MANAGEMENT DECISION CASE:

Water is Life: Attracting Attention to a Cause through Guerilla Tactics

A worker in New York City is waiting for a subway train during her morning commute when she notices a paper cup dispenser hanging on the wall in the subway station. It’s an unusual location for a paper cup dispenser and it is not one she has noticed any other morning (or evening for that matter) during her routine commute. Another odd aspect of the cup dispenser’s location is that there is no water dispenser in the area—no water fountain, no sink, no source where someone could get a drink of water to use in the cup. In fact, the only water visible anywhere is coming from a leak in the sidewall of the commuter station that forms a small puddle on the floor before it runs into the area where the train tracks are located. On further inspection of the cup, the commuter finds these words: “Ingredients: Chol- era, Hepatitis, Typhoid, Fecal Matter, Salmonella, E. coli,” inviting her to “drink up.” Another thing the commuter notices is a website for an organization called Water is Life, which has as its mission to provide clean drinking water, sanitation, and education programs to schools and villages in developing countries.

The out-of-place cup dispenser and the message provided on the cups provide a clear example of guerilla marketing, which more and more charitable organiza- tions are using to attract attention to their cause. Guerilla marketing has been around since the mid-1980s and it involves using comparatively few resources for pro- moting products and services to achieve specific goals. Such tactics appeal to small businesses and charities because, if done well, much awareness can be achieved without spending large sums of money on traditional advertising campaigns. In addition, guerrilla marketing tactics can be effective because they catch consumers at unsuspecting times and places (such as the subway station) and in unusual ways when their normal “guard” against advertising is down. Think of it as a street-level intervention that sparks consumer notice.

Charitable organizations use unconventional pro- motional tactics to their advantage to break through the clutter and noise of all other promotional activity. Individuals are exposed to between 2,000 and 3,000 messages on a daily basis, which creates a “din” of noise for the receiver. Consequently, the sender of any mes- sage promoting a product (or cause) must be very careful to encode that message so that it communi- cates exactly what is intended. For example, with the cup dispenser and the simple writing on the cup, Water is Life hopes to communicate a lack of safe drinking water in many parts of the world. But since the decod- ing process depends heavily on the target audience it is possible that the only message communicated was that water leaking out of the subway wall was contam- inated! Hence, unless the cup contains an invitation to visit the Water is Life website to learn more about its efforts to provide safe drinking water to developing countries, it is possible the target audience would not be inspired to actually take any action. That is, the con- sumer may become somewhat aware but not achieve interest, desire, or action toward Water is Life.

The number of nonprofit organizations has risen by over 20 percent in the last decade to well over 1.5 mil- lion in the United States, so expect more of them to experiment with reaching out to their potential donor base through guerilla and other unconventional means. As one public relations advisor recently com- mented, “If you don’t have a good first five seconds, it’s over.” Guerrilla marketing is likely to be employed more often because of its low cost and the potential to go viral, thus exposing the message to perhaps millions of people through social media.

Questions for Consideration

1. What elements of the promotion mix do you think guerrilla marketing relies on the most to be successful?

2. Doritos used a guerrilla marketing campaign in which product images were projected on the sides of buildings while inviting viewers to text message their flavor preference. How do such tactics fit within an overall integrated marketing communications approach to the brand’s target audience? What other IMC approaches might best complement the Doritos strategy.

3. According to the AIDA model, buyers pass through different decision processes on their way to making a decision. Assuming the cups in the dispenser con- tain a message to visit the organization’s website, what are the promotional steps needed to take indi- viduals through the AIDA model to the point where people are willing to donate money or their time to the cause promoted by Water is Life.