President of the Nashville office of Dalton Agency, Jeff is a former journalist with 30+ years of experience as a PR professional.
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I recently re-watched the movie Dirty Harry, and everything became clear to me—as clear as everything is to Harry Callahan. Never wavering and always sneering at less worthy beings, inspector Callahan is never unsure about anything—other than whether he shot five or six times in the excitement of a gun fight. (I am referring, of course, to the famous scene in the movie in which Harry points his .44 Magnum, “the most powerful handgun in the world,” at a wounded criminal who is reaching for his gun after a shootout and Harry states that he is unsure whether there is a bullet left in his gun, asking the criminal, “Do ya feel lucky, punk?”)
Seeing this rock-hard, comic consistency of Clint Eastwood’s character and realizing that it is foundational to the movie, I also realized that Harry Callahan is an American archetype and, therefore, a market segment.
To someone who is a member of the Dirty Harry market segment, things are pretty clear-cut. He knows right from wrong, up from down, in from out and when he sees a problem, he’s on it. He’s a man of action, or at least that’s how he sees himself. And he thinks he is pretty street smart, able to read people well and size up a situation. He doesn’t have a big ego (or so he thinks) and although he’s not a big church-goer, he generally stands up for values like kindness, honesty and personal responsibility.
The Dirty Harry archetype describes a segment of the American market, and it’s likely that the people who comprise this vast swath are key customers for several companies. Boats, Jeeps, beer and pizza come to mind, for starters.
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Below I’ve listed some key attributes of this archetype and how marketers might appeal to people who share them:
Attribute: Clear Values
The Dirty Harry archetype exhibits values that are clear, consistently stated and quickly acted upon. Harry instinctively knows who the bad guy is (just as he quickly smells out a poser in the police department or a loser on the street), and he is clear about why they deserve the hell he is about to deal. And justice is swift—when Dirty Harry gets you in his sights, he does not hesitate.
• Action: To connect your product or service with someone who exhibits this attribute, present a clearly defined, easy-to-see benefit. There are no grays to Dirty Harry. Boldly state the benefits you offer without artifice or embellishment. For instance, put enormous tires on an off-road Jeep. Or provide clearly labeled calorie content on light beer.
Attributes: A Ulysses-like Guile & Bravery Without Bravado
A second Dirty Harry attribute is Ulysses-like guile. Behind the hard-edged, stoic exterior is an agile mind that can quickly turn the tables on a bad guy with trickery. And Harry always wins because he doesn’t care if he loses; he is flippantly indifferent to everyone and everything.
A third Dirty Harry attribute is bravery without bravado. Whether shooting alone or blazing away on the streets of San Francisco, Harry never showed off when he was shooting it out with a bad guy; it was just business that had to be done, like taking out the trash.
• Action: To connect with these two attributes, don’t try too hard to be noticed. This is a hard one, of course, because being noticed is essential to the success of any venture. The key is to be obvious but not overly flashy. The packaging on your frozen pizza box can be really plain but should be plain enough that it stands out from the glare of the competition’s packaging.
Attributes: Nontraditional Honor & Corniness
A fourth Dirty Harry attribute is nontraditional honor. You would never find Harry in a social register or decked out with medals, but you’ll also never find him shirking responsibility or using good people wrongly—he honors age-old standards of conduct.
A fifth Dirty Harry attribute is being corny and unsubtle. Any movie that is at least 50 years old, as Dirty Harry is, is automatically corny to us because we know all the jokes—and some of them really stand out.
• Action: To connect to these two attributes, be corny and daring. Weave “mom and dad” or “working at the office” into your marketing. Find ways to subtly work discredited concepts like masculinity or duty and honor into your messaging. Try not to be “with it.” For example, in an ad about a sports car, you could mention that it makes late-night trips to the office a whole lot faster. Because nobody “with it” works after hours and certainly not in an office.
This is the Dirty Harry playbook. But this approach of personifying a brand as a movie character can work with most brands. Once you’ve decided on the character, break that character down to his or her fundamental drives and imagine how your product or service could appeal to and satisfy those unique traits.
Is your brand about a great journey like The Wizard of Oz? Or a saga of long service, wisdom and deep family feelings like Gone with the Wind? Or maybe your brand is Han Solo, ready to take on any challenge to save the day. Look for the unique personality of your brand in the movies, and when you find the right character, you’ll have a fully fleshed persona upon which you can drape marketing concepts to try them on for size.
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Author: Jeff Bradford, Forbes Councils Member
