Comment of the Moment: Social Marketing Lessons from Neil Young

The Comment of the Moment is from Social Marketing Lessons from Neil Young by Anonymous:

Neil is an enigma and has many contradictions ... on one hand I think his greatest marketing strength is that he's in some ways indifferent to the reaction of his fan base ... in other words, he's making the music and the scene that he wants for himself whom ever wants to show up can show up ... its pull marketing vs. push marketing, its organic rather than synthetic and so that type of marketing is hard to replicate, its hard to premeditate that.

Also, he happened to be an archive junky from the beginning but I doubt it was motivated by a marketing agenda ... nor do I think the first, second, or third motivation for the archives is driven by a marketing or commercial motivation. Yes he and his team have mouths to feed and bills to pay but I don't think he funded the archives project for 20 years because its a good marketing ... also, the Bridge School and Farm Aide benefits are great marketing but I also think they are happenstance for him ... they are another expression of his beliefs and they, after the fact, make for good marketing ... the same goes for his association with Pearl Jam in the 90s ... on the other hand, his ditch trilogy would at first blush seem to be the antithesis of good marketing and he's gone through more than a few phases that left some fans (maybe the 4%ers?) feeling left out in the cold.

If I had to summarize the marketing lesson that most strikes me about Neil its: Be Authentic and ironically I think that message contradicts conventional marketing wisdom ...

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