Published in 1990 and thoroughly dated by now. Useful to me as a checklist to think through the question of, “am I forgetting some opportunity?” Also useful to compare what was “guerilla” in 1990 vs today — there is information about the future in the change patterns we can observe here.
For example, in an overlong section about business cards, the author talks about an actual brass business card for “special occasions.” Interesting to wonder what today’s equivalent of the brass business card is, e.g., a strikingly higher-quality website or LinkedIn profile.
I know it’s right there in the title, but ultimately this book is entirely too tactical. Tactics must always be run through a strategic lens and to write a book like this without adequate discussion of strategy is irresponsible. A lot of bad marketing results from this kind of advice.
Four stars. The only reason I didn’t gift it 5 was that some of the material/advice is out-of-date or obsolete. Considering the Guerrilla Marketing books were written in the early to mid 1990s, the amount of relevant material concerning tactics is truly stunning. Even the tactics that no longer work (fax machine, anyone?) often point to an underlying strategy that is more evergreen.