What is Guerrilla Marketing?

While many community banks are cutting back their marketing efforts,  or focusing on promoting messages of safety and soundness, I was surprised to see the cover story in this month’s ABA Bank Marketing Magazine: “30 Guerrilla Marketing Tactics – That Work.” 

Thinking about some of the more memorable guerrilla marketing efforts at financial institutions I’ve seen in recent years  – Umpqua Bank’s ice cream truck; Bank of America’s Giant Sofa in Grand Central Station to promote Keep the Change; and HSBC’s Bank Cab come to mind – I was disappointed to see that most of the tactics offered in the article weren’t in-line with my idea of guerrilla marketing.

The definition of guerrilla marketing found on Wikipedia is:

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.

In my mind, the key characteristics here are: unexpected and unconventional.  And as the definition suggests, guerrilla marketing doesn’t need to be expensive – which is something that can benefit any of today’s financial institutions as they look to reduce spending across the board.

Working under this definition, some of the suggested guerrilla marketing tactics suggested in the article simply don’t fit; the more notable include:

• Daily small-space newspaper ads:  Newspaper ads are neither unexpected nor unconventional.  And running daily newspaper advertisements is bound to be more expensive than running an occasional advertisement.
• Unique bank calendar:  Calendars are expensive.  If you’ve historically offered calendars to customers, they’re expected – regardless of what kinds of photographs are used.
• Corporate Standardization:  While establishing corporate brand standards is an excellent recommendation – and one that any institution should work to establish – it simply is not guerrilla marketing.
• Unique CD offer: While offering a $500 CD at 10% will get attention, and could be considered unexpected and unconventional, it’s easy to see how this could get expensive.

My point here is not that these tactics couldn’t be effective; it’s that these tactics aren’t guerrilla marketing.  And because there was no definition of guerrilla marketing offered in the article (or mention beyond the title) , I was left a little confused after reading the article.

In doing a Google search for ‘bank guerrilla marketing’ in hopes of finding some additional examples, one of the search results I found was actually another ABA Bank Marketing article called When Should You Try Guerrilla Marketing?  from March, 2005.  In contrast to this month’s article, the 2005 article offered some good background information about guerrilla marketing:

“Guerrilla marketing includes any activity that uses a means other than traditional media to communicate your bank’s name and positioning to your prospects.  Also called ‘extreme marketing’, ‘grassroots marketing’, or even ‘feet-on-the-street marketing’, a guerrilla campaign has no preset rules or boundaries.  As such, guerrilla marketing can work for banks of all sizes.  If executed properly, a guerrilla campaign can be a low-cost, high-impact way to connect with your prospects, introduce your name or remind your customers you’re still here.”

Another important point to consider is that effective guerrilla marketing needs to be market-specific.  When considering the addition of guerrilla marketing to your strategy, think about the places where you could have the kind of low-cost/high-impact described above.  Where is your town’s Grand Central Station?  What will people notice in your community? 

While the examples offered above come from regional and national players, community banks in smaller towns can be effective in using guerrilla marketing tactics as well.  As an example, in an effort to generate awareness about it’s newest checking account, Incommons Bank (Mexia, TX) had a representative at a popular local restaurant one day paying for customers’ lunches – compliments of the Bank.  The event was completely unexpected and unconventional; and it generated the kind of buzz that a newspaper ad could never generate.

As traditional marketing media like advertisements blend into the background and go unnoticed, financial institutions need to at least consider non-traditional marketing marketing efforts like guerrilla marketing as means to effectively market their organizations.

Note: in fairness to Tom Hershberger, the author of the article discussed here, it sounds like the decision about the Guerrilla Marketing title was made by the editors at Bank Marketing Magazine.