Last year I had the opportunity to visit an Iron Maiden gig at Bangalore. So interested was I that I flew all the way down from Calcutta to witness the historic gig in India. I was spelled bound by the amount of fan following this classic band have even in India. The crowd was mad, banging, and screamed at each pitch of the band. I thought if the same sort of "fan following" is possible in business ventures for creating successful brands and products. It was more interesting for me as the start-up I work for, iViZ, is on the way of creating path breaking technology of doing security assessment. Until recently I read a write-up by Roger Blackwell about the rock and industry which ignited the thought of correlating the successes of rock n roll industry with successful brand and products.
Think of what happens when U2, the Rolling Stones, Janet Jackson, or Pink Floyd enters the stage in front of a crowd of 50,000. People scream as a band member walks toward their side of the arena, they cheer at the opening riffs of their favorite tunes, they belt out the words to most of the songs, and they dance, jump, and rock for hours. The power of music is undeniable; the loyalty showered upon those who create it, unmatched; and the lessons for corporate business leaders, boundless. It is difficult to think of any product or industry that evokes more emotional intensity from its followers than rock and roll. Their attitudes and behavior shatter the traditional measures of customer loyalty in terms of reach, quantity, and degree to define outright fanaticism—the ultimate level of devotion a firm can hope to receive from its customers. What is it about music and rock stars that transform people's emotions, behavior, and lives? Enlightened marketers have asked the question, but few have ever bothered to look for the answers. Yet corporate executives sit day after day scratching their heads, looking for insight as to how their brands might inspire even a fraction of such emotional response, loyalty, and commitment. They benchmark the success of others; analyze what promotional and design strategies have worked in the past; and review their advertising and promotional campaigns. And while marketers have been proficient in analyzing how to create successful brands and satisfy customers, most of their strategies mirror those that other businesses have already implemented.
Ok so without emphasizing more on the impact of music, let me try to put forward some phenomenon which we, as business leaders, can adopt and create breakaway brands and products. I attribute some of my views to Roger Blackwell and Tina Stephan to the marvelous work they have done in accumulation of the traits of some of the most successful rock bands in history so far.
Practice reverse customer intimacy. While most of the "wannabe successful" business is focused on CRM programs that help companies understand their customers better, many rock bands find ways to let fans get to know them more intimately. The better fans know a band through special information and personal experiences, the more likely they are to maintain a relationship with it. Aerosmith allows customers to get to know the band more intimately with remote staging and backstage tour packages, helping fans feel that they have a special relationship to the band. When the affective (emotional) components of attitudes toward a brand are firmly anchored in the cognitive (knowledge) components of an attitude, they are highly resistant to change or competitive encroachment.
Keep angel fans engaged. Angel fans discover bands before they become stars, investing time, money and emotion in the success of the band. They take pride in the ultimate success of the band and are rewarded with bragging rights for picking a winning brand. John Mayer, 2003 Grammy winner, tells his angel fans to take tape recorders to his concerts and tape his music, which keeps them engaged in the concert experience and helps them create memories. This actually increases the likelihood that fans will buy the CD, because they will want a good-quality version of what they heard live. Harnessing the support of angel fans is key to the adoption of new products ranging from Google to iPhone.
Involve customers in the brand experience. There is a magical moment in Billy Joel and Elton John's Face to Face concert in which the stars stop singing and let the audience take over. Thousands of people sing the lyrics to "Piano Man" in one collective voice—it is total fan involvement in the John and Joel brands. Similarly, Harley-Davidson fans experience total brand involvement when they tour on their hogs and congregate for weekends with other enthusiasts. Though the company organizes the experiences, it mostly enjoys the ride that goes hand-inhand with owning a brand that becomes a lifestyle.
Develop information and emotional exchanges with customers. Brands and customers should exchange information beyond normal and typical flow like manuals, brochures etc. Brands and fans should go one step further and exchange emotions, from feelings of nostalgia to outright elation, that fans receive from the brand, relay back to it, and convey to others. Web sites, blogs are becoming increasingly important in this area. Whether it's Amazon.com or Madonna.com, fans are more likely to become and remain engaged with a brand when they can communicate with it.
Deliver on Fans' Expectations When fans attend a Rolling Stones or Eagles concert, they expect to hear a string of hits they can sing along with, performed with topnotch sound quality and delivered with high energy. Firms must ask themselves, "Do our products really deliver the attributes customers consider most important?"
Evolve but remain true to your core sound or strength. Bands that stray too far from their core sound often alienate the fans they took so long to acquire. Aerosmith's remake of "Walk This Way" spurred a brand reinvention with the perfect balance of familiarity and newness. Evolution is required if a brand is to stay relevant in the culture, but radical changes in look, feel, brand promise or personality may make the brand so different from what fans expect that it breaks the emotional ties between fan and brand.
Fan retention depends on brand relevance. Famed songwriter and performer Bob Dylan had always played folk music at the acoustic level, but as the Byrds, the Rolling Stones, and the Beatles changed the landscape of music, he ran the risk of being evolved right out of the market. Subsequently, he took folk music electric and contemporized himself. The songs were the same, the words were the same, but the delivery was altered and the relevance enhanced. Fans stuck with Dylan because he evolved to reflect changes that fans seemed to follow among other musicians.
Next time the Rolling Stones, KISS, Elton John, Aerosmith, Madonna, Neil Diamond, Iron Maiden or any other legendary band invades your town, go to the concert. Experience firsthand the emotions you and the thousands of people around you feel, and think about how to capture some of that in your brand, whether that brand is a product or yourself. These bands prove that forging emotional connections with fans and fortifying them over time leads to long-term revenue streams. That requires getting under their skin, into their souls, and connecting to something even fans have a difficult time describing. But they feel it; they know it's there. It's what happens when girlfriends get together and dance around to "Holiday" by Madonna. Or when guys get together and play air guitar to AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long." The emotions are different, the intensity the same. The combination of emotion and intensity creates within people a devotion to the music they love and the bands that create it. It's what keeps classic rockers performing night after night, city after city. It's what keeps people buying new releases of old favorites. It's what brings audiences to their feet, screaming for another encore when the band has already played three.
It's what turns customers into fans.
