With a flurry of guitar notes and crashing cymbals, the last song comes to a stop. Twenty two thousand screaming fans are illuminated by powerful blinding white lights, revealing just how massive the arena really is. The lead singer of the band, exhausted after two hours of performing, grabs the microphone one last time.

“Thank you Cleveland!”

And the audience erupts once again.

That rock ‘n’ roll cliche is repeated night after night, city after city, in venues small and large.

Most artists, no matter how big they get, are genuinely thrilled that someone is willing to spend money and time to enjoy their music. And they are usually quite happy to show it.

True Rock Stars aren’t afraid to show their gratitude.

Rock Stars – in business, life, and music – show their honest gratitude.

Sure, there are exceptions to the rule. There are divas who derive their own self-worth from their ability to be jerks and still have people worship them. But in my nearly 30 years in the music business, I can safely say they are the minority (and they are usually the least deserving of such worship!).

Bruce Springsteen can’t say thank you enough when he plays. He takes the time to acknowledge the city he’s in, often putting a local spin or angle on his personal stories.

At the only Canadian stop on his 2011 summer your, Jimmy Buffett went out of his way to play a song by Canadian Gordon Lightfoot… just to say thanks to the country he was visiting.

Despite his star status, Garth Brooks is always genuine when he thanks his fans.

Lady Gaga calls herself “the luckiest girl on earth” because she has fans.

Gratitude. It goes a long way towards building a stronger bond between your business and your customers, or fans in the case of rock stars.

But what you might not realize, is that gratitude goes a long way towards make you stronger and more productive. According to Geoffrey James, gratitude is “the true secret of success”. You can read his piece on gratitude in Inc.com. Thank you, Geoffrey, for sharing those inspiring thoughts.

Thank you, for reading… for picking up Brand Like A Rock Star and for turning the little book I wrote into a marketing and entrepreneurial movement. I promise to never stop being thankful and amazed that someone has invested their time and money in what I have to say.

I am very, very grateful.

I’ve taken a few shots at Garth Brooks in the past for the brutal mismanagement of his brand a decade ago.

Garth was the biggest music star on earth in the mid-1990′s.  Until he decided that he wanted to be more than a country star.  His efforts to become a pop music star alienated his country fans, confused his large pop music following, and left his career a shell of what it once was.

But I give Garth credit for one thing: he hid.

By going into retirement eight years ago, Garth made himself scarce.  By becoming rare, he again became valuable.  He has only played live a few select times since 2001.  Those shows were major events.  The few songs he has recorded and released have been successful, but he has avoided attempting to string together a run of hits.  The Garth Brooks brand has been, for the most part, a nostalgia brand since he went into retirement.  No doubt this is intentional.

Garth is a smart businessman. His foray into pop music aside, Garth has made some brilliant career moves. His retirement was the smartest of all.  When he chose to retire, he was dealing with a divorce.  He had taken lumps from his pop music venture and scrapped movie plans.  He also saw the future with a stunning crop of up-and-coming country stars ready to take his place.

Garth knew that by becoming scarce, he would become more valuable.

Think about the Nintendo Wii.  For three years this has been an impossible item to find at Christmas.  You’d think Nintendo would just make more.  But they know better.  Having limited quantities makes it far more valuable.

Ditto for Cabbage Patch Kids, Tickle Me Elmo, and next year’s Christmas toy of the moment.

Limited quantities? It’s weekends only.  He is only doing four shows a week, one on Friday, two on Saturday, and one on Sunday.

Demand?  There aren’t a wealth of great country themed shows in glitzy Las Vegas.  Especially ones with the mainstream appeal of a Garth Brooks.

History?  Elton John, Celine Dion, Cher, and others have proven you can keep your career alive (or revitalize it) by playing Vegas for an extended period of time.

Unique?  Garth will be playing his own theater in an acoustic setting.  He says he plans on writing new songs, sharing works-in-progress with the audience, and playing his own versions of other songs.

As long as Garth Brooks keeps himself rare enough, he should be able to keep his demand high enough to make his shows at the Wynn very valuable.

Like any successful brand, the equation applies:  SCARCITY + DEMAND = VALUE

Let’s assume your brand is in demand, otherwise you wouldn’t be in business.

Brands that are everywhere have limited value.  There’s no rush.  There’s no exclusivity.  There’s nothing special about it.

But brands that are limited in quantity have nearly unlimited value. 

Seats on a plane bound for a resort destination?  Scarce and in limited quantities.  High value.

Tickets to a sold-out concert?  Scarce and in limited quantities. High value.

Hotel rooms during a major convention?  Scarce and in limited quantities.  High value.

Gasoline?  Only when there is a shortage does it truly become valuable.

