The Beatles might have hailed from Liverpool, but the band got its big break in Hamburg.
The band had secured a bid to play the Indra, a seedy strip joint complete with a neon-lighted elephant beckoning the passersby in Hamburg's infamous red-light boulevard.
This August marks the 50th anniversary of the Beatles' debut of a 48-night stint at this "musical venue."
The band’s contract required the five of them (John, Paul, George, drummer Pete Best and bassist Stuart Sutcliffe) to perform for 30 hours, six nights a week. Each one received the generous sum of about $51 in those days.
The Indra’s owner was generous and provided the group free lodging.
The Beatles slept behind the stage in two dark, dank, cramped storage rooms with small beds, folding cots, and a couch. The nearby men’s room, where broken toilets often overflowed into their rooms, served the group’s personal hygiene needs.
The days of Hamburg are a far cry from Paul McCartney's concert riders of today.
McCartney now has an amusing list of plant demands - yes plant demands: "No trees please! We want plants that are just as full on the bottom as the top such as palm, bamboo, peace lilies, etc. No tree trunks!"
Also, of course, the rider requires a pre-show sweep by some bomb-sniffing dogs.
Paul has come a long way from a pre-show neon-lighted elephant.
However, playing Hamburg was essential to the band's success.
After two months of incessant playing, Indra's owner Bruno Koschmider promoted The Beatles to his flagship club, the Kaiserkeller.
“We had to learn millions of songs because we’d be on for hours,” George Harrison later said. “Hamburg was really like our apprenticeship, learning how to play in front of people.”
This apprenticeship, learning millions of songs, and how to properly play in front of people was essential.
Where is your Hamburg?
Where is the place you can work on your craft, build your skills, and harness your talents regardless of the environment?
You just think it's too risky
Putting out ideas and services that change commerce and culture might feel too risky.
Putting out ideas and services that change commerce and culture forces you to deal with the things that you’d rather not deal with: failure, standing out, embarrassment, incremental progress, or rejection.
Putting out ideas and services that change commerce and culture might feel too risky, but it's necessary.
It's necessary because you have the skills and expertise; you just might need to train yourself to reformulate your mindset - a mindset which gives you the power to leap one barrier and drive through the other obstacles.
You just think it's too risky because you haven't trained yourself to reformulate your mindset.
Thought leaders know that having the right mindset can be the difference between it being too risky and its completion.
Never buy a surfboard from a surf shop owner who doesn't surf
I love to surf, but I am dreadful.
I love to be in surf shops, but I am a poser.
I would love to run a surf shop, but I would be a fraud.
I lack the knowledge, the skills, and the language to be a successful surfboard salesman.
It’s not my tribe.
Developed by Seth Godin, the concept of tribe is a significant force for brands. Describing a tribe as a group of people connected to one another, to a leader, or to an ideal in which they have a deeper connection. Godin says, “Today, marketing is about engaging with the tribe and delivering products and services with stories that spread.”
A tribe is more than a customer base.
Sure, every member of a tribe is a customer, not every customer truly belongs to a tribe. A richer connection is fostered when a service or brand generates something more unique—with the identification of the group by characteristics that bind key customers together, such as a collective passion, vision, stage of life, or a desired long-term objective.
These shared attributes make these people more than just customers. They not only embrace the brand identity; to a significant extent, they help expand and define it.
For marketers, the goal is to discover the shared characteristics that define a tribe, speak to the changes and challenges that its members are experiencing, and create insider language and mystical stories that will strengthen the bonds of the tribe and stoke its passion for the brand. In turn, tribe members will help humanize messaging, evangelize products, and amplify the service.
REI is a great example. Many of their customers live and breathe the great outdoors and express this identification with an REI co-op membership. REI gives their tribe what they need to live out their passion, from gear to workshops which inspires them to new adventures.
Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly believes his company's future will be about getting its people into homes. Joly explains the importance of this strategy: “That lets you have a real conversation. You can talk about what’s possible, be human, make it real.”
Best Buy has mantras like “Be a consultant, not a salesperson.”
Best Buy uses phrases like: "How would you like it if," "Do you think it would help if you could," "Have you ever thought about."
For Best Buy, they want to establish long-term relationships with their customers rather than chase one-time transactions.
Best Buy is providing solutions, knows the gear, and is building a tribe.
It doesn’t just want to sell your electronics.
It wants its in-home consultants to be “personal chief technology officers.”
Nordstrom has long enjoyed a reputation for personal customer service and quality goods.
Nordstrom has gained credibility as a high-end destination, upper-middle-class, if not glamorous retail operator where loyal customers enjoy attentive service and a liberal return policy.
Embracing technology in the rapidly changing retail shopping environment, Nordstrom sees shopping coupled with delivery innovations that will build more loyalty and serve the tribe.
This approach to technology will more than offset their costs—especially if they lure e-commerce customers to brick-and-mortar locations, where they might shop more.
Nordstrom shoppers today can pick up online orders and try on items selected from its website. They can meet a stylist or get an alteration (Nordstrom is the largest employer of tailors in the country, with 1,300, and alterations encourage more store visits).
The tech-plus-touch formula is helping Nordstrom move further upscale, generating more revenue, and further cementing the connection between brand and tribe.
Next time you go shopping, ask yourself if the retailer has the knowledge, the skills, and the language to make you feel like you are a member of the tribe.
-Marc
Marc A. Ross is a globalization strategist and communications advisor. Ross specializes in helping entrepreneurs and thought leaders make better connections and better communications. He is the founder of Caracal Global.