Of course, a book with a title like this gives us pause–when we think of marketers, we don’t ordinarily think about Jerry, Phil, Bobby and the rest of the crew.
But that’s one reason why the insights are so profound.
Marketing isn’t hype or hustle or scamming. It’s not spam or manipulation either. We already have words for those things.
Marketing is the generous act of showing up with a true story that helps people get to where they’d like to go.
And the stories are at the heart of what we think of when we consider the Dead. The intentional choices. Choices about fans, tours, records, the radio and most of all, the community. Work that matters for people who care.
While it’s tempting to make every marketing lesson about Apple or Starbucks, it’s the lessons we learn from the Grateful Dead that are most applicable to a typical project. The smallest viable audience, the purple cow, the tribe and the persistence to build an actual brand, not just a logo.
The thing is, these aren’t marketing secrets. They’re marketing choices.
Instead of making average stuff for average people, the Grateful Dead decided to focus on the people who wanted to get on the bus.
The book is highly recommended. You can even listen to music while you’re reading it.
Also worth a read: Lose Your Mind, a useful take on creativity.
PS This is Strategy is 50% off this week.
The most useful definition of quality: It meets spec.
The hard part isn’t putting in enormous effort to somehow beat the spec.
The hard part is setting the spec properly.
If you’re not happy with the change you’re making and the customer experience, change the spec.
And when you meet spec, ship the work.
The worst sort of powerlessness happens when we’re seduced into doing it to ourselves.
It’s almost never exclusively based on logic.
We navigate the world with stories, beliefs and assumptions. And the people you’re trying to persuade have a different set of all three than you do.
“If I were you” is a hard sentence to sell, because you’re not me.
A convincing argument works when the recipient is convinced, not you.
The other day, Tom Cruise gave a long acceptance speech.
But unlike every other speech of its kind, there were no notes. No rambling. No false starts. He did what he always does–he outworked everyone else. It must have taken weeks to write, rehearse and edit this performance. And then he intentionally added a layer of awards-show stiffness to make it seem real.
Beyond this, unlike most speeches of its kind, it’s all about the people in the room, not the winner.
It’s not that different from the extraordinary performance I linked to yesterday, from Dani Daortiz, the world’s greatest living card magician.
Dani practiced 100 hours for every minute of this apparently impromptu performance. And unlike the arrogance used to create tension by many magicians, Dani appears to be just as amazed as the others at the table.
Apparently, there’s always room for someone who is willing to work harder and be kinder than just about everyone else.
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