Startup Guide to Guerrilla Marketing. Jay Levinson Conrad

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       CHAPTER 2

       THE PERSONALITY OF A GUERRILLA MARKETER

      It’s going to be an uphill battle leading a guerrilla marketing attack unless you’ve got certain personality traits. We’re sure that you’ve already got some, if not most, of these traits already. But you need all of them.

      While creating marketing programs for many of the largest, wealthiest, and most successful companies on earth, as well as some of the smallest, newest, and most poorly funded, we’ve studied the leaders of those bound for success—in the quest for personality characteristics that they have in common. We’ve found an even dozen. Those companies on the Fortune 500 and headed for the Fortune 500 have had marketing campaigns masterminded by honchos with these twelve traits.

      We’ve looked for exceptions, but have found none. Does that mean that if you have these traits, you’ll succeed? It does not. But it does mean that unless you have them, the odds are seriously against you. And that’s no way to start any guerrilla marketing venture. By consciously trying to develop the personality characteristics that you don’t have now, you’ll be putting the odds in your favor, a highly desirable state for any self-respecting guerrilla marketer.

      Your goal: to possess all 12 traits. Our goal: to show you how to do that. You probably won’t need a personality transplant, but you may need to sharpen some of the rough edges lest they trip you up.

      Consciously try to develop the personality characteristics that you don’t have now.

Trait 1: Patience

      The identification of this trait began with a study in which researchers were asked a very tough question: “How many times must your message penetrate a person’s mind in order to transform them from total apathy, meaning, they’ve never heard of you, to purchase readiness, which means they’re dying to buy from you?” Astonishingly, the researchers came up with an answer. It was nine. Your message must penetrate people’s minds nine times before they’re ready to buy from you. That’s the good news. The bad news is that for every three times you put out the word and expose them to your message, they’re only paying attention one time. After all, they do have more important things to do with their lives than focus on your marketing.

      So you put out the word three times and your message penetrates their mind one time. What happens then? Nothing happens. So you put out the word six times and penetrate their minds two times. What happens then? They faintly realize that they’ve heard your name before. But that’s as far as it goes. Now you put out the word nine times, penetrating their minds three times. What happens then? Something does happen: They realize they’ve seen or heard your marketing before, and they know that unsuccessful companies don’t market. The momentum has started, but they’re not even close to buying what you’re selling.

      Sticking with the drill, you put out the word—by radio, television, newspaper ads, print ads, e-mail, signs, banners, whatever—a total of 12 times, penetrating their minds 4 times. What happens then? Not much. They may look around for other signs of your existence, perhaps even ask a friend about you, but they certainly aren’t ready to buy from you yet. You put out the word 15 times, penetrating their minds 5 times. What happens then? Something wonderful happens. They read every word of your copy. They pay close attention to your commercial. If you list your web site—and we sure hope that you do—they click over to it and check you out. If you offer a brochure, they request it. The momentum leading to the sales picks up, but notice, they do not buy from you.

      Your message must penetrate people’s minds nine times before they’re ready to buy from you.

      At this point, you begin to feel frustrated. After all, you’ve peppered your market with powerful messages, but they do not beat a path to your door. It does enter their minds to own what you’re selling, but they are just plain not ready to buy from you. Not yet. Maybe never. Here’s where most business owners abandon their campaigns. They figure they’re doing everything wrong and that they need a new message, new media, a revamped web site. The truth is that they’re doing everything right. But marketing just doesn’t do what they expected it to do. They expected it to work in a hurry.

      Listen up. Marketing does a lot of good things, wonderful things. But one thing it rarely does is work in a hurry. Get serious. Don’t be like those companies that decide to forsake their marketing investments and start all over again at square one. We wince at the thought. Doing that is called “sellus interruptus.” The sale is never consummated. Here’s where you’ve got to hang in there and continue to put out the word. You put it out there 18 times, penetrating the minds of your increasingly interested prospects 6 times. What happens at that point? They begin to think of when they’ll make the purchase, where they’ll get the money. But they do not buy.

      So you put out the word 21 times, penetrating their minds 7 times. This is when they tell others that they’re planning to purchase from you. They may even note it in their datebooks or on their Blackberries. Put out the word 24 times and you’ve penetrated their minds 8 times. This is when they check with whomever they usually check with before making big ticket purchases. This is when they actually plan the day and the time that they will buy from you. You see nothing to indicate that they’re ready to take the plunge onto your customer list. But you continue marketing, putting out the word 27 times. You’ve penetrated their minds 9 times. Nine times. What happens then? They come in and they buy from you. They treat you like an old friend. You don’t know them from Adam or Eve, but you have built up a strong sense of familiarity and familiarity is the factor that breeds sales.