As mentioned in yesterday’s post, Circle of Sisterhood is positioning itself as the avenue for sorority women to work together to make education possible for women around the world. Below are some of the guerrilla marketing tactics they used to launch this initiative.

Circle of Sisterhood chose the AFA annual meeting as the forum to launch their efforts. Because the conference attendees are professionals who work for colleges, universities, and inter/national fraternities or sororities and who serve in advisor roles to members of Fraternities and Sororities the audience was the ideal audience to engage as advocates volunteers and donors for the organization. Unlike students, who remain on a campus community for only a few years, advisors are the continuity. Circle of Sisterhood utilized guerrilla marketing tactics to encourage attendees to visit their booth in the conference’s exhibit hall and to attend the kick off event, hosted toward the end of the annual meeting.

• Volunteers carried orange tote bags so conference attendees easily identified them.
• Volunteers wore a large button that featured a number (updated daily with a dry erase maker) that was a talking point. For example, 6.7. 6.7% of the world’s population has a college degree, compared to 100% of the conference attendees. It gave volunteers the opportunity to talk about the privilege of education, something this audience might typically take for granted.
• They had a giveaway contest for the book, Half the Sky. Anyone who gave a business card was entered to win the book that was the impetus for the founding of the organization. The giveaway had multiple purposes; encouraging people to stop at the booth to enter the drawing, encouraging them to attend the kick off event to see if they won, encouraging attendees to read the book (which could lead to a desire to be involved) and helping the organization acquire the names of potential volunteers, advocates and donors for their mailing list.
• Though the kick off event was listed in the program as invite only (making it seem exclusive) volunteers had round invitations (playing on the circle theme) that were distributed to individuals that they met during the conference.  The invitation featured part of a story from the book. The recipient of the invitation was invited to the kick off event to hear the remainder of the story.

These are just a few examples of tactics used by Circle of Sisterhood Foundation. To see more examples of guerilla marketing visit http://www.creativeguerrillamarketing.com/

Could your business or organization benefit from guerilla marketing tactics? We can help you formulate a plan.

Last week my travels took me to Phoenix, Arizona and the Association of Fraternity/Sorority Advisors (AFA) Annual Meeting for the launch party for the newly established Circle of Sisterhood Foundation. As a volunteer for Circle of Sisterhood I offer my marketing and fundraising expertise (and a little of my elbow grease too). In these trying economic times, where donors are increasingly difficult to acquire, one might think it is less than ideal to establish a new non-profit organization. But knowing how to position your organization with your target audience has more to do with your success than the economy. It also means using the resources you have wisely.

Guerrilla marketing is all about creating buzz and using unconventional marketing tactics. The father of guerrilla marketing, Jay Conrad Levinson, defines it as “achieving conventional goals, such as profits and joy, with unconventional methods, such as investing energy instead of money.” Levinson and co-authors Chris Forbes, and Frank Adkins wrote the book Guerrilla Marketing for Nonprofits and in it they offer scores of marketing ideas that are low cost or completely free. For a small business or non-profit organization guerrilla marketing can be useful tactic. But as with all marketing it must be authentic to your organization, relevant to your target audience, and both strategic and meaningful. Circle of Sisterhood took advantage of guerrilla marketing tactics to achieve all of the above.

With a solid marketing plan and committed volunteers, Circle of Sisterhood is positioning itself as the avenue for sorority women to work together to make education possible for women around the world. The organization’s founder, Ginny Carroll, had an ah-ha moment after reading the book, Half the Sky, which details the oppression of women throughout the world. In the marketing materials prepared by the organization they remind their target audience, sorority women, that in the late 1800s, American women stood together for the right to go to college. The sorority movement began as a system to support women in their academic efforts. Now, 140 years later, there are more than 4 million sorority women. More important, they are educated women. By joining together, they have an opportunity to continue the legacy of their Founders’ by helping less fortunate girls and women go to school around the world.

Stay tuned tomorrow for a list of the guerrilla marketing tactics used by Circle of Sisterhood.

It’s officially November and there is a definite chill in the air. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to spend the day at Hamilton Safe, one of our newest clients. Hamilton Safe is located in Cincinnati, OH and makes items such as vaults, safe deposit boxes, lockers, transaction drawers & windows and tube transport systems for banks, pharmacies, retailers and the government.

I had the opportunity to visit 3 of the factories, which was very educational. It’s also extremely amazing that all of their products are made right here in the U.S. with the amount of customization that they do for each of their products. Of course a trip to Cincinnati is never complete without a trip to Skyline Chili, Jungle Jims and Ikea.

On Thursday, Kim and Sue will be attending the IBJ Women of Influence Event.  There will be 650 attendees. Elaine Bedel from our client, Bedel Financial, won the award last year and will be attending as a sponsor this year.

Brad, Kim and Mark will also be receiving a tour at IDI Composites International on Thursday. IDI is our newest client and we are looking forward to meeting with them and seeing their facility first hand.

The last week of September…but the first full week of fall! My favorite time of the year. A great time to be out on the road, with the windows down, visiting some of my favorite clients and Willow friends. Monday was a great day! We have been working on planning a surprise baby shower for our 3 preggos (Sarah, Sue and Marizka) for the past month and the day finally came. All of the ladies were surprised and we had a lot of fun playing some really great shower games. Lets just say that Brad Gillum makes for a really nice looking baby and Marizka has some major bottle sucking skills! The day also included a video shoot of the Willow team. Look for something out of Doug’s editing bay here soon.

Tuesday takes the Willow crew to lunch with the Hall Render executive marketing team to continue planning for the rest of 2010 and into 2011. And the day ends with a brainstorm (and adult beverages I’m sure) with the Rivar’s gals. Wednesday entails a visit from our favorite TKE to plan for 2011 and the usual visit to the Phi Psi crew. Thursday looks like a La Piedad day with lunch with Alpha Chi Omega. The day closes out with the Bedel Financial Consulting Open House at their new office location. They’re also launching their new brand! Exciting! Friday we will be shooting at this fun little theatre for an Alpha Chi Omega video.

Photo Credit: Greg Malone

We’re also meeting with the Indy Parks & Rec staff to discuss some exciting initiatives for 2011.

It’s another busy week…and lots of planning for 2011! It must be fall!

You never know where the wind will blow the Willow, but you can be sure we are flexible. With less than a weeks’ notice Brad and I packed our bags (or in Brad’s case a backpack) and headed to Arlington, Texas. It is a city located approximately 12 miles east of downtown Fort Worth and 20 miles west of downtown Dallas. It is home to the Texas Rangers Ballpark, Cowboys Stadium, and the original Six Flags theme park. We saw all three of these attractions, though they weren’t the reason for our visit (and these are the best pictures I could get as Brad zoom-zoomed past in our little Mazda rental). We were there to visit with a potential client. Since I’m new to the Willow team it was my first opportunity to see how we can really be a consultant for the companies and organizations we partner with. At Willow we focus on solving the communication problem at hand by asking questions to get to the heart of the issue. Our time in Arlington was spent doing just that. And I think it’s safe to say that the potential client is now our partner. Maybe on our next visit, Brad will stop the car so we can enjoy the attractions or at the very least, get a decent picture.