Negative Cost Selling/Guerrilla
Marketing/Social Marketing
Presented by Professor Bruce M.
Firestone
Founder, Ottawa Senators, Executive
Director, Exploriem.org, Entrepreneurship
Ambassador, Telfer School of
Management, Broker, Century 21 Explorer
Realty Inc.
B. Eng. (Civil) [McGill], M. Eng-Sci.
[UNSW], PhD. [ANU]
Contents
 Do you want to learn how to really make people
want to buy from you?
 Are you in the solution selling business?
 Do you know how to get on the ‘same side of the
table’ as your customers and clients?
 Do you want to learn negative cost selling?
 Do you know how to think in terms of 2-D and 3D business models so that you can not only take
care of your clients but your clients’ clients too?
 Want to understand Guerrilla Marketing and
Social Marketing?
The Power of the Brand
“People like to buy from people they like
and trust,” Prof Bruce, Ottawa, Canada
“Have you ever bought anything from
someone you didn’t like or trust?”
Trust (not love!) is the no. 1 thing in life
and business
Marketing  Builds Brand  Builds Trust
 Creates Opportunity to Sell
The Power of the Brand
Mutual Life Assurance Co. of Canada 
Clarica Life Insurance Co.
New sell-line: "Clarity through dialogue“
Funny TV ads– Clarica Agent appears on
scene to clear up W/C ambiguity
No call to action
How many people head for the phone to
buy some insurance?
The Power of the Brand
None!
Separate selling process
“VP, Marketing and Sales”  Doesn’t
know what he/she is doing
Living room pitch: “Take care of your kids!”
“Where’re you from again?
“Pirate Insurance Company of Kinakuta” or
“Clarica”– which helps you to close the
deal?
The Process
(1)
Marketing
through a
(2)
Marketing
Process builds
Your Reputation
and Brand
build
Trust in you
your
Reputation and
Brand
(3)
Trust in you creates
an opportunity for
you to Sell in a
separate Sales
Process
‘TRUST POWERS
SALES’
Ethics
Probably < 1,500 key entrepreneurs in a
place like Ottawa
Even NYC < 5,500
Protect your reputation
Major Arch firm bids on Urban Design of
new Ottawa Congress Centre with our
group
Jumps to winning bidder/takes IP w/out
permission
Ethics
Their name is … DIRT
No longer active to any great degree in
Ottawa
What should they have done?
Ask for permission and ask winning bidder
to compensate group for their IP– would
not even have had to pay it themselves!
‘Intricate’ Your Clients
The late Elliot Richardson, former Attorney
General of the United States
US Counsel to BRING BACK THE
SENATORS
“Bruce, first we’ll intricate the NHL. Then
we’ll get the franchise.”
(To honour Elliot, UrbanDictionary.com:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php
?term=intricate+)
‘Intricate’ Your Clients
“To bring people on board or to get them
onside with an idea or a proposal or an
initiative of some type by getting them
'intricated' into the process bit by bit,
almost without their noticing that they are
making a commitment.”
‘Intricate’ Your Clients
 How do you do this?
 Become an indispensable part of your clients’
business ecosystems/if you know your client’s
History, you can become indispensable/hard to
replace
 How not to do it?
 E.g., typical Ottawa law firm:
 Don’t keep clients’ clients tel. #s, email addresses on file
 Lose client e-documents
 Don’t know their r.e. client’s Banker, Surveyor, Environmental
Consultant, Insurance Broker, Title Insurer, Mortgage Broker,
Appraiser or other suppliers
 Wait to be told what to do
Firestone’s Three Laws of Power
Selling
Law No. 1: SITTING ON THE SAME
SIDE OF THE TABLE
Law No. 2: SOLUTION SELLING
Law No. 3: NEGATIVE COST
SELLING
SITTING ON THE SAME SIDE OF THE
TABLE
GradeATechs.com
Alt. 1: “We can sell you XYZ virus scan
software from Acme Corp. for 200 bucks.
What do you think?”
Alt. 2: “We can get you XYZ from Acme for
$200 or MNO from Beta for $150. If you
don’t like either, we can get more quotes
for you.”
SITTING ON THE SAME SIDE OF THE
TABLE
In Alt. 2, GradeA becomes: ‘trusted
advisor’
Sits on same side of table as client
XYZ and MNO (+ all other suppliers) are
on the other side
GradeA has changed the equation!
SELLING TO A CLIENT  HELPING A CLIENT BUY!
SOLUTION SELLING
In r.e., buying a lot is a problem
Buying a home is a solution
New sub-division with 21 lots to sell
($125,000+) for client in Kanata
What to do?
Make a deal with top quality home builder
to offer his homes w/ lots
SOLUTION SELLING
How to sell this to builder?
Intricate him!
Offer him 6 lots for $500 each!
$500 each?
Yes!
SOLUTION SELLING
That’s $500 for an 18-month option on
those lots
Only pays for lots when sold to
Homeowner
Co-brand sub-division with Builder– piggy
back on his marketing
SELL SELL SELL
SOLUTION SELLING
Know your client’s History and Biz
Ecosystem
Hard to sell a solution when you don’t
understand the problem
Ace Promotions– problem wanted to sell
Golf Pros promo products
Issue?
Most golf pros don’t have much spare
cash
SOLUTION SELLING
But they have something of great value– a
client list
Accounting firms and legal firms would like
to get access to those clients
Eureka!
Golf Pros have lots of time and no money
Accounting and law firms have lots of
money but no money
SOLUTION SELLING
Let’s solve all three problems (money, time
and client access) together
By helping 10 Golf Pros buy 1,000 mouse
pads each at $5.00 per item
That’s a $50,000 order for Ace Promotions
Each mouse pad is co-branded: golf pro
w/ accounting or law firm
Latter put up the dough/former becomes
distribution channel (gives them to each
golfer)
MORE SOLUTION SELLING
Ace is also trying to break into the auto
dealership biz– SELL SELL SELL
Tom Smith Toyota is looking for more car
buyers!
Ace must solve the problem: “How do you
give out promo products to people who are
not yet your customer?”
Ace comes up with new distribution
channel for Smith Toyota!
MORE SOLUTION SELLING
The humble ice scraper– solves all
Ace sells 10,000 ice scrapers to Smith
Toyota at $4.00 each
Smith Toyota also pays Ace $6,000.00 to
hire wage slaves (aka students) to go to
co-operating:
gas stations
collision repair places
car washes
and give them out for free!
MORE SOLUTION SELLING
Non-traditional outlets!
They get the scrapers for free
Can use them in their own promotional
efforts too– “Fill up here and get a free ice
scraper.”
Car owners who frequent collision repair
shops might need a new car some day
(soon)
MORE SOLUTION SELLING
The ice scraper also communicates!
“Bring this ice scraper with you to Smith
Toyota < June 30th and we’ll pay you
$250.00 to test drive one of our cars!”
Take solution selling one step further–
provide your clients with ROI data
By investing (!) in your products or
services (the ice scraper), they increase
their revenues/lower costs or do both
NEGATIVE COST SELLING
More from UrbanDictionary.com
(http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.ph
p?term=negative+cost)
“Negative cost selling is all about
understanding your client’s business from
their point of view and being able to
measure the benefits you create and the
cost reductions you cause.”
NEGATIVE COST SELLING
Anthony owns (snail) mail order house
Knows that CPC/USPS now allow lumpy
mail campaigns
Visits with local children’s charity
Wants to sell them on 3-year campaign at
$15,000 per year
His pitch? Solve their problems:
How to get folks to open their snail mail?
