Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead
What Every Business Can Learn from the Most Iconic Band in History
By: David Meerman Scott, Brian Halligan
Published: August 2, 2010
Format: Hardcover, 192 pages
ISBN-10: 0470900520
ISBN-13: 978-0470900529
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
"In the 1960s the Grateful Dead pioneered many social media and inbound marketing concepts that businesses across all industries use today", write well known marketing experts and lifelong Deadheads David Meerman Scott and Brian Halligan in their brilliant and insightful book Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead: What Every Business Can Learn from the Most Iconic Band in History. The authors describe how this iconic, counterculture rock band, without the aid of hit records and massive radio airplay, created one of the most revolutionary and enduring marketing concepts in history.
David Meerman Scott and Brian Halligan (both shown in photo left) understand the power and massive reach of social media marketing. Their book describes how the Grateful Dead created and utilized their "freemium" marketing technique long before anyone had ever heard the term social media. The Dead were, in many unexpected ways, contrarian marketers. While other rock bands and artists forbade the recording of live concerts out of fear of unauthorized "bootleg" tapes undermining their retail album sales, the Grateful Dead embraced amateur recording. They encouraged it. The band set up taping areas where the sound would be most conducive to enhancing sound quality. They encouraged sharing and swapping tapes. Instead of hurting their concert ticket sales, these gifts to their loyal fans were repaid with loyalty, and a fan following that became legendary in the industry.
The Grateful Dead (photo left) were creating customer evangelists, according to David Meerman Scott and Brian Halligan, long before the tactic became standard marketing orthodoxy. The "taper" sessions created fans who marketed the concerts on behalf of the band. Before and after concerts, the Dead kept in constant contact with their fans through a widely read newsletter, sharing stories and concert locations. The band even sold its concert tickets directly to fans, bypassing the ticket sales agencies, assuring their faithful fans the best seats in the house. The Grateful Dead built, what the authors describe as a community. While modern marketers seek to create communities with blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and message boards, the Dead developed their community of Deadheads, as part of the shared concert happening and experience.
For me, the power of the book is how David Meerman Scott and Brian Halligan present so well the time proven marketing techniques used so successfully by the Grateful Dead. From the importance of selecting a memorable name and creating a distinctive and iconic brand, to developing a virtual partnership with their fans, the Dead were extraordinary marketers. At the same time, the band was also very in tune with the needs and desires of its massive and devoted fan bases. The band embraced the latest technology before their competition thought of it, or its potential, keeping Jerry Garcia and company ahead of the pack.
Not content with just being technologically in the lead, the band went one step farther and invented their own musical category. By being the first and only member of that niche category, the Grateful Dead dominated it in the best marketing tradition. The band utilized the long standing concept of giving to get. While many marketers struggle with the idea of giving away products and services, the Grateful Dead turned their "freemium" model into a business and marketing extravaganza. The more the band gave away, the more their loyal Deadheads returned the favor.
I highly recommend the very readable and marketing savvy book Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead: What Every Business Can Learn from the Most Iconic Band in History by Brian Halligan and David Meerman Scott, to anyone who is serious about the massive potential of social and inbound marketing, and how to put the creativity of the iconic Grateful Dead to work in your own business. Music lovers will also enjoy the book as a behind the scenes examination of how a band or any type of business, can become not only a success, but a legend.
Read the entertaining and idea packed book Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead: What Every Business Can Learn from the Most Iconic Band in History by David Meerman Scott and Brian Halligan, and put the power of collaboration with your target market to work for your business. The Grateful Dead created and maintained a decades long community with their dedicated fans. The concepts used by the Dead were based on sharing and giving back to their fans, and for enjoying a shared experience as partners. The result was one of the most zealously devoted fan bases in the history of popular music. The authors encapsulate the ethos of the Grateful Dead very well, and they remain lifelong Deadheads to prove it.
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