MRI Casino Marketing Blog
Tune Up Your Brand

As anyone in the office would readily attest, I love my analogies and won’t hesitate to slip one into a brainstorm meeting whenever and wherever possible. They provide context to my creative challenges and a convenient springboard into my design work. Creativity and innovative solutions continuously surround us, and as I go about my every day, I find myself thinking of ways to adapt all of that creativity for the benefit of our casino clients. In other words, standing on the shoulders of giants, studying how others have solved problems through a unique perspective, provides me with a far better sense of direction.

I also happen to love Rock and Roll. I have favorites from every era but especially gravitate towards the music I grew up listening to in the’70s and ’80s. There was just something special about those times, and I can never grow tired of hearing stories about those bands and learning everything I possibly can about them. This summer’s beach read for example, is, Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!: The Story of Pop Music from Bill Haley to Beyoncé and, for another pull from my barre chord-driven psyche, AXS TV – a smorgasbord of rock docs, interview shows, and live performances – has virtually eliminated my need for a TV remote.

Suffice it to say, when I came across a book entitled Brand Like A Rock Star that uses parallels between bands – Led Zeppelin, Green Day, and U2 to name a few – and corporate brands like Apple, Starbucks, Harley-Davidson, and Proctor & Gamble to help create marketing nirvana – pun somewhat intended – I had to drop it into my Amazon cart immediately. Whether you’re a diehard music fan, music industry insider, or just someone looking for a marketing edge, author Steve Jones serves up some entertaining behind-the-music stories and expertly threads them through some of the biggest brands in the world.

The book explains how Jimi Hendrix used a vivid, unique experience to help drive his meteoric success, and how Starbucks and Harley Davidson have perfected a similar technique, detailing descriptions of each to provide that context and insight I referenced up top. Other pieces describe how U2 and Japanese automakers employed clever strategies to create something new and innovative while staying true to customer expectations. Old Spice borrowed a page from the Man in Black himself, Johnny Cash, to revive its ‘old and tired’ brand into something a new and dynamic for a young generation of loyal followers.

For those of us in the marketing field, there won’t be many, if any, unfamiliar concepts. However, Brand Like a Rock Star was a quick read, a fun refresher that blended two of my primary passions and gave me some new ideas on how to discuss brand strategy in the future.