Music, Mischief And Marketing: A Guerrilla’s Guide For The Creative Protagonist
Nathan Dube
Copyright 2012 by Nathan Dube
Smashwords Edition
Introduction
This book is first and foremost a marketing book, so why “Music, Mischief And Marketing”? Well, at least in regards to marketing; both music and mischief have played an integral part in the manifestation of my career. My work in guerilla marketing has laid the foundation for my success and said marketing technique (at least for me) is all about mischief. Bending or breaking the rules where possible while still achieving the goals of a project either for myself, a client or an employer has been at the heart of what I do in both music and marketing.
Music, while always having been a semi-professional aspect of my life, has fueled my success in marketing. I believe that music is a language that transcends all barriers and is capable of cross-cultural communication more so than any other art. Within my marketing career it has acted as a catalyst for connections with hundreds of professional individuals spanning multiple industries. Furthermore, the ways in which music has taught me to project energy has allowed me to evolve in my abilities to make positive connections with other human beings in ways I never would have, had it not been for the countless opportunities I have had to perform live music in both the settings of a band or in the position of a solo artist. Music has made me a better marketing professional and whether performing or listening, it can do the same for you.
As far as marketing itself is concerned, it was not something I had been passionate about my entire life. Due to an opportunity which presented itself through family I was able to get into an entry level position at a local company near the town where I grew up. It was not love at first sight. It is an art and craft that I had to learn to love. In the first few years I had to undergo experiences that to this day were some of the most miserable hours of my life. Things were so bad that I almost quit, but I didn’t. Once I had learned all that my supervisor had to offer in the art of marketing, I created my own career in social media within my company by asking for it and then proving that I could make it profitable. I used what resources I had, within the situation I was in to invoke my bliss and by doing so I brought forth a true passion for my work that is paralleled only by my love of music.
So, it is both music and mischief that have produced a fruitful career in marketing for me and while each element of music, mischief and marketing are independent arts in their own right, it is the sum of their parts that have made the journey worth pursuing.
I hope that this book inspires you to create, have fun, take risks and chase your bliss with whatever resources you currently have and at whatever point you currently find yourself in this life.
Chapter One
Music, Art And Other Tools
I am willing to bet that for most of you the most poignant and memorable experiences of your life can be drawn from your memory when you hear a certain piece of music. Whether a single lick of guitar from your favorite rock song or melody from one of the
great composers, music has the ability to transport us the moment we hear it. If a piece of music is playing while one of those experiences is happening you can almost guarantee that for the rest of your life, every time you hear it you will be instantly brought back to that time and place.
This power, or this resonance if you will, is pure gold when it comes to marketing. This may not be a huge revelation to you. Now, you might suggest that every major marketing department uses music. To this I would ask, is yours? If you are trying to sell an idea or a product, no matter how mundane or boring you may think it is, music can and will charge whatever that idea or product is with whatever emotion you want.
In the summer of 2011, I spoke at MarketingProfs B2B Forum in Boston where a woman (who was a rather talented and accomplished marketing professional) spoke to the audience about the challenges of marketing a software product to her customer base. The one thing that really stood out to me was her perception of her product and company. She proclaimed something to the effect of “we are not cool, we are not hip, and I am ok with that. I can own that”. I could not help but wonder if she wanted her products and services to be cool and/or hip and if she simply accepted that they were not. Who knows, maybe it really did not bother her at all but the point I am trying to make is, should she have wanted her products and services to be hip (no matter how mundane they actually are) she could in fact make them hip. By utilizing a tool such as music, or any other art form for that matter, she could in fact charge her marketing efforts with said tools and manifest what ever energy she wants into her products and services.
For example, Expert Laser Services (the company I work for) sells managed print services programs and remanufactured toner cartridges in addition to servicing and supplying laser printers and other office equipment. This is probably one of the most boring, un-cool, un-hip products one could possibly be tasked with marketing. Indeed at the onset of my career at Expert Laser Services I experienced 40 years of tunnel vision as yet another casualty of the corporate noose. I felt that I was doomed to the miserable task of selling one of the most boring products on the face of the planet. All this doom and gloom was going to do one of two things to me. Either it would drive me insane or force me to find a way to make it fun and to develop a passion for it. I choose option number two.
In 2009 I approached the president of my company and suggested that we get involved with social media. I also suggested that I should be put in charge of said marketing paradigm. My president is thankfully a younger gentleman closer to my age and is also a musician (thank you, God). While he himself did not see any potential for such an endeavor right off the bat, he did give me the opportunity to do a presentation for the management team. It was a homerun and I was given 6 months to produce some form of ROI whether it be buzz, sales or valuable contacts and new business relationships. Some of those in attendance expected little to nothing to come from this little experiment that the boss had let me delve into.
As soon as I walked out of the conference room I sat down at my desk and started accounts with “the big four”. I opened corporate accounts on Blogger, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Blogger would be the home of the content that I would generate to establish a position of thought leadership in the managed print services industry while Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn would serve as mediums to publish said content.
I wrote a few introductory posts about how to pick the right service provider, what to look for in a repair technician, the total cost of ownership of inkjet printers versus laser printers, and several other essential posts that where necessary but all together boring. There was nothing to separate us from the few other managed print services providers out there who had also made a presence in social media. So what was I to do? How was I able to set us apart from the herd? By grabbing my guitar and rocking out of course!
Let me explain...
While using twitter search to find tweets with keywords pertaining to laser printer repair I stumbled across a curious reference to both laser printer frustrations and the music of Leo Kottke. (See Below)
@AgileRoxy: 1989: Leo Kottke records "Why Can't You Fix My Car?"
