Wishing you prosperity and happiness in the year ahead.

Happy New Year!

Buy the Books!

Tom Peters’ The Little Big Things available here; David Meerman Scott‘s Real Time Marketing & PR available here. (The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott is also available here) Seth Godin‘s Linchpin available here.

They're not gone. We're still learning (and enjoying) them. 

(Had to choose this one - from a concert in Denmark)

The Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead is the new book, co-authored by David Meerman Scott and Brian Halligan.

David is the best selling author of several titles including The New Rules of Marketing & PR.

Brian is founder of online service and software provider, HubSpot, and author of the super informative Inbound Marketing.

Both are self confessed Deadheads!

Why The Grateful Dead?

The Grateful Dead did things differently. Their approach included a business model based on live concerts not album sales. (They played over 2,300 live concerts from 1965 – 1995, becoming the most popular touring act in rock history). They built genuine relationships with their fans who formed a dedicated community with whom they collaborated to co-create the ‘Deadhead’ lifestyle. They gave away content – encouraging their fans to record their shows and trade tapes.

In so doing, The Grateful Dead applied many marketing techniques championed in business today.

Here are just three “take aways” :

Create your own landscape: create a unique business model

“Products that are highly differentiated can still succeed today, but it’s much harder to win if your business model is the same as your competitors’. .. research your industry in order to build a killer business model. ..break free from the competitive landscape and create a cascade of unique benefits for your customers.”

Which model can you create that is different to your competitors’ and based on the unique ways that you solve your customers’ problems?

Free up your content

The Grateful Dead were pioneers of the ‘freemium’ model. They encouraged concert goers to record their live shows and even established ‘taper sections’ at the concert venues, where fans could set up their equipment for the best sound quality. A huge network traded tapes and built exposure leading to millions of new fans who purchased tickets to shows.

“The Grateful Dead teach us when we free our content, more people hear about our company and eventually do business with us”

What content would be useful to your customers? Think about blogs, videos, ebooks or white papers. Each piece of content is like a “mini magnet that attracts potential customers to your business”.

One of David’s e-books The New Rules of Viral Marketing has been downloaded more than one million times.

Give back

“When a company carefully chooses a particular charity or cause to support and makes it a part of their corporate culture, continuing the commitment over many years, the accrued benefits to both the brand and the recipient charity can be enormous”.

Read more about the band’s generosity and commitment to causes, and the Ronald McDonald House case study here: <Give back to your community.

How  can you  give back to your community  that are consistent with your brand?

These are just three of the marketing lessons. There are many others – but hopefully we’ve whet your appetite to read more! How will you apply these marketing lessons? We’d love to hear.

Related Posts:

Feel like another The Grateful Dead hit?   See and listen to them here:
Deloitte Social Media Rock Stars

Reading. Not only great for new ideas and innovation but a fantastic excuse to find a brilliant book case. This from Lago, Italy.

I’m sure someone far more notable than me said that!

It has been going around in my head a lot over the last few days, particularly as I spy the growing pile of books by the side of my bed and the increasing number that have been downloaded digitally on the Kindle!

For me, it’s  exciting to have so many new ideas at the ready, to learn and be inspired to try new ways of doing things.

(And, as you can see, reading is also very handy for stimulating new ideas for blog posts as Brian Clark at Copyblogger and Darren Rowse at Problogger testify.)

This week, in our StratEgy newsletter, we mentioned the impact of reading on your Personal Brand Equity (PBE), a term used by Tom Peters, one of the most listened to and inspiring business thinkers of our time, in his 1997 book –  ’The Circle of Innovation’

Exposure to new ideas, learning and the inspiration to actually implement or apply new insights, not only enhances your PBE but also provides your business with new energy and no doubt efficiencies.   Reading strengthens ‘Brand U’ (another Tom Peters term) whether that brand is your own personal brand or that of your business.

So this is what I’m reading at the moment: Six Pixels of Separation by Mitch Joel. Am just loving it. It summarises much information about connection and business, confirms some of what I already know and provides new tips.

In a recent post,  about Social Media Marketing Mitch provides a great reading list .

Seth Godin has been providing great reading lists for some time. Here are a few:

Seth’s Spring Reading List

Another Seth List

Recommended

Many of the books are available in our E Store

So here’s to new ideas, learning and inspiration.

