Grateful Dead as model marketers

BOSTON, July 30 (UPI) -- When looking for a model for a counter-intuitive, but successful, marketing plan, look no further than the Grateful Dead, two U.S. authors have proposed.

In a book titled "Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead," to be released Monday, authors Brian Halligan and David Meerman Scott explain that the rock 'n' roll group that toured incessantly for three decades tripped, pun or no pun, over a marketing strategy that served them well in spite of itself.

The Dead created loyal fans by allowing concert-goers to record live shows, which established a network of grassroots advertising that helped sell concert tickets, The Boston Globe reported Friday.

Their logos moved freely into public domain, creating more loyalty. In the process, they went from being "deliberately anti-commercial to developing into the most profitable touring band in history," said Nicholas Meriwether, curator of the University of California, Santa Cruz Grateful Dead archives.

"Their insight was not to make money but to energize the crowd and spread the music," Halligan said.

The Dead also created their own extensive mailing lists of fans before and through the beginning of the Internet as a venue for promotions. As such, they were early practitioners of the "freemium" model of market.

"They were remarkably on point in terms of connecting with your market," wrote basketball star and noted "Deadhead" Bill Walton on the book's introduction.