The Hindu Business Line : Lessons for guerrillas

Where are the guerrillas? In zoos, and on the Discovery channel, perhaps? Wait, for all you know, guerrillas might well be prowling the marketplace. What? Read on ...

"Guerrillas are business operators who substitute time, energy and imagination for money," write Jay Conrad Levinson, Rick Frishman, and Jill Lublin in Guerrilla Publicity, by from Kogan Page (www.vivagroupindia.com) . To guerrillas, what matters is profit, rather than sales. "They place primary importance on how many relationships they build, not how many dollars they take in. Guerrilla entrepreneurs know that the journey is the goal and they are not in a hurry."

If guerrillas don't show up on your radar, it is quite normal. Because they don't use publicity, thinking that it is too expensive, complicated, and time consuming. Is that right or wrong? Wrong, the authors would say, because guerrillas fail to realise that the media is a voracious giant that constantly devours information. Maybe, you can visualise the media as a giant guerrilla into whose veins runs information! "It needs information to survive, tons of information! The media craves original items and is as eager to tell guerrillas' stories."

But first, what is publicity? "The art of stirring up interest to promote your product or service. It's convincing others to sing your praises, to blare from the rooftops: Who you are, what you do, and why it's important." Master showman PT Barnum's quote is aptly cited, thus: "A terrible thing happens without publicity... NOTHING!"

Therefore, introduce yourself, but with a `sound bite', reads a sound advice from one of the early chapters in the book. What most people have time for is not a full story, but `a synopsis, a digest, a capsule of information delivered in a few seconds that is easy to swallow and switches on their mental light bulb'.

The sound bite is your `verbal business card', urge the authors. It is "a snappy self-description that you can rattle off in the time it takes an elevator to rise from the lobby to the fifth floor." When you have the right sound bite that describes you and makes your work special, deliver it also through letters, brochures, Internet chat rooms and so on. "Recite the sound bite out loud until you believe it and feel comfortable delivering it ... Time how long your sound bite runs." Cut it to 30 seconds or less. "Don't memorise your sound bite; instead, picture keywords and reel them off in order as if you're descending a ladder."

Think publicity, counsels the book. Make publicity `a mindset, a constant and instinctive focus.' Remember, however, that credibility is everything; "so, never claim to be what you're not or promise what you can't deliver." Media relationships are not equal, advise the authors. Means? "Don't take it personally when your media contacts don't respond. The fact is they're usually busy. The media has a short attention span and once they have your story and you're not on their schedule, you're no longer in their minds."

One of the skills guerrillas may have to work on is the writing of killer releases. These should be "compelling one-page press releases with attention-getting headlines and bullets," because "in press kits, press releases are the beef, the rest is simply gravy." Handle interviews with care; "never give interviews unless you're totally prepared." Become an authority, exhort the authors; this necessitates learning your discipline thoroughly and publishing materials "on narrow subjects that you've mastered," where you "clearly explain your knowledge to others." Most important, take a long-term view; "it means that you shouldn't press an issue with a media contact to the point where you could destroy the relationship."

Sensitive lessons that help in navigating the marketing jungle.

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D. Murali