Guerrilla Creativity: Make Your Message Irresistible with the Power of Memes (Paperback)

by Jay Conrad Levinson President (Author), Jay Conrad Levinson (Author) "THE PREHISTORIC MAN Uba spent all day in the drizzling rain trying to catch a fish because his family desperately needed food..." (more)
Key Phrases: guerrilla creativity, visual meme, verbal meme, Jack Daniel, Marlboro Man, Betty Crocker (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
There is a solid idea buried beneath all the padding in Levinson's (Guerrilla Marketing) latest. He posits that creating a "meme" (a simple icon that represents a complex idea about a brand) is the way to break through all the marketing clutter out there. Ironically, the clutter that Levinson wraps around his central message makes it a lot harder for readers to grasp this idea. There are tangents, such as 50 reasons people buy a product, and long digressions about marketing myths. Worse, it is often hard to tell why some icons the Jolly Green Giant, for example are memes by Levinson's reckoning, but the Nike swoosh is not. But the main idea of creating a symbol that explains everything your product stands for at a glance is very appealing.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Product Description
The guru of the Guerrilla Marketing series, which has sold more than one million copies, shows small business owners how to cut through the clutter of new information with simple, powerful ideas that customers will find irresistible.

Today, with more than four thousand marketing messages assailing consumers daily, it is more important than ever to create an original, appealing, and memorable message. Marketer extraordinaire Jay Conrad Levinson shows readers how to craft such messages using memes -- simple symbols that represent complex ideas.
Memes can be words, such as Lean Cuisine or "Remember the Alamo," or they can be images, such as the Red Cross or Betty Crocker. They can even be actions, like drenching a victorious coach with a barrelful of Gatorade. The best memes can propel a product or service to the pinnacle of success.
As no other book has done before, GUERILLA CREATIVITY shows how even someone who doesn't consider himself creative can make memes that work. Using a variety of examples of memes both good and bad, Levinson guides readers step by step through the process of fashioning marketing materials that result in increased sales, savings, market share, and profits. Along the way he reveals the fifty reasons people buy things, the ten biggest marketing myths, ways to make your message instill hope, surprise, and urgency, and many more wise, surprising notions that readers can readily translate into profits.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (October 26, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618104682
• ISBN-13: 978-0618104680
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #695,155 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Memetic Branding, October 9, 2001

By	Ben Mack (Nacirema) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Please realize, this book will be of limited interest to traditional memeticists. Levinson's use of the word "meme" is not a traditional one. Levinson defines a meme as a self-explanatory symbol, using words, action, sounds, or picture that communicates an entire idea. If you are a marketer, or interested in persuasion, this book is a great read.

At first, I disliked Levinsons repeated use of his new term Guerilla creativity, which also happens to be the name of his soon to be published book. I grew to recognize that for the purposes of his book, Levinson needed a new word. Creativity is a vast subject . Levinson needed a notion separate from the general word "creativity." "Guerilla Creativity" is intended to be persuasive. Levinson explains, "Creativity has often been defined as the combining of two or more elements that have never before been combined. Guerrilla creativity embraces this definition but carries it further to actually cause human beings to change their minds to the point where they want to purchase what you are offering to sell." This is the heart of what I try and do daily as a professional marketer.

I read a lot of business books. Most of the time, I hear a different perspective and have a couple nods of appreciation at how an author articulated a familiar scenario. Occasionally, I come across a book that empowers me to see structure where I hadnt seen anything before. I was exhilarated reading Malcolm Gladwells The Tipping and have since adopted seeing certain targets as extraordinary consumers who also have the ability to serve as Mavens, Connectors or Salesmen. If you havent read Gladwell, you have a fascinating experience available to you. Some books have the capacity to unfurl new paradigms in readers. GUERILLA CREATIVITY is one such book. Levinson introduces the reader to the word "meme" and introduces the field of memetics as it relates to marketing communications.

This is a much-needed discourse. As opposed to pointing out all the elements Ive enjoyed and appreciated in GUERILLA CREATIVITY suffice it to say that after reading the first 20 pages of Levinsons text, I was able to improve my business presentation on memetics. If you have read this far in my review, you should buy the book.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Required reading for business owners, October 18, 2001

By	Betsy Parker (Dover, NH) - See all my reviews

There are two reasons to read Guerrilla Creativity. One is to become familiar with a term that will undoubtedly grow in importance during the coming years. Meme is a deceptively simple word that, when successfully employed, can jumpstart your business's visibility from obscurity to front-of-mind awareness. In his typical conversational writing fashion, Jay Conrad Levinson describes the steps you should take to create a meme for your business, one that will instantly communicate the essence of your business and the benefits it offers. Your understanding of the concept is enhanced by the numerous examples included.

Equally important, however, Guerrilla Creativity provides a context for using memes. So you not only learn how to create a meme, you learn how and when to put it to work in a variety of media.

If it's been a while since you've read Jay's Guerrilla Marketing, you'll find this book not only breaks new ground but provides a concise, highly accessible overview of the principle tenets of Guerrilla Marketing--the marketing that has contributed so much to so many businesses, small and large alike. In terms of immediate usability, few books offer as much immediately usable books as Jay Conrad Levinson's Guerrilla Marketing series. The series contains no short-lived CEO ego, just concise, useful informations that continues to be valid, decade after decade.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Become a real "meme" machine!, May 4, 2002

By	Jim Allen "The Big Idea Coach" (Odenton, Md USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Marketing guru Levinson declares all-out guerilla warfare on cheesy, ineffective, downright bad advertising and marketing with this book on a marketing approach that could transform the marketplace.

While the "memes" concept has been around for some time, Levinson is one of the first to apply and evaluate the concept in the marketing arena. And, as the Godfather of guerilla marketing -- with it's emphasis on low- and no-cost techniques -- Levinson gives readers a well-thought, and reasonably documented analysis of how a single powerful meme can propel a business or product to the public eye, generating business (and more importantly, REVENUE) almost without effort.

He also provides many examples of memes that work, tells why they work, and then shows readers how they can get started creating their own memes.

An engaging, easily read book, GUERILLA CREATIVITY is one of Levinson's best yet with little fluff [a fun, but overlong comparison of marketing & seduction] and a ton of useful information [especially on generating and developing ideas]. This is a must-have book for anyone involved in marketing or business development.