Guerrilla Marketing: a few examples of what can be an effective tactic for the hospitality and food industry?

As a business owner, you always wonder about the most cost-efficient way to market your restaurant or brand. 

There are many ways to reach out to your customers, but the real question is which one will have the most impact? Or what message will have some influence? 

From building your website to improve your online presence, working on your branding materials to advertise on social media, and building your community of followers, these are all conventional ways to market your business. 

Guerrilla Marketing was born in 1984 with Jay Levinson’s book. It is defined as a type of publicity, an advertising strategy that uses elements of surprise and interactions with the audience to deliver more impact.

It is different from traditional marketing as it often relies on small budgets, interplay with your audience and unconventional ways. 

In the hospitality industry, it can simply translate from a stencilled footpath, a pop-up restaurant, or even having a social media video going viral. Guerrilla marketing is any initiatives that will increase your brand awareness and brand statement in your audience with the minimum investment. Audacity is the key to success but can also trigger unwanted paths where your message is not understood well, and your campaign goes wrong. 

Here is a great example. A few pizzerias partnered with Colgate to promote the new Colgate Max Night; this campaign had significantly mitigated feedback.