Konamoxt, Inc.

This weekend I went to the first show of Green Day’s “21st Century Breakdown” Tour. I’ll admit that although I enjoy Green Day’s music, as a former owner of an independent (punk) record label I am in the camp of those who feel like Green Day lost some credibility when they jumped to a major label back in the earlie 90s. But as I watched the show Friday night, I couldn’t help but have a renewed sense of respect for Billy Joe, and the rest of the band as business people. They “released” and incredible product that night — and I couldn’t help but take notes on the lessons that every startup should take away from their efforts.

Know Your Customer

When Green Day got a lot of flak for leaving the indie world, Billy Joe was incredible cognizent of the fate that awaited him. He knew that as much as he loved punk rock, his decision as a “business man” would ultimately austrecise him from many of his early fans. In an interview with Spin magazine he was quoted as saying:

“I couldn’t go back to the punk scene, whether we were the biggest success in the world or the biggest failure … The only thing I could do was get on my bike and go forward.”

So if he’d lost is “punk scene” base, who was his new customer? The answer is really quite simple — and it’s clear that Green Day understand this and has developed and refined their product to specifically cater to their customers. They are a pop band - targeting the large part of the population that feels a little out of step, a little beat down, slightly disgruntled, but not violently so — but ultimately they aren’t targetting the fringe - they are targetting the mainstream.

If they were too dark - they would turn some of their potential customers away. If they were too “happy” and “bubble gum” - they would surely lose this audience. But they’ve walked that balance intentionally. As my wife said, they come off as “nice guys” but they have just enough “F’ing” edge (with a sprinkling of four letter words to make the point) to allow the angst ridden teens in the room to suspend their “too cool for school” attitude that might lump them into the crowd of the teeny-bopper-dance scene.

The Lesson: Know your customer, build the product that they want. Serve your customers needs better than the next guy. Refine your product with them in mind. Find a way to be true to yourself - while still filling the needs of your customers.

Give Your Customer A Stake In Your Success

No, I’m not suggesting that startups should try the whole Vonage - let your customers participate in your IPO strategy. I’m simply talking about the fact that customers will want you to succeed, and will overlook your faults, and praise your successes more, when they feel like they’re part of your team. This is a really obvious idea, but one that businesses often overlook, or simply miss the opportunities to leverage. But not Green Day, no… they got this one down.

For a rock band it’s pretty easy right? Get the crowd chanting and singing along. They already love you, let them show you that love. You’ve all seen it, the classic Rock Star move, hold the might out toward the audience as if they’re singing into the mic.

They had the audience chanting “Hey Ho”, clapping their hands, doing the wave. But that’s Crowd Involvement 101. Green Day understands this strategy so inately that they take it to a whole new level.  At the concert, Billy Joe pulled no less than four audience members up on stage. The first, was a young child who couldn’t have been more than 10 years old.

“Whao- Who’s that little shit!? - You! Come up here! Wow!”

Now, I’m not sure what his parents were thinking… but I’m sure they knew what to expect… but the point is, Green Day knows that this kid will be a customer for life. Was this his first concert? Maybe. Was Green Day his favorite band before the concert? Maybe. Is Green Day his favorite band now? Hellz yeah! Imagine the viral marketing punch they got from that simple event. And it works because they know their audience.

As if that wasn’t enough, the ended up pulling two more audience members one after the other on stage to sing along to “Longview”. After the first girl came on stage, she mostly wanted to hug and kiss Billy Joe, and didn’t exactly have the best (if any at all singing voice) - but being the gracious “nice guys” (or should we say cunning businessmen) that they are - the band played along, smiled and said…

“She was pretty good - do you think you can do better?” — Now THAT is Classic customer service!

As one happy customer leaves the stage, and all the girls in the audience who got the vicarious thrill of hugging and kissing their favorite rock star dreamed of what it would have been like if they’d been pulled up on stage — the band simply stepped on the pedal and went back to the well one more time.

If one fan can get you that kind of engagement, two would be twice the fun right? The second fan to be pulled up was a goof ball of a guy - who actually did know the lyrics and had plenty enough personality to share the stage with Billy Joe. He too hugged and kissed Billy Joe and when handed the mic professed his love for the artist and band. “Who wants to f*ck him? (pointing to Billy Joe) — Sorry, is that weird?” No Billy Joe, shakes his head — that’s not weird. That’s exactly what he was looking for.

The Lesson: Get your customer involved in your success. Let them root for you. Make them part of your team.

Don’t Be Afraid To Take Risks

The most compelling example of this audience engagement came for the song “Jesus of Suburbia”… where one audience member yelled out to Billy Joe that “he could play guitar” and couple seconds of dialog between the fan and Billy Joe including “can you really play? really? can you play Jesus of Suburbia” — next thing we know this fan is on stage.

Lest you think this is a review of a rock show and not an article about business and startups, consider this for a moment. This is a business, producing a product, and about to present one of their most popular items for an audience of several thousands to enjoy… and sight unseen (and more importantly quality on verified)… they are about to allow a random customer to enter the mix and play a major role in the “launch” of this product. This could turn out to be a huge mistake…

Instead — it was by far one of the most brilliant, daring, and entertaining things I’ve seen an artist do in a long time. Huge risk — even bigger reward.

Now, really, I think there was not that much practical risk here. After all, I just explained how a big part of the “Green Day Product” is based on audience participation. There are plenty of bands that have the attitude that the live show is about having fun and sharing an experience so if the kid is a little rough, it won’t be a total disaster. Worst case scenario, they can just turn down his guitar and the audience would be none the wiser. But that said, you never know what can happen when you introduce this kind of an element to your product.

The Lesson: Don’t be afraid to take risks! Especially when the reward out ways the risk, and the risk is related to your core value proposition, and feeds your existing relationships with your customers.

Filed by Brad Hefta-Gaub at 1:03 pm under Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Marketing, Punk Rock, Startups
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