Princess Diaries is one of those films that shaped
generations.
We all loved watching the escapades of a young Mia Thermopolis as she is finding out about her place in the Genovian royal family.
The film is ripe with knowledge and wisdom that we all took to heart through the years. Watching the film again with fresh eyes, it is clear that marketing wisdom was buried between the iconic moments as well.
media update's Alrika Möller reveals the marketing advice we can find in Princess Diaries here:
Small things can make a big impact
The makeover scene in the film is one of those moments that we
love way more than we would like to admit.
In the scene, the
magnificent Paolo gives Mia the princess makeover. He plucks her eyebrows, blows out her hair and gives her contact lenses.
Groundbreaking, I know.
None of these changes are particularly invasive or extreme, but the outcome is well, a princess.
The
smallest things made a
massive impact. This is definitely true for
marketing.
We often think about the big campaigns with massive billboards as the ones with the impact, but things like a new Instagram grid design or story during a launch — or the mentions from someone on social media — can make
just as big of an impact.
You don't have to create something new for it to be valuable. Sometimes all you need is to
alter or
build what you have.
What the media says matters!
Mia finds herself as the media's
favourite topic not once but
twice in the film. The first time is when Paolo spilt the beans on her identity, causing everyone to find out that she is in fact
Amelia Mignonette Thermopolis Renaldi, Princess of Genovia.
The second time is when a few not-so-friendly girls decide to ruin her date and make her
front page news during a beach party.
Both times, our favourite queen played by the
ever classy Julie Andrews, knows
exactly how to handle the situation. She knew what they were saying, so she knew how to fix it.
Knowing
what the media is saying about you and your brand will help you address situations that
need addressing. You can create campaigns according to what the public says about you.
This then makes you
be part of the conversation that people are having about your brand in the media, and then change the narrative through marketing.
Monitoring
media and
social media will give you the information you need in order to use marketing as a form of
damage control during
sticky situations, allowing you to knock it out of the park.
Consult experts
While we all
love and adore Mia, we have to admit that she was not the
perfect princess from the start. In her defence, she didn't know she was a princess until she was almost sixteen years old. Her mother, however, was not the
ideal candidate to help her.
Queen Clarisse, Charlotte and even the
very intimidating Joe bands together to teach her the ways of nobility. She learns how to dance, how to sit like a
royal lady and even gets tied to a chair in order to learn how to behave at a formal dinner table.
The lesson from this is: You need the
right people to help you.
There are
many different aspects of marketing and creating a successful marketing campaign, and it is truly impossible for one person to be good at
everything and know
everything.
You need to utilise the
experts in various fields. When it comes to market research, ask an
analyst. Get an
SEO expert to help with the verbiage. Find a
social media expert rather than trusting a novice that barely tweets.
Any bad situation can be saved
The princess of Genovia is not necessarily the most graceful. The truth is that she is a bit of a klutz.
This becomes obvious during a formal dinner at the embassy where she:
- lights a man's sleeve on fire
- gets brain freeze from the sorbet, and
- accidentally shoots grapes across the table, onto the plate of a rather stoic foreign dignitary.
The diplomat along with everyone else starts to laugh and the queen saves the dinner by asking everyone to adjourn for coffee.
If that dinner can be saved,
anything can! As a marketer,
problem-solving is quite a big aspect of your day to day. Every marketing campaign won't be a royal success, some might even fail. This is normal, but the good thing is that it can be saved … Anything can!
Look at the campaign from a customer point of view and break it down into smaller parts. If you find the reason for the failure and address it rather than denying it, you can save a campaign.
Marketing wisdom can be found in the most unlikely of pop culture moments. Have you ever found great marketing advice in a film or series? Let us know in the comment section below.
*Image courtesy of Canva