Saturday, March 15, 2008

WHAT IS 'GRASSROOTS MOVEMENT' AND HOW TO BUILD IT?

Do you know what 'grassroots marketing' or 'grassroots movement' is? It is a great tool for PR.
Grassroots movement is one driven by the community itself. The term 'grassroots' implies: the creation of the movement is natural and spontaneous. It is not orchestrated by traditional power structures.
You may call it a brother (or a sister) of a viral marketing.
Grassroots procedures include:
house meetings / parties,
posters,
talking with pedestrians on the street,
gathering signatures for petitions,
raising money from many small donors,
large demonstrations,
reminding people to vote and transporting them to polling places.

However, you need to distinguish between a real grassroots movement and a faked one.
Faking a grassroots movement is known as astroturfing. Astroturfing is named after a brand of artificial grass, AstroTurf. The practice of astroturfing is similar to the practice of grassroots, so it is hard to distinguish. Still, what is the difference? There are lobbyists behind astroturfing which try to hide their agenda and pretend they are just ordinary folks voicing their opinions.

Try (when it is possible) organize your PR / marketing campaign as a grassroots one.

3 comments:

  1. Jacob,
    Why do you call this kind of marketing ('grassroots marketing') a brother / sister of a viral marketing?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Miguel,
    While calling those two kinds of marketing similar, I mean one point: a 'grassroot' marketing is going without payed ads, by the folks' enthusiasm only.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Interesting... I was searching this info for my uncle. He will be happy for such a great info. Thanks for sharing...
    Ana

    ReplyDelete