Guerrilla marketing on Facebook: a mixed-method study on the effects on brand image and content sharing intentions

Abstract

Guerrilla marketing suggests using creative and unexpected messages and channels to stand out in the marketing communication crowd. Despite practitioners' growing interest in the topic, the contributions in the literature are still scarce. This study aims to explore the impacts of guerrilla marketing campaigns on Facebook on brand image and content sharing intentions. Mixed-method research was adopted. The first phase was more exploratory and used focus groups to analyze consumers' perceptions and responses to guerrilla marketing campaigns. It was followed by a quantitative study of 256 Portuguese consumers that answered an online survey after being exposed to a guerrilla marketing campaign on Facebook. Results suggest that customer interaction with guerrilla marketing on Facebook depends on content's characteristics, namely the message appeal. While humour appeal enhances the relationship with customers by increasing the level of interaction, negative appeals (e.g., perceived as offensive) generate adverse reactions. This study also shows that frequent Facebook users are more predisposed to interact with guerrilla marketing content.