Neil Young’s Marketing Lesson
Seth Godin posted an interesting blog entry today, here it is:
“I’ve been listening to Live at Massey Hall: Neil Young and thinking and even crying a bit. It’s an awfully powerful piece of work.
Two lessons for marketers, one small, the other bigger. First, it’s interesting to note how much more excited and open the crowd is to songs they’ve heard before. Even some of the songs that ended up becoming classics got a tepid reaction because they were unknown at the time.
Second, on songs that aren’t working so well, you will hear Neil try harder, play louder, raise his voice and strain to make an impact. It doesn’t work. At all. It’s what you say, most of the time, not how you say it.”
I think Seth makes a solid point. “It’s what you say, most of the time, not how you say it.” Very true. The art of convincing is an interesting subject. I’ve failed on many occasions. I think I still have a lot to learn.
» Bonus: Check out other posts in the Think category.
POPULAR
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
March 15th, 2007 at 7:24 pm
But I think that’s his point: it is WHAT you say. So there is no “art of convincing.” In his example, it doesn’t matter how hard you push for a song or a belief or whatever, if what you are saying is fundamentally not appealing to those around you, it ain’t gonna fly. So according to this idea, there isn’t anything else you need to learn. You just got to hope that what you are saying has a stickiness factor.
…Which I don’t totally agree with anyway. It is analogous to ads and marketing. How you are selling it is just as important as what you are selling. Or, I could have a professor lecturing about Michael Jackson or X-men but if he were monotone and boring, it would still put me to sleep. On the other hand, I’ve had professors make even neuroanatomy interesting and what they were saying was definitely not as important as his demeanor and enthusiasm. This is especially true when you are addressing young people. You better dress it (a product, a cause, a movie) up in slang words and Lindsay Lohan if you want it to be well-received.
I think Seth made good observations but came to the wrong conclusion. People at concerts want to feel a connection with the artist, and this is done through knowing the words to a song and each slight intonation of a guitar solo (and be able to realize what the artist has changed up live ;o)). They also want to prove their fan-dom by expressing this, and being more responsive when a song they know comes on. If you are hearing a song for only the first (or 3rd or 4th) time, it doesn’t make a difference how passionate the artist sings. I think it is through repetition and exposure, things grow on us.
March 15th, 2007 at 7:27 pm
And by repetition, I mean A LOT of repetition (more than 4 times)
March 15th, 2007 at 11:14 pm
Interesting take… Before I respond, does anyone have other takes on the post?