How the Joker Can Help You Improve Your Market Research and Content

What makes a good superhero movie? Conflict. A story is moving a person from one psychological state to another. Conflict drive that change.

So what makes a good superhero movie? A great villain. Luke Skywalker needed Darth Vader. John Mclane needed Hans Gruber. Batman needed the Joker.

The shortlist of best supervillain performances always include Heath Ledger's award-winning performance in the Dark Knight. He completed steals the show, taking what had primarily been an over-the-top cartoonish character (Cesar Romano, anyone?) into a profoundly psychotic, terrifying individual.

So how does this relate to storytelling and branding? Heath Ledger's method of becoming the Joker reveals a method of market research that many businesses skip when determining how they develop content for their demographics.

A common technique of market research is the creation of the "buyer's persona." 85% of the marketers and companies stated they were using buyer's personas for content marketing and messaging. These are supposed to synthesize segments of a market into a singular representation for content and marketing strategy. We give them names. We aren't targeting young moms with $75,000 and kids for your ivory backscratcher company. We are trying to get "Jill."

"Look, there is a picture of Jill! We have her desires, qualifications, and pain points on a sheet of paper. We even have a picture of her on the walls of our company. We are thinking about Jill! We get Jill! Jill is whom we are talking to in our content."

But you have to ask yourself honestly: Do you know who Jill is?

The danger of buyer's personas is that we take data points and construct a narrative, but we do not understand our audience. A buyer's persona can trick a company or agency into thinking they are producing content for an individual when they thrust their understanding onto the image. The buyer's persona doesn't always tell us about a consumer, but our perceptions about that consumer. The qualitative element creates a false promise. We don't know our consumers as well as we think they do, even when we give them a name.

This could be why a survey on buyer's personas revealed 60% of those that use buyer's personas stated they either did not receive any new insights or received only insights they had previously understood. Only 14% said they achieved a deeper understanding of buyers.

We need to think of a buyer's persona as a part of a process, not the result of understanding our audience.

So what does this have to do with Heath Ledger?

Heath Ledger didn't just read about the Joker. He didn't create a buyer's persona. Heath Ledger tried to make a living breathing person. He locked himself in a hotel for a month, writing a journal as the Joker. He acted on set as the Joker, pulling pranks on cast and crew. He became the Joker.

Does this mean you have to lock yourself up in a motel room, writing a journal as Jill? No, but I assume most of you are already locked up with feelings of dissociation.

What it means is that you need to try to write as your buyer persona. Turn your persona into a personal narrative. Just like any good story, it should focus on the conflict. What is the difficulty Jill has? More importantly, how does Jill express that difficulty?

But that is not enough. Try joining online communities and checking your narrative. Does the vocabulary match? The tone? What is missing? You know need to test these by looking at online communities where your persona communicates and matches your writing.

Or even contribute to the group. Find out how accurate your portrayal is. Then schedule into your content, writing a monthly check to see if the narrative is still authentic. Events, such as holidays or world events, can change how your demographics express their pain points.

This is extremely important for smaller businesses or solo entrepreneurs. If you do not have the resources for extensive data collection for market research or are focusing on a niche demographic, you cannot wait for a failed content strategy.

Yes, this is extra work. But it is better to do to be strategic than reaction. Better to know who you are talking to then think you do. Marketing is just a conversation. Make your conversations meaningful.

Email me with questions on how to improve your market research and brand storytelling [email protected] or connect with me on Linkedin.