What Can Marketers Learn From Pop Culture?

Thanks for joining me today.  In the first episode of the content brief,  I used a scene from Ford vs. Ferrari to make a point about marketing, and it was the moment when Lee Iacocca has to make his marketing presentation to Henry Ford II. And all the executives at Ford  and it was really kind of a great way to frame the idea of changing the way marketing thinks about how it well creates content and markets a product or service because Lee Iacocca basically says, you know, you guys are all focused on telling people how many cars you can make, how big you are and all this stuff, but the consumers don't care about that.

They want an emotional connection to a product.  And there are a lot of brands out there that are struggling to make connections with their audience because they're still talking about their product or service or brand in ineffective ways that don't resonate with the audience.  Now more recently, I wrote a LinkedIn newsletter using a Netflix documentary about World of Warcraft  To make a point about company culture, pop culture can put a lot of things in a new context.

And when it comes to something like marketing, that can be very effective. I mean, think about those moments when somebody ties pop culture into a conference session. Any time that a scene from a movie or TV show pops up on their screen, everybody lights up and smiles because it's like, oh, I know that movie.

Suddenly the context becomes Centered around that show that everybody in the room loves or something. It really works well, or just kind of gets everybody's attention. And let's face it, as marketers, that's what we're trying to do anyway. And what's funny is, I use pop culture references frequently to make content marketing, culture, or communication points.

But, my wife will tell you it's not the only time I do it.  But today let's talk about some other pop culture themes that tie into marketing, communication, and audience.  Starting with Miracle on 34th Street.  Now that seems to be appropriate timing since we are starting the holiday season and we're already seeing Christmas things popping up everywhere. 

I'm a fan of the old black and white version of Miracle on 34th Street. Which is really kind of bizarre because I'm one of those people that grew up in the 80s. So, you know, anything that was black and white just kind of seemed old to us as kids and we just didn't watch it, you know, because we were lucky enough to grow up with color.

But there's just something about that movie in black and white that I love. So I, I watch it every year. It's one of those must watch movies during the holiday season. And there is a scene in it that clearly shows. or represents how brands can be wrong about their audience or their customers.  See, Macy's instructs Santa Claus to tell parents where they can buy the toys their child wants for Christmas.

You know, where they can get it in their store. The idea is to take full advantage of all the kids lining up to see Santa, so that they can have those kids tell Mom and Dad, Or mom or dad, where they can buy the toy in their stores. Yet, when one child tells Santa that he wants a truck, a fire truck I believe,  he tells the mother that she can get it at another store,  at an affordable price. 

And this just makes Mr. Shellhammer Freak out the manager of the toy department, because in his mind, as a businessman, as a brand guy, maybe even as a marketer, to some degree, this is going to do nothing but benefit the competition and hurt the business.  But before he can react and do something about it,  that customer  That mom gets his attention. 

You're the head of the toy department, huh? Yes, madam, but at the moment I'm Well, listen, I want to congratulate you and Macy's on this wonderful new stunt you're pulling. Imagine sending people to other stores. I don't get it. Well, it's, it's It certainly is. You said it. Imagine a big outfit like Macy's putting the spirit of Christmas ahead of the commercial.

It's wonderful. Well, I'll tell you, I've never done much shopping here before, but I'll tell you one thing. From now on, I'm going to be a regular Macy customer. All right.  Thank you.  So, why did she have that reaction? Does it make sense?  Is this really hard to imagine?  Well, it's hard to imagine if all you're thinking about is the bottom line and your view as to the path to improve the bottom line. 

That's why it's so important to get in the minds of your audience and know how they think or tap into empathy as part of your marketing. It's kind of like that time that Walmart announced in the challenging economy that we were in that people would pay the same amount for all things related to Thanksgiving as they did the last year.

They weren't going to hike up prices.  It made me think, you want to talk about a pop culture reference, you want me to go really retro, is Mr. Mom. And Terry Garr, who we just tragically lost not too long ago, plays a mom that goes to work for a marketing company. And she has the unique advantage of being a mom first, and then she became a marketer.

And she got a company called Schooner Tuna  to lower their prices because of the challenging economy. And the message was, we're going to lower our prices to help you, but then when things get better, we're going to return to our normal price.  And at first, everybody thought that was nuts until it worked. 