2009:
Jim Hutchins cries "Why Can't You Fix My Printer?"
Jim
Hutchins cries "Why Can't You Fix My Printer?" -
Being a Kottke fan, notably of his work with Mike Gordon, I got a
chuckle out of this. Being a musician, I got proactive...
After work that afternoon I rushed home to my humble yet suitable “recording studio” (a Mac mini with Garage Band) and wrote the song "Why Can't You Fix My Printer?". I recorded all the instruments, wrote and sang the lyrics and even made a faux album cover for this “hot new single on the laser printer charts”. Both the album art and song became part of the content of my next blog post. What happened next was the beginning of what has become a successful career in social media.
Within a couple weeks of publishing my “Songs In The Key Of MPS” blog post, I had made connections to at least 10 major figures in the managed print services industry. Even to this day these connections are still providing me with exposure and press that has
solidified my position as a thought leader in the world of managed print services marketing professionals. The humorous and very much so out of the box post was
retweeted and shared along a few different social networks which resulted in even more quality connections to other must-know folks in both the managed print services and marketing industries.
Indeed, most of the content on my blog is about managed print services, laser printers, sales and so on and so forth and yes that is the content that makes me a thought leader but it is not what got peoples attention. It was music.
A humorous piece of reggae infused pop rock was the key to getting my blog noticed in an industry that is about as far away from the music business as you can get.
Why?
Because, the arts are the universal language of mankind and people will respond to it, especially when it is an unexpected aspect in the marketing of a service or product. By utilizing music and/or other forms of art in a place where no one would expect it to arise, you will instantly generate interest at which point you can literally infuse whichever perspective and emotion you want associated with a product or service into said product regardless of what pervious notions about that product may currently be.
So, if your marketing software that does your taxes or cardboard boxes or anything that you may consider to be un-cool or boring and you want another emotion or perspective to become associated with said product then go and make it happen. Perspectives about everything only exist because people accept them. If you want tax services to be accepted as cool or trendy or homegrown or philosophical (or anything else for that matter) then what it is currently perceived to be, you can make it so. One way to do that is to utilize the arts as part of your marketing endeavors.
Now, I am sure that some of you are not convinced. You may think that the above case study is atypical or that the possibility of your own efforts made manifest by your own actions may fail and that there is too much risk involved.
There are a couple things you can do here to put your mind at ease and to reduce the risk of harm. First of all, use your time wisely. If you can’t do something like this on company time then do it on your own time. If you are passionate enough about an idea and you truly believe you can make something work, ask your boss if you can do it on your own time. If he or she says we don’t want anything to do with it then pick another one of your passions outside of your work, create a campaign and build buzz around said passion. Show your boss what you accomplished outside of your company and he or she will think twice about denying you a second time when there is visible ROI on the table.
The corporate power structure and the staunch way that business has been done for centuries is (like everything) going through a major paradigm shift. With the explosion of
social media and the consumption of media shifting to mobile devices people will no longer continue to react to “the way things have always been done” whether your CEO believes it or not.
Getting involved with more creative, organic and human approaches to marketing and sales now will help you to ride the wave of change that is occurring as you read this sentence. People are looking to the social web and many other digital means of connecting with other human beings to make educated choices about the products and services they are going to buy and the way they feel about a product or brand has a huge effect on those choices.
We no longer have to accept the clichés attached to what brand perception should be. If you have a product or service and you know in your heart that you can push it in a way that is not only thinking outside of the box but in fact literally destroying the box while reaching the goals that your company must achieve, then do what you must! As redundant and overly suggested as it is, the old adage of “you can do anything you put your mind to” has never been more true than here and now and the tools and knowledge base that are necessary to succeed have never been more accessible then in this day and age.
As for time, great things can be achieved by chipping away at a goal in small steps. That is one reason I became involved in blogging. Every post serves as a step in the direction of which you focus. By focusing your energy and intent on one goal and seeing each post as one step along the path, it is only a matter of time before you encounter others who can serve as both an opportunity to gain an audience as well as an opportunity to help a fellow human being on their journey. I would say that whether you choose a blog or some other medium for consistent content generation, as long as you stay focused and move forward one step at a time, you will find success.
I would suggest that while generating content; or rather while “taking steps”, to be yourself and to be creative. Whatever your strengths are, they can be used as creative catalysts in each step of the journey. Do what you want and don’t be afraid if your “not good” at something. Whether its art, music, politics, speeches, sports, reading, writing, etc. it can be anything you want and it can serve as a conduit for generating passion in yourself and others.
There is something that you are either talented at or love (and talent is not even necessary because if you love something you can still use it as a tool) that can be used to generate energy that others will respond to. Wherever you are right now there is something in your situation which you can use to get you to where you want to be in regards to marketing (or anything else for that matter). You are the only force limiting yourself.
Chances are there is something on your desk or your couch or near you in the very room or space in which you currently occupy that can be used as the basis for a conversation,
an essay, a blog post etc., each of which are incredibly powerful tools that you can use to generate content of which will resonate with those who share an interest.
If you want to reach out to people and explain how great your cardboard boxes are but don’t want to talk about cardboard boxes, then find a topic you love and use it as a metaphor to describe cardboard boxes. By doing this you are effectively changing the perspective and or the perceived emotions surrounding cardboard boxes and making them as attractive as the aforementioned metaphorical topic.
This is how you infuse the feelings you want your audience to have about your products, into your products. If you or your customer base is not passionate about something, you