Guerrilla Warfare for Davids

Ultimate excellence lies not in winning every battle, but in defeating the enemy without ever fighting says Sun Tzu, the Chinese general and strategist in his work The Art of War. Every warlord with limited resources has used guerrilla warfare to inflict damage and win against larger armies. I remember my history teacher Sister Coutinho explaining the way Shivaji – the Maratha, used his ragtag bunch of soldiers to harass and capture vast tracts of territory against the much larger and better funded rulers of Bijapur and then against the monstrous armies of the Mughals under Aurangzeb. The Mujahadeen in Afghanistan against the Soviet Russia, Mao Zedong and Ho Chi Min, all employed guerilla warfare in the style of Sun Tzu.

In current times, marketers have used the same strategy – Pepsi’s nothing official about it against Coca-Cola during the 1996 cricket world cup is a great example. It became a classic case study of stealing the thunder from under the noses of a behemoth (not that Pepsi was not a large corporate). Coca-cola had bought the rights to be the sponsor at a huge cost, Pepsi was just smarter! Another example is the Blair Witch Project, A small amateur horror movie made by a bunch of film students. The students set up an internet campaign devoted to spreading rumors about the fictitious 'Blair Witch' creating a lot of interest for the film. With a budget of $50,000, the movie grossed $250 million worldwide, all this while movies by the established studios sank that year.

The point that I am making is that when you are small or at a disadvantage you work harder, do unconventional things quickly. Products that have the backing of deep pockets and ability to pull their weight to get consumers have always had an advantage. The ones that have a modest budget and zero backing must do it the intelligent way. These are the guys that go out and work every stakeholder that their consumers touch. Take for example an app providing a niche content service against the might of the 200 pound gorillas that are too generic. In this case, if the consumer buys her phones using ecommerce portals, then the small niche app must be available there, and be available on the phone itself (do you know how expensive it is to get anyone to download an app?) and then be available at points where the bandwidth / data packs are purchased and then be available at every point which is used to pay for it. And on any device, that the consumer uses, even the most obscure operating systems. The small apps must align with like-minded partners who want to address the same consumer. Exchange information and perceived value with each other’s users to derive a combined positive. Be nice and classy about the partnerships. And what the little guys get is an ecosystem that takes the mickey out of every giant on the horizon. That is the time when the odds get evened out.

Then the little guys do not need to spend their resources on giant hoardings, TV spots and expensive newspaper ads. The proverbial thousand cuts spoken of in the Art of War can be achieved by being visible in small but meaningful and valuable (for the consumer) ways.

It’s a lot of leg work and patience.

Coming back to guerilla warfare and The Art of War, when one is small one does not try and win every battle. One waits, using little meaningful things that matter over large flourishes. One is nimble and alert to changes and can modify a strategy quickly. These are luxuries not available to the larger guys at any point. (and do not believe the VC who says the big guys have resources)

To conclude, it is best to quote the famous line by the car rental company Avis “When you’re only No. 2, you try harder”. I will leave out the “Or else” part of it for the time being.