors that influence the decision for or against a product, the predominately used adver-

tising forms, that praise the advantageous price or quality of a product, are not very well per-

ceived by customers.

Guerilla Marketing is different than traditional advertising. Often it focuses neither on quality

nor on price. The goal is to improve brand awareness; thus the focus is on alternatives to

stress the price and quality of a product, such as location, reputation and image. Furthermore

Guerilla Marketing uses creative, new, and innovative elements that are positioned as to get

the customer’s attention by a surprise effect. The idea of the campaign is in the foreground,

whereas the brand rather takes a position in the background. The results of the survey display

that the respondents are interested in the shown Guerilla campaigns. The majority did also

state that they consciously avoid traditional marketing communication like TV commercials

for instance. Thus we can conclude that Guerilla Marketing activities are more attracting to

them than traditional advertisements nowadays.

New channels that can be used for effective marketing are already discovered by marketers

but not yet recognized by customers. Therefore these channels such as emails and events give

advertisers the possibility to get customers and prospects at the moment where they do not

expect to get in touch with marketing and where they can be persuaded more easily. Espe-

cially online advertisings seem to have a greater potential because of the convenience of ad-

ditional word-of-mouth advertising. The combination of innovative advertisings and non-

traditional channels seems to be an effective combination for the future.

4.1.2. Expert opinion

Several opinions of Guerilla Marketing Experts have been brought together in this thesis.

Their views and the results of the customer survey we conducted will contribute highly to the



35

overall conclusion of this thesis, answering the question of whether Guerilla Marketing

stands a chance in the business future.

With the help of a prepared questionnaire53 we spoke to the “Guerilla Thinkers” Ruedi

Maeder, Thorsten Schulte, and David Eicher, who all closely monitor the advertising world

through their work as marketers in agencies and because of their personal interest. Their

statements on the current usage of Guerilla Marketing and its chances in the marketing world

of tomorrow are presented in the following paragraphs.

4.1.2.1. Guerilla Marketing Today

The main reason why companies opt for Guerilla Marketing these days can be differentiated

between small and larger organisations. Smaller companies obviously chose the cost-

effective principle since they only have a small advertising budget on-hand. Larger, more

solvent companies are often able to afford TV and Print Ads. They use Guerilla Marketing

since it achieves value that cannot be created by classical advertising alone.54

Goal of Guerilla Marketing

The Guerilla Marketing effect is in general independent from the size of the company. How-

ever larger companies can have advantages, since they have more means, more brains, and

more ideas. Therefore they may achieve more penetration and impact.55

Whoever implements Guerilla Marketing wants to get attention for their brand.56 However,

the expectations on Guerilla Marketing differ. For small and medium-sized organizations and

for no-name brands, the profitability plays the fundamental role. When implementing Guer-

illa Marketing, their focus is on increasing brand awareness and winning coverage. Interna-

tionally operating companies with established brands, on the other hand, use Guerilla Mar-

keting to steer their brand into a certain direction. Brand differentiation can be a goal, or

spreading the brand message of classical advertising by unconventional techniques.57

Implementation of Guerilla Marketing

53 Appendix: Interview Questions Experts 54 Maeder 55 Maeder 56 Schulte 57 Eicher



36

Guerilla Marketing is done offline rather than online. The actions have a dynamic character,

following the principle of “hit and run”; they appear and disappear quickly. Here the surprise

effect is more important than the dialogue with potential customers. Eicher states he uses the

Guerilla Marketing instrument Guerrilla Sensation most, since it meets the demand of the

press for spectacular graphical material best and is therefore often cited. To draw attention

the action should be highly emotional, tell a good story and contain an interactive element.

This is called a multimodal approach.

The Guerilla Marketing appearances of smaller companies are often more radical and on the

verge of crossing the line. Thereby it is of utter importance that the advertising is not at the

expense of the audience. If the aim for awareness and publicity is placed higher than the in-

terest of the people, the brand image is damaged.

International firms are more hesitant than small companies when using Guerilla Marketing.

Since they want to build up a concentrated brand image worldwide, their marketing activities

need a certain amount of steering. They often follow a “brand book”. It lists tested marketing

activities and points out what activity is targeted to underline what brand element.58 Guerilla

Marketing activities on an international basis can be realised through viral mechanisms,

which function internationally and comprehensively. Here priority needs to be given to good

coordination of the campaign.59

Universal Remedy?

