Guerrilla Marketing – Taking Your Business’ Message on The Road

Gorilla Marketing

The author attending an International business conference in Zhengzhou, China

Guerrilla Marketing to expand your company’s reach to national and international markets can be done at little costs and potentially large payouts, considering that you are already at the event. In the example shown, I was an invited speaker to a Development Summit for Third-World Nations held in Zhengzhou, China, to present a paper “Finding the Creatives in Your Corporation or Country.” I will write a follow-up blog on “Finding the Creatives.” While in China I:

Established Myself as an International Speaker on Business Topics
Delivered a Power Point Lecture on my Topic
Held Private Showings in Bars and Hotel Rooms
Distributed a Booklet on my Subject Material
Interacted with Hundreds of Officials from Developing Nations
Was the most Photographed Individual at the Event
Spoke with Exhibitors at a Major Trade Show
Had a Chance to Demonstrate a Prototype Product in a Work Situation
Saw Museum Exhibits Which Provided R&D Information About my Products
Witnessed Cooking for a International Audience in a Hotel Kitchen
Attended Lectures on World Trade in Third-World Markets
Was Exposed to Smart Technology in the Internet of Things
Was Invited to Present at Another Business Meeting in Vienna
Produced Three YouTube Videos

Guerrilla Marketing can be defined as a person taking advantage of a situation to present his product or services at a location where he is not a sponsor or paid exhibitor. I do this at whatever events that I attend; although, there is a fine line between what is considered a normal interchange between attendees and unauthorized selling and promotions.

One generally prohibited practice is “suitcasing” were a person who is not an exhibitor sells products out of a suitcase. Exhibitors have paid serious money to attend the event and feel that they are put upon if they most also compete against everyone else who has a product to shill to the same audience.

Preparing to attend the event I not only prepared my Power Point presentation, I also took my cooking smock, produced a booklet, Ideas for New Businesses, for distribution at the conference and packed a camera, tripod and voice recorder for making videos. I did not know what videos I would make, but besides the one featured below that discusses international cooking and has a demonstration of my prototype knife, I also filmed, “The Terrors of Chinese White Spirits,” and “Welcome to Modern China” that you may also view on YouTube.

I was the most distinctive person at the conference dressed in my smock and toup. My appearance elicited a lot of questions along the line of, “What do you do?” My response allowed me to explain what I did and offer to distribute my booklet and cards to anyone who might be interested. I also invited some who had not seen my presentation to have a private viewing in my hotel room which led to follow up discussions. This resulted in my being invited to present at another event in Vienna where I delivered a paper, “The 10,000 Year-Old Man Speaks” (on climate change).

The result was an interchange of cards with creative individuals from all over the world, publicity about my topic, contacts with government ministers, distribution of my booklets and income derived from these contacts. An indirect result was my founding a new company, “Hovey’s Knives of China,” to make custom kitchen knives from modern steels in Central Georgia that are derived from bronze and stone knives from ancient China.

Some of the 20 designs of kitchen cutlery available from Hovey’s Knives of China.

Direct results of my Guerrilla Marketing in China were:

Founding a New Company “Hovey’s Knives of China
Obtaining a Speaking Opportunity in Vienna
Raising World-Wide Attention to Me and My Products
Increasing my Personal Reputation
Orders for Books and Products
Produced Three YouTube Videos to Publicize my Company and Products
Ultimately Resulted in Me Writing a New Book, Create Your Own Job Security: Plan to Start Your Own Business at Midlife.

If you are going to attempt to do Guerrilla Marketing at the next trade event that you attend make sure you:

Carefully Review the Event’s Rules to See What You Can Do
Have a Clear Concept of Exactly What You are Marketing at the Event
Pre-package the Necessary Materials
Have an Easy Way of Immediately Capturing Information from Attendees
Are Distinctive in Appearance
Speak to As Many People As Possible
Adequately Explain how Your Product or Service can Help their Company Improve Profits or Accomplish Social Objectives

Ideas for New Business is a booklet that is designed to prompt the generation of new business ideas from the reader’s past experiences, those of his co-workers and his environment. Once conceived these ideas may be recorded in the booklet’s rear pages. This slim volume is designed to be stuck into a computer bag and used on long airline trips to generate and record business ideas into short, medium and long-term categories. Because these are written ink on paper in a privately-owned booklet they do not belong to the employee’s company, but are truly his own that may be further developed until the time when he may want to launch is own business. This booklet may be obtained from Amazon.com or ordered from my website at http://www.hoveysmith.com or even read free by Amazon Prime members.

Create our Own Job Security: Plan to Launch Your Own Business at Midlife encourages you to develop multiple business concepts throughout your life. Some businesses may provide immediate income. Others where extra training is necessary are in continual development. The ultimate objective is to have a business that can be launched on short notice when you may face losing your job in mid-life by being replaced by younger workers, robots or the entire business goes into receivership. The 17 chapters of the 200-page book expand on the concepts introduced in Ideas for New Businesses. It also has much new material on selecting the appropriate business to fit your interests, abilities, needs and goals to provide an enriched life doing work that you love to do. The book will be available in August, and advanced autographed copies with free shipping may be obtained by using the PayPal button below.