I love a Spanish TV series called Paquita Salas.
If you know me well, this probably isn’t news to you. In fact, there’s a fair chance you’ve called me Paquita at some point.
But who the hell is Paquita?
Well.
Paquita is a character.
And a character with legs.
Talent agent. Questionable methods. Formidable instinct. A relationship with torreznos, those glorious strips of fried pork belly no doctor would ever attempt to defend on nutritional grounds. And enough quotes to keep the philosophy department of a fancy university busy for several semesters.
The fact that people started calling me Paquita was entirely my fault.
I started the joke.
Then I capitalized on it.
Strategy.
Now someone has a really good churro and thinks of me. Someone orders a slightly unnecessary drink as a digestif and thinks of me. A plate of torreznos appears and…
Call me Paquita.
Certain particularly peculiar decisions have even acquired their own grammatical category:
a Paquitada.
The best part is, I don’t even have to be there.
The code travels on its own.
That’s brand, too.
Even if it never makes it into the brandbook.
But Paquita also worked for me.
For quite a long time, I used one of her quotes to close brand presentations.
Serious presentations.
A naming. A repositioning. One of those times when you’ve spent an hour explaining why a company should stop being one thing and have the nerve to become another.
Some people closed with Steve Jobs. Simon Sinek. Seth Godin. Or that quote: “People will forget what you said and what you did, but they’ll never forget how you made them feel.”
Maya Angelou, I think.
I guess she proved her point if I’m not entirely sure.
Anyway, I didn’t close like that.
No fade to black either.
I closed with Paquita Salas.
“Your life is a play. And you are the main character. Don’t let anyone take the leading role away from you.”
And it worked.
Ten times out of ten.
And if you think it was just a punchline, read it again.
People laughed. Obviously.
But that wasn’t why I used it.
After the research, after looking at the competition under a microscope, finding a space and building a position. After sometimes even giving the thing a new name…
The strategy was there.
What was missing was the leap.
Standing at the edge of the pool and deciding whether you’re going in with a cannonball or diving headfirst.
Or taking three steps back and heading for the sun lounger.
Because you can approve a strategy and spend the next twelve months using it to prop up a wobbly table.
You can know exactly where you want to go and still not take a single step in that direction.
And this is where Paquita stopped being a joke.
And perhaps that’s why it worked.
Because after all that strategy, Paquita could do in two lines what I couldn’t do with another twenty slides.
Put someone in front of their own decision.
I don’t know exactly when Paquita stopped being a reference I used in presentations and became a reference for me.
I suppose it doesn’t really matter.
Good ideas have a habit of doing that.
They grow legs.
Call me Paquita.
Lines Aja
Brand Strategist & Verbal Identity Consultant — Las Musas
cultooruido.com