Designing a Model for the Impact of Guerrilla Marketing on Attracting Customers of Sports Stores via an Agent-Based Simulation Approach

This study aimed to design a model for the impact of guerrilla marketing on attracting the customers of sports stores in Yazd Province, Iran. Utilizing an exploratory, mixed-methods research design, this study was thus performed in accordance with inductive-deductive reasoning. The statistical population comprised of the university professors and managers of the sports stores in Yazd Province, Iran, selected by snowball sampling until theoretical saturation occurred (N=12). The data collection tools included interviews and questionnaires. During the qualitative phase, the main categories (themes) and subcategories (subthemes) of the guerrilla marketing tools were initially isolated using thematic analysis. Afterward, the given tools were prioritized with the fuzzy Delphi method. Ultimately, the impact of the guerrilla marketing tools on attracting the customers of sports stores was simulated in the quantitative phase, through agent-based modeling. The data analysis was carried out during the qualitative phase via MAXQDA 20 and Microsoft Excel, and that was completed in the quantitative phase by the use of AnyLogic. With reference to the study results, 36 primary codes, eight subcategories (sub-themes), and four main categories (themes), namely, cultural tools, human tools, technology tools, and customer attraction tools were identified, and then the cultural tools were acknowledged as the most effective ones. Besides, the simulation results demonstrated that the proposed model could provide the proper estimate of the future of attracting the customers of sports stores in Yazd Province, Iran. Along with the study results, the managers of sports stores are suggested to reflect on the guerrilla marketing tools identified here in order to attract more customers.