Guerilla Marketing always has to be considered critically. It is no universal remedy.60 Guer-

illa Marketing is an instrument that can be employed subtly and appears different from clas-

sical advertising; all that for a lot less money. What matters are ideas, not plump actions and

originality carried to extremes. People actually make the advertising; Guerilla Marketing is

just the instrument. Thus if marketers make bad Guerilla Marketing, they cannot accomplish

anything. It cannot stand for a universal remedy, but if it is used cleverly, Guerilla Marketing

can have great effect. Professional handling is indispensable for every Guerilla activity. Cru-

cial for success are accompanying measures such as Public Relations. 61 According to a study

58 Eicher 59 Maeder 60 Schulte 61 Maeder



37

by Robert & Horst62 Guerilla Marketing unfortunately still lacks support from the PR de-

partments in German industry. That minimizes its potential enormously.

4.1.2.2. Future of Guerilla Marketing

In the future consumers will take a negative view of advertising messages, if those are inarti-

ficial, boring, exchangeable, and without strong ideas. Clever, funny, or original messages

are needed, since ideas will always have an economic cycle. 63

Schulte hopes that Guerilla Marketing will always stay surprising. If more and more compa-

nies implement unusual activities, it might loose its appeal for the audience since repetition

of an action kills the surprise effect. Guerilla Marketing should stay in a niche, even though

the interest to use it steadily increases. In times of a good economy Guerilla Marketing is not

a topic anyway, since the marketing budgets rise and classical advertising channels are fa-

voured. Schulte calls billions investments in those channels advertising insanity. He calls for

a more eventful marketing placed in the surroundings of the consumer.64 But Expert Schulte

warns: The term Guerilla Marketing has gained popularity in the last years. As agencies want

to be connected to good ideas, many claim to offer Guerilla Marketing, but they actually do

not have the knowledge and experience to really implement it. 65 On the other hand there are

good agencies specialised on Guerilla Marketing. Unfortunately the Press has also led to a

confusion of ideas in the public. Normal promotional activities, such as a flyer distribution,

have been falsely titled Guerilla Marketing in major newspapers.

4.1.2.3. Conclusion: Future Advice

Against the general perception, Guerilla Marketing is not a trend but an instrument. It has

existed for over 50 years now and gained importance since its invention. Especially in the

B2B sector Guerilla Marketing is applied more and more.66 Thus the philosophy will not be

replaced by another root thought in the future. But the composition of Guerilla Marketing

will be different. Classical advertising with viral aspects is an example.

62 Robert&Horst Marketing GmbH 63 Maeder 64 Schulte 65 Schulte 66 Schulte



38

Single Guerilla Marketing activities are not advised by the experts. They do reach attention,

but not necessarily influence images, opinions, and consumer behaviour. The classical adver-

tising Media Mix should thus be complemented with unconventional forms to address the

audience. The interaction is utterly important in the future in order to make potential custom-

ers become real buyers. In the future strategists should think and act modern. They should

not disregard Guerilla Marketing, but realise that classical advertising does not reach many

target groups. Forms of approach need to be found that are accepted by the audience and not

ignored. 67 Companies have to be sensitive and pay close attention to their target group.

67 Eicher



39

5. Conclusion

Guerilla Marketing is much more than just a trend today. It is rather an instrument that is

utilized by companies of all sizes. Today’s Guerilla Marketing, though, differs from the

Guerilla Marketing philosophy that Levinson developed in the 1980s.

Neither the majority of small nor the majority of large companies take over the original Lev-

inson idea. But still many companies partly use the aspects of the root philosophy. Basic

ideas such as the setup of a corporate identity were taken over by almost every company.

Many others use new forms of Guerilla Marketing such as Viral Marketing or Guerilla Sen-

sation. Even though they often rely on a classical marketing mix, advertising campaigns

make use of the Guerilla surprise effect and its witty ideas. With the help of only a small

budget, the maximum attention is drawn to their advertising. Of course not all aspects of

Levinson’s root idea can be used today. The approach to insist on a chosen Marketing cam-

paign, even if it does not lead to the expected return for quite a long time, for instance, is

difficult to put into practice at a time where economical conditions and markets are changing

rapidly.