Happy Reading! I’m off to investigate a speed reading course …

Update. Just came across this great review of Rework by Jason Fried and  and David Heinmeier Hanson. Another one for the list!

In Linchpin, we’re again made to think, whilst also being inspired.  If you need any further ‘firing up’ for your activities this year – I recommend getting hold of this book.

The book’s marketing has been interesting.  Seth shared  via his community – rather than the traditional means of book promotions – ie print, radio, tv advertising and publicity.

Judging from the number of people now talking about Linchpin, including the significant number of other marketers and writers who have interviewed Seth,  the ‘New Rules‘ marketing approach has worked.   Linchpin is set to become an instant bestseller.

Linchpin’s  messages  are profound.  From reading and listening to several interview transcripts, the following ideas  personally resonate:

1. Lizard brain – a concept  which  as David Meerman Scott posts,   is at the core of our resistance to do meaningful work.  My understanding:  it’s what holds us back from realizing our potential – doing what we want to do  which might be contrary to the ‘norm’ .  The lizard brain,  according to Seth prevents us from  from being ‘artists’.

2. Seth’s analogy of artists:   Art is the  ’act of bringing humanity and connection to somebody else’  .. not following rules but ‘your gut and soul’. Its about creativity, and boldness to challenge the status quo.  In a recent blog post continuing the theme Seth wrote: ’Art is what we are doing when we do our best work ‘ from Making Art

Here are a couple of the Seth Godin Linchpin interviews.  A full list is here and Seth’s blog post- here. The list doubles as a convenient summary of  great blogs to read.

As the end of the first month of a new year approaches,  I hope you draw inspiration for the remainder of 2010 from this book. Enjoy!

David Meerman Scott interviews Seth Godin from David Meerman Scott on Vimeo.

John Jantsch’s Interview with Seth Godin

Order your copy of Seth’s new book here.

It is difficult to nominate but amongst my favourites are:

‘Make compassion a core value’ Mitch Joel, p33

‘The future belongs to people who can spread ideas’ Guy Kawasaki, p32

‘Or you can earn attention by creating something interesting and valuable and then publishing it online for free’  David Meerman Scott p48

‘Stop waiting around for bosses and companies to get better and and complaining about how you are treated. Build the skills – and use them – that will permit you to create the environment in which you want to live’ Jeffrey Pfeffer, p29

‘Business is a game.  (In) Strategy. Learn to adapt. Adjust your style of play  as the dynamics of the game change.’ Tony Hsieh, p26

‘Sing in your own voice’ Hugh Macleod, p10

‘If not Excellence, what?’  Tom Peters, p20

‘…its usually a small percentage of the tribe within the larger tribe who spread the word. …They are the One Percenters. The One Percenters are often hidden in the crevices of niches but they are the roots of word of mouth. …find them and attract them.’ Jackie Huba & Ben McConnell,  p17

‘Forget about working on your weaknesses -> Focus on supporting your strengths. ‘ Marti Baletta, p22

As Seth says: ‘Things to think about’ .. ‘small things do make a difference’.  You can view the E-Book and download here. (Just click on the link).  Enjoy!  And thanks Seth!

What Matters Now

An early Christmas present for us (Seth Godin’s new book) and an opportunity to assist a worthy cause. Please click on the link :   Acumen

I love Spencer Johnson’s books. They include ‘Who Moved My Cheese’, ‘An A-Mazing Way to Deal with Change’ and ‘The One Minute Manager’ – coauthored with Kenneth Blanchard, and cited as the world’s most popular management method.

From a time management perspective, each book is brief – enabling the gleaning of his wisdom within a short, couple of  hours.  Strategically each book provides many marketing and management gems.

Johnson’s latest is Peaks and Valleys – Making Good and Bad Times Work For You – At Work And In Life. Peaks and Valleys tells a story of a young man who lives unhappily in a valley until he meets an old man who lives on a peak, and it changes his work and life forever. The story traces the young man’s awakening and understanding of the old man’s principles and practical tools in good and bad times to become more calm and successful.

It is a tiny but timely tale and definitely worth the read!

Johnson has perfected the art of successfully ‘taking complex subjects and presenting simple solutions that work’ . More than forty six million of copies  of his books  currently in print world wide are testament to that.