Being available everywhere in massive quantities sounds good, but it isn’t the best path to high profits.

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Nothing is more challenging than trying to alter people’s deep perceptions of your brand.

In a few months, ask KFC.

They are hell bent on convincing the world to – in their words – “unthink KFC” as they embark on the launch of “Kentucky Grilled Chicken”.

Wow. Asking your customers to “unthink” you doesn’t sound like a very smart marketing strategy.

It reminds me of a posting on this blog a few weeks ago about the rise and fall of Garth Brooks. Short story: Garth Brooks became the #1 country star in the world. He became so popular that he was, essentially, a rock star. His fan base was bigger than country music itself. But being the biggest country star in the world wasn’t enough, so in 1999 he decided to try become a rock star. He recorded an album of pop/rock songs. Predictably, rock fans didn’t get it. To them, Garth Brooks was a country star… and a very good one. And country fans didn’t get it. To them, Garth was a country star… and a traitor for leaving his traditional fan base behind. Both groups didn’t like it, and as a result it was a colossal failure. That year, Garth Brooks said goodbye to his career, never to recover.

KFC is the far-and-away #1 choice in the world for delicious fried chicken. Sure, we all know fried chicken is unhealthy. It may be one of the most unhealthy things you can put in your body. So what? We all put unhealthy things in our body. Some of us avoid fried chicken altogether, but most people are willing to treat themselves to something unhealthy every now and then.

Isn’t the wise branding path for KFC one that reinforces existing perceptions, instead of trying to change them?

“Finger Lickin’ Good” is WAY more powerful than “Unthink KFC”.

Seth Godin wrote about it here. Great brands (“Rock stars” as he called them) settle for a small audience that views them as a rock star, and they then serve those fans very, very, well.

Adadge commented on the KFC launch of grilled chicken, calling it a “Kentucky Fried Fiasco”.

KFC would be so much wiser to acknowledge what they are, celebrate it, and serve their customers very, very, well.

George Costanza learned this lesson the hard way on Seinfeld a few year ago, when he tried to change perceptions of himself at work by coming up with the nickname “T-Bone”. As you can see in the video below, it didn’t work out so well.

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In the 1990′s, a country singer was arguably North America’s biggest rock star.

In the fall of 1991, Garth Books had three albums in the POP music top 20 album charts at one time. In ’93 his album “In Pieces” peaked at #2 on the UK pop album charts and the song “The Red Strokes” went to #13 on the pop charts over there. He covered songs by Billy Joel (“Shameless”), Aerosmith (“The Fever”), and even “Hard Luck Woman” by KISS.

So what happened?

I think Garth Brooks tried to extend his brand too far.

His success on the pop charts came because he was such a massive country star, not because he was a true pop star. He simply became so big in one area that his stardom spilled over to another.

But when he made a conscious decision to expand from country into pop music, things went all wrong.

In 1999 he released an album that was supposedly the soundtrack to a yet-to-be-made movie called “The Lamb” about a fictional rock star named Chris Gaines. Garth was to play Gaines in the movie. To create buzz for the movie, Garth began to take on the persona of Chris Gaines. In October 1999 he released an album called “Garth Brooks… In The Life of Chris Gaines”. VH1 even did an episode of “Behind The Music” on the fictional Chris Gaines. Brooks did a massive amount of promotion in order to create enthusiasm for the project.

But the reaction from the world was… “huh”?

People just didn’t get it.

Garth Brooks was/is Garth Brooks. That’s some very expensive and valuable mental real estate to own in the mind of the public! Being Garth Brooks, the biggest country star on planet earth, meant millions and millions of dollars. It meant country hits that transcended country and spilled over into pop music. In meant taking an American form of music, and reaching the charts in the UK and Europe, where country music hardly exists.

By trying to be something other than Garth Brooks, Garth effectively gave up that incredible piece of mental real estate he owned. Quickly Tim McGraw, Toby Keith, Kenny Chesney, and others filled the void left by Garth.

After the Chris Gaines fiasco, Garth Brooks officially retired from playing live. It has been a decade since Garth Brooks ruled country music.

Garth Brooks deserves huge credit for taking a risk. Branding like a rock star means having the guts to step outside the rules and attempt something brave and new.

Garth also deserves credit for making a smart move in the decade since the fall of Chris Gaines. He has made himself obscure since then, playing live only a handful of times. Being “rare” has made him valuable again, although not nearly as valuable as he once was.

But Garth made a very bad decision to attempt to extend his personal brand beyond country music. Both his career, and country music itself, have suffered because of it.

For more reading on the dangers of extending your brand beyond it’s means, check out Laura Ries’s blog Ries’ Pieces and this particular piece on line extension gone mad.

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