Customer Reviews

Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead: What Every Business Can Learn from the Most Iconic Band in History

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This was a weird weekend; by 10:00 AM Friday, I had received a copy of Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead in the mail, and had borrowed a "Fast Read" copy of Jonathan Kellerman's latest Alex Delaware mystery, Deception, at the library.

I read a little of each on the way home. Both books engaged me on the first page, as books by David Meerman Scott and Jonathan Kellerman tend to be. Both quickly "hooked" my interest.

However, faced with the choice of what to read, I finished Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead first. I became engrossed in the back story, or explanation, of the reasons a rock group I had long observed took the steps it did, and how it benefited their career and solidified their position.

It helped that I also resonated with the author's first-hand stories of attending numerous Grateful Dead concerts and visiting the Grateful Dead Archive at the University of California at Santa Cruz. The photographs provided atmosphere, the anecdotes provided story, and the book's tight writing and strong organization contributed to a "high momentum" and fascinating reading experience...a "high-momentum page-turner" that teaches fundamental marketing lessons and values.

Because the ideas come through so clearly, Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead begs the question: "Why doesn't every business act like the Grateful Dead?" Why don't all businesses "Put Fans in the Front Row?" Why don't all businesses "Embrace Technology" and "Cut Out the Middleman?" Why don't all businesses "Bring People on an Odyssey?"

The lessons are obvious, and--most important--they are reinforced with concrete examples of how other other businesses far removed from rock and roll have profited from the same marketing ideas. Sidebars and summaries emphasize the lessons and organize them for easy reference.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I was reading a copy sent by the publisher. BUT, receiving a book doesn't mean you have to read it! I read it because it's a great book, and I ended up sending two copies to long-time clients in Seattle. And, only after I finished Marketing Lessons, did I return to my Jonathan Kellerman mystery.

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.

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'.

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.

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.

There are so many reasons why this book is cool, but I have to be honest and say I love Chapter 8: Encourage Eccentricity and the chapter's whole focus on the fans and marketing.

I love it because it reveals how a company or band or individual can tap into the power of differentiation and eccentricity to make their way in the world. Not only can this bring you success, but it's the right thing to do!

To quote from that chapter, "The Grateful Dead teaches us that we are all eccentric in some ways. Smart companies understand eccentricities and create a market from them."

As Bill Walton says in the foreword of the book, "Like other daring visionaries The Grateful Dead rejected conventional wisdom." We're seeing a tide change in traditional marketing no longer working or even being a player in the online space. It's only the visionaries who will win out and those visionaries know it's only when you tune into the fans that your product or service is going to succeed.

Any marketing lesson that Scott and Halligan share in this book you definitely should tune into.

It's no surprise that a key to innovation is rejecting conventional wisdom. And innovation thrives in many businesses, particularly those in the technology space. But whether in silicon valley or silicon alley, marketing is still largely done in the same way it has for decades. Companies hire PR firms who push out press releases, while marketers post product info to web sites and create factsheets for their sales staff.

Marketers may dabble with new approaches, sticking a toe into the social media space by creating a Facebook fan page or setting up an official Twitter account, but even then most apply old approaches to new platforms. Knowledge is shared through boring white papers which sit behind a registration wall while Twitter accounts push out links to bland press releases or staid marketing messages.

When it comes to breaking the rules of marketing and rejecting conventional wisdom, David Meerman Scott (literally) has written the book. And now, he's joined together with HubSpot CEO Brian Halligan to author a new book, Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead.

In this new book, David and Brian take a look back at how the Dead worked to develop and nurture an active community of fans, then show how to apply many of those same techniques to today's marketing platforms. For example:

Rethink traditional industry assumptions - Rather than focus on record albums as a primary revenue source (with touring to support album sales), the Dead created a business model focused on touring.

Bypass accepted channels and go direct - The Grateful Dead created a mailing list in the early 1970s where they announced tours to fans first. Later,they established their own ticketing office, providing the most loyal fans with the best seats in the house.

The book is a quick read, but packs many tangible examples of how companies are building communities of fans, leveraging social media and bypassing middlemen in order to build their business. Highly recommended.

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.

The book is a very fast and easy read. I enjoyed it. Short paragraphs, well structured.

As for the marketing content part, not many lessons there. The book is a tribute by a couple of deadheads to the band, that's about it. They looked at what the band did and invented a lesson here and there.

If you want to be entertained, read it. If you want to boost your marketing knowledge, pick something else.

This book was very well written. My business life started with The Grateful Dead. Much of their anti business business practices are similar to how we operate at Sunshine Joy. The whole community of Grateful Dead licensee's was one of friendly competition and support of each other. Not too many industries can claim such a helpful approach. Instead of wasting time trying to thwart each other's success we used a community of love to increase each other's successes. Thanks for writing this book Greg Burbank Sunshine Joy.

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