Marketing and Music: The Zac Brown Band's Zamily Fan Club

The value of creating unique experiences for fans

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How The Zac Brown Band Connects With its Zamily

The Zac Brown Band has a dedicated fan club, called Zamily. Many artists give its fans a dedicated fan club and even give their fans a unique identity. Whether it be Zamily or Swifties (Taylor Swift), Deadheads (The Grateful Dead), Little Monsters (Lady Gaga), etc.

What I like about The Zac Brown Band is how the band goes the extra mile to encourage and even facilitate fan-organized events. For years, ZBB ran an event called Eat N Greet where the band had 150 or so of its fans come together at each concert event before the concert started…and the band fed them. The band served its fans, then ate with them, band members going from table to table spending time talking and getting to know their fans. There were no photos or autographs during Eat N Greet so the band could spend as much time as possible interacting directly with their fans.

Something else ZBB does as part of its Zamily fan club is Zamily gatherings. These are actually run and organized by Zamily members, not the band. But the band encourages gatherings at each concert stop, rewarding the first organizer of a Zamily gathering at each concert with free tickets to that show. Zamily members can go to a private Facebook group that the band has set up and reserve their event for a gathering, and lock in their tickets.

Most artists have a fan-club, and a few even encourage fan gatherings, but it’s relatively rare for the artist to work directly with fans to facilitate fan meetups. Pearl Jam (Ten Club) and The Dave Matthews Band (Warehouse Fan Assoc) are a couple of examples of other artists that work directly with fans on meetups.

Why Experiences Matter in Building Loyalty

When building a loyalty program, most companies focus on three areas:

1 - Offering discounts

2 - Offering special access

3 - Offering unique experiences

Of the three, most companies focus more on discounts. And as I’ve written about before, this is why 97% of loyalty programs fail.

You build brand loyalty AFTER the purchase, not before.

Discounts build loyalty to the sale, not the brand. When someone is loyal to the discount, they will buy from whatever brand has the lowest price. This is why most people are members of several loyalty programs. Most of us join simply to get better discounts, because that’s typically the focus of these programs.

But experiences build true loyalty to the brand. And experiences come AFTER the purchase.

Eat N Greet is a unique experience that not every artist can or will replicate. It gives Zamily members a wonderful experience and memory. They will share that memory with others, and via Word of Mouth, they will spread promotion of the ZBB. It will also build their loyalty to the band. Eat N Greet attendees will love the experience, and many of them will probably consider hosting a Zamily gathering at another concert.

Think about your last vacation. What is the first memory you have? Is it that t-shirt you got for 50% off at the tourist shop, or is it an experience you had during the trip?

Our experiences are what we remember. It’s what we place value on and where our true enjoyment is derived from. In fact, science has found that spending money on experiences is the only way to truly buy happiness.

Incentives come before the purchase and build loyalty to the discount. Rewards come AFTER the purchase, and built loyalty to the brand.

I hope you enjoyed this edition of Marketing and Music! Have a great weekend!

Mack

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Backstage Pass teaches you how to better connect with your customers, readers, clients, or donors. The lessons shared here draw on my experience over the last 20 years building customer engagement strategies for companies like Adobe, Dell, Club Med, Ingersoll-Rand, and countless others. I give you real-world research, examples and tactics that show you how to create customer engagement efforts that drive real business growth.