How can we learn to take risks again? Meet two people who are still prepared to gamble - shrewdly - during these tough times.

Hot babes in leather! That's it - we'll have hot babes in leather, full-body suits, and stiletto heels. And Grace Jones! And - oh yeah - we'll pitch some wristwatches.

Drew Neisser grins at the thought of that coup. He is not, on the face of it, a hot-babes-in-leather guy. He is 45, clean-cut, and clothed in sensible garments. But the Casio "Time Me Up, Time Me Down" party - that was his baby. He's still surprised that Casio bought in. "That was the last idea I ever expected a client to buy," says Neisser, president and co-founder of Renegade Marketing Group in New York.

Rules for Guerrilla Marketing I1. Seek this response from customers: "Wow, I never expected that from your company!" 2. Seek this response internally: "How did they get that one approved?"
Renegade Rules II 1. Don't discuss "risk-factor details" with your boss until moments before the launch. 2. Videotape your stuff and only show it if it works. "If you launch your marketing strategy with the goal of minimizing risk, you're starting from a point of weakness," Neisser argues.

Renegade Rules III 1. Focus on a well-defined target group. 2. Gain genuine insight into that target's idiosyncrasies.

It comes down to target practice. A marketing tactic that's unpalatable to the masses becomes startlingly right when applied to the right niche. On one level, Casio's bondage gambit seemed dicey. But when aimed at Manhattan fashionistas, it won the right sort of attention for the company's G-Shock watches. "It used to be that research was all about mitigating risk," Neisser says. "We'd do a focus group and show an advertisement to 10 people - and if 7 or 8 liked it, we'd have some comfort that this was a good program. Now what we want to know is, Does it resonate for two of them? Because you're no longer marketing to 7 out of 10. You're marketing to one."