Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead

 As regular readers of this blog know, I am a big fan of David Meerman Scott’s… even more so now that he put an excerpt from “Real Men Don’t Rehearse” in his latest book “Real-time Marketing and PR.”!!

Anyway, his last book was called “Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead.”  Up until now I hadn’t taken much interest . . .  I couldn’t quite relate to it, as I have never actually heard the Grateful Dead.  But when I saw this clip from his appearance on MSNBC:

http://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/topics/innovation/video/american-business-dead-on

Suddenly, I got it.  They’re not really talking about music, they’re talking about marketing and business models, and it really resonated with me and what I try to do in my own marketing.

But for what it’s worth, I would like to add my own little perspective to “Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead.”  Within the clip, David and his co-author talk often about the Grateful Dead having a “different business model.”  I disagree.  In order for them to have a different business model, all the other bands would have to have a business model for the Grateful Dead's model to be different from, and in my opinion, they don't.  Just doing what is traditional and what everyone else is doing is not a business model.  A business model implies that you have a concept and a plan.  Conformity is not a plan, it is obedience.  

Just to give you a for instance, when I was a newly minted young professional bass player, I joined the union.  I waited for the phone to ring.  When it did not ring, I hoped and hoped that it would do so.  When that did not work, I griped like everyone else.  The key phrase here is “like everyone else.”  I did not have a business model.  I was merely conforming to what I saw around me.  A model is a plan and a concept, and if you’re just doing what everyone else has been doing up to now, you don’t have a model or business plan.  

When I finally started to take charge and market myself, I became the target of a fair amount of disdain from all those whose folks whose lives revolved around the dogma of always following instructions and and waiting for the phone to ring.   My actions seemed disloyal to them.  It countered their faith in their system.  But anyway, my point is, it wasn't a different business model, it was the only business model.    

One of the main reasons I wrote “Principles of Applied Stupidity” was to try to get at the heart of the fear that leads to the inaction of conformity.  What makes the Grateful Dead so much more successful than thousands of other rock bands is not the quality of their playing, it’s the courage they have to connect with their audience in a different and unique way.  Yes, they are “smart marketers,” but that’s not the whole story.  They are also brave marketers.  Connecting to customers is not rocket science, but at times it takes some guts to expose your vulnerable self. 

© Justin Locke