I mean, there are a lot of content marketing strategies that are out there if you're willing to start thinking a little more audience based. If you start focusing more on them and their needs and their minds and hearts. And not as much about the needs of the marketing department and numbers and the bottom line, you know, and how that formula is supposed to work out. 

For example, have you ever said something nice to your competition on social media? Does that sound crazy? Does that sound nuts? Now you wanna get nuts? Come on! Let's get nuts. Someone might think, they're our competition, we can't say something nice about them. And why? Because that might drive business to them.

We need people to know that we're better than them, we're not gonna say something nice to them, right? I mean, it may not be that blunt, but inevitably that's what the thought process can be.  There was a study done by the Journal of Marketing where they tested this, and the inspiration behind it was that time when PlayStation and Xbox complemented Nintendo for As part of this study, they created a few fake social media posts, back then they were tweets, uh, from KitKat and Twix, and one of them came from KitKat that said, Kick off your day with our candy,  and then another tweet basically said, Hey Twix, congrats on 56  years in the business, and we have to admit, your candy is delicious.

The study said, quote, individuals who viewed the tweet, Where KitKat praised Twix exhibited a 34 percent higher frequency in purchasing KitKat compared to those who encountered the tweet focusing on KitKat's own product. And by the way, Twix did not get a sales boost after KitKat said their candy was delicious. 

So we can kind of throw out the idea that doing this is going to help the competition.  Neil Patel talks about how it can be valuable to link to your competition. In your content, like a blog, because the signal is we care more about providing you value than we do limiting the amount of resources we're going to give you because we're in this for ourselves. 

And as Neil says, you're not always going to create the best content.  So there are so many different ways we can make better content that resonates with our audience by thinking a little more about them and a little less about ourselves.  Alright, so up next, this is a movie that I think talks about another disconnect between brands and audiences, and that is language.

To this day, you will still see so much marketing content speak in this, I guess, marketing or corporate marketing language. Meanwhile, the trends have shown for years that this language doesn't resonate with people. And you're trying to connect with people, whether you're a B2B company or a B2C company.  I mean, as far back as 2019, Forrester  began to study this, and they started to tell brands they needed to change.

They released a study emphasizing the importance of brand humanity, highlighting that modern consumers seek brands that communicate Naturally, considerably, personally,  and this was going to require that brands move on from robotic or generic interaction language. And instead, use a tone and language that feels like a normal person while proving empathy.

And I think the word proving empathy is so important because that is what you are doing. And by the way, as people look for that humanity in your content, that's what they're looking for, proof of your genuine intent.  So they're talking about proving empathy and understanding the needs of the customer or the audience.

This would involve operationalizing. empathy at scale, breaking organizational silos, and creating communication strategies that demonstrate care, relevance, and adaptability  across all touchpoints. It was really one of the more specific and descriptive examples of this I've ever seen coming from a study because they would show you different words and phrases.

And how those words and phrases would change like year to year,  since we're talking about humanization here, brand humanity. If you have a human consumer that's looking for a solution,  They're looking to connect with a brand in a humanized way. But instead, they get communications and content that speak differently. 

And the Truman Show provides a fun example of this.  There's that moment where Truman is just distraught about his life and he wants answers. And He needs someone to talk to, so he wants to have a normal conversation and figure it out with his wife.  But as he sits down to have this conversation with her, he doesn't get that.

Instead,  he gets something very different from her. Why don't you let me fix you some of this new Mo'Cocoa drink? All natural cocoa beans from the upper slopes of Mount Nicaragua. No artificial sweeteners. What the hell are you talking about? Who are you talking to? I've tasted other cocos. This is the best. 

What the hell does this have to do  with anything?  I mean, if you think about it, his reaction is likely the same as a content consumer. And I say content consumer because Maybe your audience isn't necessarily customers by definition. Maybe it's clients. Maybe it's just audience. So I just say content consumer.

His reaction is likely the same as them when they're looking for that connection, that proof of empathy, that proof of they're really trying to help me and they get something salesy or one sided like that. That is clearly meant to benefit just the brand.  And I've told marketers to be very wary of copy like that.

