The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing: Marketing lessons from Grateful Dead
The industry has changed over the past 30 year but yet we can still learn a thing or two from the rock band Grateful Dead. This is a band who appears to have seen the future way back in the 1960’s and early 1970’s, what the dead did do was create a business model that looks surprisingly like the music industry we see today.
Table Of Contents
- Marketing Strategies Revolutionized by the band
1.1 File sharing
1.2 Database Marketing
1.3. Social Causes
1.4.Visual Symbols
1.5.Merchandising - What People those Days Thought About The Band
- Other Bands Who Carry Forth The Death’s Philosophies
- Summary
The Grateful Dead innovate numerous concepts that are even today considered cutting-edge for many brands. Here are a few of those strategies.
1.Marketing Strategies Revolutionized by the band
1. 1File sharing
Almost four decades before Napster, Limewire, Bit torrent and YouTube they encouraged their fans to record their concerts and share them with other fans. The band believed that that it would allow their music to spread viral also this helped to improve their fan base.
“The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing” — Tom Fishburne
The brand even created a special section at their concerts for “tapers” to get the best possible results. To this day, trading and collecting tapes of Grateful Dead concerts is incredibly popular and made even more feasible thanks to the Internet
At that time, the music industry thought this was an insane practice, but the visionary band knew that newly converted fans would be the ones lined up for tickets the next time.
1.2Database Marketing
Grateful Dead was successful in building their own database in 1971 in which they had information of fans of the band. Even in today’s connected world with easy access to e-mails and messaging, some brands are living in the past when it comes to database marketing.
1.3How to build a Database for Marketing?
They started building their database by placing a note inside their Skull and Roses album asking fans to send in their mailing address so that they could keep in touch with the band. This was a simple and powerful way for the band to know their fans and an opportunity for the fans to get closer to the band.
The band was serious about their fan clubs they used to send regular newsletters to the fans and also periodically gifts and sneak peak preview of the music they were working on.
1.4 Social Causes
The band used to send out garbage bags at their shows to lessen the environmental impact. Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir spoke to the United Nations in September 1988 about the harvesting of Rain-forests, and introduced a partnership with the Rain-forests Actions Network to raise money and awareness.
The Grateful Dead popularized the concept of using celebrity status to further important social cause, which is widely followed by celebrities these days, like when Leonardo Dicaprio during the 88th annual Academy Awards, he used his speech to discuss climate change, emphasizing that he saw the direct results of the changing planet while filming “The Revenant”
1.5 Visual Symbols
The band had a series of visual cues that fans could identify with such as the dancing bear, terrapins, jesters etc. Having visual symbols identify us as a member of the community.
1.6Merchandising
While other brands only supplemented their income with tour T-shirts, the Grateful Dead made millions from their brands. Years before brands like KISS made merchandising into a way of life.
The band was a pioneer in protecting their music protecting their intellectual rights. They were among the first artists to retain ownership of their merchandising rights, master tapes and publishing rights.
2.What People those Days Thought About The Band
Fans recording concerts? Insane
Database marketing? Hardly worth the trouble
Social causes? That’s for politicians
Intellectual rights? The record company gets those
Rock star brands don’t play by everyone else’s rules. They do things differently. They understand what matters to their fans and reflect that in how they do business.
There is a road, no simple highway, between the dawn and the dark of night — GRATEFUL DEAD
When you draw your own road map, you risk getting lost.You don’t have the same GPS that others have. Yet b drawing your own road map, you might discover places and routes that others have never seen.
3.Other Bands Who Carry Forth The Death’s Philosophies
Phish
The most widely known and brand got their start doing Grateful Dead covers. They grew into one of the most popular post-Dead jam bands.
Moonalince
Although their musical ties to the Dead are clear, they are probably the best example on how Grateful Dead might be using social media if they were around
RedDog
The band was Dead member Bob Weir’s side project, but became his full time job when Jerry Garcia died
Further
Furthur was a rock band founded in 2009 by former Grateful Dead members Bob Weir and Phil Lesh.
Widespread Panic
The band was formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1986, and is influenced by the Southern rock, blues-rock, progressive rock, funk and hard rock genres. They have been compared to other jam bands such as the Grateful Dead and Phish.
4.Summary
The Grateful Dead is one of the most iconic bands in history. The band found unlikely success by breaking all of the rules that other bands follow. They had a different approach in mind — one that greatly resembles today’s inbound marketing methodology.
They truly understood how to attract an audience, keep their attention, convert them into lifelong fans, and delight them. Rather than selling tickets through Ticketmaster and others as every other band did at the time, they simply sold the tickets directly to their fans hence cutting down the middle man. Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead gives you key innovations from the Dead’s approach that you can apply to your business. Find out how to make your fans equal partners in your journey.
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