Bruce Springsteen and The Essence of Marketing

The Boss

I’m a big Bruce Springsteen fan. I love his music not because I know the notes he’s singing or the chords he’s playing. I love it because of its essence: the raw emotion that comes pouring out. The powerful rhythms and the mixture of instruments.

To become a better marketer, I’ve been reading up on the subject. Today, however, I realized that the essence of marketing isn’t in the theory; niche vs. mass, b2b vs. b2c, bait vs. switch. It’s about one thing: ideas.

Here’s how the epiphany came to me.

I was at a meeting at church today and we were discussing how to get people to come to our connection group. The connection group is called Café Connection since we drink coffee, eat donuts and sit around talking about God and our challenges. We were brainstorming how to get others to attend and one woman said: “Why don’t we hand out empty coffee cups after church with ‘Join us at Café Connection in Room 300 at 11 a.m. for a free cup of coffee.’ written on the side.”

What a great idea!

And I bet she had never cracked a marketing textbook.

Tags: Bruce Springsteen, the essence of marketing