I don’t remember much or have many takeaways that I still go back to from my days at b-school.  One of the few things I picked up that I still keep in the front of my mind is “The Marketing Concept.”  It goes something like this:

1. Focus on PROFITABILITY as the Key Measure of Success
2. Understanding customer needs & meeting them, maybe.
   • Meet those that enhance profits.
3. Integrated or Centralized Control of the Marketing Mix
   • One person or team oversees decisions, etc. to ensure that the tools are working in unison.

That’s what’s up.  It’s easy to think of reasons why profitability shouldn’t be the key measure of success.  Shouldn’t great customer service (music is just like any other business) and powerful branding lead to profitability?  Well, profit is the scorecard.  Bottom line.  Album sales and myspace hits don’t mean anything at the end of the day unless they translate into profits.  Big, platinum-selling artists can go years without making any money and some never.  I bet they would agree that profitability should be the key measure of success. 

I’ve seen firsthand why profitability should be the KEY measure of success.  Without profitability, you’re done.  Everybody should expect to go through some patches, especially initially.  But there has to be a focus on a timeline to achieving sustainable profitability.

(Gotta give props to Brian Till (http://tiny.cc/LiS6N), a great marketing mind…and the dude that told me about all this stuff.  Not sure if he invented this  )

There’s a long standing bit of common wisdom that basically says people want to help each other. Sometimes that’s true, sometimes it’s not. Part of doing what we do is building as many relationships as possible and learning as much as possible from these people.

We reach out to a lot of people in the music biz with all sorts of backgrounds and specialties. Some of them are super cool and really understand the value of networking and treating everybody like they might be their next paycheck. A couple surface level responses can lead to a really solid discussion and a good connection that could lead to current or future business. Most people that respond and engage in dialogue understand this part of the business and understand the power of collaboration. Wouldn’t ya know, most of these people are really sharp and just the kind of people we want to work with.

A wide range of others apparently have all of their paychecks taken care of for some time. Here are some typical responses along with Vindico follow-up:

• Anonymous 1: “What do you need from me?”

JT: “A record deal by the end of the week and one of those shark things that sharpens knives. Oh, and some hot & spicy chex mix too.”

• Anonymous 2: Declined to respond.
• Anonymous 3: “I will tell you what I think about you if you give me $10.”

JT: “Throw in some of that chex mix and we’ll talk.”

We’re just a few months into the game, and we’re connected to major label A&R’s, experienced management groups, and in general, well on our way to setting up serious career paths for our artists. Working with people that understand the power of collaboration is a must for making it happen. Anybody who has a very one-sided approach to the beginning of a conversation is likely not genuine about anything but themselves, their rep, and their money.

The cool thing is that it’s a numbers game. So you can be guaranteed to get the right conversations going if you’re willing to take the time to reach out to lots of people. The more people you reach out to, the greater your odds of making a great contact. There are a lot of them out there, a lot of great people willing to help.