Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Positioning Playboy 1989
Positioning Playboy 1989
The process that defines a brand for consumer recognition and acceptance.
• 7-Up created a new slot called the un-cola. Being what nothing else was,
gave 7-Up identity and direction.
• Sprite created a whole new fruit to develop their positioning. They're the
only soft drink with Lymon--a marketable difference, even if it's entirely
manufactured.
• MTV uses the positioning statement "MTV vs. normal TV," and
Nickelodeon uses "us vs. them" ("us kids vs. adult world"). In these
instances, the positioning statement isn't advertising. It is used to measure
decisions about everything including advertising, on-air promotion,
contesting, programming, casting, licensing, even staffing and acceptance of
paid advertising.
GQ owns fashion.
High-quality.
Braphically excellent.
Well-defined.
A lifestyle magazine.
Full of sex.
UNKIND WORDS PEOPLE USE TO DESCRIBE PLAYBOY
MAGAZINE
Air-brushed. (Unreal)
The girls in it are bimbos, the guys who read it are jerks.
"Lifestyle" -- whose?
Playboy serves such a wide constituency,
with so many different aspirational needs,
there are bound to be pieces that don't fit any individual.
"Sexist" -- where do the advisor's answers fit in, which advocate nothing but
considerate, consentual, romantic practice?
How does Candice Bergen or even Morgan Fairchild fit in?
How does it fit in that thousands of women fight to be in there?
"Sinful" -- how does it fit in that so many people who want to be good have
attitudes so similar to the attitudes of the Playboy Philosophy?
• All the "front of the book stuff" (books, movies, records, videos,
a woman's column, a sports column)
• Playboy advisor (techniques, practices, video taping, wine, cameras)
• An expose of Donald Wildmon's dark side
• News about art and censorship, other first amendment issues,
bathing suits, police-brutality and more, plus reader response.
• AIDS column
• A really deep discussion of the Playboy attitude toward sex and
feminism through response to Erica Jong.
• Fashion forecast
• Keith Richards interview (literate, informed, not middle brow)
• College Women talking about sex (informative, valuative, not
titillating or entertaining)
• A beautiful naked woman
• A college fiction writer (winner of contest) and illustration winners
• Products
• Another beautiful naked woman
• Jokes
• Article by guy who wrote Animal House, revealing its demented
source and the joy in it (and, incidentally, filled with facts)
• Football preview
• Beautiful naked woman (barber)
• Fiction
• Article about fine cigars
• Beautiful naked women
• Interview with Geena Davis
• Cool sneakers
• Gossip (grapevine)
• Potpourri (more products)
• (plus cartoons and ads)
The Playboy attitude about sex is, it's natural. It's beautiful,
consenting pleasure. It's something you can learn to do better
from advice and exposure to others' experiences.
And in a mature male's world,
it is not the only thing that's important.
PLAYBOY PROPERLY READ
The Playboy attitude about men's service is, buy the best.
Look your best. At least, know about the best.
Try something new. It's aspirational.
It encourages experimentation and analysis.
Because in a mature male's world,
attention is paid to style and good grooming.
Having flair and character are important,
but having it is not the only thing.
PLAYBOY PROPERLY READ
PLAYBOY TAPES
Centerfold
"Calendar"
Massage
Fantasies
Bedtime Stores ("for couples")
Girls of Rock and Roll
Party Jokes
Dorothy Stratten
THEATRICAL FEATURES
Angel Heart
Bolero
About Last Night
Working Girls
Emmanuelle in Soho
Body Heat
OTHER
Videos that appeal to all the affairs of man's heart and mind.
EXISTING LICENSED PRODUCTS
Lingerie
Body Tatoos
Enchanted Evening Board Game
Water-powered lighted shower head
Fake fur throws
Satin sheets
Nugget (and other) watches [Sport, rhinestone, moon]
Zirconia
Bracelets, key earrings, rabbithead 14k gold
Personalized cover
Leather jackets
T-shirts (celeb) and sports
"Bar"Noculars
Moonies
Queen of Heart Sweatshirts
Black leather jacket (on sale!)
IN THE CATALOG:
Pest Raider II
(complete with drawing of fleeing mouse in suspenders!)
Dog Dazer
(illustration style incompatible with fleeing mouse)
IN THE MAGAZINE:
Vespa scooters
Would allow leopard print bikinis and Queen of Hearts sweats only
if terrific-looking, useful sports fashions followed
-- in fashion, Playboy image, appeals to women.
Video Centerfolds
Phone Sex Girls Australia
Romantic Massage
The Sensuous Nurse
Electric Blue
Ribald Classics
Lingerie
Erotica
And on and on --
plus, "A Night Full of Rain," -- stars Candice Bergen!
MOVIE BUSINESS
Body Heat
Terminator
About Last Night
When Harry Met Sally
Bolero
(Romance Novels)
Call Girls
Malibu Beach Girls
A Playboy Database
Women as an audience
Cable channel
Videos
Flats
The End.