Sharon Mui's Blog

AMC’s hit tv show, Mad Men, depicts an advertisement company set in the 1960’s. Clients like Heinz, Cool Whip, and Kodak consult the ad agency, Sterling Cooper Draper Price.

Many of the series episodes contain examples of brand positioning like in episode 11 from season 5, the client in focus is Jaguar automotives. Jaguar is an already well-established car brand, which means they are credible. Their point of parity is that they provide vehicles in different models and colours, similar to other competitors. One employee in the agency describes jaguar as a luxury car and the target market as men who either “[have] a lot of beautiful things…or he thinks the car will help him get them.” He suggests that jaguar is like a woman, a mistress even, that is “good looking, expensive, fast and frankly not practical.” The final pitch is a value proposition: to men who long for unattainable objects, our Jaguar is “at last, something beautiful you can truly own.” This proposition tells consumers that jaguar’s point of difference is its lavishness and not its functionality. Although Mad Men doesn’t exactly provide an accurate depiction of the marketing and advertising process, it has demonstrated successful usage of the value proposition template.