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June 02, 2015

Reviewing Jay Conrad Levinson's "Guerrilla Marketing"



Reviewing Jay Conrad Levinson's "Guerrilla Marketing"
 
 
 
So how market savvy do you think we should be in these times of cut-throat competition?
If, like me, you believe, that every person, whatever his role, his space or his job deliverables,
is a seller of his image, products and philosophy, and if like me,
you passionately feel every small business should wrest every possible business deal out
there from every big and small competitor, well, you need to gobble up Jay Conrad Levinson’s
Iconic Book, Guerilla Marketing.
The book is a veritable tool-kit!
Every page, every paragraph is a tool!
The object is to turn your product and your brand into an “instant-recall” brand using atypical, unconventional, engagement methods which depend on unusual approaches, boy-scout concepts like “intercept encounters”, buzz, fireworks, hoopla…you name it!
The objective is…your competitors should not be able to recall one name other than your’s when they need stuff that you’re handling.

The Crucial Game Changer? The cost has to be low. And creative.

The Resources? Time, energy and imagination. Not, Money.

Frankly, I loved the book for what Levinson terms as “"guerrilla marketing” weapons. He uses very few mantras and sticks to them like a recalcitrant child, he forces you to abandon your comfortable quilt of high costing marketing/media solutions and minutely look at every live resource as a medium to gain more business.

 With hundreds of interesting & solid business ideas, Levinson’s philosophy has given birth to a new way of learning about market share and how to gain it.  

Pointers which tickled my left-brain and made me relook at my environment closely:

1.       Reeling in new business-how everyone in the team is a resource?

2.       Sustaining Business over the long run-“Stickiness to existing customers”

3.       Marketing on the internet, Using Podcasting, Automated Marketing

4.       “I didn’t know you offered that!”

5.       Disconnected Sales Gimmicks Learnings

 
Levinson is, indisputably the father of modern day marketing for small businesses.
The best USP for this book is that even though I’m not part of any Sales Team, this book has convinced me that I am a Brand Ambassador for my companyJ

So, ultimately, is every one of you…right?
 
Interestingly, you’ll learn about how and why you need to get it right BEFORE you advertise, then a multitude of simple ways to get your message out there. Jay Levinson not only teaches you about marketing in general, he teaches you what you should be doing step by step to grow your business.

The 4th edition of the small business marketing classic is completely updated and revised as of 2007. And is sold out-100%.The new edition is as relevant today as its original edition was over 20 years ago.

 Downsides? Well…some! Un-putdown-able, for startersJ.

On a more serious note-I wish there was a chapter on the subtle dynamics of selling RFPs in the world. Or something clearly industry-specific. We clearly need quick working roadblock guzzling ideas. In the next-edition, maybe.

 Today, when one of our major goals is to create a strong, sustainable “Go-To-Market Engine” which reels in better returns from independent, new business deals, Levinson’s book, I feel, should be on everyone’s radar, bookshelf and reading listJ!

March 24, 2011

Us

Can’t bear the pain…don’t come back.



Time is of no essence. Minutes tick by, the breathing does not even out. The pit of the stomach is like a snake-pit…with curling and uncurling vipers hissing their anger and despair. I do not know how to live without you. Please don’t come back. Please come back. Please don’t call. Please call.


When romance blooms, it is the most beautiful of emotions. We give so much importance to every aspect of the relationship. Can’t breathe without you. How? Why? Why this change? You call 30 times a day…and talk 20 minutes each. If he does not call, you do. Over-familiarity? I don’t know. The experts may know what they are talking of…but the rush of adrenalin from the heels upwards does not recognize this. I wait. So do you. Little things make everything beautiful. Like staying awake till 2 and talking…long back.


He created picture perfect memories for me. Candles, chocolates, creative gifts, carefully chosen books...no no…none of these…He made a perfect “C” out of me. Somewhere along this path, we changed. Other things crowded in “Us”…and we allowed them to. Priorities became choices and then secondary choices. I became one of those too.


There is nothing worse than a relationship dying. It sinks ill…gradually.Greys...starts rotting in a corner of the mind and struggles to emerge into open conversation. It chokes the life out of life. Ours did not die that way.


How would you like to get a phone call from a woman who claims to be his wife? How would you like to explain to her that you were nothing to him? That he valued you less than a chance-encounter-prostitute? That every word was a testimonial to how low truth can get? That there never really was an Us.


I don’t know anything. Except that I’m an ass.To trust. To believe. To pray .To walk for miles to ask for you to be mine…barefoot. I called you mannat. A woman who casually prays once in a while became a religious freak. You name it, I’ve done it. Fasts? Gurudwara Chaliyas? Hail Mary’s? Every temple, church, gurudwara for miles and miles…I laugh as I write this. My gut twists. Again?? How many times in a day is it supposed to do this? Intense, shooting pains in the stomach-pit. No tears…something is so frozen…I shiver and can’t get warm whatever I do.


Love laughs at me, again. Two years of hopeless realization that no other man matches up-you call again. And the snakes start uncurling again. They stretch lazily and create a wonderful web for me…your words. Desperate hope rears its head. Maybe…just once…you’ll value what is being given…my heart. It’s just Baba…playing “Temp-Temp” with me.


