Listen to the band:

Entrepreneur, June, 1999 by Sam Hill, Glenn Rifkin

Greg Burbank, for example, was a 21-year-old college dropout selling stickers and tie-dyed T-shirts in the parking lot of Grateful Dead concerts in the mid-1980s. One night, he and his partner got a tap on the shoulder from a Dead crew member, who asked them to come in and talk to representatives for the band. "Rather than suing us for trademark infringement, they brought us on board," Burbank remembers.

Today Liquid Blue, Burbank's company in Lincoln, Rhode Island, is one of the largest licensees of Grateful Dead merchandise in the country. The company sells around $4 million worth of Grateful Dead paraphernalia to retail outlets each year. "The Grateful Dead always put out quality products," says Burbank. "Their emphasis was always on putting on the best show and the best products. The band was uncompromising that the quality of the merchandise match the quality of the music."

Under Peter McQuaid's direction, Grateful Dead Merchandising has soared. Its quarterly catalog and fan newsletter not only bring the Dead's brand to hundreds of thousands of Deadheads but provide a regular, uninterrupted connection between the band and its customers. Although a few aging hippies have complained, most Deadheads see no conflict between the band's counterculture roots and the commercialism of its merchandising. The Dead found a way to sell without appearing to sell out.

"I WILL SURVIVE"

Like other great radical marketers, the Dead is simply reinventing itself. Grateful Dead Records is creating and distributing its own CDs; the Dead can offer these CDs at better prices and realize higher profits. The goodwill generated by the Dead and their organization has brought other musicians to them seeking the very expertise in brand development that the band has acquired over 30 years of dedicated hard work.

While he was still alive, Garcia, a noted artist, began extending his own personal brand by selling expensive ties adorned with his artwork. His ties became the most popular neckwear in the United States; even the president was reportedly seen wearing one. A successful new line of Grateful Dead ties not associated with the Jerry Garcia ties, along with other silk loungewear, shoes and boxer shorts, have hit the stores. "T-shirts will be important, but they won't be the backbone anymore," McQuaid says. "An older, more sophisticated market will emerge, and people in boardrooms will wear Grateful Dead ties that only other Deadheads will recognize. It will be subtle."

In this vein, McQuaid is planning to build the brand into a lifestyle product line for the retail market. He is hoping to sell products like an upscale, tie-dyed set of towels through retail outlets like Nordstrom. Without any reference to the Grateful Dead, these items have great cachet among the band's fans.

McQuaid adds that he is already looking offshore for additional marketing opportunities. Although the Dead toured mostly in the United States, the band has tremendous appeal overseas. "There is huge interest in Japan in the Dead," McQuaid says, "and we expect to find a big market there."