Guerrilla marketing : and its effects on consumer behavior

Abstract: As consumers are getting better at avoiding the traditional marketing campaigns companies are using, it has become crucial for companies to differentiate their marketing. One way of doing this is to use guerrilla marketing, a marketing type more extreme, innovative and attention capturing than traditional marketing. The purpose of this thesis is to explore how the use of guerrilla marketing affects consumer behavior in terms of brand attitude, brand image and purchase intention. Moreover, the effect on Word-of-Mouth will be explored, as this is a crucial implication if the guerrilla campaign is to be perceived as successful. Based on marketing theories and consumer behavior theories, an experiment is conducted through a focus group seminar, to determine if guerrilla marketing campaigns are perceived as being more creative and credible than traditional marketing campaigns. Furthermore, these determinants are used as instruments to study the effect on brand attitude, brand image and purchase intention. The study is exploratory and the chosen method is a qualitative data collection. The findings indicate that guerrilla marketing campaigns affect all consumer behavior elements, studied in our thesis, more than their equivalent traditional marketing campaigns. Suggestions for further research include studying if there is a cultural difference in how guerrilla marketing is perceived.   This thesis may be useful in increasing companies’ understanding of the concept of guerrilla marketing and how this can be used in a successful way.