Although companies of all sizes utilize the same new defined approaches of Guerilla Market-

ing, the reasons why they opt for that instrument differ. For small and medium sized compa-

nies the advantage is still the cost-effectiveness that makes it so interesting to implement.

Larger, often more solvent companies on the other hand do not have to opt for such an inex-

pensive way of advertising. Guerilla Marketing is an additional marketing instrument to

them, which provides additional value in form of attention. Classical advertising alone often

fails to provide that extra value.

Guerilla Marketing is not a guarantor of success. A design framework is needed to make

campaigns as effective as possible, since people in the modern world have a rather negative

attitude towards advertising. Such barriers have to be overcome first. Thereby it is fundamen-

tally important to create an advertisement that does not praise the obvious advantages of low

prices and high qualities, but to draw the attention towards the brand. Not the product is the

central issue in Guerilla Marketing. The creative idea is fundamental and is supposed to re-

flect positively on the brand.



40

The creation of advertising that hits the nerve of the target group is elemental; however it has

to be actually seen by the people. But costumers know exactly that marketers prefer to place

advertisements through classical channels such as TV and magazines. This fact lets them see

advertising conditionally. Consequently the advertisements have to be placed in channels that

are not as noticed so far, for instance the internet and emails.

The success of Guerilla Marketing does not depend on a particular period. It has also been

successful in the 50s and 60s. Since then it has developed and is used more frequently and

also by bigger companies, which eventually got Guerilla Marketing into the spotlight of at-

tention. Since many companies face decreasing marketing budgets lately, Guerilla marketing

is a cost-effective alternative to traditional marketing strategies.

The concept of Guerilla Marketing will also work in the future if not too many companies

work with this alternative. In case the traditional advertising is repressed more and more and

Guerilla Marketing activities are a rather normal appearance among advertisings, the essen-

tial surprise effect will not be guaranteed anymore. It could come to this development when

weak economic conditions diminish marketing budgets even further.

But in all probability classical advertising will also exist in the future and will not be dis-

placed by alternative forms like Guerilla Marketing. Nevertheless classical advertising has to

change to get through to customers. Therefore it is likely that traditional marketing will trans-

form for example by taking over characteristics of Guerilla and Viral Marketing. This might

result in advertisings with pointed formulation and direct address towards the target group.

Advertising would need to activate as many senses as possible. Also it should act multimo-

dal, being present in all kinds of channels their target group moves in.

The fact that classical advertising is often perceived negatively among customers should be a

warning for future Guerillas. Although customers often perceive Guerilla Marketing as some-

thing new and interesting today, in the future it can also turn to be something that bothers

prospects. This is a real threat due to the fact that a single Guerilla Marketing activity cannot

influence customers’ behaviour or their purchase decision.

The recipe for future Guerillas is simple: the classical Media Mix has to be combined with

unconventional instruments such as the Guerilla Marketing in order to attract attention and



41

lead to a purchase. Guerillas have to be venturous to use their whole creative potential with

the selection of the adequate advertising design and the choice of the most effective channels.

As we have read in this thesis, people and the markets are changing constantly. Companies

have to be flexible and find the opportunities new situations offer. Practitioners and enthusi-

asts, who have their finger on the pulse of time, can use Guerilla Marketing victoriously as

long as their idea is superior.



IX

List of Literature

Active Mobile Media AG, http://www.activemobile.ch/_admin/4_upload/_files/Factsheets.05/Crossmedia.pdf

Bieri, C., Handschin, P., Siegenthaler, D., Spycher, M., PPT „Gorilla Marketing“; 30.06.06

http://www.wirtschaft.bfh.ch/personal/1083/File/infos/themen/Guerilla_Marketing.pdf

Bionade, www.bionade.com

http://www.bionade.com/service/BIONADE_Leuchtbotschafter.mpg

Convenience Shop, „Bionade:Kampagne zum G-8-Gipfel, 30.05.07

http://convenienceshop.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=667&Itemid=26

CrossmediaCases, „Bionade“; 11.02.2008

http://www.crossmedia-zentrum.de/cms/2008/02/11/oktober-2007-bionade/

Dr Prof Zerr, K., „Marketing für Querdenker: Guerilla Marketing belebt die Werbung“, Innovativ In;

02.04.2008 http://www.innovativ-in.de/p.2651.htm

Eicher, D., CEO, Robert & Horst Marketing / webguerillas, http://www.robertundhorst.de/v2/