What’s the distribution channel?
What’s the ROI?
NEGATIVE COST SELLING
Includes flat (stone skipping) rocks with
each letter
Sends letters to 800 (local) CEOs/Biz
Owners
His firm has the names/contact info
Each letter challenges the CEOs (v.
competitive people) to rock skipping
contest at Children’s Camp
NEGATIVE COST SELLING
94% open the envelopes
> 50% commit to attending themselves or
sending a rep
> 400 attend at $750 each
3-year commitment
Can buy extra rocks @$100/throw!
Raise > $40,000/year
Plus CEOs on-site see the kids and
become sponsors…and fix stuff
NEGATIVE COST SELLING
$15,000 investment  $40,000+ = ROI
Multi-year commitments  recurring
revenue + create opportunity to not be a
MLB-type player where every year you
start with 000 home runs
YOU CAN NOT BUILD A SUCCESSFUL
SALES PRACTICE IF YOU HAVE ALL 1YEAR CONTRACTS
NEGATIVE COST SELLING
$15,000 investment  $40,000+ = ROI
Anthony’s pitch:
“I’ll pay you $25,000.00 per year to hire me!”
NEGATIVE COST SELLING
 Peter Patafie built Patafie’s Moving Supplies Inc.
into $16 million/yr operation w/ one crucial sales
innovation
 His pitch: every moving co. would buy
(cardboard boxes, wardrobe boxes, bubble
wrap, tape, tape dispensers, wrapping paper)
from Patafie’s
 But instead of delivering them to the moving co.,
would deliver them to their clients instead
NEGATIVE COST SELLING
 Saves moving co. warehouse space
 Increases moving co. revenues because their
salespeople now have more time to sell moves
rather than redeliver packing supplies to their
clients
 Got 97% market share (more than Microsoft)
NEGATIVE COST SELLING
 Peter understood his client’s ecosystem–
including the needs of his clients’ clients (2-D Biz
Modeling)
 Sits on same side of the table as his customer (his
customer’s customer becomes his customer– e.g., Peter
sells them refurbished boxes and buys them back >
move)
 Uses ‘solution selling’ (by making his customer’s
salespeople more productive)
 Sells based on negative cost (since his customer’s
customers are paying for the packing and moving
supplies and ROI to moving co. ~ infinite!)
Jeff Hunt and the Ottawa 67s
New way of responding to the 500+ charity
and community requests
$600 needed for minor hockey tournament
Give $600 x $500 or $300,000/yr.?
Not affordable for Junior Team
Let them buy 120 game tickets at around
$5 each that they resell for, say, $10
Jeff Hunt and the Ottawa 67s
Cost to 67s? -$600
Cost to minor hockey team? -$600
Developed new distribution channel: 500
charity requests  60,000 tickets sold/yr.
 raised $300,000 for 67s  raised
another $300,000 for charities
“Give a person a fishing rod, not a fish,”
Anon.
More from Jeff Hunt and the Ottawa
67s
Cost for naming rights for the Civic Centre
$30,000
No takers
Instead sold 30 companies @ $1,000 each
Draw winner: Civic Centre  Urbandale
Centre for 1-yr term
Cost of Naming Rights for Urbandale?
-$29,000 -$550,000 (value of PR/earned
media) = -$579,000
Satellite Tracking Service
 Sell Personal Tracking Devices (PTD) for
executives visiting high risk countries
 Not much bigger than cell phone
 Reduces cost of insurance
 Reduces frequency and cost of lawsuits—duty of
care
 Reduces losses from kidnapping, injury or death
 Reduces lost productivity from above and impact
on morale
 Can demonstrate very high ROI
Crowd Wave Games
In-arena cameras, gesture control and
vector aggregation software
~ 7th Inning Stretch with ‘brains’
Cleveland Cavaliers– launch client
‘Intricates’ sponsors– Section 315 plays
against Section 112
Winners get (say) $10 Verizon Calling card
Crowd Wave Games
Crowd Wave Games
Reduce sponsor exodus
Bring new sponsorship dollars
Increase game-day ticket sales and
reduce season ticket churn
CWG demos very high ROI for Cavs
Improve in-arena experience for
fans/create team play feelings for average
citizen/not available at home
Yoga and Injury Reduction in the NHL
 Heather Moore, at Mountain Goat Yoga Centre in Kanata
 More core strength, more flexibility, greater agility, better
balance, faster healing and lower stress levels
 Perfect fit for NHL Players
 Heather’s Yoga Fees: $7,267.86 for the season
 Savings to Team from Reduction in Injury: $352,201.28
 Increase in Revenue due to Increase in Regular Season
Attendance: $523,939
 Net Revenue from Extra Home Playoff Game(s):
$1,020,000
Yoga and Injury Reduction in the NHL
 For an investment of just under $7,300, the team
receives ~ $1.9 million in cost decreases and revenues
increases
IRR
Year (2006_2007)
0 $(7,267.86)
1 $1,896,140.67
IRR
25989%
per annum
 Value of going to Stanley Cup Finals: priceless
 “Heather will pay the Sens ~ $1.89 million to hire her!”
Doug Cardinal and the Museum of
Civilization
Architects can’t use –ve cost selling, can
they?
Yes, they can
Doug Cardinal believes in the sanctity of
the client or ‘patron’
Former PM Pierre Trudeau was Doug’s
patron
Public Works nixed curvilinear walls for the
new museum– too costly and too risky
Doug Cardinal and the Museum of
Civilization
Doug asked the PM: “Do you want a
treasure or another blah, boxy building for
Ottawa?”
But he also understood NCS, thus:
“If we build it my way, it’ll cost $20 million
more but it will attract 400,000 more visits
per year at $10 per head. That’s $4
million/yr. With a cap rate of 8%, this
increases value by $50 million. So the cost
of a legacy project for you, Pierre, will be a
negative $30 million.”
Doug Cardinal and the Museum of
Civilization
The HR Recruiter
 Previous approach to selling?
 Beauty contest!
 Value Proposition = NCS
 Cost of Service = $30,000
 Savings in Management Time = $10,150 x 2
(they have to replace their candidate more
frequently)
 Additional productivity (from superior candidate
+ he/she remains on the job longer) = $200,000
x2
 Cost of HR Services = -$390,300
The HR Recruiter
 Previous approach to selling?
 Beauty contest!
 Value Proposition = NCS
 Cost of Service = $30,000
 Savings in Management Time = $10,150 x 2
(they have to replace their candidate more
frequently)
 Additional productivity (from superior candidate
+ he/she remains on the job longer) = $200,000
x2
 Cost of HR Services = -$390,300
The HR Recruiter
GradeATechs.com
 Value Proposition = NCS
 Unplug Tower/Take to Computer Store: $19 of
your time
 Quote = Wait one week: $500 Lost Productivity
 Cost of Repair: $200
 Call Grade A: $5 of your time
 Response time = 24 hours: $100 Lost
Productivity
 Cost of Repair: $125
 Cost of Grade A = -$492
 IRR = 43% per day
GradeATechs.com
 IRR = 43% per day
Time (Day)
0
1
2
3
4
5
Cashflow
-227 (cost of GAT repair + lost productivity + call to GAT)
100 (lost productivity)
100 (lost productivity)
100 (lost productivity)
100 (lost productivity)
300 (lost productivity + repair bill)
Solve (by iteration):
-227 + 100/(1+irr)**1 + 100/(1+irr)**2 + 100/(1+irr)**3 +
100/(1+irr)**4 + 300/(1+irr)**5 = 0
GradeATechs.com
Residential Realtor
 Value Proposition = NCS
 FSBO sale takes longer
 FSBO sells at lower price– listing becomes ‘tired’
 FSBO pays commission anyway– to Buyer
Agent
 FSBO pays commission ‘thrice’– once to Buyer
Agent + lower sale price (Buyer reduces offer
price since “there is no commission”) + they do
all the showings/work
 FSBO higher legal cost and risk of litigation
Residential Realtor
 “The Lawyer who represents himself has a fool for
a client,” Anon.
