Why was Tina was pushed from the balcony and beaten with a metal pipe?

As Marketeers we must engage with our customers. But when are customers are far more interested in the murder of Tina McIntyre (a fictional character from a TV soap Coronation Street) it is difficult. We want to talk about our product, our customers want to talk about Tina.

Did you know in 1981, over 24 million viewers watched Deirdre's (another character in Coronation street) wedding to Ken Barlow. The ratings were higher than that Prince Charles's marriage to Lady Diana of the same year.

Can you believe that these fictional soap characters have their own wikipedia pages detailing their colourful history. To many of our customers these characters are real.

So how can we enter the conversation with our customers about our products.
One possible way may be to start talking about the big story lines, such a Tina's death or relate your product to a character.

My gut feeling is that the stronger the connection to the character or story line that you make with your product, the greater the impact. Just saying that Tina read a book on pay per click advertising on Google is not going to cut it. We would have to inter weave a story within the existing stories.

Are you up for a bit of fun?
Take a TV soap story or character and post an outline of how you could incorporate your product or service into your customers conversation.


Example #1
Product: Google Pay per click
TV Series: The Simpsons
Headline: How Moe's Tavern survived Homers allergic beer, and how this is effecting the survival of every bar in the USA.

Storyline
Moe's Tavern was in trouble. It all started with Homer wining the Springfield lottery and then setting up his own micro brewery at home. Duff beer sales suffer as Homer gives his beer away free, nobody drinks in Moe's anymore. Homer had bought some genetically modified hops in which to make his beer with. After a few days everybody in Springfield has bright green spots and now is allergic to beer. So how did Moe's tavern survive? Blah Blah

Example #2:
Product: Masterteams
TV Series : The Big Bang Theory
Headline: How The Big Bang Theory's Penny beat Sheldon in a physics prize, and how anybody with no experience can out perform geniuses.

Storyline
Penny (a waitress) needs to show Sheldon (a physicist with an IQ of 187) that she is as good as him. In a drunken argument, Penny says she will beat Sheldon in this years physics prize. They both agrees to the bet, who ever wins will be the other person's servant for a month.
Next morning she regrets her rash actions, thinking how on earth can she win this. Until Leonard introduces her to the concept of Masterteams, working as a group on common journey. Blah Blah

As I said this is a bit of fun, but with the aim it may help you think of ideas to enter more conversations with your customer. Post your product and story ideas below.