Smarter in :60 * Marketers, Liars, Music, Stories and Seth Godin

HARLEM, MANHATTAN: I’ve just had a revelation! And it came from a book about liars (sorry, storytellers).

Mark Hermann: Voted Intergalactic Marketing Genius 3 Years Running!

I was given an assignment a little while ago by long-time New Yorker (now a man of no worldly address in particular), Derek Sivers, the founder of CD Baby. First, I was to read a five-book collection by renowned author/speaker/Squidoo founder, Seth Godin, who many also credit with the modern concept of permission-based marketing.

From there, the assignment was to see how one could apply his cutting-edge marketing concepts to the career of a working musician or artist actively promoting their music today. The book title referred to above – “All Marketers Are Liars” — stands out to me as the rock star, the ‘Aha!’ that made all the other ones make sense.

In a nutshell, my revelation was this: Whatever it is you make or do — let’s say in this case music — it’s not what you’re selling that people want to buy. They want to believe in a story. If you are doing something that really matters, tell a story that resonates with people to the point where they need to share it. Be authentic that your story can become true. What does that last part mean…become true? It means that people believe what they want to believe and often it’s not the facts that make the story believable.

The example I loved from this book was the story of the famous glass maker, George Riedel (maybe you’ve clinked one of his glasses at Terroir or Smoke?).  His philosophy is that there is a perfect shape- and-sized glass for every beverage that will absolutely deliver that beverage’s “message.” Everything simply tastes better in a Riedel glass.

Every employee at Riedel believes this implicitly. In fact, the number one wine critic in the world, Robert Parker, has so endorsed them, stating that “the effect from a Riedel glass on fine wine is profound.” And so Reidel prospers. They are the finest beverage glassmaker in the world. And they are liars.

Double blind scientific tests, where one could not know the shape of the glass proved absolutely that there was zero difference between glasses: none. And guess what? Nobody cares. They’ve bought the story. It makes them feel good to drink from Riedel glasses and they’re sticking with their story.

So why on Earth would you need to tell a story about your music? It speaks for itself, right? Stands on its own merit.  All the other stuff, you know, trying to promote it? Getting anyone to even take notice of it? The marketing??? Uggh! Why do we have to do it? We shouldn’t have to because we’re musicians, artists, producers, engineers, music supervisors. We make music. We’re artistes! We’re cool.

That marketing stuff is for those other folks; the suits on Madison Avenue (the Mad Men); the ones who would claw each others’ eyeballs out to say they came up with the ‘Can you hear me now?’ Verizon campaign.

Well, guess what? Whether you like it or not, if you have a product or a service to sell, you’re a marketer. And if you’re going to be a marketer, you better have a really compelling story to sell (tell).

Reading this book made me stop and think about how much time, over the course of my career, I’ve spent in the trenches trying to hone my craft and create great music and how little time I’ve spent actually telling my story. For example, people may not really care so much if I announce tonight that I’m putting up my cool new bottleneck slide blues, available on iTunes, that might remind them a bit of classic Allman Brothers number, though they’re not quite sure why. But what if I told them a great story first?

Maybe it’s a YouTube video where I sit down with a guitar and slide and recount the time when I was out on the road with Joe Walsh and we pulled into town to play The Beacon Theatre, staying at the once legendary rock ‘n roll hotel, The Mayflower (which has since been torn down and replaced by the new premiere New York address; 15 Central Park West). Joe heard me from the hallway jamming on my slide in my hotel room before the show and barged in. He pulled out his own slide to show me the secret to the ‘Joe Walsh’ sound.  He told me “Always come up just a bit short on the note, man.” (meaning flat)

Seth Sez: The story's the THING

And he proceeded to play me the classic opening lick from “Rocky Mountain Way”. He said he learned that trick from Duane Allman. Aha! Then, in that video, I might play an example of this technique on the guitar. Wouldn’t that be a much cooler way to explain why it reminds people of the Allman Brothers? (Hmm, I think I’ll do just that). But that’s just one part of the story.

A key element one learns from reading this book is that not only is it important to tell a great story but you have to tell it to a group that shares your world view.

Maybe, in this last example, that would be people who love the blues. Perhaps that’s too broad. Maybe it’s a narrower niche; people who love bottleneck blues. Or maybe even more refined; fans of blues legend, Elmore James and his descendents, a category that both Joe Walsh and Duane Allman would share. Find the right group and your story gets spread. Tell your story to the wrong group and it goes nowhere, no matter how good you think it is.

Did I ever tell you the story about how I knew David Koresh? Remember the guy back in the Nineties who was the Heavy Metal Messiah from Waco, Texas whose flock sadly died in flames after a botched rescue attempt from the ATF? Yeah, it’s true (but that’s a very long story and maybe you’ll read about it one day when I write my memoirs about my time out in L.A.)

Do I have your attention now? That’s the point. Maybe if you were looking for a producer and interviewing me I might tell you more of the story (it’s colorful). And somehow by osmosis, you might decide to give me the gig and throw away that stack of boring resumes because I captured your imagination and since I know all those big rock guys, I must know what I’m doing, right? It sounds good anyway.

I read recently that there were something like 23 million NEW music websites added to an already crowded and noisy Internet in the spring of last year alone. Do you still think it’s just your new CD of great music that’s going to get you noticed today once you put it up on iTunes or CD Baby, who recently listed some 240 thousand indie artists on their site alone?

C’mon. You can do better than that.

What’s your story?

Peace,

Mark Hermann

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NYC-based producer/artist/engineer/more Mark Hermann spends his life in the professional service of music. He has toured the world with rock legends, produced hit artists, and licensed music for numerous TV/film placements. Hermann also owns a recording studio in a 100-year old Harlem Brownstone. Keep up with him at his homepage.

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