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"GUERRILLA MARKETING EXCELLENCE: 50 GOLDEN RULES FOR SMALL-BUSINESS SUCCESS."
Term Paper ID:28537
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Essay Subject:
Critique of Jay Conrad Levinson's book on process of selling & buying in modern marketplace & its focus on long-term, customer-oriented business methods.... More...
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6 Pages / 1350 Words
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Paper Abstract:
Critique of Jay Conrad Levinson's book on process of selling & buying in modern marketplace & its focus on long-term, customer-oriented business methods.
Paper Introduction:
This paper is a discussion of Jay Conrad Levinson's Guerrilla Marketing Excellence: The Fifty Golden Rules for Small-Business Success. Levinson continues to apply his concept of the "guerrilla mind" to questions of marketing; although this volume purports to be designed for small businesses, many of his rules are just as applicable to (and maybe more appropriate for) larger concerns. He begins by focusing on changing conventional thinking about marketing, then progresses through a series of steps aimed at doing business in a different kind of way than is often considered from a traditional sales-oriented marketing point of view. His guidelines, while breezily written and delivered in fifty bite-sized pieces, add up to an approach that focuses on long-term, customer-oriented ways of doing business, most of which make sense in an increasingly sophisticated,
Text of the Paper:
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This is the most substantial part of the book, though it mayconsequently be the least useful to the general marketing student. This thinking should include the ability to stayflexible, to consider each problem from a fresh perspective, and to applyestablished rules to the ever-changing task at hand. Although the book is peppered withanecdotes, Levinson tends not to use as many specific examples as he mightto prove his points. This they certainly accomplish. I only said that ifyou run your company by these golden rules, you'll enjoy more profits andless heartache" (2 4-2 5). Infact, the 11th rule emphasizes the need to understand conventionalmarketing and to keep up with advances in understanding the field, thenapplying that knowledge using a guerrilla mentality. Guerrilla Marketing Excellence: The Fifty Golden Rules for Small-Business Success. While Levinsonargues against being too original and risking being too humorous, some ofthese cautions appear in the next section. He begins with rules to change the marketer's conventional,traditional way of thinking about marketing to a more "guerrilla"-likeapproach. Work CitedLevinson, Jay Conrad. He might do better to encourage his guerrillas to share freely withcompetitors, since he seems so certain that most businesspeople will ignorehis good advice anyway, not bother to learn all the rules, and proceed withmisguided, blind, ineffective marketing techniques based on what they thinkthey know, rather than the wisdom with which Levinson and his disciples areso familiar. This paper is a discussion of Jay Conrad Levinson's GuerrillaMarketing Excellence: The Fifty Golden Rules for Small-Business Success.Levinson continues to apply his concept of the "guerrilla mind" toquestions of marketing; although this volume purports to be designed forsmall businesses, many of his rules are just as applicable to (and maybemore appropriate for) larger concerns. By this, he means an attitude that views marketing as both agame and the very serious key to genuine business success. The final section focuses on actions, especially the seller'srelationship to customers. Hisguidelines, while breezily written and delivered in fifty bite-sizedpieces, add up to an approach that focuses on long-term, customer-orientedways of doing business, most of which make sense in an increasinglysophisticated, competitive marketplace. Overall, Levinson argues for an ethical, caring approach tomarketing, despite his use of such provocative titles as "Bribes" and"Spying." He argues that caring about the customer is in the bestinterests of the seller: "The more you give, the more you earn; the lessyou give, the less you earn" (174). These also include using marketing specialists and ways to beat out thecompetition. He begins by focusing on changingconventional thinking about marketing, then progresses through a series ofsteps aimed at doing business in a different kind of way than is oftenconsidered from a traditional sales-oriented marketing point of view. The second set of rules have to do with effectiveness, which hebegins by defining as the situation in which "prospects not only think ofyour company, but they think of it first when about to purchase what yousell" (55). This essential philosophy doesunderlie most of the rules he outlines and has, in fact, proven effectivein many classic cases noted throughout business literature. He does notpromise instant results: "I never said it would be simple. Yet he is also a strong advocate ofnetworking and information gathering, two processes that seem impossible toaccomplish effectively without having some interaction with the othercompanies who are competing for the same customers and the same marketshare. This section continues to emphasize his argument that, while solid,well-thought-out approaches are effective, dramatic innovation (either inproducts or in marketing those products) is highly dangerous. Theyinclude some specific techniques (Levinson argues for the importance of TVadvertising, though he acknowledges