SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES THROUGH GREEN GUERRILLA MARKETING – AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH Práticas sustentáveis através de marketing guerrilla – Verde: uma abordagem inovadora

Sustainability is the need of the hour. Organizations that align the interests of all their stakeholders – customers, investors and employees are considered to act for sustainable development. But some of the organizations compromise to this fact. They are rather busy exploiting the resources. Bluffing the customers for making quick profits has become a prevalent notion. Amidst all these selfish motives, they tend to forget about the repercussions which we and our planet may endure as a whole in near future. There are many evidences when responsible companies have proved themselves performing better in the long run. Green Guerrilla Marketing is an innovative concept, trying to figure out various ways to successfully market the products and at the same time acting ethically and socially responsible towards the sustainable development. It revolves around being conscious about 3Ps which are People, Profits and Planet. Guerrilla Marketing is an unconventional marketing strategy that focuses on attracting huge customer base with least amount of cost involved. Roots of Guerrilla Marketing can be traced to guerrilla warfare that was off-center warfare technique using unusual tactics by the armed civilians during Vietnam War in the 1960s. Since then this marketing concept has attracted many business houses. So far, Guerrilla Marketing was considered only as a creative tool for promoting ones’ product and services but now it can be seen as a responsible tool as well, which works toward a better society at large under the broad head of Green Guerrilla Marketing. Therefore, the paper is a pioneer attempt in understanding the potential of Green Guerrilla Marketing in the light of both sustainability and innovation at the same time. Also, it discusses various guerrilla techniques to market the products ethically without compromising on the profits. In the end, the paper also evaluates the examples to examine the concept.


INTRODUCTION
The stiff competition in today's era has necessitated the use of modern and out-of-the-box marketing practices.Green Guerrilla Marketing is one of the practices which are unconventional yet an effective one to clear the clog in the bottle neck.It reveals the new marketing matrix wherein a company needs not to invest much on the marketing and advertising front, still is able to attract a vast customer base.The trick here is simple which is to act ethical and responsible towards the customers' actual needs and preferences.This requires both consumers and producers to think on the lines of sustainability.This ensures right distribution of resources and protects the future generations to come from starvation.Many see this as a risky play where they might not earn enough profit in the present whereas; others have already taken it as serious matter which will reap the benefits in long run.Also there are others who make a show-off of the 'sustainability' tag to grab consumers' eye.It is noticed that countries and companies which are competitive tend to be more prosperous because they have the potential to maintain a higher level of sustainable innovativeness (Melo, et al., 2015).As this is an innovation based practice, it will bring positive change in the system.
Attaching a "sustainability" label to its practices, helps a company earn an instantaneous attention from the consumers.This fad is indeed the handiest thing for the companies craving for publicity now days.These companies assume that just by adding this term "sustainability" anywhere and into anything will make them a profitable affair.But such companies, in the race of humongous publicity and enormous profit, forget the fact that this may hamper their long term image in the eyes of the customers.Companies fear that acting "sustainable" in its real form may not go in sync with their targeted profits but this is just an another myth according Jay Conrad Levinson and Shel Horowitz, the authors of the book Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green: Winning Strategies to Improve Your Profits and Your Planet.They believe that a company can rise up the ladder in terms of profits even if they act green and ethical.Many companies adopting sustainable and ethical business strategies have proved themselves performing better in the long run.The whole idea of Green Guerrilla Marketing is based on this concept which involves the 3Ps which are People, Planet and Profits as shown in figure 1.Getting them in one line is the aim here.
Figure 1.A sustainable approach to marketing: Authors' compilation

Planet 3Ps of Green
Guerrilla Marketing

Profit
Now days, consumers are conscious about the mother earth.They show interest in products and services which are inclined towards sustainability.The analogy that even if the food looks scrumptious, it does not mean that it is healthy too, is well understood by the consumers of today.They know that in order to fulfill their present needs, they should not compromise upon the needs of their future generations to come.And that is the reason why they keep sustainability in mind when they are making their purchase.Consumers now understand the importance of being responsible when it comes to purchasing products and therefore, are ready to pay a bit extra if the company is joining hands in their initiatives.Considering such consciousness amongst the consumers, it can be said that going green is the need of the hour!Green Guerrilla Marketing is a revolutionary stride bringing about a wave of innovation into the existing marketing practices.This concept is unconventional and novel yet it is an impactful one but surprisingly, a very small amount of work has been done on this creative topic which is actually the need of the hour when it comes to marketing.The paper, therefore, attempts to build greater insights regarding this contemporary practice and also search for examples which bring out the real world application of the concept of Green Guerrilla Marketing.

