(NOTE: This post contains some spoilers.)
Slumdog Millionaire is a love story punctuated by the harsh realities of life wrapped up in a game show. While many inspirational and thought-provoking life lessons can be taken from the movie, let’s look at a few marketing lessons based on the characters from the film.
The Game Show Host – The lesson here? Even a smiling, familiar face that appears to be your most trusted friend can have ulterior motives, so be careful what information you exchange or give up. Think about that the next time Bank of America sends you an e-mail "verifying" your account information, and as soon as you begin collecting any user’s personal information or online payments on your website, make sure to safeguard them to the highest standards.
Salim – So… is he evil or not? How can an older brother that leaves your dream girl dangling just beyond an outstretched hand on a train out of the slums, and humiliatingly steals her from you later in the movie, also save you from being blinded for life and help reunite her with you in the end? And so it goes with Google, the company with the motto "Don’t be evil." Wired’s recent article, "The Plot to Kill Google," illustrates how the company is under fire on four fronts: antitrust, net neutrality, radio spectrum and privacy. But tell the truth, if there were only one thing you could have by your side with millions of dollars (or rupees) on the line, wouldn’t it be a laptop with a browser pointed at the all-knowing search engine? You bet it would be.
Latika – Throughout the movie, Jamal has an unwavering focus on Latika. Despite the unstable and ever-changing environment around him, he never loses sight of his ultimate goal. Many marketers would do well to follow that same lead. Whether the goal is driving revenue, increasing unique users, creating more page views or getting more people to subscribe to your blog or podcast, a company that can create a singular focus will benefit from those efficiencies. One day when the phone rings and there’s millions on the line, will you have the answer?
The cops – What did we learn from the police in Slumdog? They’re bullies. They’re bumbling. They’re corrupt. They control the system. Sometimes they’re pure torture to deal with. But in the end, maybe they’re a little misunderstood? On the marketing side, is Brian Roberts of Comcast Cable really "The Dark Lord of Broadband?" An FCC hearing effectively called the folks at Comcast broadband bullies, using their might to exert control over internet traffic. Their missteps in customer service are well-documented, but it seems that with bright spots like "Famous Frank" embracing platforms like Twitter, the company is starting to turn the corner in its effort to pull themselves out of the bottom five in terms of the company reputation.
Jamal – As we saw with the main character, sometimes you get on a roll and everything falls into place. Your marketing plans are thriving as you move from level to level, but be careful about believing your own press clippings. Keep a reality check by phoning a friend (build out your network and work with a mentor), asking the audience (conduct regular site surveys to elicit customer feedback), and using 50/50 (do A/B split testing on your search engine and ad-banner creative). But in the end, don’t be afraid to trust your gut.
3 Examples of Slumdog Millionaire Companies
Now that we’ve seen how Salim and the police can straddle the slumdog / millionaire line in the movie, how does this apply to real life?
Subway Sandwiches
Slumdog move: The $5 Footlong ad is killing me. Do they really think we believe these ruggedly handsome, girl-next-door cute, ethnically diverse co-workers, firefighters and construction workers are singing this song? Do they want us to believe that a high-def camera crew rolled into a Cleveland suburb and found these guys on a construction site just palling around, overcome by fake laughter and unbridled camaraderie around a hoagie? Or do they know we’re in on the act, and are just taunting us with a jingle that will forever resonate in our brains?
Millionaire move: For the love of Pete they’re selling giant footlong sandwiches for only $5! This is fantastic! As Jared told everyone, you really only need a 6-inch turkey sub to stay fit and healthy, so you’re actually getting two halfway decent sandwiches for $2.50 each. Tough to beat that these days. And the fact that you can’t get the song out of your head is music to the ears of the 30,000 franchise owners around the world, and the sign of an effective marketing campaign.
Samsung Millionaire move: I have to say as a tech geek, there are few things closer to my heart than my Samsung 46-inch flatscreen TV. Whether I’m watching the NFL or an Oscar-nominated DVD, it’s simply amazing. After countless hours of research, for me it emerged as the best balance of price and performance (of course, check with Wired’s Gadget Lab guys for official tech reviews).
Slumdog move: Upon the one-year anniversary of my purchase last month, I received a letter from Samsung, urging me to sign up for their Extend Service. For the low price of just $245, I could extend my warranty a year, and for just $590, I’d get three years of coverage. Is there anyone who still doesn’t understand this? Is anyone paying Samsung nearly $600 (just three easy payments of $196.63!) to protect their current TV, when you can now get a bigger, better one for nearly the same price? And doesn’t simply offering this say that you don’t believe in your own product quality? A 2007 Consumer Reports study titled "Why you don’t need an extended warranty" showed that the overall repair rate for flat-panel TVs was only 3 percent, and "even if your LCD or plasma set does need to be repaired, it will probably cost you less than you’re likely to pay for an extended warranty." I’ll stick with the 97 percent odds, thank you.
iFart Mobile
Slumdog move: It’s clear by now that iPhone apps are the new land grab, with anyone and everyone rushing to market to get their piece of gold (although you can download Wired’s iPhone app for free). So I’m sure some of you aren’t surprised that some of the content has resorted to the gutter, where a farting application, iFart Mobile, recently became the No. 1 downloaded paid app on iTunes.
Millionaire move: The problem? I had this idea a few months ago! I told friends that a farting app would be hilarious. Let’s build one! Too late. It was released on December 12, and was reportedly making upwards of $30,000 a day. $30 grand a day! And it’s no surprise why — the economics are simple. Relatively low cost of entry for a developer, low cost of entry for the user (99 cents), with enough people owning an iPhone to scale very quickly. Evidently, I wasn’t the only person that had this idea. I recently counted no less than 97 different apps available after searching "fart" in the app store. So how do you get to No. 1? What it eventually comes down to is marketing. And to be serious, Joel Comm of iFart Mobile has done a great job of it, with press mentions, viral videos, user contests and informative blog entries analyzing Apple’s ranking system.
So what’s my final answer?
In the game of marketing, keep your eye on the prize, surround yourself with the right people, beware of evil, and with the advent of new media technology such as the iTunes app store, suddenly the path from slumdog to millionaire just got a lot easier. —————————————————- The Hopkinson Report is a weekly podcast by Wired Marketing Guy Jim Hopkinson, taking a fresh and funny look at the marketing trends that matter to Wired readers. You can find The Hopkinson Report on iTunes and follow him on Twitter at Twitter.com/Hopkinsonreport.
