I decided instead of just replying in the comments section that I would take the time to respond in the form of a podcast. Why? It’s so vital to understand the role of psychology and community in Guerrilla Marketing.

I also think it’s important to establish that Guerrilla Marketing is well defined, and it’s body of wisdom and definition that is widely accepted and used by over 20 million readers of the Guerrilla Marketing Series of books. Some people will take pieces of the body of wisdom and use them to suit their outlook on marketing but the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. In addition to this just because you slap the term guerrilla on a book, blog post or marketing campaign it doesn’t make it guerrilla.

Here are the facts:

1. The term “guerrilla marketing” was coined by Jay Conrad Levinson and popularized by his best selling book that was released in 1983. Guerrilla Marketing uses unconventional means to achieve conventional goals,  it relies on time, energy and imagination rather than a big marketing budget. (We added community on-top of time, energy and imagination for Guerrilla Social Media Marketing because of the vital role it plays in social media marketing).
2. Since then over 20,000,000 (that’s twenty million) books have been sold and read in Jay Levinson’s Guerrilla Marketing series of books making it the #1 best selling series of marketing books in history. Jay’s definition is the original and most widely accepted definition and grows by 1million readers and fans per year.
3. Guerrilla’s apply and use the 19 Guerrilla Marketing Secrets (Principles).

Instead of paraphrasing why true guerrillas must understand and depend on psychology, I have posted in Jay’s own (timeless) words the importance:

Guerrilla marketing does not rely on guesswork because wrong guesses are so darned expensive. Instead, it relies upon psychology as much as possible. Psychology used to be a body of theories. Today, many of those theories have been debunked while others have been transformed into laws, actual laws of human behavior. Guerrillas lean on these laws because they want certainty to be a hallmark of their marketing.

There are 15 things that all guerrillas know about psychology as marketing is slowly transforming from guesswork into science:

1. Purchase decisisons are made in the unconscious mind. People may say the words consciously, but they process the data in their unconscious.
2. We now know how to access the unconscious mind. The way to do it is with repetition. Put these two thoughts together — purchase decisions are made in the unconscious, and you can access the unconscious with repetition, and you begin to understand the entire process of marketing.
3. People are either left-brained or right-brained. Left-brained people respond to sequential, logical reasons and love marketing that gives ten reasons to buy. Right-brained people respond to emotional, aesthetic appeals and love marketing that looks stunning and tugs at heartstrings. Guerrillas are sure to hit both left and right-brained people.
4. Businesses that succeed are those that form two bonds with all customers: the human bond and the business bond. The stronger the human bond, the stronger the business bond. Connect up as two human beings before you connect up as buyer and seller.
5. All marketing has two messages — the stated message and the metamessage. The stated message is what you say. The metamessage, often stronger than the stated message, is what your marketing looks like, feels like, where it appears, what size it is, and how professional it appears.
6. If you’re interested in increasing your share of market, the way to do it is to first increase your share of mind. If you go only for the share of market, don’t expect much customer loyalty — or even many customers.
7. There are two schools of marketing hard at work in America these days — Freudian marketing, which is based on Sigmund Freud’s work and aims for a change of attitude — and Skinnerian marketing, based on B.F. Skinner’s proof of the power of behavior modification. Which does a guerrilla choose? Both. Guerrillas constantly implant attitudes while peppering their prospects with special offers that require instant action.
8. During a recession, the tactics that generate sales are: leaning on current customers, enlarging the size of each transaction, offering a guarantee, and showing that high prices are an assurance against making a purchase mistake — something nobody wants to do during a recession.
9. Realize that people hate taking the hard step of buying something, so guerrillas use soft steps to make the hard step a little easier. Soft steps include things like free consultations, free seminars, brochures, videos, demonstrations, and free samples.
10. Full color marketing materials increase retention by 57% and increase inclination to buy by 41%. And the cost of full-color drops dramatically if you tell the printer you have the patience to wait for a gang run.
11. Use as much non-verbal communication as you can. There are only about 250,000 commonly-used words in the English language, but there are 600,000 non-verbal gestures. They are more potent than the spoken words.
12. You can gain guerrilla marketing power if you blend customer insight with product insight. The more your insight, the better your marketing.
13. The way guerrillas view their marketing is as an opportunity to help their customers succeed. If you do the same, your profits will show it.
14. A key to successful marketing is making each of your customers feel a special way. The way they should feel is unique. Not easy, but necessary.
15. It is essential that you constantly feel a sense of dissatisfaction with your marketing and try to improve it without changing your identity. This personality trait will fare you well in the marketing wars.

So I have a challenge when someone (for their own self-interest) tries to redefine Guerrilla Marketing. Add to it? Great! Innovate? Great! But don’t negate, shrink, or dilute it. Back off. It is a timeless body of wisdom that has grown to be mainstream but it is more relevant than today than it was 20 years ago. It works, it’s simple, and it’s time tested.

Guerrilla Marketing is a body of wisdom and movement. It’s bigger and more important than campaigns, tricks, or tactics. To learn more about the book that started the movement (and continues to grow daily and globally). You can visit http://gmarketing.com.

Have a listen to the podcast and tell me what you think!