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The paper builds a theoretical framework to study the evolving need of Green Guerrilla Marketing in the light of sustainability and innovation, both at the same time.It highlights the focus areas of the concept Green Guerrilla Marketing which helps in marketing the products ethically without compromising on the profits.Eventually, the inferences are drawn by explaining this ethical paradigm with the help of examples.
Secondary data is used in support of the study which includes various published documents like journals, articles, papers, books and other available communication from official sources.And a comprehensive compilation has been done to understand the innovative aspect of Green Guerrilla Marketing concept.

GUERRILLA MARKETING: A BACKDROP
The term "Guerrilla" first made its appearance during the independence war in Spain and Portugal in the beginning of 19th century and this Spanish expression which means "battle" stands for surprise attack that was used by smaller groups that stood against a massive military force (Drüing and Fahrenholz, 2008).According to Drüing and Fahrenholz (2008), the term and the connected operations became famous through Ernesto Che Guevara Lynch de la Serna (1928Serna ( -1967)), best known as Che Guevara, who used and defined this military tactic.

SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES THROUGH GREEN GUERRILLA MARKETING -AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH
The concept of Guerrilla Marketing gradually evolved since then.It took some years become an important part of the marketing mix of the companies.During the 1980s the US market was flooded with 11 million new founded companies and 10.8 million of them were small-sized companies that needed a strategy to fight their bigger competitors with a small budget (Drüing and Fahrenholz, 2008).Therefore, to make this unique approach available to everyone, Jay Conrad Levinson wrote a book called "Guerrilla Marketing" in 1983 which incorporated ideas revolving around this concept (Klepek, 2014).
Guerrilla marketing designates the selection of atypical and non-dogmatic marketing activities that aim to achieve the greatest possible impact-in the ideal case with a comparable minimum investment (Nufer, 2013).These low cost, creative and unconventional promotional techniques are becoming more assessable due to rapid technological changes and decreasing costs (Betts and Huzey, 2008).Guerrilla marketing is described as "promotional strategies that use unconventional locations with an intensive WOM campaign to push and spread products into the market" (Baltes and Leibling, 2008).

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Figure .2 is the conceptual framework that explains the coverage of Green Guerrilla Marketing that works to combat the negative issues related with modern-day marketing.

Green Guerrilla
Marketing-a positive perspective

Lack of awareness Green Washing
The conceptual framework in the fig. 2 shows a positive way of marketing which is Green Guerrilla Marketing wherein it attempts to conserve People, Planet and Profit, all at the same time.It tries to eliminate the negative aspects associated with marketing which causes issues like lack of awareness, overuse of resources, green washing, etc.This in turn affects the bottom triple line.

