Unless you’ve been living under a rock over the past 10 years, I’m sure you’ve come across an episode or two of AMC’s Mad Men. In my opinion, this show is one of the most prolific in recent television history. Set in 1960s Manhattan the show is a well executed time capsule of its characters and our nation in a massive social shift. Tackling topics like sexuality, civil rights, feminism, and even the perils of improper lawnmower operation Mad Men brings you back to a time when things were cheaper, but certainly not any simpler.
The show’s polarizing, disturbed, and gifted main character is the incomparable Don Draper.
Yes, we eerily enjoyed watching him twist in the wind on many occasion as he attempted to navigate his tumultuous past, multiple scorned lovers, and clients and colleagues plotting against him at every turn. For me, however, it is the scenes that show Don in his element, the pitches, that have stuck with me over the years.
This post is dedicated to the man formerly known as Dick Whitman as when presented with the difficult challenge of marketing a home in today’s real estate market I can honestly say I’ve sought the Lucky Strike smoke soaked wordsmith for a helping hand of inspiration. A moment commonly referred to in the marketing game as the “What Would Draper Do?” moment. In honor of this I present to my top 3 Don Draper campaigns and how I think they can help you sell your home. So, go ahead and pour yourself an Old Fashioned and read on.
1. Mark Your Man
There is a scene in the first season of AMC’s Mad Men that sticks with me to this day. Fictional Manhattan based advertising agency Sterling Cooper is pitching the heads of Bell Jolie Lipstick on a very different approach from what they have done in the past. Rather than parade the hundreds of lipstick shades available, they are focusing on one powerful idea that differentiates them from anyone in the lipstick business. A campaign centered around three words, ‘Mark Your Man’. The Belle Jolie guys aren’t immediately impressed as you’ll see in the clip below.
Every woman wants choices, but in the end none wants to be one of a hundred in a box. She’s unique, she makes the choices, and she chooses him. She wants to tell the world he’s mine…you’ve given every girl who chooses your lipstick the gift of total ownership.
Those words literally hit home to me. Was I marketing homes in a way that would generate that kind of feeling to a potential buyer?
I couldn’t help but feel that the current state of real estate marketing was falling into the Belle Jolie category. Sticking to old guns, re-running the same work, and following a sort of unspoken template handed down from generation to generation of real estate agent. It is thought leaders like Don Draper, or more accurately the Mad Men creators that have inspired all of us to look at things differently. We will have some fun in this post delving into the troubled, yet genius mind of Don Draper, and pulling some very poignant parallels to selling your home in today’s market.
Ask anyone and they will tell you that the market has changed. We’ve officially moved into a buyer’s market. The days of quickly ascending prices and homes flying off the shelves is gone. Competition is stiffer, buyers are pickier, and you need to sell your home. A climate like this calls for inspired marketing, creative thinking, and plenty of Canadian Rye.
2. It’s Toasted
If you don’t like what is being said, change the conversation.
One of Draper’s most transcending phrases he makes over the course of the show is this one. It was only appropriate that is first said in a smoke filled room, which suddenly clears as the words are being uttered. The tobacco tycoons of American Tobacco are trying to weasel there way around new surgeon general restrictions on how they can advertise their Lucky Strike cigarettes. Don asks Lee Garner Sr. to go back to basics and run him through how their cigarettes are made stopping him at ‘we toast it’. And just like that ‘It’s Toasted’ campaign is born.
Interesting thought isn’t it? Instead of playing in the weeds with the rest of the cigarette companies who were trying to dance around surgeon general warnings and push doctors smoking or promoting a safer cigarette. Using ‘It’s toasted’ focuses the attention away from the negative.
Now, I’m not comparing real estate to cancer causing cigarettes, but the campaign concept is one that we need to remember today. Too often agents focus on the outside challenges a house might present, not highlighting the benefit enough. We apologize for the home rather than sell it. There are always going to be homes and specifically neighborhoods that have unique features that don’t appeal to a large general audience, but it could be that feature that ultimately finds you a buyer.
Every home is going to present you with a list of reasons of why it might not sell. Tough location, odd floor plan, you name it. Rather than spending time on things you can’t change, I zero in on what makes the home unique and build a buyer profile that would overlook or maybe even find the home’s challenging features as benefits
It could be a urinal. Maybe it’s a raised bathtub in the middle of the master bedroom. How about a Pepto-Bismol pink oven? What might be a turn off to you could be an ‘It’s toasted’ to someone else.
3. The Carousel
Kodak has created the ultimate slide projector and are looking for a campaign that will get people to buy projectors that already have projectors. This new device allows you to load numerous slides and advance them using the original technology, the wheel, but how can an old technology be sold as something new and exciting? Don knows.
This is, without a doubt, one of the most personal and powerful pitches Don delivers. It comes at a critical turning point in his life as he is yearning to have the family that is projected on the screen and for the first time we get a chance to see him in fragile, yet tender Norman Rockwellian moments. We see images of his wedding day, Don draped over his pregnant wife’s belly, and finally, sharing a New Year’s Eve kiss.
Technology is a glittering lure. But there is the rare occasion when the public can be engaged on a level beyond flash, if they have a sentimental bond with the product. Nostalgia. It’s delicate, but potent.
Home ownership has long been part of the American Dream. In recent years some of that allure has been lost. We have the crash of 2008 to hold responsible. Many buyers are slower to move, their lives hanging in the balance, and unsure if buying a home is the right thing to do. Shall they get on ‘the Carousel’ or not?
The circumstances of the market may change, interest rates may go up and down, but the fundamental foundation of home ownership endures and when selling a home to this audience there is nothing wrong with pulling a heart string or two. Memories are made in homes and maybe your home could provide those memories for a new buyer. Isn’t that what we envision them doing when they move in anyway?
Yes, the home has a kitchen with stainless steel appliances, but why not paint a picture of what great events can happen in the nerve center of the home? The backyard might have water tolerant landscaping but how many imaginary Super Bowl winning touchdown passes will be thrown on the newly laid artificial turf?
It isn’t manipulation, but rather providing motivation and inspiration of what your home could provide that has little to do with square footage. Yes there are numbers involved and they have to work, but that isn’t why people buy homes.
With every home I get the opportunity to sell I tap into that nostalgia, creating a deeper bond, and it is then, and only then, can a home purchase be made.
Make It Simple, But Significant
Yes, Don was ordering a drink when he uttered these words, but I apply them to every marketing campaign I present to the real estate world. There are so many gems like this throughout the show that can’t help but make me think that the creators of Mad Men purposely used the show as an opportunity to teach just as much as it has entertained. I sure hope you found this entertaining as well.
Should you want a pitch of your own on how I can help you sell your home faster than you can say ‘Zou Bisou Bisou‘, please contact me.
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