Читать книгу Startup Guide to Guerrilla Marketing - Jay Levinson Conrad - Страница 11

A guerrilla marketer cannot plod through life thinking only of himself or herself. One of the key traits for a truly successful guerrilla is sensitivity. The guerrilla must be sensitive to

• the marketplace.

• the rural or urban environment in which the marketing is taking place.

• the economy.

• the history with his products or services, to his customers.

• his prospects.

• their families.

• the time of year.

• the competition.

• what’s on his prospect’s mind at the moment he is marketing.

• the time in history.

A lack of this sensitivity was demonstrated in early 2007 during the “Boston Bomb Scare,” when a cartoon network owned by Turner Broadcasting promoted—or rather mis-promoted—a new TV show by placing decals in all the wrong places: near subways, bus stops, and other locales where large groups of people congregated. The decals, which had wires and duct tape attached to them, frightened many Bostonians who thought they might be bomb-related. Because two of the jet planes involved in the attack on the World Trade Center in New York in September 2001 took off from Logan Airport in Boston, it’s not hard to blame those citizens of Boston for being terrified, causing traffic and public transportation throughout the city to come to a halt for hours and hours.

Had the promoters been sensitive to the mindset in Boston since 9/11, they could have chosen a different kind of promotion. Today, there is a pre-9/11 mindset and a post-9/11 mindset, calling for enhanced sensitivity, something the cartoon network promotion totally lacked. That’s probably the main reason why the Turner Broadcasting Company was fined $2 million for its insensitivity.

You may not make such a horrific blunder or be fined such a substantial amount, but you could lose a lot of potential profits if you are insensitive. Guerrillas are always sensitive to the code of ethics where they operate, and to the sensibilities of the populace, being ultra-careful never to offend people or communities, never to terrify them, never to deface property, and never to be intrusive beyond the bounds of good taste.

Guerrilla marketers are sensitive to what their prospects are thinking right at the moment, to what they want, what they lack, and what they read about in the newspapers or hear on the radio. They are sensitive to the dreams of their market, striving to make these dreams come true.

As part of mass communication, marketing is part of evolution and has an obligation to be sensitive to everyone, good or bad. Without it, non-guerrillas are fighting an uphill battle.