 Agent: does 100s of transactions/FSBO: 1 or 2
 For a home with a FMV of $315,000:
For a commission of $15,340 paid to Brokerage,
Homeowner receives $38,188.
Cost to hire Agent? -$22,754
IRR? Infinite since Agent is not paid until and
unless deal completes!
(See: http://www.ottawarealestatenews.com/ValuePropositionFSBOVersusAgency.xls)
1964 Tribute Band
1964 Tribute Band
 Guerrilla Mktg: “Turn on your phones. Call a
friend and let them listen to our next tune.”
 Percentage of Audience who did: 25%
 New people turned on: 225
 Number of shows: 140 per annum
 New people turned on: 31,500 per annum
 Cost of directly reaching 31,500 potential new
customers—a negative $6 million, since people
pay them to show up!
Pool.com
 SnapNames.com recognized leader in backordering
deleting domain names
 Clients were paying $60 USD for each backorder to
SnapNames.com
 Register any domain name for backorder on Pool.com




for free
Only pay Pool.com if successful
Hundreds of 1,000s migrate to Pool.com
Pool.com successfully gets > 3,000 deleted names/day
from Verisign Registry
At $60/name + 2-yr registration fee = tens of millions
annually for Pool.com
Pool.com
Cost to clients?
Negative again!
E.g., patent and TM law firm
Say, registering 40 names for
backordering
SnapNames.com: $2,400
Pool.com: $0
Cost = -$2,400 for backorder
Pro Sports Teams
 Pitching to: a Mortgage Broker
 “Invest in our Season Tickets, please!”
 “Why?”
 “Look at our great players!”
 “How about our beautiful building!”
 “Did you know you can escape our parking lot in
just 25 minutes!”
 “What a great logo we have and our
merchandise, my, my!”
 IT’S A BEAUTY CONTEST!
Pro Sports Teams
“If you don’t buy a ticket, the team will
move!”
“What kind of a person are you, don’t you
have any civic pride?”
INSTEAD USE –VE COST SELLING!
By giving two Sens tickets to every
Homeowner who sources their mortgage
through you, you generate 2 to 5 more
mortgages per season!
Pro Sports Teams
 Here’s how it works:
The cost for two tickets to every regular
season home game: $55 less a 15% discount
2-year commitment
Divert 40% of current marketing budget to
Sens
Plus add another $2,655
The good news: other clients in this industry
are finding that they are generating 2 to 5 or
more mortgages per annum
Pro Sports Teams
For an additional investment of $2,655 in
each of the next two years, make an
additional $6,695 per year or a total of
$13,385
ROI of 152% per annum
Cost to buy Sens tickets: negative
$8,076.70
Plus Mortgage Broker’s sales now >
Mortgage Alliance minimum to qualify for
volume bonuses from. ROI increases
further
Pro Sports Teams
Plus Mortgage Broker’s sales now >
Mortgage Alliance minimum to qualify for
volume bonuses from. ROI increases
further
How about that?
“Just initial here, here and here, sign and
date there. Thanks, Bye now.”
KNOW YOUR CLIENTS BIZ ALMOST AS
WELL AS THEY DO
Conclusion on NCS
NCS  success rate will move from
.200 to .300 or .400 or higher
Plus order size and speed to order
will increase  triple whammy
(batting average/mass/velocity) to the
bottom line
Removes the fear about selling– you
know your clients’ businesses almost
as well as they do
Conclusion on NCS
Your projects get green lighted
Self-actualized human beings working
on projects they initiated with
innovations they introduced and
products and services that they
fearlessly sell, are happier people!
Negative Cost Selling: Blue Heron
Storage Corp– Assignment
Introduction
 Kirk Douglas in a 1951 Billy Wilder film, Ace in the Hole, was a
washed-up, broke, former NYC newspaper reporter who happened
one day to be ‘marooned’ in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
 He walks into the office of the local newspaper and tries to get an
interview with the Publisher and Owner. He says to the receptionist:
“Tell him I can help him make 200 bucks a week.” Intrigued, the
Publisher agrees to see Kirk. Douglas immediately starts to sell
himself and, finally, the Publisher asks him: “What about that $200?”
 Douglas replies: “I am a $250 a week NYC reporter but you can
have me for 50 bucks!” He gets the JOB at $60 a week.
Negative Cost Selling: Blue Heron
Storage Corp– Assignment
Introduction (Cont’d)
 If you want to be able to sell your product or service, you can learn a
lot from this type of negative cost selling is all about understanding
your client’s or customer’s business almost as well as he or she
does. You have to be able to show the client that by using your
product or service they will either reduce costs or increase revenues
or some combination of the two by more than the cost of your
product or service.
 Here is a simple case study for a local Ottawa storage company.
Negative Cost Selling: Blue Heron
Storage Corp– Assignment
This case study demonstrates how Facilities Managers can make
better use of expensive office space by using Blue Heron Storage
Corp.
Step # 1
Identify how much of your existing space is (inefficiently) used to
store files, obsolete furniture, old office equipment and other little
used materials. For this example, let us assume you found 8,100
square feet of 'stuff' scattered about your offices.
Step # 2
Determine how many engineers and other personnel can be
accommodated in that space. In this example, we will assume 180
s.f. per employee (gross) which means if we get rid of the stuff that
is taking up needless room in our office building, we can
accommodate an additional total of 45 engineers.
Negative Cost Selling: Blue Heron
Storage Corp– Assignment
Step # 3
Determine the marginal cost of new space as if you had to go out
and find it on the open market. In west-end Ottawa, Ontario lease
rates in 2010 are in the order of $16 per s.f. per annum net, net, net
plus operating costs and municipal taxes and utilities of about $15
per s.f. per annum for a total of $31. Thus, the cost of new space
(your opportunity cost, if you will) is 8,100 s.f. x $31 per s.f. per year
or $____________ per annum. (It's as if you had to build or buy or
lease new space on the open market today.)
Step # 4
Stack your materials efficiently with Blue Heron Storage (and get rid
of things you don’t really need) so that you free up 8,100 sq. ft. in
your existing building and take the minimum amount of storage
space.
Negative Cost Selling: Blue Heron
Storage Corp– Assignment
Step # 5
Because you are efficient, you find that only need to lease three
storage buildings, each 2,000 s.f., from Blue Heron Storage. Blue
Heron agrees to lease those storage buildings to you for $12 per s.f.
per annum gross.
Step # 6
Count your savings! Instead of opportunity costs for new facilities of
$____________ per year, you only pay $____________ per year to
Blue Heron. You save $____________ for every 45 engineers and
every 8,000 s.f. you free up. And you don't have to build, move to or
occupy new space.
Negative Cost Selling: Blue Heron
Storage Corp– Assignment
Step # 7
The cost to move one engineer into a new space is $900 per
person. This covers the cost of actually physically moving of files,
desks, PCs, etc. plus the cost of reestablishing the computer
network and phones. In addition, no matter how good your movers
are, your employees will lose 40% of their productivity the week
before and 1/3 the week after the move. Each employee is paid and
costs the company $1,500 per week including overhead costs and
benefits.
