Marketing Advice for Small Business Guerrillas

OK, so 2008 and 2009 were not good years for small businesses. Demand was soft, those customers, who could pay, did so slowly, banks and other sources were very stingy with credit. If you made it this far, what should Marketing Guerrillas be doing looking at twentyten? Here are five specific recommendations based on the book, MORE Guerrilla Marketing Research. The key idea in the book is that when Guerrillas have a marketing problem, they should ask their customers and prospects for advice. Doing this will produce a better decision than going it alone--every time.

Marketing Is Like a Shark

You know the story. A shark has to keep swimming or, not being buoyant, it will sink to the ocean floor and die. Well marketing is like a shark. It cannot be turned on and off. Companies that stop marketing wither and perish; not immediately, but slowly over time. Business declines, cash flow diminishes, so inventories and services are reduced; old customers become dissatisfied, new customers do not show up. It’s a horrible way to die. Yes, you can swim more slowly, so to speak, but you cannot stop.

Internet Marketing Will NOT Solve All Your Marketing Problems

The advent of the Internet as a pathway to information, as an advertising medium, as a place for transacting sales, and as a powerful means of collecting marketing research data has certainly changed marketing. The nature of the change, however, is often misunderstood by Guerrillas. Internet marketing has not replaced classical marketing; rather it is in addition to it. One quick example is that On-line focus groups are a very poor substitute for the information derived from live focus groups.

Small businesses, unless they are specifically web-based (and then not even here in all cases) still need to do advertising, still need to employ public relations, still need to use sales promotion ideas and premiums, still need to mail direct response packages (cards, letters, catalogs, etc.), still need to attend trade shows, etc.

The Internet has not made marketing simpler; it has made it more complex. Woe to the Guerrilla who thinks that a website and an Ad Words program will solve all their marketing problems.

Age and Experience Beat Youth and Inexperience . . . Every Time

My co-authors and I counsel small businessmen and women to avoid the youth trap. The older, grizzled lion got to control the pride by defeating a parade of young pretenders. The experienced marketing and research counselor has lived through recessions before, has a steady hand, has been there and done that and has the scars to prove it. And s/he is a good guide right now.

Want proof? Ask Brett Favre. Want more proof? Look at the Table below that shows the age of various advertising practitioners when they did their best work.