The five stages of consent:

1. Discovery
2. Consumption
3. Interaction
4. Connection
5. and finally….Consent

For information on booking Shane Gibson to speak at your next conference email shane@closingbigger.net

Following is an excerpt from Guerrilla Social Media Marketing:

The 10 Personality traits of a Guerrilla Social Media Marketer: #1 Immune to hype:

There is a lot of hype around social media. The guerrilla searches for truth, verifies information and executes with dependable tools and strategies. With so many people blasting Twitter updates, Facebook messages and posting blog entries it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of a new product, tool or market and dive in headfirst. Here’s why guerrillas don’t fall into this trap:

1. Any new social media marketing tool or community takes time, energy and resources to effectively test and evaluate.
2. Great technology alone doesn’t mean a marketing tool is worth investing in. The tool must be backed by a great company and have the potential for longevity.
3. While you chase every trend and new tool you neglect communities and marketing tools that need focus and commitment to get a long term return on investment on.
4. Hype is a sign that something is broadly used. Guerrillas look for opportunities to have the first-mover-advantage not follow the herd.

How to protect yourself from the hype:

1. Watch other guerrillas and innovators that cater to your target market. What is their feedback in relation to the new technology or tool?
2. Look for hard data on the tool, product or technology. Get your data from multiple sources to confirm accuracy. Forrester Research MarketingProfs.com or your local chapter of the Social Media Club are great places to find accurate information.
3. Check the credibility of those who claim to be having success with the technology. Are they profitable? Is what they are doing sustainable and scalable?
4. Remember, a good marketing attack takes months or even years to be fully effective. Be careful about jumping from idea to idea without allowing ideas time to mature. The latest thing may not be the most effective thing for your business.

Shane Gibson will be touring several cities in Canada this month and will also be available to speak to your association or Meetup group on Guerrilla Social Media Marketing as he travels.

About Shane Gibson:

Shane Gibson is the author of three books and has spoken to over 100,000 people on stages in Canada, USA, South Africa and South America. Blogging since 2002 and podcasting since 2004 Shane is an innovator in using the social web to build community and drive profits. He also believes that getting real and taking those relationships offline is vital — so join us for a pint and invite your online connections to meet you in person and get Sociable!

Events:

November 17th 2010 – Guerrilla Social Media Marketing – Toronto, ON Hosted by The Toronto Board of Trade – Media Sponsor Techvibes.com

Details:

Guerrilla Social Media Marketing;
TURN YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING EFFORTS INTO PROFITABLE GUERRILLA CONQUESTS

In today’s dynamic market environment, it’s important to differentiate your business and capture the attention of your audience. Join Shane Gibson, co-author of Guerrilla Social Media Marketing and Sociable! to learn how to ensure your business stands out from the crowd.

This unique session will offer you insight into:

* The top ten attributes of a guerrilla social media marketer
* How to tap into large influential networks online and offline
* The power of nano-casting and nano-marketing
* How to develop and manage a social media marketing campaign
* Five strategies to help you maximize social media ROI

Click here to register for this event
Address:
Radisson Hotel Toronto East
55 Hallcrown Place
Toronto, ON
M2J 4R1
For more information, click here to download the event PDF.

November 22nd 2010 – Calgary Guerrilla Social Media Marketing Book Launch and Social Mixer. Media Sponsor Techvibes.com

Details:

If you want to know what happens when Guerrilla Marketing meets Social Media please join us in Calgary’s business and social media community for a unique book launch event and social mixer hosted by Shane Gibson, author of the new book Guerrilla Social Media Marketing.

Register on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=170754506275099&index=1

Register on EventBrite: http://guerrillamarketingcalgary.eventbrite.com/

November 25th 2010 – Vancouver Guerrilla Social Media Marketing Book Launch and Social Mixer – Media Sponsor Techvibes.com

Details:

If you want to know what happens when Guerrilla Marketing meets Social Media please join us in Vancouver’s business and social media community for a unique book launch event and social mixer hosted by Shane Gibson, author of the new book Guerrilla Social Media Marketing.

Register on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=137198492998189

hRegister on EventBrite: http://guerrillamarketingvancouver.eventbrite.com

For sponsorship, media and volunteer details please contact:

Rina Chong
Facebook: Rinaisan Angel
Mobile: 604.561.8908

Email: rinakbi@gmail.com
Twitter: @rinachong/@shanegibson

Important note: We are looking for Meetup.com organizers and Tweetup hosts for more launch party events in Calgary, Vancouver, Regina, Montreal, Halifax and Toronto (GTA). Send us an email or a tweet if you’re interested in helping or hosting an event.

November 29th, Toronto, ON – Shane Gibson speaks on Guerrilla Social Media Marketing at the Real Estate Marketing Summit

This one-day educational conference has been designed by Realtors® and for Realtors® who want to grow their business online.

Realtors® are also eligible to earn 3 CE credits during the conference!

Mortgage brokers, lawyers, accountants, service providers and other real estate professionals and are also welcome to participate to better understand how online and social media marketing can be used to grow their business.

Register and read more by clicking here.

Why shoot video this way? Guerrillas know that producing relevant, up-to-date content is vital. If you take days or weeks to edit and upload your videos you miss opportunities to engage, connect and impact your audience. Enjoy these Guerrilla Social Media Marketing videos — and please let us know what you think.

Guerrilla Social Media Marketing Secret: Commitment

Guerrilla Social Media Marketing Secret: Consistent

Guerrilla Social Media Marketing Secret: Implement

Guerrilla Social Media Marketing Free Download Chapter 5

Slideshare.net