Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead


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Hardcover
163 pages
ISBN 9780470900529 Published Aug. 2010
John Wiley & Sons
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Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead
What Every Business Can Learn from the Most Iconic Band in History
By David Meerman Scott, Brian Halligan, Bill Walton 

Related Blog Posts
Pete Carroll and the Grateful Dead
Posted Sept. 27, 2010 10:51 a.m. by dylan
In - 800 CEO Read Blog

After leading a train of counter culture, tie-dyed long-hairs around the country for over three decades, the Grateful Dead is now being used to teach valuable lessons in some unlikely places. David Meerman Scott and Brian Halligan released a great book last month with John Wiley and Sons about how the band built its devoted following and the many lessons they offer marketers today. Basketball legend, Dead Head and current NBA announcer Bill Walton wrote in the book's introduction that "Brian and David's newest book, Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead, is like a powerful, hard-charging anthem that fills in so many of the blanks while closing the circle of life all around us." And while I have no idea what that means, the book is truly excellent at distilling exactly what the Grateful Dead did as a band and a business to create such an iconic brand, and how incorporating some of their practices is a great way to gain a following for your own company.

Now, reading through NFL coach Pete Carroll's new book, Win Forever: Live, Work, and Play Like a Champion, I see the following passage:

Growing up outside San Francisco, I was a casual fan of the Grateful Dead. I remember hearing an interview with the late, great guitar player and leader of the band, Jerry Garcia.

I can't remember exactly what question the interviewer asked him, but it was something along the lines of "How do you feel about being possibly the greatest rock-and-roll band of all time?" A classic softball question, but rather than responding with the usual fluff, Jerry said something I'll never forget. "No, man," he answered, ever so relaxed. "That's not how we think of ourselves at all. We don't want to be the best ones doing something—we want to be the only ones doing it."

It's a great quote, and Carroll's book is about much more than the Grateful Dead. Released in July by Portfolio, Win Forever is about Carroll's journey to success as a coach and his larger philosophy of life. And the book comes at an interesting time in his career—the beginning of a new chapter. You see, Carroll recently left behind the wild success he had for nearly a decade at USC for the chance to lead the Seattle Seahawks. This leads to some odd passages in the book where he follows up explanations of his successful approach at USC with a promise to do the same thing in Seattle, such as: "[O]ur staff treated every practice as an individual event in and of itself, and we will do the same thing with the Seahawks." The second to last paragraph of the book takes this talk further, letting us know that he intends to have his new team stand out:

As you watch our organization in Seattle take on new challenges this fall, I want you to watch for specifics. Follow our team during training camp and into our first game and, I hope, into the play-offs You will know how we operate, how we speak, how we train, and how we compete. It won't be magic and it won't change the world, but it will be unique. We will be uniquely us.

So far, so good. They're leading the NFC West with a record of 2-1. It came down to the wire yesterday. San Diego Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers had a few shots at the end zone to tie the game as the clock ticked down, each of which barely missed. So, Carroll won (despite an odd decision not to stop the clock at the end of the first half to kick a field goal). But, as Carroll says often in his book, it's not about winning as much as simply competing, because competing "lasts longer." Or, as Carroll writes in a poem near the end of the book, "Compete to be the greatest you, and that will always be enough and that will be a lifetime!"

In other words, "Keep on Truckin'."



Friday Links
Posted Sept. 3, 2010 11:10 a.m. by dylan
In - 800 CEO Read Blog

➻ Chris Guillabeau's The Art of Non-Conformity will be released on Tuesday—a book I hope everyone reading this blog will pick up. On his blog yesterday, he briefly discussed Seth Godin's departure from traditional publishing before laying out the Strategy, Tactics, and the Plan for the Next 97 Days he has devised for entering the publishing arena that Seth is leaving. And his plan is the only plan that has ever succeeded: think big; work hard. Responding to the notion that “The only authors who sell books anymore are those who have popular blogs,” he writes:

Where does a popular blog come from—does the blog fairy descend from the sky with a passionate group of readers, all eager to support a new writer?

It's a valid question, and we are glad this dedicated, unconventional (indeed, dedicatedly unconventional) individual has taken a step into traditional publishing, and we wish him the best on his Unconventional Book Tour.

If you'd like to learn more before picking up a copy of his book for yourself, you can read the interview Callie Oettinger did with him over at Steven Pressfield Online, or dig into some of his online offerings.

➻ Scott Stratten's UnMarketing also comes out next week, and in true social-media guru fashion, he did a 140-character interview on Twitter with new PR pros. Some advice:

@ssiewert: How can young pros/Gen Y apply their years of personal experience online to achieve business objectives?

