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
Anne – thanks so much for writing about the ideas in our book.
We’ve had a blast working on this. So cool that its possible in today’s world to mix business & pleasure (just like the Grateful Dead did)!
Thanks so much David for visiting!
Agree – it’s fantastic when ‘work’ is our passion.
In addition to the wonderful marketing lessons, I think you and Brian have done much to bring this band’s music to a new generation. Even tho’ I was of the GD generation
my head at the time, was more into Springsteen and Dire Straits. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know the GD’s music – thanks to you both!
Looking forward to your new book too David in November! Thanks again.
Now you need to come over this way and catch a show by one of the bands that the surviving GD members are in and really see what its all about.
Looking forward to it David. Maybe they could play at SxSWi?
sound good.I would like to have a try
very good web sites look forward to some updates tho
Thanks so much Sam for visiting. Posting again shortly!
Best wishes
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