Guerrilla Marketing—Innovative or Parasitic Marketing?

Gerd Nufer

ESB Business School, Reutlingen University, Reutlingen, Germany.

DOI: 10.4236/me.2013.49A001                

Abstract

Guerrilla marketing designates the selection of atypical and non-dogmatic marketing activities that aim to achieve the greatest possible impact—in the ideal case with a comparable minimum investment. Guerrilla marketing has developed into a basic strategy overarching the marketing mix, a basic marketing policy attitude for market development that goes off the beaten track to consciously seek new, unconventional, previously disregarded, possibly even frown-upon possibilities for the deployment of tools. It is a fine line between innovative, creative marketing and producing reactance in the minds of the audience by exceeding limits. While guerrilla marketing activities can be seen more and more in the marketing practice, the phenomenon is either discussed very controversially in the marketing science or even neglected completely in the scientific marketing literature. The paper gives an overview of guerrilla marketing. It describes and structures guerrilla marketing in a novel form and shows illustrating examples. Finally, guerrilla marketing is evaluated from a neutral perspective and developmental trends are traced.

Keywords

Guerrilla Marketing; Marketing Communications; Marketing Mix; Innovative Marketing

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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