Emsdettener Volkszeitung, „Chefetage“ Interview with Peter Kowalsky“ , 03.04.2008

Guerilla Marketing International, http://www.gmarketing.com/

Guerilla Marketing Portal,

„Guerilla Marketing Historie“, 2005 http://www.marketing.ch/wissen/sonderwerbeformen/guerilla_historie.pdf

“Sensation Marketing / Ambient Stunt“, 2007

http://www.guerilla-marketing-portal.de/index.cfm?linkArticleID=56

„Guerilla Marketing Instrumente“ http://www.guerilla-marketing-portal.de/index.cfm?menuID=90

Holzapfel, Felix, „Crossmedia – Guerilla Attack“, 10.05.2006

http://guerillamarketingbuch.com/category/22-crossmedia/

Kotler, P., Jain, D., Maesincee, S., “Marketing Moves: A New Approach to Profits, Growth, and Renewal”,

Harvard Business School Press; 1st edition, 2002

Kotler, P., Wong, V., Saunders, J., Armstrong, G., “Principles of Marketing”, Pearson Education Prentice

Hall, 4th European Edition; 2005,

Levinson, J. C., “Guerrilla Marketing: Easy and Inexpensive Strategies for Making Big Profits from Your

Small Business”, Houghton Mifflin Company; 4th edition, 2007



X

Maeder, R., CEO, Maeder & Partner Agentur am Wasser, http://www.agenturamwasser.ch

Marketing Partner, „Werbung im Tarnanzug - Warum Unternehmen auf neue Werbeformen setzen“;

19.09.2006

http://www.marketingpartner.de/presse/presseinformationen/info-

ar-

chiv/2006/?tx_mininews_pi1%5BshowUid%5D=192&tx_mininews_pi1%5Bpointer%5D=0&cHash=f2cdd545

9f

MSN News, http://news.de.msn.com/wirtschaft/Article.aspx?cp-documentid=5104158

Radio Marketing Service, http://www.rms.de/bionade/

Reich, I., „New York und Los Angeles warten auf Bionade“, Handelsblatt; ,8.11.2007

http://www.handelsblatt.com/News/Karriere/Koepfe/_pv/_p/200811/_t/ft/_b/1349003/default.aspx/new-york-

und-los-angeles-warten-auf-bionade.html

Ries, A.; Trout, J., „Marketing Generalstabsmäßig“, Hamburg 1986

Robert&Horst Marketing GmbH,

http://www.robertundhorst.de/v2/img/downloads/gfkstudie_2007.pdf

Schulte, T., „Guerilla Marketing für Unternehmertypen. Das Kompendium" (Broschiert)

Wissenschaft & Praxis; Auflage: 3., völlig überarbeitete und erweiterte Auflage (Juni 2007)

Guerilla-Marketing-Portal, www.guerilla-marketing-portal.de

http://www.marketing.ch/wissen/sonderwerbeformen/guerilla_historie.pdf

Schulz, I., Employee, Kolle & Rebbe Werbeagentur

Seissler, H., „It’s all a matter of taste“, Atlantic Times; 08.2007

http://www.atlantic-times.com/archive_detail.php?recordID=980

Spiegel Online, tim/AP/AFP, „Guerilla-Werbung stürzt Boston ins Chaos“; 01.02.2007

http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/0,1518,463661,00.html

Streitz, M.,

“Der König der Glückskekse”, Manager Magazin; 16.10.2003

http://www.manager-magazin.de/koepfe/artikel/0,2828,269999,00.html

„Vodafone und die Hintern der Rugby-Flitzer“, Spiegel Online; 05.08.2002



XI

http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/0,1518,208279,00.html

Webguerillas, http://www.webguerillas.de/knowhow_faq.php

Wikipedia

“Moorhuhn Computerspiel”

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moorhuhn_%28Computerspiel%29



XII

Appendix

1. Online Bionade Banner, Source: Cross Media

Figure 7: Bionade Banner



XIII

2. Interview Questions Bionade

1. Wie würden Sie Ihren Markt beschreiben?

2. Wer ist Ihre Zielgruppe?

3. Welche Marketingstrategie verfolgt Bionade?

4. Fokussieren Sie sich dabei auf die Marke oder auf das Produkt? Und warum?

5. Auf welches Image zielt ihr Marketing ab?

6. Warum kaufen Konsumenten Ihrer Meinung nach Bionade?

7. Wie wollen Sie Ihre Markenbekanntheit weiter ausbauen?

8. Wie können Sie sich in Zukunft von verschärfter Nachahmerkonkurrenz als Original

abheben?