GREEN ISSUES AS AN ACCELERATOR TO SUSTAINABILITY
Eagerness for short term material gains accentuated during the Industrial Revolution, which turned men into a mere part of a big production machinery (Syrgiannis and Fazenda, 2013).With the booming of industrialization, the competition amongst the companies increased manifolds.Every company started aiming to make better products than others and then market it in even better manner.All this was on the cost of resources which our planet possessed.So "People" and "Planet", both were used for making "Profits" without considering the future impacts.It was then, when the green issues popped up and sustainability became a major concern.With the need for sustainability, Green Marketing as a sustainability alternative came into picture.The notion of "green business" emerged at the end of the 20th century in the wake of the ever increasing public concern about the sustainability of economic development (Čekanavičius, et al., 2014).Companies started showing their interest in protecting the resources whereas; few just pretended to be "green".Issues like rise in prices of green products and customers not being much aware about the benefits of using green products emerged consequently.
Various "green movements" can be traced down to the middle of the 1960s, it took almost 20 years for business to adapt to the "greening" trends and adopt them into its ideology and practice (Čekanavičius, et al., 2014).But today, the consumers are more aware and this awareness has led to a shift in their preference for green products and services.The green marketing has gone through an evolution.Today the concept of sustainability is almost ubiquitous by showing application in corporate strategy, consumer choice, student education and academic research (Cherian and Jacob, 2012).The need for sustainable business practices by corporations around the world is identified to be a result of overall increase in the consumer awareness of lack of environmental protection and social inequities (Cherian and Jacob, 2012).According to the American Marketing Association, the concept becoming sustainable and has gone from an afterthought to top priority for many companies.The firms are becoming more responsible socially.A firm is said to be socially responsible when it becomes a leader in improving the well-being of the community and environment around it (Isanzu and Fengju, 2016).Businesses that are proven to be sustainable are the ones that people will respond to and not those that are simply promoting themselves as green (Nadaf and Nadaf, 2014).
Therefore, going green will not only help the earth to be better places to live but also will help the business multiply the profits in long run.The changes in the practices have already been started and this can be witnessed world-wide, like automobile and logistic industries have started checking the emission of CO2, recycling is being practiced by electric and electronic industries, Brazilian banks are becoming greener, cosmetics companies are assessing their vendors, etc. (Nakagawa, Telles and Guevara, 2013).

2."GREEN GUERRILLA MARKETING" -AN INNOVATIVE WAY TO REACH THE CUSTO-MERS
Green Guerrilla Marketing is relatively a new concept when it comes to the sustainable approaches of marketing.And this is the reason why very small amount of work is currently available to bring this concept to the light.Innovation is an influential factor that is crucial to enterprise survival and growth (Phuc, 2015).Considering this, a highly innovative perspective is developed by the renowned author, also known as the father of Guerrilla Marketing Jay Conrad Levinson in his book Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green: Winning Strategies to Improve Your Profits and Your Planet, accompanied by another successful author Shel Horowitz.The concept bundles various Guerrilla Marketing practices aiming towards sustainability.The book aims to redefine what the business world thinks of as possible, doing so through the outlining of new and established practices in business that focus on ethics and "greenness" (Simpson, 2011).Going green, over here, means considering the 3Ps which are People, Planet and Profit while constructing the marketing matrix for a company.The bulk of the book presents a more holistic approach to incorporating ethical values into business practice rather than a "green" spotlight as the title implies (Simpson, 2011).Therefore, while everyone is running to make quick profits, one must take this approach to cut out the competition and survive amongst the big honchos.
The purpose of Guerrilla Marketing is to create a unique, engaging and thought provoking concept that can catch the public in the car, or bus or the road streets, near to your favourite coffee shop or at major events through promotional stunts, street give away of products or public intercept encounters (Patil and Bonde, 2014).Along with this purpose the concept of Green Guerrilla Marketing stresses upon carrying the marketing strategy ethically and emphasizes the fact that now there is no more choosing one between the two terms viz; 'tasty' and 'healthy'.So, one can enjoy both success and sustainability at the same time.Indeed, that is the essence of Green Guerrilla marketing.It contradicts the old notion that while carrying out the business, being responsible towards the environment is a costly affair and requires huge amount funds.Whereas, it says that the success and the profits will automatically come along if one becomes conscious about the 3Ps people, planet and profit.Figure 2.1 shows the features of Green Guerrilla Marketing highlighting its essence in the light of ethical and sustainable marketing practices.

FOCUS AREAS OF GREEN GUERRILLA MARKETING
The main idea is to be ethically and socially responsible towards the society without compromising on the success of the company.The study available on this new concept is very small but never the less, the following techniques are studied thoroughly and are based on the excerpts of the book Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green: Winning Strategies to Improve Your Profits and Your Planet by Jay Conrad Levinson and Shel Horowitz.