Negative Cost Selling: Blue Heron
Storage Corp– Assignment
Step # 8
You also know that your company has gross margins of 55% so you
are losing output as well.
Step # 9
Calculate the negative cost of renting three storage sheds from Blue
Heron by not having to find an additional 8,100 s.f. for 45 engineers.
Negative Cost Selling: Blue Heron
Storage Corp– Assignment
Step # 10
Help your clients make room
for live engineers not dead storage!
Answer: $____________
Fundamentals of Marketing
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
Considerations
How much is this
worth?
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
What we will Discuss
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Business Case Reviews
Marketing’s Fundamental Role
The Importance of the 4 Ps
Key Learnings
Q&A / Discussion
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
Sports Marketing – What We See
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
Definition:
“ The process of designing and implementing activities for
the production, pricing, promotion and distribution of
a sport product to satisfy the needs or desires of
consumers and to achieve the company’s goals”
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
Marketing Goals
Increase brand awareness
Establish brand image and trust
Educate consumers
Create distribution channels
Stimulate demand
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
…
Consumer engagement
Hierarchy of Effects
ACTION
CONVICTION
PREFERENCE
LIKING
KNOWLEDGE
AWARENESS
UNAWARENESS
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
Marketing’s Ultimate Role
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
PRODUCT
PRICE
PROMOTION
PLACE (Distribution)
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
Case Reviews
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
Event
Sports Product
Personality
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
Ottawa Race Weekend
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
Facts & Figures
• established in 1975
• 146 participants
• Not-for-profit corporation run by volunteer Board
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
Competitive Landscape
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
Let’s put ourselves in their shoes (pun intended!)
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
Fundamental Marketing Challenge?
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
Fundamental Marketing Challenge?
GROW # of PARTICIPANTS
The life blood of a mass participation event
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
The 4 Ps
PRODUCT
PRICE
PROMOTION
PLACE (Distribution)
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
They chose
to
concentrat
e here
Marketing Focus - PRODUCT
Establish the event as a runner-friendly even (meet the needs of the consumer)
• favourable course
• water stations
• health expo
• specific date
• transportation
• accommodation
• balance needs of elite vs. growing recreational runners
• event leadership provided by RUNNERS not EVENT people
• …..
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
Promotional activities
• attended other events (booth);
• Face-to-face personal selling
• Media partnerships established
• brochures, posters, etc
• athletes on Board
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
They established a brand
position for their PRODUCT
and they became full-time,
never-ending evangelists for
the characteristics and
benefits of their product
152
Results
Average of almost 14% yearly growth
Participation increased by 317% since 2000
Event challenge has now become growth management
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
Today
• 2009 - >35,000 participants
• Canada’s largest race weekend
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
Event
Sports Product
Personality
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
Facts & History
• established in 1994
• Founder (Terry Sutherland) working with GE (technology and industrial
design)
• Approached by Canstar in 1992 to develop composite hockey stick
• Passion for hockey so started a JV company; manufactured all sticks
under Bauer name
• 1997 Nike buys Canstar and stops all NA manufacturing
• Terry and group buy JV company back and make private label sticks
for Mission, Louisville and their own brand “Ballistik”
• In 2004 hockey and baseball business merged under one name –
COMBAT SPORTS
• currently employ over 100 people
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
Competitive Landscape
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
Brand Position
Everyone at Combat Sports has a genuine love and enthusiasm for
the game and our product. Our staff consists of elite level players,
past greats and weekend warriors that truly understand the players
needs. Not only are we regarded as composite design,
manufacturing, and engineering experts, but we are also die hard
fans and players of the games. Above all, we strive to understand
what players need and want. We truly live by our motto:
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
Let’s put ourselves in their shoes.
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
Fundamental Marketing Challenge?
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
Awareness, Education, Trial
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
PRODUCT
PRICE
PROMOTION
PLACE (Distribution)
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
They chose to
concentrate here
Marketing Focus - PRODUCT
• Owner of 11 patents (another 22 pending
• One of the few companies that manufactured (did not
outsource)
• From Day 1, mission was to build the best hockey stick
• Interesting they don’t feel they are there yet but are close
• Launched with product offer of $100 stick with same /
better quality than $250 stick
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
Marketing Focus - PLACE
• Initial marketing budget of less than $50,000
• Gorillas in the market spending millions on traditional
advertising
• Challenge of perception of quality for unknown brand
• Distribution Strategy
Launch:
Individual Rep Program
Non-exclusive territory
High-margin but lack of control / visibility
Now: Retail dealer network
Brand recognition / demand high enough
Higher volume – margin and profitability
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
Continue to be grassroots focused;
Demo Days at targeted events
“From Day 1, we felt the most powerful marketing
tool was product seeding – getting our product into
the hands of hockey players.”
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
BIGGEST MARKETING MISTAKE
• Entering NHL Supplier pool too early
• $60,000 investment before you test products, pay players etc.
• Bought in in 2007 but had to exit program and hurt credibility
with Equipment Managers
• Lured by the appeal of the NHL shield
• Back in now with better strategy
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
Marketing Focus - PROMOTION
Official Supplier
Unique Player deals
Influential coaches and instructors
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
168
Results
• Multi-million company
• Profitable
• Still privately-held
• Growing
Challenge is to stay nimble and manage aggressive growth
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
OTTAWA RACE WEEKEND TITLE SPONSORSHIP PRESENTATION
Event
Sports Product
Personality
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
Tony Greco
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
Facts & History
• graduate of Sports Performance Institute
• Founder of the Greco Lean and Fit program and businesses
• Owns 4 fitness and martial arts schools/facilities in Ottawa
• Radio host / personality
• Personal trainer for several NHL players
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
Competitive Landscape
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
Let’s put ourselves in Tony’s shoes.
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
Fundamental Marketing Challenge?
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
Awareness, Image, Credibility
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
PRODUCT
PRICE
PROMOTION
PLACE (Distribution)
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
Tony
concentrates
here
Marketing Focus- PRODUCT
•Building a product and brand
• Creating natural product line extensions from that core brand
• Expanding those product lines (e.g multiple fitness centre locations)
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
Live Lean · Live Fit · Live Well
Transforming Bodies · Strengthening Minds · Lifting Spirits
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
Marketing Focus- PROMOTION
• Brand position: CANADA’S LEADING FITNESS SPECIALIST
• VERY AGGRESSIVE PR / promotion campaign
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
“Differentiation”
• Community investment piece
• Great PR value
• Foundation created to fight Children’s obesity
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
183
RESULTS
• Profitable company
• Growing
• Recognized market leader
Challenge is Tony’s capacity and sustainability
Professor Bruce M. Firestone
OTTAWA RACE WEEKEND TITLE SPONSORSHIP PRESENTATION
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
Guerrilla marketing (GM) is just
another term for ‘smart marketing’
Do for a dollar what any fool could do for
two
Uses leverage to efficiently and effectively
get message out by way of earned media
or through more direct means
Substitutes brains for cash in marketing
wars
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
If any piece of decommissioned Mir Space
Station hits, everyone in continental USA
gets free Taco
Taco Bell takes out insurance
Carried by major news outlets across the
planet
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
Taco Bell’s NYSE symbol is GM
Symbol is ‘YUM’
Most companies would use ‘TBC’
YUM is better for food company, don’t you
think?
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
GM exists in a grey legal area
Never do anything that is illegal or
unethical or places any persons or
property in danger
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
Guerrilla Marketing Research?
