Marketing lessons from the Grateful Dead

Crazy week last week, but it was hard to resist the HubSpot webinar, Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead -- at least for me and 800+ other Dead-loving marketers.

Along with loving the music and concerts, I've always thought the Dead's freewheeling, performance-oriented approach represented a great example of American entrepreneurship.

Indeed, long after the vast majority of hit-focused, corporate rock bands had faded from view, the Dead kept on trucking to become one of the top grossing bands of all time despite a distinct lack of mass appeal. No less than the Atlantic magazine recently published an ode to the Dead's business acumen, Management Secrets of the Grateful Dead.

For marketers, the HubSpot webinar, led by certified Deadheads Brian Halligan of HubSpot (100+ shows) and social media writer David Meerman Scott (42 shows), was filled with great examples of how the Dead's success foreshadowed so much of what we're just now taking seriously with the shift to social media. 

For me, here are four key takeaways (leavened by my own experience at 20+ shows over the years):

1. Build an authentic experience, and never mind the critics. The Dead always went their own way with hours-long shows, little attention to rock band or radio format convention, and minimal effort to create hits. Lots of people never liked them, and that was fine. The lesson here is do what feels right, focus on your fans, and forget about trying to be all things to all people. 
2. Give away great content and make it easy to share. The Dead were notorious for actually encouraging their fans to tape their concerts and spread the music around. Far from obsessing over intellectual property, the Dead understood that the more their music spread, the more they could build a fan base and sell tickets to their shows. Once the Web arrived in the mid-90s, they jumped on board to post and broadcast as many shows as possible. The lesson here, of course, is to open up the organization, encourage your experts to connect freely with customers and others, and tear down the registration walls that require detailed business information in exchange for simply downloading a white paper or subscribing to a newsletter. 
3. Embrace new technologies and experiment aggressively. The Dead were also famous for pouring a huge amount of their early money into an enormous, state-of-the-art Wall of Sound that they trucked around the country rather than relying, as did most bands, on whatever sound system was in the venues they played. They constantly tested new sounds, new musical styles, and new media. The lesson here, as social media pundits opine constantly, is push the envelope, accept the inevitability of experiments that fail, and move on to the next.
4. Put your best customers first. Early on, the Dead realized the value of giving extra attention to their top fans with early and special access to tour information, tickets, and recordings. Rather than offer special deals to new prospects, the lesson here is to provide preferential treatment to your best existing customers. Keep them happy with customer councils and forums, executive access, and early warning of new products and services, and they're much more likely to remain loyal, provide useful insight, and spread the word on your behalf. 

Last year, I saw the Dead play in Worcester, MA (my hometown), 14 years after the death of spiritual leader Jerry Garcia. The experience was invigorating, the music was great, and the ethos remained true more than four decades from creation. Inspiring, to say the least.