An investigaton into the relevance of Guerrilla Marketing to small and medium-sized enterprises

Thèse de Bachelor , 2006 , 54 Pages , Note: 1.9

Gestion d'entreprise - marketing en ligne et marketing hors ligne

Guerrilla (ge’rilə) marketing; an unconventional way of promotional marketing activities on a low-budget level. This aggressive marketing approach is characterised by creative and legal attacks targeted on competitors in order to maintain or increase awareness and impact to the customer. Guerrilla marketing stands for focusing on conventional goals such as profit or growth, but doing it by using exceptional promotional approaches, like advertising in yellow pages, wild postings or non-traditional outdoor advertising media vehicles. Customers are confronted with an increasing amount of advertising messages per day and therefore organisations have to develop advertising approaches to stand out in today’s media fragmentation. Especially small and medium-sized enterprises are having greater internal limitations regarding a restricted budget for marketing communications and facing bigger external uncertainties than large organisation. Thus, marketing campaigns have to become profitable for an enterprise. The low-cost communication effort is one of the major issues for guerrilla marketers. It is particular relevant for a small company to apply a differentiated set of promotional methods to diversify itself from competition, but guerrilla marketing is also becoming more adopted by large enterprises. This dissertation aims to give the reader a complementary insight of guerrilla marketing and investigates its relevance for a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) in terms of generating profit. The purpose of this study is to identify how relevant this approach is to guerrilla entrepreneurs in small organisations, regarding profitability and flexibility in respect of strategy execution. The first section of this dissertation is concerned with the literal meaning and theory of guerrilla marketing, and its suitability for small and medium-scaled organisations. The second part focuses on the conduction of the survey which has been carried out in order to underline this research with qualitative and quantitative findings. Those findings are visualised and analysed in part three. The fourth part of this research study forms the implications of findings part, in which the results will be evaluated regarding the relevance of guerrilla marketing to small companies. The conclusion of this dissertation combined with a comparison between theory and practice highlight the last section of this research study.

Inhaltsverzeichnis (Table of Contents)

• Abstract
• Table of Contents
• Table of figures
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Literature Review
  • 2.1 Marketing Warfare Strategy
  • 2.2 The Term ‘Guerrilla’
  • 2.3 Guerrilla Marketing
    • 2.3.1 Guerrilla Marketing Benefits
    • 2.3.2 Guerrilla Marketing Principles
    • 2.3.3 Non-traditional Guerrilla Advertising Methods
    • 2.3.4 Word-of-mouth Communication
  • 2.4 SME (Small and Medium-sized Enterprise)
  • 2.5 Guerrilla Marketing Relevance to SMEs
    • 2.5.1 Relevance of E-marketplace Guerrilla Marketing to SMEs
  • 2.6 Examples of Guerrilla Campaigns
  • 2.7 Conclusion of Literature Review
• 3. Methodology
  • 3.1 The Research Process
  • 3.2 Problem Definition
  • 3.3 Research Design
    • 3.3.1 Survey
    • 3.3.2 Self-administered Questionnaire
    • 3.3.3 Internet Questionnaire
    • 3.3.4 Question Design
    • 3.3.5 Critique
  • 3.4 Sampling Unit
  • 3.5 Data Collection
  • 3.6 Data Analysis
  • 3.7 Limitations of Methodology
• 4. Findings and Analysis
• 5. Implications of Findings and Analysis
• 6. Comparison between Theory and Practice
• 7. Conclusion
• 8. Further Areas of Research
• 9. References
• 10. Bibliography
• 11. Appendix

Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte (Objectives and Key Themes)

This dissertation examines the relevance of guerrilla marketing to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Its main objective is to investigate the importance of guerrilla marketing in terms of profitability and flexibility for SMEs, and to analyze the role of guerrilla marketing within this sector. Key themes explored in the research include:

• The definition and benefits of guerrilla marketing
• The principles and tactics of guerrilla marketing
• The relevance of guerrilla marketing to SMEs, particularly in the e-marketplace
• Examples of successful guerrilla marketing campaigns
• The impact of guerrilla marketing on profitability and flexibility for SMEs

Zusammenfassung der Kapitel (Chapter Summaries)

• Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the dissertation, outlining its research objectives, methodology, and the significance of the topic.
• Chapter 2 conducts a comprehensive literature review on the topic of guerrilla marketing. It explores the concept of marketing warfare strategy, the term 'guerrilla,' and the evolution of guerrilla marketing. This chapter examines the benefits, principles, and non-traditional advertising methods associated with guerrilla marketing, and it also discusses the importance of word-of-mouth communication in this context.
• Chapter 3 delves into the methodology used for the research. It describes the research process, problem definition, research design, sampling unit, data collection methods, and data analysis techniques. This chapter also addresses the limitations of the chosen methodology.
• Chapter 4 presents the findings and analysis of the research, drawing insights from the data collected through the survey conducted among SMEs in the German market.
• Chapter 5 analyzes the implications of the findings for SMEs. It discusses the practical applications of the study's results and explores how SMEs can benefit from adopting a guerrilla marketing strategy.
• Chapter 6 compares the theoretical framework of guerrilla marketing with its real-world implementation, highlighting the key areas where theory and practice converge and diverge.

Schlüsselwörter (Keywords)

This study focuses on the relevance of guerrilla marketing to SMEs, exploring key concepts such as marketing warfare strategy, non-traditional advertising methods, word-of-mouth communication, and the impact of guerrilla marketing on profitability and flexibility. The research specifically investigates the role of guerrilla marketing in the German SME market and aims to provide practical insights for businesses seeking to leverage this approach for success.

• Université: University of Lincoln (Faculty of Business & Law)
• Cours: Marketing & Advertising
• Note: 1.9
• Auteur: MSc International Marketing Strategy Benjamin Bach (Auteur)
• Année de publication: 2006
• Pages: 54
• N° de catalogue: V83724
• ISBN (ebook): 9783638874052
• ISBN (Livre): 9783638874151
• Langue: anglais
• mots-clé: Guerrilla, Marketing, Advertising, SME, Mittelstand, Werbung, Guerilla, Strategie, Bachelorarbeit, KMU