Using Gilligan's Island for positioning
In the sixth season of Mad Men, the episode called “A Man with a Plan” introduced a new concept—at least it was new to me:
What character from Gilligan’s Island is your product?
The ad men’s challenge was positioning margarine against butter: do we position our margarine as premium, low-cost, middle of the road, or something else?
Now, I can easily see using characters from TV show for buyer personas (although I’d probably be inclined to use Star Trek instead of Gilligan). Thurston Howell III & “Lovey” want to be seen as elite, so they would choose the premium brand regardless of cost. Ginger loves status and fame so she’d be inclined to buy a product recommended by famous people.
But can you apply this TV character approach to a product or brand? And what other TV shows would make a good short-hand for personas and positioning?
I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments.
About Steve Johnson
Steve Johnson is a product management process coach, author, speaker, and advisor. His approach is based on the belief that minimal process and simple templates result in a nimble product marketing and management team. Before founding Under10, Steve was a Pragmatic Marketing instructor for over 15 years and personally trained thousands of product managers and hundreds of company senior executive teams. Learn more at www.under10playbook.com
In his spare time, Steve enjoys making music, and has an album available on iTunes. Check out Steve’s music at notExactlySteve.com