PEOPLE:
Honest promotions and Holistic business regime are the important components to be dealt further.

a. Honest promotions
-Building a healthy relation with the media which is going to reach the targeted customers is essential.Media helps the company to come in the light and using it in a positive manner would help in catching the eyes of the audiences.
-Marketing should be in such a manner that it not just persuades the customers to buy ones' products but also assures that the company will live up to the claims which it is making.This means that the marketing should be based on honesty, rather than hype.
-The best way to position oneself in the market place is use public relations rather than paid form of advertising.This helps in creating win-win relationships which in-turn helps the business to grow.
-As an entrepreneur or a producer, one should always be ready to speak about the product in the public.Giving speeches will build connectivity and if it is impactful then people might as well pay for it.Writing and publishing material for the consumers to read and understand should be another task which can be done.And finally, when people have heard the intended message, it is necessary to take a regular follow up from them.

b. Holistic business regime
-Thinking holistically means coming up with ideas which make a difference to the people and the planet at the same time are profitable.Everyone should think that how they as people and businesses can bring about positive changes to the society on a whole.Recycling and waste management initiatives by the companies are few examples of creating earth a better place to live.
-Once, a company is successful in building loyalty in the eyes of its customers, it need not go to the people to sell its products, instead, people would willingly approach to carry out the business.Building loyalty helps in building a strong base for the company which ultimately results in prosperity.
-Rising competition may force the company to raise its prices, but instead of increasing the prices, if the company looks for the points at which it is better than its competitors, then it would be a win-win situation for both, the customers as well as the company.

PLANET: Society at large
-Companies which are successful and financially strong also have proven themselves to be responsible towards the stakeholders.As a result, they are saved from time consuming lawsuits, they easily find partners for their joint ventures, they are able to build ever-lasting relationship with their customers and consequently perform better on all the fronts.

SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES THROUGH GREEN GUERRILLA MARKETING -AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH
-A company cannot survive by just performing a "green gimmick".It has to prove in the real time whether the steps taken by it are actually leading towards sustainability or it is just a show business.Making tall claims and not backing up with enough facts and figures can rather have a negative impact on the consumers.This kind of "green washing" may lead to backfiring from the customers' side.Therefore, to succeed, it is advisable to go about the business genuinely.
-It is very necessary to give a portion of earnings back into the society.This can be done by joining hands with some charity NGOs.The people will admire the company's efforts and will reciprocate in a positive manner.

PROFIT:
Customers, Competitors, Market are given due consideration to have a proper understanding.

a. Customers
-The aim should be to satisfy the customers by fulfilling their actual needs and requirements.Providing attractive and value-adding offers will help in building a long lasting relationship with the customers.Moreover, this will encourage trust building between the customers and the company.
-Nowadays, customers prefer to buy from companies which are socially responsible.Even if they have to pay a bit high for the same, they do not mind shedding an extra penny.After all, the benefit is going to come back to them.This awareness amongst the customers proves that until and unless one provides value to them, they might just not from you.Even the investors allocate their resources to the companies which work towards adding value to society on a whole.
-Using people-centered sales methods require "people first approach", which means that the strategy should be such that it should let the people decide for themselves that the company is right for their job.The people-centered sales methods also include saying no to a sale when the customer requires something which the producer will not be able to deliver for any reason for that matter.Saying no is better than delivering quality which is low.
-It is important that the company should not lose its voice in the fish market.It needs to make its presence felt in the clutter.And therefore, it needs to come up with offers which would delight its customers.It is important to consider the prospects as intelligent and thinking people.This will help the company formulate strategies that will be genuinely liked by the customers and consequently will help in making a foothold in the marketplace.
-Striking a healthy conversation with the customers is one best way in which a company can get an idea about their actual needs and requirements.A continuous feedback is always necessary for understanding the customers.This is probably the reason why local markets have an upper hand than super and hyper markets in terms of sales.Knowing the customers well creates value for both.

b. Competitors
-The concept of 'abundance perspective' calls for an approach where a company is not scared of the competition around, instead feels motivated enough to treat them as potential allies and look for profitable joint-ventures.It is about feeling good about the competitors around as they give a feel of abundance of opportunities.
-Building such alliances will help the company to position itself in a better manner.Moreover, it gives access to the already proven market place which helps in the prosperity of the company.

c. Market
-Instead of running after the bigger share of the market pie, it is better to serve the existing customer base in the best possible manner.By concentrating on the fair practices, the market share will automatically follow.Therefore, only being profitable should not be the aim.Increasing few percentages of the price to gain a bigger chunk of the market share would eventually lead to losing of trust in the long run.
Being 'green' contributes to sustainability and with business houses regulating their activities, the society will become a better place all in all.