that this is more effective for thoseselling a product rather than a service, and he hardly addresses some ofthe more advanced media outlets available, such as cable and the Internet). Although his rules might be better organized,they are designed more to stimulate thinking about the purposes andapproaches to marketing, rather than to provide a textbook examination ofwhat marketing is. This book provides agood way of beginning this daunting task. The third section of the book focuses on marketing materials, andsome of his comments about TV advertising, among other things, actuallybelong here. Again, some of the rules included in othersections (number 6, "Customer Reverence," or number 12, "Honesty," forexample) could just as easily be included in this section instead. The rules in this section have to do with making the best useof resources in establishing the business within the marketplace. He divides his 5 rules into four general and fairly arbitrarycategories. He notes that learning aboutthe industry in general and the customer in particular is essential tounderstanding the customer's real needs and ability to buy. Some of Levinson's other points in thinking about marketing that headvocates include the importance of research. Because eachbusiness is different, and is continually evolving with changing marketconditions, a shifting economy, and advances in technology, the way thatgoods and services are presented within the marketplace continues torequire careful thought, diligent preparation, a variety of approaches, andhard work. His Epiloguegoes back and forth between arguing for strictly following the rules andthinking about breaking them, though only after careful thought and forvery specific reasons: "At least you will be acting with purpose ratherthan with ignorance" (2 6). New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1993. Yet Levinson argues against caring about the competition. Althoughnot designed as a textbook introduction to the field, Guerrilla MarketingExcellence offers a readable, fascinating glimpse into the various waysthat marketing principles can be understood and applied in reachingcustomers and building the success of a wide variety of companies. These first 13rules start with the caution that marketing is a cumulative process:"Your booth plus your letter plus your telemarketing plus your advertisingpresence plus your publicity plus your time and your patience finallycombine to get the job done" (3). Becausehe is trying to discuss marketing for all types of businesses, he risks notbeing able to cover all the bases. Perhaps he believes that, byspreading them out, he is more likely to get his message across, since healso believes in the power and effectiveness of repetition (he begins thelast two paragraphs of his Preface, for example, with exactly the samesentence: "Guerrilla marketing's 5 golden rules are yours to follow or toignore" (xi), a statement he argues strongly against). Levinson contends, "Marketing is an ever-changing industry,transforming from an art to a science as you read this" (43). Levinson'sguerrilla approach is especially useful where it stimulates students andbusinesspeople alike to think about marketing in fresh ways and recognizeits importance within the overall structure of doing business. I never said it would be fast. Levinson's approach has been popular enough to spawn a series ofbooks and an ongoing newsletter, designed to build a cadre of businessguerrillas, enthusiastically applying the rules and techniques he espousesin pursuit of a solid bottom line and a healthy profit margin. Several of these rules concentrate onprint advertising, without really examining the available outlets or muchof the research about the relative effectiveness of such an approach. Levinson argues that a thorough knowledge of marketing is essentialto business success, including "the small but omnipotent details untouchedby most marketing courses, unpracticed by many marketing departments" (x).He argues for approaching the subject of marketing with the attitude thatcertain rules exist, not to be broken but to be followed exactly, sincemost of them apply across the board to all kinds of businesses and existfor solid, proven reasons. Levinson's 5 golden rules can help direct those efforts andstimulate the marketer's thinking in designing a comprehensive marketingplan, but they remain only one part of the equation. Helists "good" and "bad" words for ad headlines, for instance, without usingany concrete examples of why such words are likely to be effective orlikely to work against the advertiser. In fact,some of his rules focus on ways to blindside competitors and cut them offfrom all contact with the business. This is an important fact to keep inmind, and it is interesting that Levinson begins his book this way, ratherthan promising quick results and easy answers. Yet itremains more art than science, despite efforts such as this book to reducethe process to the ability to follow a series of formulas. I never saidit would be a joyride. Many of the rules in this section include a hodgepodge ofsuggestions, techniques, and philosophical approaches. Levinson advocates thinking like a guerrilla in working to achievemarketing success. Marketing remains an intriguing and complex challenge, one that everybusinessperson working in the modern marketplace needs to understand,whether he or she is involved directly in the process or not. While he mayargue otherwise, this is well-established traditional marketing: researchhas always been central to almost every conventional marketing plan.
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