Ideal marketing as an example of the series “Better Call Saul”

Now the second season of the series “Better Call Saul” has ended, and I'm just impressed with how interesting and correct, from the point of view of marketing, the actions of the central character turned out to be. I noted this while watching the first season, and the second only strengthened my impressions.

For those who have not watched the series, in a nutshell I will tell about its plot.

Sol Goodman is one of the central characters in the Breaking Bad series, a cunning and dodgy lawyer who defends all sorts of criminal elements in the series. Last year, a separate project was launched specifically about him, which tells who he was and what he did before the events shown in the series “Breaking Bad”.



In the first season, Saul's name is Jimmy McGill (Saul Goodman is a pseudonym), and he is just beginning his career as a lawyer. Prior to obtaining a lawyer's license, Jimmy worked in the post office at his brother’s law firm, where he studied law at night and, in the end, successfully passed the required exams.

True marketing



At first, Jimmy went to work as a public defender in court, but since they paid extremely little there, and Jimmy wanted more money, he decided to engage in private practice. Having received a significant amount of money for one not-so-legitimate operation, he decided to give an advertisement, and here he made the first serious mistake.

On a huge billboard, he posted his photo, completely copying the image of the owner of the law firm where he worked in the post office, with a logo, one in one copying the logo of this company with the exception of the letters on it. James M. McGill instead of Hamlin, Hamlin and McGill (HHM). He made his look as close as possible to the image of the owner of HHM, for which he bought a very expensive suit, accessories and made an expensive hairstyle.



It is clear why Jimmy decided to copy the image and logo of a well-known law firm - he wanted to take advantage of the reputation of an already well-known brand and get clients who were not very versed in this. Of course, the owner of the HHM was forced to sue and, of course, the judge ruled to dismantle the billboard.

And here Jimmy made a second mistake. Deciding that it was better to squeeze the maximum out of the situation, he resorted to an extraordinary move. First, Jimmy agreed to shoot a news video dedicated to this situation, just during the dismantling work. And when the installer “unexpectedly” fell off the structure and hung on it, Jimmy bravely rushed to save it. Of course, all this was filmed by the camera and, thus, Jimmy got free airtime in the news, as well as the honor and respect of thousands of his countrymen.

Due to attracting serious attention to his person, Jimmy began to receive dozens of calls, however, as it turned out later, he was able to provide only services in the preparation of several wills for very little money. All the other callers turned out to be useless, from the point of view of business, clients, and our main character lost a lot of time and nerves, figuring this out.



Jimmy’s mistake was not that he decided to draw attention to himself in such an unusual way, but that he “hit” too wide an audience, attracting, in the first place, not quite adequate characters.

But now, having suffered with all these clients and realizing that he will not make a career as a successful lawyer, Jimmy suddenly realizes that he is good at working with pensioners and making wills to them. And here is where our character begins to do everything right.

Bingo! Need a will? Call McGill!

Having decided on his target audience, Jimmy began to think where she is represented the most, and went to offer his services there. He chose a bingo club for this purpose (an analogue of our lotto), where retirees mostly gather and became the game host to gain the trust and loyalty of his future customers. He also printed and handed out to everyone participating in the game cards with numbers, where the bottom read “Need a will? Call McGill! ”(Need a testament? Call McGill), and on the sides was his phone number.



Thus, Jimmy gently advertised his services to his target audience exactly where this audience was the most, and where she organically perceived its advertising.

Perfect marketing



In the second season, he again showed his marketing skills when he needed to figure out how to get to his potential customers in a special private boarding house, where he was not allowed to go in person. Jimmy knew that all senior citizens living there were gathering at the TV at a certain time to watch their favorite series. And he decided to give targeted advertising on the channel that they are watching, exactly at the time when this series is on.

Moreover, Jimmy made an advertisement for a reason, and used the simplest and most understandable way for pensioners, taking one of his first clients in the video, for which he made a will. There was nothing superfluous in the video - only an elderly woman with sad eyes and a voice-overs, but the video produced exactly the impression that was needed. Minutes after the ad went to Jimmy Law Firm, a hail of calls rained down, which meant the amazing success of this small but very effective advertising campaign.



In fact, all Jimmy did to get customers was:

1. Decide who his target audience is.
2. Identified places where it happens most often.
3. I sent her an understandable advertising message that fell into her values ​​and needs.

In fact, if every business owner or marketer complied with these simple rules, we would probably live in a completely different world, so it’s always nice to see such simple and elegant marketing decisions in the series.