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For a far-too-short moment, it looked like it might actually happen. 

Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and Jason Bonham performed as Led Zeppelin for one magical night in December of 2007.  It was one of the rock era’s most anticipated shows, and the post-show buzz about a long-term reunion wouldn’t go away. Even after Robert Plant clearly stated he wouldn’t be part of a reunion tour, Page, Jones, and Bonham continued to jam together with various lead singers.  Eventually, after months of speculation, the project fizzled.

Behind the scenes, Jason Bonham was devasted.  He had come to anticipate being part of a reunion project, and having it fall apart was a major blow to the son of original Zeppelin drummer John Bonham.

Jason spent a few months wondering what to do, and then it hit him.  He isn’t Led Zeppelin, but as the son of one of the band members, he is intimately familiar with the band.  His perspective is unique and intriguing, and it is about to come to the stage in “Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience”.

According to Bonham, this will not be a tribute show.  Nobody will be dressed up like Page and Plant.  Instead, Bonham plans to tell personal stories about growing up surrounded by the madness that was Led Zeppelin.  Using technology, he will have a chance to jam with his late father on “Moby Dick” and “When The Levee Breaks”.  The show will include intimate stories, video, and audio from the young life of Jason Bonham and will celebrate the life of his legendary father.

From a branding point of view, I think this is interesting – in a positive way.

“Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience” is not being sold to anyone as Led Zeppelin, so nobody is buying fake goods.  Instead, it is a fresh perspective on a band that the world just can’t seem to ever get enough of.

As long as Jason Bonham never tries to pass this off as the “new” Led Zeppelin, this should be an interesting project.

Like last year’s Star Trek movie, which never pretended to be the old Star Trek.

Like pro sports teams who wear special retro-jerseys to pay tribute to old teams, yet never try to be those old teams.

Like ABBA creating the “Mamma Mia” musical, but never trying to capture the same on-stage magic from the 1970′s.

Sadly, some bands fail to respect it.  Creedence Clearwater Revisited tries to pass off CCR without John Fogerty.  Can’t be done.  The Guess Who fraudulently tour around without Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman, who instead play together under their own names.  That’s exactly what Jason Bonham won’t be doing.

Brands that can respect the past, without trying in vain to recreate it, can revive interest and passion.  Brands that attempt to fool us with fake ingredients or replacement parts usually serve to further damage the brand.

This video of Jason and John Bonham shows just how engaging this tour could potentially be.

If you are passionate about music and business, get Brand Like A Rock Star updates by email.

If you’re passionate about great bands and great brands, please click here to subscribe to Brand Like A Rock Star by email. You can also join the discussion on Facebook.

The smartest branding advice ever given by a rock star came from Bjorn Ulvaeus of ABBA when he described why the band would never get back together and appear on stage.

So many bands, and brands, neglect this incredibly important concept.

By virtue of your success, you occupy mental “real estate” in the mind of your customers. That mental real estate is extremely limited space (think Manhattan), and you are lucky to have it!    Once you are fortunate to establish a place in the mind of the customer, you need to not only respect it… you need to worship it.

Yet so many brands want to defy it.  They want to be more than what their fans see them as.  So they extend their brand line, push out new products that don’t match up to their core values, and eventually fade away into obscurity.

* If you are able to convince a significant number of people in your community that your business is the one to call for in-house computer repairs, think about shutting down your brick and mortar location.  Put all of your energy into putting more technicians in cars on the streets visiting customers.

* If your are able to convince a significant number of people in your community that your store is the best place to get high end shoes, drop all low-end shoes from your inventory. Stop having sales.  Raise prices, raise service levels, and make shopping in your store a true experience.

* If you are able to convince a significant number of people in your community that your restaurant is the best place for breakfast, consider either serving breakfast 24 hours a day (and NOTHING else) or closing up at 11am.  But for the love of ABBA don’t start marketing your dinner menu.

How can your brand be more like ABBA?

1. Find out what your customers think you are. Research them, engage them in dialogue, and understand what piece of mental real estate you’ve managed to carve out.

2. Build your strategy around that mental real estate, and focus on demonstrating to more and more people how great that real estate is.

3. Resist the urge to buy up other pieces of mental real estate!  It seldom pays off.

4. Be grateful that you own any mental real estate at all.  It is hard to come by.

5. Be Swedish, if at all possible.

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