The term Guerrilla Marketing was popularized by Jay Conrad Levinson, in his book of the same name. It was not very long before the term found a lace in the popular marketing jargon. Guerrilla marketing refers to any innovative technique which relies on an unorthodox method of promoting the product, usually by some interactive technique with the general population, thus creating a buzz about the product in the minds of potential customers. Guerrilla marketing strategies differ from conventional marketing in the fact that these are usually low-budget, high-visibility programs which are targeted towards engaging the customers’ imagination and making the product more visible in the market. Guerrilla marketing usually includes targeting people with questionnaires in unexpected public places, arranging giveaway stalls in the streets, sometimes even involving some fake stunts to attract attention; in short, anything that aims to optimize publicity of the product with minimum resources.

Guerrilla marketing campaigns have now enthusiastically gone electronic, with every kind of electronic media being regularly flooded with advertisements, special offers and surprise gifts for random winners. Mobile campaigns and internet campaigns on popular social networking sites have also been introduced for aggressively publicizing the product. The key to guerrilla marketing is to combine creativity with innovative thinking.

Guerrilla marketing also incorporated several new marketing terms in the marketing scenario, such as viral marketing and buzz marketing. Viral marketing is a phenomenon that entails spreading the marketing message, which usually encourages potential customers to pass along this message among their relatives, friends and acquaintances.

Viral marketing strategies usually depend on the assumption that their targets will forward the messages through word of mouth efficiently and quickly, thus spreading awareness about their product/company within a very short time. However, viral marketing strategies are limited by the pass rate; if a large number of targets pass on the information to a large number of acquaintances, the overall growth in awareness is considerable. However, if the pass rate is less, then the whole strategy may fail to leave a mark.

Promotional marketing refers to a combination of several activities such as giveaway programmes and strategic presentations. Branded giveaway gifts which are used for promotional marketing often bring in a large amount of customers. This is because in a majority of cases, the initial impression about the product is formed from some branded gift to the potential customers. The right promotional strategy, combined with proper timing can raise awareness about your product to unprecedentedly high levels. The target audience must be carefully chosen, as they are the ones who will later turn into your regular customers. Often, having some beforehand knowledge about the tastes and the preferences of the target audience helps to design the promotional campaign in such a manner that optimum results are obtained.

Buzz marketing is just another variant of viral marketing techniques, which employs theatrical methods to plant a “buzz” among potential customers. These marketing strategies usually involve setting up a chance encounter with a consumer, and pretend to spontaneously just pass on some casual information. Buzz marketers have been known to create a certain “elite” group of people in the target audience, who are “in the know”, or aware of the product’s features and advantages. Such a situation automatically creates a propensity among the common audience to aspire to become a part of the elite group. Thus, unknowingly, they are forced to participate in spreading the “buzz” about the product!