CASES OF FEW REMARKABLE GREEN GUERRILLA ADVERTISEMENTS A.
Idea Cellular's save paper campaign IDEA Cellular Ltd. is a leading Pan-India mobile operator with over 58 million subscribers, under brand IDEA.It started the campaign 'Use Mobile, Save Paper' in partner with the two leading coffee chains -Barista and Café Coffee Day.The campaign was initiated to spread awareness about the need to save paper in order to stop cutting trees.It was a unique 'Go Green' campaign wherein the customers were able to access the menu and their bill through their cellphones itself.Visitors to these coffee outlets can access the mobile application by switching on their Bluetooth through a simple download on their phones, and then they can browse through the menu and select the items to be ordered.On completion, order summary is displayed and user can view the bill amount for the items ordered.The user will also get a message of the 'Use Mobile, Save Paper' campaign.Figure 3 shows how the bill and the menu looked like on the application.
Over 90 outlets of Barista in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune and 75 Cafe Coffee Day outlets in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore promoted this campaign demonstrating how mobile application can be used in day to day life and can save tons every day.The campaign continued for two weeks connecting with large number of people who frequently visited the coffee joints, and engaged them in the Green awareness campaign.
Pradeep Srivastava, CMO, Idea Cellular said, "World over, millions of tons of trees get cut every day to produce paper, leading to alarming rates of deforestation.One simple idea to save paper is to efficiently use the mobile phone for large number of day to day communication.The new Idea Cellular campaign showcases how the mobile phone can be used as an efficient tool to read daily newspapers generate e-bills; make payments and transactions, issue e-tickets and boarding passes; thereby, saving tons of paper every day."

Inference:
The example portrays the essence of Green Guerrilla Marketing wherein, the company showed its effort towards building a better tomorrow.It did not advertise its product directly but somewhere the company won applauses for its efforts and grabbed the attention of many.

B.An impactful packaging
The coffee cup in the following figure 4 shows a very strong message as it says, "Would you sip, what you make your environment sip?".How brilliantly the picture of a car is placed on the top explains the current need for sustainability.Here the company puts across a message showing a social concern.This is an example of Green Guerrilla Marketing where not much of funds would go in but the attention which it will grab will be huge.And also the concern society comes along with it.People notice the efforts a company puts in to restore the environment and as a result they appreciate it too.This leads to building of a strong and long lasting relationship with the customers.
Inference: The concept of Green Guerrilla Marketing can be used to convey the concern for important issues of the society.Moreover, all it requires is creativity and innovativeness.Shamrock shake which is green in colour and it appeared as if it is contributing to the colour of the river.The idea contributed towards the celebration of a day which is part of a tradition of people of Chicago.The strategy was a perfect match to mark this celebration and it also won the hearts of the people as it was built around the sentiments attached to day.
Inference: It created brand recognition without the undesirable pushing of the product.Also the amount of funds involved was minimal attracting huge attention at the same time.The people enjoyed the view and therefore it was a win-win situation for both, the company and the audiences.

D. Nescafe Uses Coffee to Create Instant Connections
Apart from the main stream sales oriented marketing approach, Nescafe chose to delight its customers and also bring out a message of spreading happiness amongst each other.The campaign was "Instant Connections" whereby coffee was used as a medium to connect people even while passing by a road.
While hundreds of commuters were waiting for the traffic light to turn green on one of the roads in Berlin, they noticed a Nescafe box same as in the figure 6 on the pavement which was there on both sides of the road.This box had a button on it but nothing happened when the people pressed it.Then they realized that if the button on the box on this side was pressed along with the button on the box on the other side of the road, a glass of hot coffee poured in a Nescafe cup on both the sides.Everyone loves coffee and it's a treat to receive it before going to work.And if the person on the other side of the road is responsible for this happiness, then definitely one would want to thank him or her and would not mind a hand shake or even a hug for that matter.
By filming it, Nescafe was happy to count 33 high fives, 285 waves, 839 smiles and "countless" conversations between the users that enjoyed their free beverage.
Inference: The free coffee was a surprise for the passing commuters.This not only helped the company build brand recognition but also brought people together to share happiness.The idea was a unique one resulting in creating stronger bond between the company and the consumers.

