Okay, this would have to be one of the coolest business book titles ever: MARKETING LESSONS FROM THE GRATEFUL DEAD.
The concept is also interesting - authors David Meerman Scott and Brian Halligan draw parallels between the way the iconic rock band the Grateful Dead operated in the 60s (and 70s, 80s and 90s) and how successful businesses market their brands in today's hyper-connected environment.
Following is an excerpt of a post I wrote for the SWEAT EQUITY blog:
Firstly, I really enjoyed the book. It was a quick read and the book itself is small, compact and well designed.
The concept is pretty cool, especially for a business book. The title outlines the premise perfectly and is exactly what you get - marketing lessons from the Grateful Dead, a major-league band that became highly successful over a long period of time despite breaking many of the so-called 'rules' of the music industry.
My concern prior to reading was the authors might have tried retrofitting the content into the concept they had developed. Luckily, that wasn't the case and the lessons flow effortlessly.
Crucially, the book works perfectly for today's hyper-connected marketplace in which technology has levelled the playing field and consumers are rejecting the hard sales pitch.
Marketing today is less about broadcast advertising and more about sparking two-way conversation about your brand; it's less about incessantly trying to win over new customers but rather looking after the ones you've got and building a community of loyal fans from a solid base.
And this is exactly what the Grateful Dead was all about.
Click HERE for the full review on SWEAT EQUITY.
Summing up, if you're after a business book that brings to life an 'alternative view' of brand marketing (albeit using lessons from a bunch of hippies versus an accredited MBA curriculum), then you could do worse than check out 'Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead'.
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