You toss it around. Experiment. All the while checking to see if it fits an imaginary bill. It does not. Why? I don’t know. All I know is that I pledged my life behind a voice that sweetly said “Trust me “and “Soon” and “Soonest”. I do. The web pulls tight. Tighter. Until practicality hangs dead. Reason blacks out. No answer to simple questions. I need you to stand…once next to me. Just once. In a crazy situation,taunted…sneered at for believing in you…I beg you..to once reach out and claim that I belong to you.


Fine honed and raw,with years of practice behind you,you use the one weapon that you knew would work for you.Silence. Silence…killing…neither conveying a yes…nor a no.Just grating on tender nerves.


Did you look at what you held in your hand then?


Lazily…with a flick of a cruel wrist, you release what you hold in your fist… the fine spun glass ball of my heart one last time. It spins crazily, hungrily for more space…for you to reach out… and then speeds down…just when your hand should’ve caught it back, safe; you fold your hands and watch. Silently. Time stands still too. The ball hits the cold, granite floor of reason. And splits into a thousand smithereens that smash back into where they originated from.Me.The silence.Always your silence.Always…


The heart-cavity takes one look at the tiny-screaming-still-alive pieces and curls up in shock. Twice? In one lifetime? The other systems reel and murmur pain and “you-deserved-this-you-bitch” like sarcastic relatives. And laugh, hysterically, as I stare in quiet shock. I look at the shining, jagged bits and in a daze, touch one of the broken, pulsating pieces on the floor. I reel; such is the raw, “someone-peeling-your-skin” pain. There are no tears. None.






























March 20, 2011

Chaand,Shafaq aur...Main

Rain andheri jaag rahein hain
Chaand,shafaq aur main
Gaaon se kyunkar bhaag rahe hain
Chaand,shafaq aur…main
Koi nahi hai Manzil apni
Jit din dhaleya,rain baseri
Dard ko kandha dete din bhar
Chaand, shafaq aur...main
Ek hi din ka khel tha sara
Tum kya jeete, main kya haara
Bas andhiyara samet chale hain…
Chaand, Shafaq aur…main
Haste hain hum,seene par hum
Kitna bojh liye chalte hain
Dard ye apna kisko dikhayen
Chaand, Shafaq aur…main
Wo Ab mere paas nahi hai
Mudkar wapaas aa jaayega,nahi yaqi hain..
Mera bikhra sapna ro-ro Dhoond chuke hain
Chaand,Shafaq aur…main





February 25, 2011

Maid Mutterings...

I do not have the swagger of a sexy city girl
Or the sideways slant of housewives who have three hips on a roll
I plonk me down and eat …and have bloody aching feet
The salsa and rumbas can just go and take a beat.
My days are total tiring and my nights are half awake
Im taking loads of cr** sab se and cannot think straight
I’m doing loads of work and then homework for my son.
Most days ,little sister,I don’t sleep till one.
A “Little Black Dress”? My butts is too big.
Whats more coz I am tired,I just eat like a pig!
I run from morn till night just to make ends meet…
The “Be a lady” articles just gotta stop their bleat!
My man is just a pea-cock, doing minimal again
You tell him something’s needed and you’ll get a helpless stare.
He’ll just stare at you as if, you’re sprouting curly hair
You’re just being difficult if you tell him its not fair
I don’t know why we women have these backbones made of grit.
I don’t know why we can’t throw back,this goddammed dirty s***
Why we take so much of BS from our husband’s and our son’s
Why we do not kick their backsides when they pull these dirty ones!

Samsara Diaries-1

The heart builds,with tenuous threads,dreams.
The golden light of day,like a golden knife,cuts and cleaves.
Clean and crisp,bleeding,what is left? Reality.
I do not want,nor understand why...it is necessary to break.
You know the logic Lord...of sticking to unsweet truth.
Today,for once,teach me why...

February 12, 2011

Choo Gaya

Choo gaya Ishq tera…Haath tere….Honth tere
Yu guzar jaayenge sapnon se ye socha to na tha
Tu kahin aur kahin aur kahin main honge
Ek Lamhe Ko bhi aisa kabhi socha to na tha.
Ek hasi shaam ko kaandhe ka sahara dekar
Saari shaamon ko badal doge meri
Jab talak aankh khulegi ,nazar aaoge nahi
Uth ke chal dogeyunhi… ye kabhi socha to na tha…

February 09, 2011

I

I.Look. Notice.Every movement. Modern? Sometimes! Traditional…Hmmm…sometimes! Quirky? Strong…yet malleable? I go beyond fashion. I define exquisite. Artful.Unique.
Sunlight filters through the leaves and ripples on my skin.You stand ,awed by the tinkle of bangle against bangle.You hear the buzz long before it envelops you. Stunning ear-drops…made of tiny dreams strung together. They send a sting through your senses,everytime I move. In the jewellery that I grace, I transcend Time.
And why not? Every woman, needs to ride this power. Sometimes:)