Listen to the band:

Entrepreneur, June, 1999 by Sam Hill, Glenn Rifkin

Indeed, the grungy, spontaneous image to some degree belies the genius of the band's business acumen. Decisions were made along the way - from instituting a ceiling on ticket prices to focusing on touring rather than recording - that flew in the face of conventional industry wisdom but had a profound impact on customer devotion and the extension of the brand.

MAKING THE VISCERAL CONNECTION

A brand, most marketers agree, is more than a product - it's a relationship with consumers. Great brands have a single, clear intuitively compelling message or symbol.

For the Grateful Dead, that message was embodied in the music and in the lifestyle and community that developed around the band's ceaseless desire to play that music live and improvisationally. In so doing, the band members owned the marketing function themselves. They never handed it off to a publicity firm or pushed it down into layers of a bureaucratic organization. By getting out with the customers more than any other rock band, the Dead created a visceral connection with their customer base and turned that connection into huge profits.

Like other radical marketers, the Dead started out with few resources and a modest plan. What they had was a product they believed in completely and a passion to share that product - the music - with an audience. The idea that thousands of rock bands come and go and few reach star status was never a concern for the Dead. They just wanted to play. And in so doing, they followed a set of key radical marketing rules that fueled their success.

Love and respect the customer. Respect and love of the customer must be demonstrated consistently as a brand attribute through actions, not lip service. For example, when other rock 'n' roll legends like the Rolling Stones began to accept corporate sponsorship of their tours and raised ticket prices to astronomical levels, the Dead held the line. refused to cede control of their product in any way, and kept ticket prices at a ceiling of $30.

In 1983, to curtail ticket-scalping opportunities and to make sure all its fans had equal access to tickets, the hand set up its own mail-order ticket service. Thus, students willing to sleep out on sidewalks would not be the only ones able to get tickets to concerts.

The focus extended to employees as well. At its zenith, Grateful Dead Productions had more than 80 full-time employees, including a vast road crew that stayed on the payroll even when a tour ended. When the financial rewards began to grow astronomically, the wealth was shared. Like other great radical marketers, the Dead understood the value of employees who shared the enthusiasm for the product and would in effect represent the company to the customers.

The crew earned six-figure salaries, and the Dead was the first rock band to offer generous profit-sharing, retirement and health plans. Well before daycare was a corporate issue, the Dead always had a secure children's play area backstage for the children of crew members and guests.