Terminological and Historical Background of Guerilla Marketing as a Marketing Communication Strategy

Abstract

This article deals with guerilla marketing and/or guerilla marketing strategy on the backgroundof military attack strategies. The aim of this article is to grasp guerrilla marketing in a broader con-text, starting from the marketing and communication strategy, which is historically and terminologyinspired by the military strategy of guerrilla attacks and/or by military strategy in general. The theoret-ical study is a meta-analysis of five scientific publications dealing with the overlays of military strate-gies and marketing to identify useful marketing and communication strategies. Guerilla marketing asan offensive-defensive strategy present among the attack strategies and it is described as a way forsmall and weaker businesses to compete with large corporations in the existing conflict and to actas challengers in the battle. An emphasis will be put on the primary characteristic of guerrilla warfare:it is a typical competitive struggle based on a series of small intermittent attacks and withdrawals.