Undercover Marketing

Undercover marketing, a relatively new promotional method in which companies use paid employees to engage strangers in conversation about a product without disclosing their affiliation with the company, is growing in popularity. Undercover marketing (also known as buzz marketing, stealth marketing, or by its detractors roach baiting) is a subset of guerrilla marketing where consumers do not realize they are being marketed to.

Consider the following scenario: a cute young couple approaches a stranger, asking the individual to take their picture. The individual obliges, and after the photo is taken, the two engage the stranger in conversation about the camera’s quality and features. The conversation may prove informational and enjoyable, and it may also turn out to be fake, the young couple employed by the company that sells the camera, and the encounter an orchestrated attempt to manufacture buzz about the product. In short, it may be undercover marketing.

In a way, undercover marketing is the extension of technique called “product placement” used in movies (e.g. James Bond driving the newest BMW). However, while “product placement” puts products in the movies, the “undercover marketing” places them in real life situations – in malls, at conferences, at parties, etc.

An undercover campaign which aims to generate buzz, is economical, and once sufficient buzz has been generated, is almost free, as consumers "market" the product to others, through a network of referrals which grows and grows.

When targeting consumers known to be consistent Internet users, undercover marketers have taken a significant interest in leveraging Internet chat rooms and forums. In these settings, people tend to perceive everyone as peers, the semi-anonymity reduces the risk of being found out, and one marketer can personally influence a large number of people. During the dot com boom at the turn of the century, stock promoters frequently used chat rooms to create a buzz and drive up the price of a stock.

Risk: If marketers fail to hide the campaign, they run considerable risk of backlash. In cases where consumers discover they have been manipulated into liking the product, they generally become angry at the marketer (and by association that product) over being misled.

Whatever the risks, undercover marketing only requires a small investment for a large potential pay off. It remains a cheap and effective way of generating buzz, especially in markets such as Tobacco and alcohol where media-savvy target consumers have become increasingly resistant or inaccessible to other forms of advertising.

Tissue Pack Marketing

One of the more clever concepts in awareness marketing in Japan is starting to get attention in the United States, advertising on the front of small packs of tissues. Tissue-pack marketing is a type of guerrilla marketing. Companies hire agencies to distribute small tissue packages with advertisements inserted in them. These tissue packs are then handed out at crowded city areas to various types of passersby. Some target only men or women, depending on the product/service advertised.

Advertising agencies have stuck logos on just about everything imaginable, but how many times in the winter do you wish you had a small packet of tissues handy to take care of a runny nose?

This concept creates an authentic value exchange with the customer – the advertising is giving something to the customer and in return the customer has the option of reading the advertisement, possibly many times. According to an article in Japan Times, over four billion tissue packs are handed out in Japan every year.

An internet survey of over 100,000 consumers show that 76% will accept the tissue packs, with over 50% saying that they’ll definitely look at the ad. One possible reason for this increased statistic when compared to fliers is that consumers were hoping to find coupons or special offers packaged inside with the tissues. In terms of appeal, tissue packs are more welcome than flyers and are more likely to be retained by the recipent.

The concept of tissue-pack marketing was first developed in Japan. Its origins date back to the late 1960s when Hiroshi Mori, the founder of a paper-goods manufacturer in Kochi Prefecture called Meisei Industrial Co., was looking for ways to expand demand for paper products. At the time, the most common marketing freebie in Japan was boxes of matches. These were often given away at banks and then used by women in the kitchen.

Mori figured tissues would have even wider appeal than the matches, and as a result he developed the machinery to fold and package tissues into easy-to-carry, pocket-size packs. The new product was marketed only as a form of advertising and was not sold to consumers.

Where the more traditional flyers are often discarded without being read or simply not accepted by the consumer, the same is not true of advertising tissue-packs. The most important reason for this is because the tissues add functionality to the advertisement. This functionality has several benefits:

1. It is more than an ad. It is useful to the recipient. Bundled value asset (tissue paper) facilitates initial acceptance of ad message. It may also increase overall retention.
2. It is persistent. The message usually stays with the consumer for the lifespan of the pack: there is continual and repeated exposure over a period of time.

Japan is still the main market for tissue-pack advertising, but the practice has begun to spread overseas. In the United States, a subsidiary of the Japanese trading company Itochu, Adpackusa.com, introduced tissue-pack marketing in New York in 2005 and now offers it throughout the country.

A tissue pack isn’t the only asset you can use. The basic strategy is to tag a marketing message to a portable functionality that extends its lifespan and value.

More to Read : Guerrilla Marketing

Guerilla Marketing

Guerrilla marketing is an unconventional system of promotions that relies on time, energy and imagination rather than a big marketing budget. Typically, guerrilla marketing tactics are unexpected and unconventional; consumers are targeted in unexpected places, which can make the idea that's being marketed memorable, generate buzz, and even spread virally. The term was coined and defined by Jay Conrad Levinson in his 1983 book Guerrilla Marketing. The term has since entered the popular vocabulary and marketing textbooks.

Guerilla marketing is more about matching wits than matching budgets. Guerilla marketing can be as different from traditional marketing as guerilla warfare is from traditional warfare.

Small and large businesses alike have applied the principles of Guerrilla Marketing because of their simplicity, common sense, and record of being proven in action. One of the main reasons that businesses fail is lack of marketing insight. Guerrilla marketing provides that insight.

Guerilla Marketing involves unusual approaches such as intercept encounters in public places, street giveaways of products, pr stunts, any unconventional marketing intended to get maximum results from minimal resources. More innovative approaches to Guerilla marketing now utilize cutting edge mobile digital technologies to really engage the consumer and create a memorable brand experience. Great examples of this type of marketing include products such as T-Shirt TV (T-shirttv.com), the mobile media chariot or video segway, and ice cream truck advertising, created by Guerrilla Marketing companies like Brand Marketers (Brand Marketers).

Levinson's books include hundreds of "guerrilla marketing weapons," but they also encourage guerrilla marketeers to be creative and devise their own unconventional methods of promotion. A guerrilla marketeer uses all of his or her contacts, both professional and personal, and examines his company and its products, looking for sources of publicity. Many forms of publicity can be very inexpensive, others are free.

Levinson identifies the following principles as the foundation of guerrilla marketing:

• Guerrilla Marketing is specifically geared for the small business and entrepreneur.
• It should be based on human psychology instead of experience, judgment, and guesswork.
• Instead of money, the primary investments of marketing should be time, energy, and imagination.
• The primary statistic to measure your business is the amount of profits, not sales.
• The marketer should also concentrate on how many new relationships are made each month.
• Create a standard of excellence with an acute focus instead of trying to diversify by offering too many diverse products and services.
• Instead of concentrating on getting new customers, aim for more referrals, more transactions with existing customers, and larger transactions.
• Forget about the competition and concentrate more on cooperating with other businesses.
• Guerrilla Marketers should always use a combination of marketing methods for a campaign.
• Use current technology as a tool to empower your business.

Guerrilla marketing has perfected the technique of catching people’s eyes and grabbing their attention, targeting consumers in unexpected ways and unconventional places. That, of course, is the point of this once-fringe form of advertising, which has now been taken up even by large corporations like Adidas and Microsoft.

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Related Links : http://weburbanist.com/2009/03/15/in-your-face-10-intense-public-guerrilla-marketing-posters

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