Part of it's because whether it's social media or email, you might be surprised at the tone of voice. In somebody's head when they read it. I  mean, you want to talk about pop culture, one of my favorite memes is the one of Emperor Palpatine from Return of the Jedi. And it's just his picture, but then the text says, Yes, you read this in my voice, didn't you?

And somebody like me is going, yes, yes, I did. But, you know, when your copy reads like a commercial or a script that could come straight out of an infomercial, It's possible that the voice in their head that's reading that out loud is going to sound like one. For example, I've received an email that started like this. 

Are you tired of long turnaround times and having to work with several agencies on the same campaign? This doesn't need to be the case. With us, you'll get everything from one partner. I mean  the fact that it starts with, are you tired of, I mean that really could be the beginning of an infomercial. I mean when you write.

An email to somebody you know.  That's not how you write it.  If it was a connection, or if you knew that person very much like Truman knew his wife, they would probably reply back to you in that email and say, What are you talking about?  But what if that email read like someone who understood your story?

What if the copy didn't have to ask questions because it already knew your struggles? What if it read like a friend who is simply reaching out to help another human being with a problem? The same can be true on social media. I've seen not only brand pages like company pages on LinkedIn write stuff That sounds like a commercial that's just advertising everything with everything that they write I've seen  employees of that same company write in the same way, even though it's a human photo there, and then the copy is written very similar to what I just read you.

It reads like that, and I always find myself thinking, if you were meeting another professional, Or a potential client or customer at a conference or somewhere else. You wouldn't talk about your product in that way or your service or your company in that way.  So it's not even just limited to email, it's also social media.

And speaking of social media, I've used the movie Coming to America to make a point about social media. If you're familiar with this movie, this great 80's movie, Randy Watson provides a really good example of a brand that isn't taking the hint from its audience on social media. If you've seen the movie, you know who Randy Watson is, and you probably see where I'm going.

Randy steps out on stage during a Black Awareness event, and just about everyone there is not excited to see him. Here's a clip of Randy being introduced to the crowd, and you can hear The one or two or three claps, if you want to call them claps, as he's trying to engage that audience.  I want you to put your hands together  and welcome him to the stage.

Big round of applause for Jackson Heights own Mr. Randy! Watson. Yes.  Randy Watson.  It feels so lovely to be here. And then what a beautiful I'll give yourself a round of applause. You're so lovely. Everyone's so lovely. And  why are you in a clapping mood? I like to give a big round of applause to my band, Sexual Chocolate. 

OK, so the audience is already sending a signal that what he's doing up there Isn't connecting, isn't resonating, isn't working for them. And the other thing here to think about is, we hear so much about being authentic.  Kind of like a moment ago when I was talking about complimenting your competition.

That even has to be authentic. You don't want to compliment them because you're interested in how good that might make you look or how much sales that may generate because again, the audience knows the difference. They know when you're genuinely doing it and then when you're doing it in a way that might just benefit you because you're trying to get something out of it.

In this case, Everybody can tell that Randy is talking about how lovely the audience is and trying to get him to clap about that because he just needs everybody to clap at that moment and even then it isn't working that well. And that's not where it ends. Despite the audience making it clear time and again that they're not interested, Randy continues.

And starts to sing that song. And at one point in time, one guy gets up and leaves to get some burgers and fries from McDowell's. And that might as well represent the user that leaves the page to find something better. Now he does have this one guy, and it's hilarious, this one guy, uh, clapping for him.

And maybe that could represent the one like that a post may get. And I think in a lot of cases, that like, probably came from someone who works at the company that posted the content. So, it's really not the type of engagement you really want. And it's definitely not the signal that things are working really well.

The stuff that matters are the conversations, the shares. You know, the bigger examples of what is real engagement, and then if that might even be drawing relevant traffic to your LinkedIn page in this case. Or maybe it's how you're growing, not just followers, but relevant followers, people who you want following you, not the rando person that just hauls off and follows you because they were in the mood that day and you'll never see them again.

I'm talking about people who you want following you.  But even after singing and all the signals that they have given Randy that they don't care, he just gets louder. 