Conventional Market Research for Sens in
1990– ‘Would you buy season’s tickets for
a NHL team in Ottawa?’
Predicts 100,000 season tickets can be
sold
Submit happily to NHL
Chicago sells 12,000
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
Guerrilla Marketing Research?
Real buying decision versus hypothetical
Market demand for mini offices in Ottawa
circa 1980s?
Series of classified ads in local newspaper
Telephone answering machine literally in a
cupboard at head office
Selling ‘vaporware’ but get real sense of
demand
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
 Guerrilla Marketing Research?
 Asking for commitment to lease mini office for a
minimum of three months at a fixed lease rate
 Strong response meant within two weeks building out
one floor in a west end tower and putting tenants in
temporary offices at HQ
 TCCL, Terrace Corporate Centres eventually became
largest mini office provider in eastern Ontario with 164
mini offices in two locations with occupancy rate
exceeding 94%
 Profitable in its own right but also acted as source of new
lease deals
 Apple’s first offices in Ottawa? TCCL
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
 Guerrilla Marketing Research?
More recent—developer needs to know
what rents he might get for new, 2bedroom units being built in west end of
Ottawa
Property manager says $900 per month
REALTOR says $1,100 per month
Who is right and how to test it?
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
 Guerrilla Marketing Research?
Property Manager bias—lower rents make
it easier for him to fill new units
(Cautionary note: reverse may also be
true. If rents are set too low, it may scare
off main stream renters who fear that
place may be dangerous and that is why it
is priced so low—remember, price
conveys a lot of information beyond just
dollar figure)
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
 Guerrilla Marketing Research?
REALTOR also biased—he wants to sell
units to investors so he wants to show
highest possible rents and highest
possible cap rate to investors
My suggestion was simple?
In today’s Internet age test market it FOR
FREE
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
 Guerrilla Marketing Research?
 Put two free ads on http://ottawa.kijiji.ca/: each ad
describes place slightly differently and each ad would
have a different names to contact
 Receive about same number of calls on each ad which
happily (from investor’s POV) means rent of $1,100 per
month will work
 They also pick up sense that people calling for units at
higher rent were associating higher price with concepts
like ‘new’, ‘higher quality building’, ‘higher quality space’
and ‘better class of tenant’
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
 Guerrilla Marketing Research?
1. It’s not hypothetical market research—it’s guerrilla marketing
research for three reasons: a) it’s free or very low cost, b) you are
asking about units that don’t yet exist and c) you are not asking a
theoretical question (at least as far as the respondent is concerned),
you are getting a real call from a real person looking for an
apartment.
2. It’s not really ‘vaporware’ either—these units are for sale and for
rent and will be built in the next eight months.
3. Typical of GM research, you are leaving out the fact that they are
not ready right NOW so you are in a gray ethical area but still, the
renter could be looking for later in the year anyway…
Guerrilla and Social Marketing






Getting a Place at the Table?
Most large firms don’t want to give you a place at trough
Students Design Clinic (SDC)
Carleton University’s School of Architecture
Student-run enterprise
SDC is passed on from one student generation to next
with junior designers becoming senior designers and
most accomplished senior designer becoming Chief
Designer
 Oral tradition
 Surplus (over and above what they paid to students) of
more than $80,000
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
SDC is itself a guerrilla institution—
officially frowned on by University’s
Administration
Concerned about liability in case of
dispute over fees or one of designs is substandard
Submit for building permit and meet the
OBC (Ontario Building Code)
Liability seems manageable
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
GM program for Clinic is simple and some
techniques are old
What is GM?
Is it? a) do stunt, b) get national press
coverage, c) send out mass email, d) put
out a tweet on Twitter, e) stand back and
watch traffic counter rocket or app
downloads multiply?
Bad news—not that easy
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
1. Use lawn signs: if politicians use them, it’s because
they work and are cheap. On-site signage is great: pylon
signs, lawn signs, sandwich boards, window decals,
whatever—they’re cheap and they keep working 24/7.
Maybe you want to bring back the walking billboard (a
person wearing a sandwich board) or better yet: a
person wearing a sandwich board giving out handbills
which have a call to action on them. So use lawn signs
at all your job sites with your Students Design Clinic logo
and telephone number and URL clearly visible.
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
2. Lawn signs should cost no more than
$10.00 each. Leave them up forever or
until your client takes it down.
3. Add some type of call to action. How
about: “Free One Hour Consultation”
4. Put your tag line and your logo on your
lawn signs. You are a design clinic so your
marketing stuff has to look sharp
otherwise it is reverse marketing (don’t do
this!)
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
5. Create a second web address that
points to existing Carleton address
(www.arch.carleton.ca/clinic) which is a bit
clumsy. Note: check out
www.domainsatcost.ca which is one of
Canada’s largest domain name registrars.
Try for something like:
www.studentsdesignclinic.ca or
www.designclinic.ca. (Editor’s note: these
URLs are not currently active.)
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
6. Create both private and public spaces on your
website. The private password protected space is and
will become your ‘institutional memory’ of what works
and doesn’t work over a period of years. (The same
thing was done for www.kosmic.ca so that students
aren’t starting from scratch every year for goodness
sake.) Put in things like how to hire and fire; what to pay
people; how to monitor performance; how to interview
and select team members, what marketing worked and
what didn’t—all the hidden keys to success…
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
7. Use PSAs (Public Service
Announcements) addressed to print, TV
and radio outlets. Your PSAs should go to
local publications too such as the Kanata
Kourier Standard not just the Ottawa
Citizen and the Ottawa Sun. Give them
visuals as well.
8. Get testimonials for your website and
your flyer.
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
9. Create a logo for the Clinic and a tag line that is on
everything. Terrace Corporation (the first parent
company of the Ottawa Senators) was in the real estate
business; they used “Great Space for Great People”.
You’ll want something different—it is much too
commercial but you need something that speaks to the
core competencies of the clinic and your mission.
10. Keep a customer data base of tel. #s, fax #s and
especially email addresses. The best place to look for
new clients and new work is from your existing clientele.
11. Every year you should email your past client base
with the “news”—what is up with the clinic this year.
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
12. Do a flyer drop not just around the University but also in Kanata,
Nepean and Orleans as well as downtown—anywhere people are doing a
lot of renovations. Flyers to the home or office are cheap and cheerful and
often effective. But don’t wait too long to get them out. They need to go out
in February or March not May or June, that’s far too late. Don’t forget to
include your call-to-action like ‘Free Quote’ or ‘Free One Hour Consultation’
or ‘10% off’ or ‘Fill in the attached ballot and return it to win great prizes’ or
whatever. You can use a variant of the Flyer—the Handbill. It’s a bit different
in the sense that it is exactly what it sounds like: a ‘bill’ that passes from
your hand to a potential client’s hand directly. It is an old marketing concept
but it can be remarkably cheap and effective. And you know that it got to the
recipient for sure. Handbills can be given out at a trade show, for example.
Something else to remember: marketing is about consistency and repetition.
When our family was a partner in a tool and equipment rental chain, we
found that our flyers became more effective over time. People began to
expect them and to use them more often when we repeated the drops in the
same neighborhoods a second, third or even a fourth time over a period of
two years.
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
13. Do a customer satisfaction survey.
This is where you will get testimonials,
references and permission to use them.
Put them on your website and on your
flyers even in your PSAs.
14. Let your clients know that you are
never too busy for referrals.
15. Avoid expensive advertising and major
media like radio, television and daily
newspapers.
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
16. Use word of mouth, flyer drops, PSAs
and lawn signs.