E.Initiative by one of the supermarkets in South Africa
The supermarket, in collaboration with charity named Feed SA, took in charge of spreading a message regarding the growing ignorance towards the alarming number of homeless and hungry people living in South Africa.The aim was to create consciousness about the need to feed to disadvantaged people of the country.
They placed pictures of hungry, begging street children at the bottom of supermarket shopping trolleys bearing the Feed SA website and the line."See how easy feeding the hungry can be?".The figure 7 shows an image of the same trolley.Any food placed into the trolley appeared as if to be given to the needy child.By seeing the picture while dropping a product in the box, he or she would be reminded of the poor children who are not fortunate enough to these things and this will evoke a thought for sharing with poor or not to be a spendthrift when on the other end few are deprived of bare necessities of life.
Inference: The supermarket showed its responsibility towards the society rather than just focusing on its profit margins leading towards sustainability.These kinds of practices create win-win situation for all and are the need of the hour.

CONCLUSION
The study highlights the features of this revolutionary practice and cites the examples of its usage in the real world scenario.Sustainability is the need of the hour, and if as a business, one can contribute towards it then it would be an initiative worth appraising.The examples used in the study highlight the contributions of few companies which came forward to add long lasting impact on the society leading towards sustainability.These companies have shown their concern towards ethical and sustainable marketing strategies and following are the inferences which can be drawn from the examples.
-Companies are showing their interest towards sustainability and therefore, are coming forward with strategies which are innovative, eye-catching, sustainable and profitable, all at the same time.
-The essence of Green Guerrilla Marketing can be seen in the examples used in the study, where the companies are using people oriented approach of marketing and thereby making society a better place to live.-It can be seen that an enormous amount of creativity goes into building such attractive campaigns.The idea should be a unique one rather than just a repetition.
-The element of surprise involved is another noticeable variable which points towards the fact that a surprising thing is always noticed by the consumers.Many a times, it creates curiosity to know more about the product advertised which helps in bring consumers closer to the brand.
-Such practices create a long lasting impact on consumers' mind and helps in building the connectivity which is strong enough to retain the existing customers and also for creating the new ones due to a positive word-of-mouth from the delighted customers.
-Today, the consumers are more conscious towards the sustainable development and they appreciate if the company comes up with the strategies inclined towards the upliftment of the society as a whole.This holistic approach binds the 3Ps viz; People, Planet and Profit in such a manner that a win-win situation is created for both, the consumers as well as the company.But there are only few companies which think on these lines and the rest are still running a race of winning the market share.Profit-centered strategies fail to build a long term foothold.Moreover, becoming oblivion to the alarming need of sustainability and just thinking of profits would be noticed by the conscious consumers of today's generation.Gone are the days when it was easy to bluff the consumers.Now, they are more aware and conscious and as a result prefer practices which are ethically conducted.Therefore, a show-off business is a passé and what matters is that how ethical and responsible a company is towards the actual needs and preferences of the consumers.
Churning its way amidst various marketing practices, Green Guerrilla Marketing has come up as a unique and innovative practice.It enables the producer to gain tremendous amount of attention from the consumers resulting in capturing the market pie and at the same time is not compromising on ethical and sustainable fronts.
A very small amount of work has been done on Green Guerrilla Marketing as a separate study and therefore, further research can be done to explore its potential.Various issues related to it what, how, ways to measure it like measuring the impacts and effectiveness of this concept.

Figure 4 .
Figure 4. Concern for the environment through guerrilla technique

Figure 5 .
Figure 5. McDonalds participating in St. Patrick's Day celebration

Figure 6 .
Figure 6.Nescafe surprising people with free coffee and spreading happiness