And that's the brand on social media that posts a lot of content, maybe about themselves or content that is just company focused, me focused. Overbranded, there is a lack of interest, there's a lack of meaningful engagement, but they just keep doing the same thing.  And you have to wonder why. Maybe it's because it's automated.

Maybe it's because there's some sort of marketing science behind the strategy that doesn't let them expand the way they think about content. I also think about the study that Orbit Media did with QuestionPro, where they found out that brands believe. That people follow them on social media because they're basically subscribing to their great content.

But consumers say that's not why we follow them at all. We follow brands to form connections and keep in touch.  It's a very one way versus two way view of things. So all of these examples, I would say align not only with modern content marketing strategy, but they also align with my formula for humanizing content.

And when I say that, I mean you're taking existing content and improving it by humanizing it, or you're creating humanized content from the get go.  And that formula is called STAMP.  So we have the S, which stands for self awareness, and I'm going to get to that here in just a moment. Thank you.  We had two-Way communication, which was the Randy Watson coming to America example.

We had adaptability, which is really kind of at the center of all of this. Although I guess you could also point out that the humanized language that Forrester talked about was encouraging.  Brands to adapt to a new way of writing communications between brands and audiences.  But we also had meaningful language, which is the Truman Show example.

Speaking to your audience in a way that connects and resonates. Predictive intelligence, which is the miracle on 34th Street.  This is about being able to predict reactions and interpretations of your audience because of how well you know them and what's in their hearts and minds.  And like I said, self awareness.

I saved the self awareness example for last and I did it intentionally  because it perfectly ties in to the next episode of the content brief.  And if we want kind of a fun pop culture reference for self awareness. I think Ted Lasso provides a great example. Self awareness in marketing is about stopping to think before you create or post the content. 

It's about asking yourself, is this more for me or my audience?  Would I care if I saw this? Would I react if I saw this and I was in their shoes?  Am I following some old marketing strategy or is this really going to help me stand out from others who are using old marketing strategies?  What are my company's attitudes about our audience and how does that impact our external communication? 

I mean if you can't recognize that the number one motive or maybe the only motive for creating the content is meeting numbers, just getting content out the door, or just selling and promoting, what's reflected in that content is marketing language, content that can be interpreted as a selfish selfish.

Message, or maybe it has that salesy tone like the infomercial we talked about earlier.  And obviously we hear a lot about self awareness when it comes to internal communication in a company culture. Maybe in meetings or internal communications, digital and internal communications, or just everyday conversations at a company. 

If there is a lack of humanized internal communication, it's likely going to be lacking as well in any type of external content or communication. You know, the biases, the attitudes, the motivations are going to come through and people can tell. And part of it's because they're already skeptical of you,  because they see That kind of stuff all the time. 

So, internal self awareness. Let's just focus on that since that's where it all starts in that company culture. You know, like I said, it impacts meetings, but it can also impact employee engagement. Especially at a time when we hear things like quietly quitting and broken culture syndrome. Well, when we look at a character like Ted Lasso,  I think it's pretty safe to say that he has good self awareness.

He's clearly, more often than not, he's not a perfect human being. He has his flaws as we see throughout the series. But he does make an attempt  to frame how he says things because he's clearly thinking about the other person and he generally tends to think before he speaks. Yeah, I believe that Jamie's on a path to becoming a better man, and I'm just here to help him along that journey.

You know, think of me as his own personal Mr. Miyagi,  except without all that extra yard work. And as you can see, Ted also liked to use pop culture references to make a point.  Now, you take my favorite character, Roy Kent,  And that he's the total opposite. 

It just comes right out, not even thinking about it and doesn't seem to care, at least on the surface. But inevitably, we do learn and know by the end of the show that Roy is a good guy. He just needs to learn a little more about his quick reactions and his impulsive words when he says things. Now, we laugh when Roy does it.

It's obviously a different story in the workplace. Ted Lasso has several company culture, leadership, communication lessons in the show. In fact, a lot of people have pointed that out. And, as I mentioned, all of those can impact content marketing's ability to connect and resonate with external audiences.

So, that's why, in two weeks, I'll be talking to the authors of the book, Lead Like Lasso. Marnie Stockman, and Nick Coniglio. That should be a lot of fun.