While 1960s countercultural jam band pioneers The Grateful Dead do not have an image associated with the traditional business world, they do have much to teach marketers, writes Copyblogger.Following is a brief overview (with some reinterpretation) of four key lessons marketers can learn from The Dead:
1.Give Away the Experience, Sell the Ancillaries: The Grateful Dead allowed, and even encouraged, fans to make bootleg recordings of live concerts, which gave a taste of the unique experience of attending a Grateful Dead show. The widespread distribution of bootlegs greatly increased the number of people interested in attending Dead concerts, as well as buying T-shirts, etc. 2.Obtain a Unique Position: There are many rock bands, but not many rock bands like the Grateful Dead. Even during the heyday of psychedelic music in the 1960s and early 1970s, the Dead’s improvisational sound stuck out and occupied a niche in the market nobody else was serving.
As the band’s late lead guitarist/vocalist Jerry Garcia said, “Grateful Dead Fans are like people who like licorice. Not everyone likes licorice, but the people who like licorice REALLY like licorice.” 3.Create Action and Get Out of the Way: The Grateful Dead did not police what fans did with their bootleg live recordings, even when a thriving black market developed for them. After creating the action of fans recording their shows, the Dead knew they had to let that action take its own course, even at the expense of lost royalties for live recordings.
4.Get the Payoff: Although a number of Grateful Dead offshoot bands exist, the band itself ceased functioning following Garcia’s death in 1995. Yet Grateful Dead recordings and merchandise sell briskly and the band occupies a prominent place in American pop culture. Dead Earn Dedicated Sirius Channel
One sign of the Grateful Dead’s enduring legacy (and marketing savvy) is the Sirius radio channel dedicated to the music of Grateful Dead and its band members. As reported by MediaBuyerPlanner, Grateful Dead Radio, launched in summer 2007, features music spanning the band’s long career, live performances from the band’s own archives, bootleg performances from fans, previously unreleased recordings, and special shows hosted by members of the band.