17. Your website is just a support tool but
an important one.
18. Put photos of finished work on your
web site—create a Design Clinic portfolio.
19. Everyone is in sales—Chief Designer,
Assistant Manager, Senior Table Leaders,
Table Leaders, Senior Designers and
Designers.
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
20. Make sure you have 24/7 telephone
messaging and design clinic email
accounts.
21. DON’T call your Junior Designers
‘Junior Designers’; just call them
‘Designers’.
22. Your next level up is Senior Designer.
And so forth—yes, it’s title inflation but it
works well in marketing your services. No
one likes to be called ‘junior’ and no one
wants to hire anyone called ‘junior’.
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
23. Put ‘Free One Hour Consultation’
everywhere—on your website, on your
brochure and on your lawn signs. People
love FS (Free Stuff).
24. Put on your website a few simple to
understand reasons why people should
choose the Clinic like supporting students,
like the exceptional quality of your work,
like getting really top notch people to work
for them at a fraction of the price they will
command just a few years down the road.
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
25. Your flyer should use colour—it is
more costly but you are in the design
business. Last year 1,000s of good quality
colour flyers (8.5 x 11) were printed (one
side) for less than 25 cents each.
26. Put a copy of your flyer on bulletin
boards in stores like IGA, Loblaws,
Canadian Tire, Walmart, Home Depot,
Home Hardware, building supply stores,
etc.
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
27. Coroplast signs are very inexpensive (about $5 to $10 each for
18 inch by 32 inch signs with either two-colour or full colour decals).
With the SDC URL, logo and tag line, they make good posters which
can be put up with a stapler or plastic ties on hydro poles or city
owned fences. (Note you should probably ask for permission from
the municipality but in guerrilla marketing people often don’t.) If you
put them up high (use a ladder for this), your signs tend to stay up
longer. City workers don’t like to get out of their vehicles to unload a
ladder, carry it, erect it and climb up the pole to tear down your
signs. They’ll call you and you can volunteer to take them down
yourself. Perhaps they may reappear somewhere else in the City.
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
28. You can offer to do a few free design
jobs using your trainees and the local
media can be invited to review the work.
Better yet, do a few free designs for high
profile persons in the community and get
them to talk about it on their shows, blogs,
what have you. Get a free endorsement or
plug from a local celebrity.
29. You can offer to let people buy ‘gift
certificates’ for design services for friends
and family.
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
30. You can run a contest on your website. The
winner receives, say, $200 of design services
with first, second and third runners up receiving
$75, $50 and $25. The winners always end up
spending more.
31. Contests could be something like: putting a
piece of a famous structure (the Roman
Coliseum, the Acropolis, Scotiabank Place, for
example) on your website, add to it every day
and the first person to email you with the correct
identity, wins.
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
32. You can develop a $20 coupon program and
give out the coupons to clients and to others to
give to their friends. You can also print the $20
SDC coupons in local newspaper ads and folks
can clip them out and bring them to the clinic.
33. You need to visit established architecture
firms to co-opt them into your business
ecosystem. Many architecture firms don’t have
time for gazebos, decks, fencing, basement
renovations or small additions. They would
prefer to refer these clients to the SDC.
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
34. Faces are very important in marketing and that
includes GM. You need to put a picture of yourself and
your team on your marketing materials (web, flyer,
maybe even your lawn signs). That way people can see
the faces of all your happy, smiling, enthusiastic
designers. If there is one ad with a face in it and another
without one, the former will get a lot more attention.
35. Because this is a design studio, you should probably
also have a watermark in addition to your logo. The
watermark reflects the underlying principles of your work
and is used as a half tone (or a sidebar) on all your
drawings, contracts, marketing materials.
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
36. Can you accept Visa? You should probably ask your
bank for that service—folks love paying by Visa and
even though you have to actually pay a fee (probably
2.75 to 3.25% of each transaction) it will save you a
huge amount of time and frustration actually getting paid
and the amounts people will spend on design services
will also go up! This is a double whammy on your bottom
line—collect faster and collect more.
37. Don’t forget to ask for a retainer up front. It should be
around 45%. Try to get another 45% when the drawings
are submitted for building permit. Get the last 10% when
you actually get the permit.
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
38. You can set up a referral system—for each client
referred to the Clinic that signs a contract, you can offer
a premium like a really fantastic SDC t-shirt. This is more
promotion for the Clinic—people walking around wearing
your logo (and URL)!
39. Let people buy your branded promotional stuff. You
are, after all, a design shop. Why just limit yourselves to
designing real property? Why not use those skills in your
marketing as well to create really insanely great branded
clothing and promotional items?
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
40. Put out media releases every time you
do something newsworthy and feed the
press regularly. Make the title catchy: how
about Third Wall Theatre Group in Ottawa
who put out a press release with the title:
“Directors Stab CEO in Boardroom
Uprising” to promote Julius Caesar. They
got attention in a hurry from the media.
Today, we would add a few new things to
the above list including:
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
41. Use social media—start your own
Facebook group and use Twitter to
develop a following; use these as tools for
CRM (Customer Relationship
Management) as well.
42. Start a blog for the SDC highlighting
interesting and challenging jobs you have
tackled.
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
43. SEO, Search Engine optimization can do
wonders for your website. By increasing your
profile in search engine results, you can turn
your website into a big lead generator for da
nada. SEO includes things like link trading with
all your friends’ websites so that more sites link
to you. Search engine algorithms look for how
many sites link to you as an indicator of how
important you are.
44. Give your company or organization a name
and a website address that are identical so you
don’t waste any effort branding different names.
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
45. Go to trade shows like the Ottawa Home and
Garden Show and use giveaways (promo items)
that are branded with your logo, name, tag line,
contact info and some type of call-to-action.
46. Network like crazy and use your employees’
and suppliers’ networks too.
47. Try to sell to people you buy from (reverse
selling). Your AP, Accounts Payable can be a
good source of leads. At the Sens, if we needed
a plumber he or she was certainly going to be a
season tickets holder.
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
48. Volunteer for worthwhile causes in your local
community.
49. See if you can create an event that’s fun and
helps promote your business and doesn’t cost
you anything or maybe even generates revenue
for you.
50. Do some polling: people love to be asked
their opinion on just about anything.
51. Create a market survey: people like to be
asked for their views. They’ll answer your
survey, which will also generate information and
leads for you.
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
52. Create some type of scoring test on a subject of
interest like when to know when it is time to replace your
roof or windows…
53. Follow the trail of really bad marketing to see who
needs your help in your industry. Maybe a local builder
needs the SDC’s help with one of their design issues.
54. Make sure you can explain your value proposition in
three to five separate points to give people a few simple,
compelling reasons to buy from you.
55. Find sponsors or patrons for your business or
organization. Create something that they can sponsor
and benefit by.
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
56. Bid on jobs even if you know you might
lose: you end up knowing everyone
involved with the process; you can build
up your network this way for next time. It’s
a kind of win-by-losing strategy.
57. See if you can get volunteers to help
you.
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
58. Don’t forget the Yellow Pages and its related website.
Yellow Pages ads are expensive but I have found that
even a three line ad can be effective. This give you
enough room to have your name, tel. #, URL and tag
line. If you can afford it, add one or two more lines for a
call to action like ‘Free Quote’ or ‘One Hour Free
Consultation’. Your logo would be nice too. You can also
sometimes place your ad in a non traditional category
where you can stand out. Maybe sneak your design
shop into the building supplies category by asking one of
the big advertisers there to add your design shop to their
ad. Perhaps you could convince them to do that for
free…
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
59. Try negative cost selling: it’s huge and works really
well. Show the client (preferably with a spreadsheet) how
he or she either makes money from buying your
products or services, or reduces costs or both. This
requires a level of understanding about your client’s
situation, which you should have anyway. For example,
show them how a basement renovation or adding a
granny flat is a negative cost when compared to, say,
putting your mother-in-law in one of the those vertical
warehouses called a retirement home. (To read more
about Negative Cost Selling, please refer to:
http://www.eqjournalblog.com/?p=482.)
