Product Description
The Grateful Dead-rock legends, marketing pioneers The Grateful Dead broke almost every rule in the music industry book. They encouraged their fans to record shows and trade tapes; they built a mailing list and sold concert tickets directly to fans; and they built their business model on live concerts, not album sales. By cultivating a dedicated, active community, collaborating with their audience to co-create the Deadhead lifestyle, and giving away “freemium… More >>
David Meerman Scott and Brian Halligan have crafted one of the most original marketing books of 2010. The Grateful Dead were very successful, not just because of their music, but because of how they distributed it, packaged it, and connected with their fans. One of the big takeaway’s that I got was that they let their fans record and share their music for free. This allows them to build their brand and attract a larger fan base. Read this book if you want to be a success, just like the Dead were.
Rating: 5 / 5
No matter what you do in life (small business owner, marketing executive, creative writer, church leader, nonprofiteer, consultant, musician, etc.), you want to share your passions and connect with others like you. That’s what this book is about at it’s most fundamental level.
At some point, we all ask, “How can we get the word out about this?” Which leads many marketers and non-marketers alike to do some very stupid and disrespectful things. It also causes some to “sell out.” Yet, no one can ever accuse the Grateful Dead of selling out. That’s what originally caught my interest with this book. I’ve always wrestled with the question of how to grow a cause/product/service without compromising the values and excitement that gave it life to begin with.
Scott and Halligan’s book, “Marketing Lesssons from the Grateful Dead,” goes after this question with real life examples. The beauty is that, by using the Grateful Dead as their lead model and metaphor, they inspire a spirit of community, innovation and respect that may connect more with values-oriented readers, than profit-driven ones. After all, most of us are not going to be Apple, U2 or the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. We have to succeed in the second or third pocket of the long tail. And that’s what the Dead did: dominate their section of that “tail.”
The Grateful Dead approach to “marketing” is not a profit-centered one. Yet they were profitable. Likewise, the Dead bucked conventional wisdom and success measures. Yet were successful.
This book will cost you less than taking your family to Chick-Fil-A. And the potential return, if you absorb and pursue what you’ll learn, can sustain you, your family and your cause or business
for years to come.
After you read it, come back here and share what you learned with future readers.
Rating: 5 / 5
Grateful Dead was ahead of its time in a lot of things, but arguably pioneered social-media marketing with a lot of practices… giving away free music and charging for concerts is just one example. You don’t need to be a former Dead Head to enjoy this book, but if you know the Dead this book will help you understand social media in a deep relevant way. It’s well written, concise, and draws on some fantastic parallels between what the band did instinctively — and what marketers and executives should consider in 2010 and beyond. Best of all some of the proceeds benefits charity in the name of the band.
Rating: 5 / 5
Whoda thunked that what was once perceived as anti-business-Haight-Ashbury culture has became what is now truly coveted by corporate communicators… direct relationships with our fans, which my shareholder communications niche calls “investors.” The book’s lesson on “Free your Content” resonates deeply in an industry regulated to promote transparency yet ironically struggles with the perceived liability of content control.
From my personal POV, the book reinforces what has always guided my successes: the irrefutable winning strategy of content and creativity.
Go buy the book. I received an advanced copy: it’s a terrific summer Marcom read. Fun, real and actionable.
EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN. What I find to be most amazing is their discovery that what many consultants are ceaselessly blogging and Tweeting about today – labeled as “social media”, transparency and access – The Dead, over four decades ago, instinctively called chillin’ and sharin’.
Rating: 5 / 5
Through their albums, tours, and memorabilia, The Grateful Dead have generated a massive following and hundreds of millions of dollars in sales.
Two people who have studied the group’s unusual business-and-culture-building methods are social media gurus and Deadheads, David Meerman Scott (author of “The New Rules of Marketing & PR” and, full disclosure, my friend and client) and Brian Halligan (CEO of Hubspot).
In the Introduction to “Marketing Lessons From The Grateful Dead,” David and Brian call The Dead “one huge case study in contrarian marketing. Most of the band’s many marketing innovations are based on doing the exact opposite of what other bands (and record labels) are doing at the time.” A few contrarian examples:
* While other bands protected their songs from illegal taping by fans, The Dead set up “taper sections” at their concerts, where fans could openly record music. Later, the fans would share copies with other Deadheads, as well as with people who had never experienced the music before. The pool of Dead fans grew exponentially.
* While other bands saw touring as a money-draining evil that only served to get word out about their albums, The Dead turned the model on its head and built up their live shows into their primary revenue-generating vehicle. Suddenly, the 45s and albums served to promote the shows.
* While other band treated their fans as an undifferentiated mass, The Dead would accommodates the niches in their fan base. For instance, one niche, referred to as “The Spinners,” enjoyed whirling to the music during a concert. Rather than ignoring or having them ejected, The Dead erected speakers in the concourse, so that the Spinners could congregate there and gyrate without restriction.
The book cites forward-thinking strategies like these, distills them down to their essence, shows how companies like Dropbox and Burton Snowboards are using these strategies today, and then teaches readers how they might use these ideas in their own business to build an active following.
I received my copy of the book yesterday, have read it through once, and am psyched for a second reading this weekend.
Some of the strategies I saw, such as planning monthly 19-day marketing “sprints,” were brand new to me, while others, such as creating a unique business model, became new to me when studied though the rousing example of The Grateful Dead.
If you’re at all passionate about your work and ideas, “Marketing Lessons From The Grateful Dead” can help make a deep difference in how you approach getting word out about them to the world. It’s very much a book on how to succeed through building an enthusiastic community around shared meaning.
Rating: 5 / 5