9. Was erwarten Sie von der anstehenden Produkterweiterung um eine Geschmacksrich-

tung?

10. Fragen zu Ihrer innovativen Markenkommunikation:

I. Leuchtbotschafter

Wo wurde er eingesetzt?

Was war das Ziel?

Wie war die Reaktion?

II. Funk Werbung/ Plakate/ (stille-taten.de)

Wurden diese Aktionen zeitgleich eingesetzt?

Wo hangen die Plakate?

Wo und wie oft wurden die Radiospots ausgestrahlt?

Haben Sie gezielt absatzstarke Städte ausgesucht?

Was war das Ziel?

Wie war die Resonanz?

11. Was war der Hauptgrund aus dem sich Bionade für Guerilla Marketing entschieden hat?

12. Hat Bionade nur eine Guerilla Kampagne verfolgt?

13. Was halten Sie von Guerilla Marketing in Kombination mit klassischen Werbemitteln

wie z.B. TV und Print Werbung?

14. Wird Guerilla Marketing auch ein Bestandteil des Marketing im Ausland sein, wenn Bio-

nade weiter expandiert?

15. Wo sehen Sie sich in 5 Jahren? Wie soll sich die Marke weiterentwickeln?



XIV

3. Interview Questions Experts 1. Was ist Ihrer Meinung nach der Hauptgrund, warum sich Firmen heutzutage für Guerilla

Marketing entscheiden?

2. Ist die in den 80er Jahren von Levinson publizierte Guerilla Marketing Philosophie für

kleinere Unternehmen in der heutigen Zeit noch so umsetzbar wie damals?

3. Wie kann auch eine größere Firma die Guerilla Marketing Strategie heutzutage erfolgreich

anwenden?

4. Wie ist ein Guerilla Marketing Konzept auf internationaler Ebene realisierbar?

5. Guerilla Marketing sollte der „Retter“ aus der Werbeflaute 2002 werden. Glauben Sie,

dass Guerilla Marketing dieses Ziel erreicht hat? Wird dieser Trend noch lange anhalten

oder wird hier eine Kundenübersättigung eintreten?

6. Werden Konsumenten immer ablehnender gegenüber Werbebotschaften?

7. Welche neuen Strategien werden Guerilla Marketing weiterentwickeln oder gar ablösen?

8. Wie sollten Unternehmen Guerilla Marketing in Zukunft nutzen?



XV

4. Consumer Questionnaire FFRRAAGGEEBBOOGGEENN ZZUUMM TTHHEEMMAA WWEERRBBUUNNGG

I. Bitte schauen Sie sich folgende Werbeaktion an:

1. Wie gefällt Ihnen diese Werbung?

Sehr gut Gut Mittelmäßig Schlecht Sehr schlecht

2. Kennen Sie diese Werbeaktion?

Ja Wenn ja: Wie haben Sie davon erfahren?

Auf der Straße gesehen Medien (Internet, Zeitung)

Mir wurde davon erzählt Sonstiges: ______

Nein Wenn nein: Würde diese Werbeaktion Ihnen auf der Straße ins Auge fallen? Ja ganz sicher Vielleicht Nein

Wahrscheinlich ja Wahrscheinlich nicht

3. Würden Sie Familienmitgliedern oder Freunden gezielt davon erzählen?

Ja ganz sicher Vielleicht Nein


4. Erkennen Sie diese Marke?

Ja, mir fällt aber der Name nicht ein Ja, die Marke heißt:________________ Nein

5. Was assoziieren Sie mit dieser Marke? _______________________________

6. Haben Sie dieses Produkt schon mal gekauft?

Ja, regelmäßig Nein



XVI

Ja, gelegentlich Nein, aber nach dieser Werbung kaufe ich vielleicht

Ja, selten

II. Bitte schauen Sie sich folgende Werbeaktion der Schweizer Fluggesellschaft Swiss Air an, die eine Woche lang in Hamburg, Berlin und Stuttgart durchgeführt wurde.