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
60. Use co-branding. Who is in your business
ecosystem? Would they want to pay some (or all or more
than all!) of the costs of your marketing? For example,
maybe there is a building supplies retailer who provides
lumber and other construction materials. Or a builder or
landscaper who is winning lots of work designed by the
Clinic. Perhaps they want to co-market with the SDC and
pay some of your marketing costs. (For more on cobranding and cross-selling, see:
http://www.eqjournalblog.com/?p=571 and
http://www.eqjournalblog.com/?p=571.)
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
There are so many ways to use GM, the
list really is endless and today, through the
Internet, a small enterprise can leave big
tracks.
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
Marketing is a mystery/it’s subtle
Don’t need Yellow Pages ads or flyers any
more?
How did you hear about us?
Answer: Google, Twitter, FB…
Get rid of Yellow Pages and flyers?
Maybe yes, maybe no
Maybe customers really saying their last
stop was Google but forgot to mention saw
your flyer or Yellow Page ad before?
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
Local high tech company doesn’t have the
marketing budget to put inserts into the
local newspaper for distribution to their
target market. So early one morning, the
founders go out with abundant pocket
change and they open the paper boxes
and insert their marketing brochure; then
close up the boxes and wait for the phone
to ring. Student note: this is probably
illegal. Don’t do this but it is an example of
clever thinking nonetheless.
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
Another tech company, looking to recruit
top talent, put up hundreds of $2 placards
along the main drag where techies
working for their competitors tended to
drive. They put them up on a Thursday
night after city workers had gone home
and they remained up for six days before
the City had the (illegal) signs removed.
The campaign was cheap, cheerful and
successful.
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
Old Milwaukee Guerrilla Marketing
How can you outperform a $3.5 million
Super Bowl commercial with a $700 to
$1,500 North Platte, Nebraska TV buy and
a ridiculously badly produced ad?
That’s what’s possible in the 21st century
via social media
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
Old Milwaukee aired a 30-second spot on
NBC affiliate KNOP-TV 2 in one of the
smallest markets in the US during Super
Bowl XLVI
North Platte has just 15,180 TV homes
It didn’t cost them very much but gave
them the cred they needed to say it was in
fact a Super Bowl ad
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
First, they got 1,640 mentions on Twitter
then a YouTube user by the name of
Daddymcc uploaded a cheapo copy of
their Will Ferrell-cameo advert to YouTube
So what did Old Milwaukee do next?
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
They turned their IP lawyers loose on
Daddymcc, YouTube and Google, of
course, to force them to take down an
unauthorized version of their ad
They sent them a sternly worded ceaseand-desist-letter threatening them with
legal Armageddon
Not!
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
What they really did was link from Old
Milwaukee’s official Facebook page to
Daddymcc’s upload
After that, they got over 1 million views in
the 11 days subsequent to the 2012 Super
Bowl compared to say Budweiser’s
professionally-produced eternal optimism
Super Bowl ad
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enfJEibY1nY) which got just
over 400,000 in the same time period
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
The Old Milwaukee ad is beyond cheesy
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tejGMPAShdY)
Guerrilla marketing (in this case, a form of
ambush marketing) is about substituting
brains for money
No way can OM compete with Bud’s deep
pockets so they did this instead
It’s what entrepreneurs do every day
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
Ambush marketing tends to happen every
four years when the Olympics come up. It
is so expensive to be an official 5 Olympic
Rings sponsor that even major companies
are sometimes forced into guerrilla
marketing
Or perhaps if they are shut out of the
Olympics by a competitor who has
category exclusivity, they could decide to
ambush both them and the Olympic
movement
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
 A while back a major shoe company did ambush
marketing at Atlanta Summer Olympic Games
 While one of their competitors paid $40m to be
an official sponsor, they set up a mega tent on a
parking lot down the street from the main
Olympic venue
 They filled the place with product, interactive
games, VIP sections, you-name-it
 It became the in-place to be during those games
and they scooped the competition and scored a
major PR hit—both admiring and outraged
reactions were welcomed
Bundling and Co-branding
Lululemon Athletica not only sells active
wear they also have Yoga classes in their
stores
In essence, they are housing two
complementary businesses under the
same roof
But there is no reason why they could not
be offered by two different organizations
Bundling and Co-branding
Key is to view enterprise as a platform on
which to build a community of interests
What services or products does it make
sense for you to bundle with your core
offering (i.e., they complement it)
Or can you unbundle/break apart your
core offering to uncover separate services
or products that could be offered by
others?
Bundling and Co-branding
 If you get others to use your platform, you push some of
your capital costs onto them
 Becomes a form of bootstrap capital
 May also pay you both a rights fee and rent just to be
part of your offering!
 Lululemon could rent stores to Yoga professionals for
classes and create two revenue streams that way—more
clothing sales plus hall rental
 Also a form of negative cost marketing since Yoga
studios would be paying Lululemon to bring their clients
to Lululemon stores
 Similar to co-branding and co-opetition
Bundling and Co-branding
TCCL, Terrace Corporate Centres, largest
mini office provider in Eastern Ontario
Word processing business
Lost about $3,000 per month
Unbundled business/spun it out to
independent entrepreneur (who paid
$50,000)
Turned it around in just six months
Went from cost centre to profit centre for
us
Bundling and Co-branding
Mountain Equipment Coop sells bikes,
running shoes, kayaks, canoes, outdoor
clothing, cross country skis…
Adding 500 square-foot space to existing
store in Westboro
Making it available for community use by
sports and environmental groups
Want to be more than store– a central part
of community commitment to active
lifestyle
Bundling and Co-branding
 Apple this with their stores
 You not only buy Macs, iPhones, iPads, iPods et
al but also attend free workshops, get stuff
repaired, ask for assistance at Genius Bar, get
help setting up your computing and
communications environment, learn how to use
iTunes and app store, get one-on-one training if
you need it…
 It’s all about bundling services around your core
offering and creating a platform
Bundling and Co-branding
Bundling can also involve co-branding
Eg, marketing Brooks Brother’s suits with
Audi cars and Rolex watches or, better
yet, bundling them all together—buy Audi
and get Brooks Brothers suit plus Rolex
thrown in!
What’s interesting is that these three
products can become sales channels for
each other
Bundling and Co-branding
Here is unlikely duo: Xerox co-promoting
Michelin in its advertising in Bloomberg
Businessweek (March 11, 2012)
Bundling and Co-branding
No more unlikely than Michelin starting its
Michelin Guide in 1900 to help motorists
find accommodation and restaurants
Anything that got more people driving
further and more often was, indirectly,
good for their tire company their thinking
went
However, Guides became own profit
centres
Bundling and Co-branding
That is, they stood on their own
As well as providing negative cost
marketing and co-branding for tire
company
These concepts are not new but forgotten
by successive generations only to be
rediscovered...
Everything old is new again…
Bundling and Co-branding
 Bundling is gaining traction as a biz model tool
 Recent announcement by Chrysler that it will
certify and sell used cars by OTHER
manufacturers
 Why not extend their warranty program?
