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grassroots marketing

promotion spread by ordinary people, from the bottom up

In Business & Marketing

In more detail

1. (noun) marketing that focuses on ordinary people rather than large companies or famous people, using direct personal communication and community involvement instead of expensive advertisements

2. (noun) marketing that starts from a local or individual level and grows upward, rather than being imposed from above by a large organization

Examples

• 1. The small bakery used grassroots marketing by giving free samples to neighbors and asking them to tell their friends.
• 2. The political campaign succeeded through grassroots marketing when volunteers talked to voters door-to-door in their communities.

How to use grassroots marketing

Grassroots marketing emphasizes authentic engagement with communities and individuals rather than broad, expensive media campaigns. It is commonly used in business, nonprofit, and political contexts to describe strategies that build momentum from the ground up through direct personal contact, social media, and local involvement. The term carries a positive connotation of authenticity and genuine connection, distinguishing it from impersonal corporate advertising.

Common phrases

• grassroots marketing campaign
• grassroots marketing strategy
• grassroots marketing efforts
• grassroots marketing approach
• engage in grassroots marketing
• grassroots marketing initiative

Synonyms

ground-level marketing · community-based marketing · organic marketing · word-of-mouth marketing · street-level marketing

Opposites

corporate marketing · mass marketing · top-down marketing

Word family

grassroots (adjective) · grassroots (adjective, used attributively in 'grassroots movement')

A common mistake

Learners sometimes use 'grassroots' only as an adjective (e.g., 'a grassroots approach') and forget it can stand alone as a noun phrase ('grassroots marketing' as a noun), or confuse it with 'grass-roots' (the hyphenated form is less common in modern usage).

Nearby in Business & Marketing

unique selling point, vertical, scalable, barriers to entry, bottom line, brainstorming

Keep going

How to remember the words you read · Spaced repetition, explained