Guerrilla Marketing: Easy and Inexpensive Strategies for Making Big Profits from Your Small Business

Anyone engaged in or considering starting a small business would do well to read both this book and Levinson's other writings on the subject. Most small businesses fail due to poor marketing and you'll find great solutions to that problem in this series.

Though "Guerilla Marketing" has been around now for some time, it is new to many in a new generation of marketers and entrepreneurs, myself being one of those who are just now entering the "fray". I now understand fully why so many in the past who have reviewed this tome of practicality have named it the BIBLE of marketing. If you only read one book on marketing, you make a wise choice in making this your selection. If you are willing to find ways to apply what it says to your business, it will not disappoint.

With thousands of books written on marketing and its implementation for all business sizes, this book has created a unique brand name for itself with a series of books all aimed at a particular type of marketing - Guerrilla Marketing. As its name implies, these books are aimed at achieving significant results through non-traditional marketing avenues that have now become fairly established and are probably not Guerrilla tactics anymore (in the strictest sense of the word). This book though originally written in the 1980s has been updated in late 1990s and the update has been driven by the feedback received over 15 years. If you are a small business owner or someone responsible for the marketing division of a small business, you may not have that much money available to run your marketing campaigns professionally and using more traditional channels. Therein lies the appeal to this book that assumes that your only resources are time, energy, and imagination. The book is split into 5 sections - the first section is an introduction to the whole Guerrilla Marketing process all the way from its definition to the thirteen most important marketing secrets and how to develop a Guerrilla Marketing plan. The second section focuses on mini-media marketing which is nothing but the various marketing approaches you can use - canvassing, personal letters, telemarketing (don't be discouraged as the author explains how to do this right and not annoy people), brochures, etc. The third section is about maxi-media marketing which means all the marketing techniques that cost money. But the author has a compelling argument that it is worthwhile if you can benefit from it financially. Newspapers, magazine advertising, radio, television, etc. are addressed one after the other with detailed explanations of what to do and what not to do. The fourth section is nonmedia marketing - free seminars, trade shows, etc. and follows a similar approach of what to do and what to avoid. The author also recommends combining these three types of marketing in a fashion that works for your particular situation. The final section is on actually launching your Guerrilla Marketing attack and how to win! Even large organizations have listened to the author and have started experimenting and successfully implementing Guerrilla Marketing strategies. A marvelous book that convinced me to get a few of the other books in the series with interesting titles like 'Guerrilla P.R. WIRED' that addresses online Guerrilla marketing along with the offline approach. I have several types of marketing books and this set comprises the biggest chunk. I have been experimenting and understanding the various techniques over several months now. Being a small business owner, I like this approach better than most of the others. Bottom line - if you are responsible for marketing your small business goods or services, I recommend at least looking through this book. Good luck!

I read this book when it was first published in 1984 and recently read the Third Edition, curious to know how relevant Levinson's ideas have remained during the almost 20 years years since then. He has revised and updated the book to accommodate the emergence of the Internet, e-business, and globalization initiatives. To his credit, his Guerrilla principles remain valid and, if anything, are even more relevant and more valuable now than ever before. It is important to keep in mind that, as he explains in Guerrilla Creativity, creative marketing is not something that you do. "Instead, it's something that your prospects get." Guerrilla principles guide and inform initiatives by which to produce desired results, whatever those may be. Perhaps to create or increase demand for what one offers. (I use the word "offers" rather than "sells" because the same principles can also be invaluable, for example, to those seeking charitable contributions to a non-profit organization.) Perhaps to inform a prospect or reassure a client; in terms of a competitor, perhaps to create confusion, discomfort, and even despair. Although the book's subtitle suggests that the "secrets" provided will help to make big profits from a small business, Levinson's principles can (as I have indicated) help to achieve a variety of other desired results which may include but are not limited to profits; moreover, his principles can be as helpful to a multinational corporation as they can to a local family-owned business.The material is carefully organized within five sections: The Guerrilla Approach to Marketing -- Updated, Mini-Media Marketing, Maxi-Media Marketing, Nonmedia Marketing, and finally, Launching Your Guerrilla Marketing Attack. Levinson also provides an especially useful concluding section, "Information Arsenal for Guerrillas" (pages 363-372) which directs the reader to hundreds of resources such as a bibliography as well as information about relevant newsletters, periodicals, audiotapes, and videotapes.I especially appreciate the fact Levinson includes marginal notes throughout his narrative. They make it so much easier to review key points which may not have been highlighted or underlined. Also, his Index is much more extensive than what authors of business books usually provide. This is in all respects a user-friendly volume whose material, if understood and then applied both effectively and (yes) appropriately, can be of substantial value to any decision-maker who seeks to create or increase demand for whatever her or his organization offers.What sets Levinson's various "Guerrilla" books apart from most others is his consistent point of view. It has no doubt been influenced by Sun Tzu and especially by several of Sun Tzu's strategies such as when far away, seem near...or vice versa; when small, seem large...or vice versa; when exhausted, seem vigorous...or vice versa, etc. It was Sun Tzu who explained the importance of thorough preparation by asserting that every bat

Can I say it any stronger than that? I'm not one who's known for his irrational exuberance, but this is the book that started it all, and in its new edition it's still head and shoulders above all its many imitators. If you haven't got a copy of "Guerrilla Marketing," get one. And hope that your competition isn't pouring through it for the third or fourth time.