 It is a profit generator
 Plus having more people, some of whom are
perhaps not interested in Chrysler but are in say
Hondas and Toyotas, come to their stores
means that, at least, now they have a chance to
persuade them otherwise
Bundling and Co-branding
 Not easy to tell difference between hardware,
software, consulting, outsourcing, products,
services or app tech company
 They are all using biz models as platforms to
poach on each other’s territories
 Become counter cyclical
 Makes more efficient use of fixed costs caused
by their underlying investment in office, lab and
manufacturing space as well as administration
costs, investment in staff and staff training,
equipment and other basic requirements without
which they cannot operate
Bundling and Co-branding
In entertainment business, Bloomberg
News’ Norm Betts reports that Netflix CEO
Reed Hastings meeting with cable
operators to discuss a way for Netflix to be
included with monthly cable bills
This would be a way for Netflix to add
huge new numbers of subscribers by
using existing cable networks as, in effect,
Netflix resellers
Bundling and Co-branding
 Netflix would then be on more level playing field
with Showtime, HBO and other specialty cable
channels
 More subscribers, steadier and higher
committed monthly recurring revenues
 Better able to compete for directors, screen
writers, stars, talent, screen plays and so be
able to offer more original content– series and
films
 Bundling while developing reseller sales
channels will make Netflix an even more
formidable competitor
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
Ethics
One of keys to success is to be accepted
part of your business ecosystem
Once you are embedded in a business
ecosystem, you are very hard to dislodge
Trust is No. 1 thing in life and business
Do not engage in unethical practices in
GM or anything else you do
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
Media Release
Media releases are tricky to do
These days people are saying they’re less
relevant as mainstream media fades
Mainstream media still matters
For how long, no one knows
But one thing is clear, it matters less than
it once did
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
You can talk to more people in a few
seconds on ABC World News with Diane
Sawyer than you can if you gave a speech
before a live audience of 1,000 people for
7,950 days in a row*
Almost 22 years of live engagements just
to match 10 seconds on Diane’s show
(* ABC reports that for November 2011 sweeps, ABC World News with
Diane Sawyer delivered 7.95 million total viewers.)
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
Instead of Diane’s show, say you reach
1,000 influential bloggers
Blogs like EQJournal.org have more than
52,000 individual IP addresses accessing
it
Assume you reach 1,000 like it
By engaging blogosphere, you could
potentially deliver 52,000,000 viewers, far
more than what Diane does
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
Blogs, Twitter, FB, Digg, Reddit and
YouTube are cratering mainstream media,
in part, because they are inexpensive,
authentic (for the most part), democratic
and non-elitist
So why go to the trouble of writing media
releases at all?
Most important reason to record in a
systematic and careful way the history of
your event
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
Twitter Nation
In 1953, Arthur C. Clark predicted (in his
novel Childhood’s End) that by the turn of
the 20th Century, long distance would
cease to exist
Browser, Email, IM, My Space, Skype and
others (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn,
Google+ et al) came along around that
time to make his prediction largely come
true and then some
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
Twitter, which is outward facing in a way
that its competitors are not, brings with it a
level of utility beyond other social media
that benefits entrepreneurs and
intrapreneurs to a great degree
Communicate, two way, with the world for
free
Influence your clients, customers,
suppliers, colleagues, partners and
sponsors in a way never possible before
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
FB is about friends and family
Twitter is for friends, family, colleagues,
acquaintances, co-workers, direct reports
and fans
Just imagine having 1,000 followers or
maybe 5,000 or possibly 50,000 or even
500,000
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
If you change jobs, need a job, start a new
enterprise, learn something cool,
participate in an event, need input on a
new logo, want to run a poll on a new
product or service, want to share
information, feel like speaking your mind,
need an apartment, want to organize a
meet-up, publish a book, write a new blog
post, need more clients, have to find a
new supplier…you can broadcast a
message that instantly seen by everyone
who follows you
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
You can DM (Direct Message) them
privately, you can mention them publicly
using the @mentions feature (recently
renamed @connect), you can create lists
of certain groups (like I do for my former
students)
You can follow people of interest to you
and see what they are doing, what they
are reading or watching and learn from
them
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
You can tailor your follow list so that it
includes news on subjects of interest to
you—which might include current events
or obscure subjects of interest only to a
handful of people on the planet including
you
Integrate Twitter into classes
Answer questions like: ‘Hey Prof, when is
our essay due?’
Can tell whole class with single tweet
instead of, say, 45 emails
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
Use hashtag feature (which the Twitter
community created)
#ec3396 and #MBA6298, course codes
preceded by ‘#’ sign (which is nicknamed a
hashtag)
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
Students can see not only answers to
mundane questions but also answers to
more substantive ones
Hashtag feature allows crossconversations to develop
Not always Prof talking to students or vice
versa but students helping each other and
other students jumping in
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
@mentions (@connect), favorite and
retweet features allow you to give props to
a follower or, for that matter, anyone on
Twitter
If something is really important to you, you
can tweet it out at different times of day
Individualize backdrop to your Twitter
home page
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
Use Twitter as a ’social’ media which
means you engage in conversations
It is not a sales tool
Try to answer as many @connects as you
can and all your DMs
Spend about 10 minutes a day on the
service because you integrate it into your
workday
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
When you are meeting someone or
working on stuff and you trip over
something that you think your friends, fans
and followers will find interesting, add it to
your Twitter feed via your smartphone app
It will take you 12 to 18 months to find your
‘voice’ on SM
So tweet at least 1/day until you get the
hang of it
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
You can and probably will have multiple
Twitter channels
My main account is @ProfBruce but
recently we’ve added @BootstrapAwards,
@Exploriem, @BizModelComp,
@Century21Expl and others
We can narrowcast with these other
Twitter feeds and be more openly
commercial with the latter without
compromising the integrity of @ProfBruce
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
People who follow @Century21Expl are
presumably folks interested in commercial
real estate
So they will want to watch this feed to see
if they can pick up any commercial
property that suits their portfolio or budget
Or learn any ‘tricks of the trade’ so to
speak
So it’s OK to be blatantly commercial here
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
 I would not buy any URL today without getting
the exact @Twitter equivalent whenever
possible
 Probably try to get identical Facebook page
vanity URL too
 So if you are buying ProfBruce.com, try to get
@ProfBruce and Facebook.com/ProfBruce
 You only have a few seconds to impress
someone with your brand so why make it harder
on everyone if you own ProfBruce.com but your
twitter handle is kool_dude-1990?
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
 Twitter’s API (application programming interface)
is being adapted to add a social layer to many
biz models today
 If you can place your enterprise at the centre of
a community tied together through the
fan/friend/follow/follower model (Twitter is just
one option among many you can choose from),
it will be much harder to knock off or outsource
and kill
 It can create a sustainable competitive
advantage for you
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
 Facebook comments was brilliant move to
extend FB franchise and Twitter should respond
by embracing that as well
 Never liked anonymous comments—they can be
outrageous, libelous and untrue with no
repercussions for those posting these
sometimes hateful and shameful things
 One thing that Twitter and FB do very well
(especially FB) is verify who you are; how many
people will follow you if you are a fraud?
 Folks will catch on and drop away
Guerrilla and Social Marketing
 There is no hard and fast rule about who you
follow
 Should you follow everyone who follows you?
 I think you should be selective because, if you
have a lot of followers, it’s hard to have a real
conversation with 5,000, 50,000, 500,000 or
millions of followers
 But I also understand the democratic urge to
follow everyone back
 It’s up to you