Synopses & Reviews
The grateful dead?Rock Legends, Marketing Pioneers"Demand everything. Expect nothing."
?Bill Kreutzmann, cofounder and drummer, the Grateful Dead
"I miss Jerry. And I wonder . . . is your brand iconic? Why not? Hint: it has nothing whatsoever to do with hemp brownies. Becoming iconic is a choice."
?Seth Godin, author of Linchpin, blogger, Deadhead
"Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead is like a powerful, hard-charging anthem that fills in so many blanks while closing the circle of life. Like the Grateful Dead, Brian and David are transformational visionaries with a keen eye for the second set."
?Bill Walton, basketball legend and Deadhead
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" content, the Dead pioneered many social media and inbound marketing concepts successfully used by businesses across all industries today.
Written by marketing gurus and lifelong Deadheads David Meerman Scott and Brian Halligan, Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead gives you key innovations from the Dead's approach you can apply to your business. Find out how to make your fans equal partners in your jouney, "lose control" to win, create passionate loyalty, and experience the kind of marketing gains that will not fade away!
Review
"Like all the best teachers, this book inspires you to do your own thinking.... I found it enlightening and liberating." (
Financial Times, August 2010)
"...a short but inspiring book which will give every business person pause for thought and some good ideas." (TheBookBag.co.uk, August 2010)
"...fits four decades' worth of guitar solos and weed smoking into the context of recent American marketing." (The Guardian.co.uk, September 2010)
"...there's certainly much to be taken away from this book." (Business Life, October 2010)
"...a well-written and sprightly little book...they may just be on to something." (Management Today, Octobe 2010)
"...offers advice to marketing executives across a broader range of industries." (Director, October 2010)
‘Sex, drugs, rock ‘n roll and ground-breaking marketing communications, what more could you ask?’ (Marketing.ie, April 2011).
Review
"For years, business theorists and corporate strategists have pointed to the Dead's example for insights into perennial issues and emerging challenges. Scott and Halligan focus on one key factor in the band's extraordinary artistic and business success—their iconic and enduring identity, not just as a band but as a brand. The authors' real appreciation for the Dead phenomenon, and their compelling and creative analyses of the Dead's marketing acumen, make this thought-provoking survey mandatory reading."
—Nicholas Meriwether, Grateful Dead Archivist, UC Santa Cruz, and author, All Graceful Instruments: The Contexts of the Grateful Dead Phenomenon and Dead Letters: Essays on the Grateful Dead.
"Demand everything. Expect nothing."
—Bill Kreutzmann, co-founder and drummer, The Grateful Dead
"David and Brian share my deep passion for music and its inspiration in our everyday lives. In Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead, they combine their marketing expertise with a zeal for one of the most successful and iconic bands of all time. They mold two subjects that are seemingly poles apart into one breakthrough book that is as entertaining as it is enlightening."
—Del Breckenfeld, Director, Entertainment Marketing, Fender Musical Instruments Corp. & author of The Cool Factor: Building Your Brand’s Image Through Partnership Marketing
"Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead explores the phenomenon created by the Grateful Dead showcasing the extraordinary power of music and the innovations the Dead developed to connect and bond with their audience."
—Michael Lang, co-creator & Producer of the 1969 Woodstock Music & Art Festival and author The Road to Woodstock
"Halligan and Scott have written one of the most inspired, practical, and unconventional books on the business bookshelf. Want to develop a cult-like following, establish a new category, and do what you love? Scott and Halligan—calling upon their innate marketing savvy and inspired by their passion for the Grateful Dead—show you how."
—Marc Benioff; Chairman & CEO, salesforce.com
"Jerry Garcia and his band were brilliant marketers. They understood that you grow your fan base one fan at a time and they constantly came up with things to energize their base while continuing to build it. As committed fans and talented marketing pros, Brian and David have created a book that is both entertaining and informative."
—Jim Irsay, Owner and CEO, Indianapolis Colts and owner of Jerry Garcia's guitar, Tiger
"Being a 20-year member of the Grateful Dead's extended family, it's safe to say that we never felt like we were being marketed to in any way. The Dead treated us right by reaching out to us and keeping us in the know. Brian Halligan and David Meerman Scott's book Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead is an eye opener with keen observations. Who would have thought so many years ago that there was any plan in place at all?"
—Ken Hays, Big Boss Man, Gathering of the Vibes
"...a well-written and sprightly little book. If you learn these lessons, you will have a better company and you will have a better life..."
—Geoff Travis, Management Today
Synopsis
The Grateful Dead achieved their success through contrarian marketing--doing the exact opposite of what other bands at the time were doing. In the process they pioneered many social media and inbound marketing concepts that businesses across all industries use today.
Synopsis
The Grateful Dead-rock legends, marketing pioneersThe 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" content, the Dead pioneered many social media and inbound marketing concepts successfully used by businesses across all industries today.
Written by marketing gurus and lifelong Deadheads David Meerman Scott and Brian Halligan, Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead gives you key innovations from the Dead's approach you can apply to your business. Find out how to make your fans equal partners in your journey, "lose control" to win, create passionate loyalty, and experience the kind of marketing gains that will not fade away!
About the Author
Brian Halligan has seen the Grateful Dead perform more than 100 times. He is CEO & confounder of HubSpot, a marketing software company that helps businesses transform the way theymarket thier products by "getting found" on the Internet. Brian is also coauthor of
Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs and is an Entrepreneur-In-Residence at MIT. In his spare time, he sits on a few boards of directors, follows his beloved Red Sox, goes to the gym, and is learning to play guitar.
Learn more at www.hubspot.com.
Follow Brian at twitter.com/bhalligan.
Since his first Grateful Dead show when he was a teenager in 1979, David Meerman Scott has seen the band perform over 40 times. David is a marketing strategist and a professional speaker. He is the author of the Business Week bestselling book The New Rules of Marketing & PR and several other books. He speaks at conferences and corporate events around the world. He loves to surf (but isn't very good at it), collects artifacts from the Apollo moon program, and maintains a database, with 308 entries at this writing, of every band he has seen in concert.
He is a graduate of Kenyon College where he listened to a heck of a lot of Grateful Dead in his dorm room.
Learn more at www.webinknow.com.
Follow David at twitter.com/dmscott.
Table of Contents
FOREWORD.
INTRODUCTION.
PART ONE THE BAND.
Chapter 1 Create a Unique Business Model.
Chapter 2 Choose Memorable Brand (and Band) Names.
Chapter 3 Build a Diverse Team.
Chapter 4 Be Yourself.
Chapter 5 Experiment, Experiment, Experiment.
Chapter 6 Embrace Technology.
Chapter 7 Establish a New Category.
PART TWO THE FANS.
Chapter 8 Encourage Eccentricity.
Chapter 9 Bring People on an Odyssey.
Chapter 10 Put Fans in the Front Row.
Chapter 11 Build a Following.
PART THREE THE BUSINESS.
Chapter 12 Cut Out the Middleman.
Chapter 13 Free Your Content.
Chapter 14 Be Spreadable.
Chapter 15 Upgrade to Premium.
Chapter 16 Loosen Up Your Brand.
Chapter 17 Partner with Entrepreneurs.
Chapter 18 Give Back.
Chapter 19 Do What You Love.
Acknowledgments.
"Furthur" Reading.
About the Photographs.
About the Illustrations.
About the Authors.