Guerrilla Marketing Coach

The Power Of Memes

The essence of guerrilla creativity is creating marketing that has meme power. Guerrilla creativity is dreaming up a symbol or words, actions or sounds that convey a concept anybody can understand instantly and easily.

Creativity in the arts is about enjoyment, self-expression, and beauty. Creativity in marketing is not about those things, but about profits, selling, motivating. Creativity in marketing is about how your product or service improves lives.

Your profits will rise if you create a simple meme for your business -- then promote it for years, decades, centuries if possible.

They can do this with words (Lean Cuisine), pictures (the Marlboro cowboy), sounds (the ho ho ho of the jolly Green Giant), actions (Clydesdales pulling the Budweiser wagon), or imagery (flames depicting Burger King's flame-broiled hamburgers). Memes have been the architects of human behavior since the beginning of time. The wheel was major improvement in transportation and conveyance, but was also a meme because it was a self-explanatory symbol representing a complete idea. Once you see a wheel you immediately know how to use it and why it's so useful. No explanation is necessary.

Where memes are born

Memes are born through knowledge and research. They work their wonders by enlisting the unconscious minds of your prospects. Although they've been around since the beginning of humankind, and even since the beginning of life on earth - since life forms often leave behind meme-like signals such as half eaten shrubbery, scat and shells, which trigger other life form behavior - memes are relatively new to marketing. I know that "meme" is a new word to you, but then again, so was the word "Internet," a scant decade ago.

Right now, I urge you to put aside for a moment what you think you know about creativity. Transfer your focus from the creativity necessary to create beauty and splendor, symphonies and literature, dance and sculpture, and refocus upon the production of profits.

The primary purpose of guerrilla creativity is to instill enough trust and confidence in your offering that people will be motivated to purchase it - the end result being profits for your company. Yes, guerrilla creativity does employ art to accomplish the goals of business. Marketing uses nearly all the art forms - writing, art, design, music, dance, acting - but it uses them for a different purpose than that employed by a Shakespeare or a Barishnykov. I believe that the great masters in art, music and literature might have been geniuses at guerrilla creativity. Still, Ernest Hemingway's observed that writing advertising is a lot more difficult than writing for the pure sake of art. It does seem a lot simpler to create something that inspires a person than to create something to get that same person to part with his or her hard-earned dollars.

Guerrilla creativity must inform rather than entertain. In artistic creativity, an error can be covered with white paint and repainted; an error in a music composition can be rescored; an error in architecture can be covered with ivy. But an error in creativity for marketing means a lot of lost money. Ivy won't help.

The birthplace of guerrilla creativity is knowledge. The more knowledge you have, the more creative you can be. The more knowledge you have, the more inspired you may be. The more knowledge you have, the greater the likelihood that you will succeed at the true purpose of guerrilla creativity.

Why genius is not necessary

You need not be a creative whiz to exercise dynamite guerrilla creativity. You don't have to be a fine writer, an accomplished artist, a killer photographer or a superb playwright to be a
successful creator of marketing that beautifies your bottom line.

All you must be is a clear thinker, a tireless researcher, and a realistic person. You must be passionate as well, not about beauty and art, but about your product or service. It also helps a lot if you care more about profits than compliments and awards. Sound mercenary? That's my point. The pursuit of profits was rarely, if ever, the prime motivator for a great artistic master. But it is the essence of a master of guerrilla creativity.

Let us help you create a powerful meme for your company