They're my Jam (and it's ok if they're not yours)...

Admission: Those that know me, know that it takes me a very, very, very long time to embrace a new group (like decades long ??). I attribute that to my religious, singular devotion to The Who and thus am drawn to or conversely suspicious of those bands that don’t trace their lineage back to that group who will always be the soundtrack of my life.

But I may have found a worthy successor to The Who… The Jam. Who (yes terrible pun intended)? Three lads from Woking who had great success in the UK b/w 1977-1982. Bridging Punk and New Wave they had a stream of domestic hits but never quite enjoyed scaled success here in the States.

And that lack of universal (or "big pond") achievement or acceptance is “a ok” by me.

See The Jam (like The Who) are a little too British. They were perfectly imperfect. It has much to do w/ their limited range (vocally, musically, subject matter and sonic landscapes, etc.) and the debilitating tensions and personalities about who they were and where they wanted to take their music.

They didn’t set out for world domination like The Stones or The Beatles.

Paul isn’t Freddie.

They didn’t tackle big concepts like Pink Floyd.

They wrote and played for themselves and their tribe and it is from that limited vantage point and their very set of limitations that make them distinctly mine… they reflect me.

Let me explain (or rather use The Jam’s Essentials from Apple Music Alternative to illustrate).

What moved me from mere interest to embracing them was how their music evolved (over the course of my listening and yes not accounting for Paul's foray into The Style Council and solo work):

• At first much of their songs were about a specific time/place/geography. Songs like Town Called Malice, Going Underground, Down in the Tube Station At Midnight, In The City, Modern World were anchored on their reality as young lads aware of where they came from (hint: not the glitz and glamour of London or even the celebrated "underworld" of Manchester at the time) and where they fit in (or didn’t)... but nonetheless they wrote about and struggled to reconcile the two
• Then came more pointed songs (more inward looking) about youthful aggression, defiance and the reality of being unmoored. Songs like Thick as Thieves, “A” Bomb in Wardour Street, When We Were Young and Funeral Pyre had that edge that made me want to join their gang
• Those more pointed songs about defiance were further brought to life through class and social consciousness songs like Eton Rifles, David Watts and Away From The Numbers
• And lastly (and arguably at their most different and poignant) they peeled away that defiant exterior to reveal their vulnerability through songs like Ghosts, Butterfly Garden, Dreams of Children and English Rose

The mapping and evolution of their songs mimic my life (its stages and associated emotions).

So what are the lessons for Brands?

• Know who you are and who you are not. You simply can’t be everything to everyone and frankly it’s not worth it. Like Pop music which is wonderfully infectious but ultimately disposable for an audience at scale (especially over time), trying to be everything to everyone is impossible and thus is an ineffective and inefficient use of marketing dollars (e.g. “investment or resonance dilution”)
• Growth vs. Gardening: Whilst we all sit (understandably) at the altar of growth, revenue (and margin) can more easily be driven by extracting it from those who already love you or at least are disposed to you. It stands to simplistic reason why cost per acquisition (CPA) is generally so much higher than cost per retention (CRC). Given finite resources, where you plant (and water) your seeds impacts the bounty (e.g. profit) produced in your garden
• (Similar to the above), LTV is correlated with how poignant you are to your customers (and yes I sound like a broken record ??). Reflect who they are, what they need and then deliver against it and them again and again and again (trust me they’ll love and reward you for it and will make switching costs all but impossible to endure)

“Away from the numbers is where I'm gonna be… Away from the numbers is where I am free… is where I'm gonna be… is reality.”