Real Marketing

Guerrilla marketing, popularized by Jay Conrad Levinson's 1984 book Guerrilla Marketing, focuses on taking someone by surprise to make a big impression about our product or brand. Basically, it's creating stunts and gimmickry which gets talked about. The internet (and TV) is loaded with it. And of course, it's not real. Because it's not for telling a story about what we have on offer, it's about getting attention.

Real marketing focuses on truth, quality and delight through stories which resonate with someone. But most of the time, real isn't very dramatic or entertaining, at least not to a mass audience poised to click or talk about the next big foot video. Real is for someone who cares about our purpose, our cause and our beliefs as much as we do. Real is for a small group looking for exactly what we make. It's for them, not all the others. Once we connect, we have a real chance to serve each other...for a long time. The key is to spend the time and do the hard work to connect with the smaller group, one by one, building trust and loyalty to each other.

A guerrilla might get you noticed, until the next one comes along. Squirrel!