@unmarketing: You have the advantage, since you’re already online. Be yourself, have an opinion but also be humble. You don’t know everything yet.

➻ The Bullish on Books blog had a great guest post from our dear friend Erika Andersen today, entitled You’ve Been Laid Off – Now What? She used the space to discuss how, once you declare an intention, or "put up your sail to catch the wind you’re looking for—it makes you available to other winds, as well." And Erika knows. She is one of the best advisers in country and the author of two outstanding books, Growing Great Employees and Being Strategic, the latter of which was recently made into a PBS special (Check your local PBS listings for the airtime, or purchase the DVD at shopPBS.org).

➻ The Economist recently took a look inside The innovation machine, reviewing Vijay Govindarajan & Chris Trimble's book recently released on the topic, The Other Side of Innovation. From the article:

Many would-be innovators deal with the trade-off between efficiency and innovation by rejecting traditional management entirely. They repeat mantras about “breaking all the rules” and “asking for forgiveness rather than permission”. They set up skunk works (small, autonomous units with a remit to innovate) and mock the boring corporate types who write their pay-cheques. But again this is counter-productive. Mocking the corporate establishment only encourages it to starve you of resources.

They also touch on Warren Bennis's Still Surprised: A Memoir of a Life in Leadership briefly, and thought it looks like a great book, I think they did so only to have an excuse to introduce the topic of innovation by writing "Today there is no hotter topic in management theory than 'sperm in the air.'"

➻ Bob Sutton, author of the soon-to-be-released Good Boss, Bad-Boss, wants to know... Is Your Boss A Certified Brasshole? And he has devised a test for you to find out.

➻ Mitch Joel, author of Six Pixels of Separation, writes a twice-monthly column for the Montreal Gazette and Vancouver Sun. His most recent post discussed the 10 Best Books For Back To School Business Reading, and his list is very solid:

I personally think that if you have read all of these books, just go ahead and forgo going back to school and get on out there and start conquering the world.

➻ The 16th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style went on sale this week, but you can get the original edition (1906) for free. Head on over to Papercuts to figure out how.

➻ "In addition to being a bullfighter and magician, he's a lazy river, a slow moving train, a future hall-of-famer playing through the pain, he's a grizzly bear." And his son is a book reviewer.



Rock and Roll and Business
Posted Aug. 2, 2010 5:58 a.m. by jon
In - 800 CEO Read Blog

Last week, I was excited to see a copy of David Meerman Scott's and Brian Halligan's Marketing Lessons From the Grateful Dead: What Every Business Can Learn From The Most Iconic Band In History. I've never been a fan of the band, but have always marveled at the culture surrounding them - truly a unique following, turning each concert into an event beyond just music. In fact, I've attended the parking lot of their concert, but not the actual concert. It was like a festival in itself - clothing vendors, exotic food, and LOTS of characters everywhere you look. Pretty entertaining for not even getting to the actual band or their music.

The book looks not only at the culture phenomena - the people that create the parking lot festival, the bootleg merchandise, the live recordings, etc. - but also the band's relationship and collaboration with all this. In many ways, the group worked to be conductors for all this activity to happen. You want to tape our concerts? We'll set up an area for you to bring in equipment. You want to sell t-shirts with our logo on it? Sure, just pay this small vendor fee. And that's where you really start thinking about the business side of the Grateful Dead. How much does your company work with customers to accommodate their interests, as opposed to telling them what they can't do?

While it's likely the only business book ever that makes reference to LSD, there really is a lot to learn here - and you don't have to be a hippy to see the value in these fundamental lessons of collaboration, sharing, and sustainability.

Another interesting brand is heavily personally detailed in the book I Am Ozzy, the autobiography of Ozzy Osbourne. Not at all a business book, really, but by the end, you understand that "Ozzy" really is a brand - one that boomed incredibly after the hit TV series "The Osbournes" - and one that would have likely collapsed very early on had it not been for the business insight and tenacity of wife/manager Sharon Osbourne. An interesting read, but NOT for the faint-hearted. After listening to his work since around '74, I was consumed all weekend reading story after story about his truly chaotic lifestyle.

Finally, Dave Stewart (Eurythmics) and Mark Simmons have written a book called The Business Playground: Where Creativity and Commerce Collide, another interesting book about turning creative interest into profits based on real-life experience. Contrary to Ozzy's book, this shows a great deal of business insight and strategy, with some great case studies and creativity games that can be used in any small team setting to inspire productive business. It's not just about being clever, or designing things, it's about how to approach and effectively solve problems. Well designed and full of information, this book is a strong round up of my week's worth of reading about rock and roll and business.




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