1. Wie gefällt Ihnen diese Werbung?

Sehr gut Gut Mittelmäßig Schlecht Sehr

schlecht

2. Kennen Sie diese Werbeaktion?

Ja Wenn ja: Wie haben Sie davon erfahren?

Auf der Straße gesehen Medien (Internet, Zeitung)


Nein Wenn nein: Würde diese Werbeaktion Ihnen auf der Straße ins Auge fallen?






4. Würde diese Werbung Sie veranlassen weitere Informationen über das Angebot einzuho-len?



XVII

Ja Nein

5. Kennen Sie Swiss Air? Ja Nein

6. Was assoziieren Sie mit dieser Marke? ____________________________

7. Haben Sie schon mal einen Flug bei Swiss Air gebucht? Ja, regelmäßig Nein

Ja, gelegentlich Nein, aber nach dieser Werbung buche ich

Ja, selten vielleicht

III. Bitte schauen Sie sich folgendes Werbeplakat an:

Nun hören sie sich den Radiospot an! Öffnen Sie dazu folgenden Link:

Bionade Radiospot (STRG Taste drücken und gleichzeitig auf den Link klicken)

1. Wie gefällt Ihnen dieser Radiospot?

Sehr gut Gut Mittelmäßig Schlecht Sehr schlecht

2. Kennen Sie diesen Radiospot? Ja Wenn ja: Wie haben Sie davon erfahren?

Im Radio gehört Medien (Internet, Zeitung)




XVIII

Nein Wenn nein: Würden Sie bei diesem Radiospot aktiv zuhören? Ja ganz sicher Vielleicht Nein





4. Kennen Sie Bionade? Ja Nein

5. Was assoziieren Sie mit dieser Marke? ___________________________

6. Haben Sie Bionade schon mal gekauft?

Ja, regelmäßig Nein

Ja, gelegentlich Nein, aber nach dieser Werbung kaufe ich viel-

leicht

Ja, selten

Bitte schätzen Sie sich ein.

1. Würden Sie von sich behaupten, dass Sie durch Werbung beeinflusst werden? Ja ganz sicher Wahrscheinlich ja Vielleicht Eher weniger Nein

2. Wo nehmen Sie Werbung besonders stark wahr? Bewerten Sie bitte den wichtigsten“ Wahrnehmungsort“ mit 1 und den zweitwichtigsten mit 2.

TV Plakate Events (z.B.Sportveranstaltungen)

Zeitung/Magazine Internet auf Werbegeschenken

Radio Durch E-Mails Sonstige: _________

3. Gehen Sie Werbung gezielt aus dem Weg, z.B. einem Werbeblock im TV? Ja immer Meistens Gelegentlich Eher selten Nie

4. Welche Faktoren der Werbung erzielen Ihre Aufmerksamkeit? Aufmachung Inhalt Ort der Werbung Ansprache (Direkt) Sonstige:

___________

5. Angenommen Sie haben die Auswahl zwischen zwei identischen Produkten (auch preis-lich), wie entscheidend wäre die Geschichte, Größe und Auftreten der Firma?



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Sehr wichtig Wichtig Eher unwichtig Spielt keine Rolle

6. Was beeinflusst Ihre Kaufentscheidung? Bewerten Sie bitte die wichtigste Eigenschaft mit 1, die unwichtigste Eigenschaft mit 2.

Image/Ruf Ansprechende Verpackung Preis

Werbung Rat von Freunden/Familie Qualität

Sonstige:______

7. Welche Worte assoziieren Sie am ehesten mit Werbung? Einfallsreich Informativ Penetrant Nervend Humorvoll Sonsti-

ge:_________ 8. Welche Attribute treffen am ehesten auf sie zu? Bitte wählen Sie eins der zwei gegenübergestellten Wörter aus.

a. Spontankäufer oder Gewohnheitskäufer

b. Preisorientiert oder Qualitätsorientiert

c. Markenprodukt oder Produkt ohne Marke

IV. Persönliche Angaben

1. Geschlecht: Männlich Weiblich

2. Alter: 12 - 17 18 - 22 23 - 28 29 - 35

Vielen Dank für Ihre Mithilfe!



XX

5. AIDA Model

Figure 8: AIDA Model

Source:http://www.provenmodels.com/files/123ef9407d8e6d92371d23abbff78ac3/aida‐sales‐funnel.gif

gurrella marketing

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