What can a rock star teach you about marketing?
I was at the Glazer-Kennedy Super Conference in Nashville last week and one of the big draws was to listen to Gene Simmons of KISS.
Kind of an odd choice to give their first ever “Entrepreneur of the Year” award to – until you know more about Gene. He immigrated from Israel at age 9 and didn’t speak any English. His first priority was to make money so his mother (a Nazi concentration camp survivor) would have a better life. His early drive to make money permeates every move he’s ever made in his life, including not getting married (ergo, not getting divorced and giving half to an ex-wife . . . hey, I can understand that philosophy. I’m an ex-wife myself).
Funny enough, I actually know Gene’s girlfriend of 25 years, Shannon Tweed from our private kickboxing lessons with Billy Blanks in the mid 1990s. I’ve run into Gene several times working out with Billy through the years too. And let me tell you. He is not an attractive or appealing man. But he’s got that rock star quality. Even highly successful women who shouldn’t have been cast under his spell were reduced to giggly, pedantic messes. Why? Well, that’s what I wondered. Here’s what I came up with.
- Gene makes women feel special; as he was pacing around in front of 1200 attendees he would stop in front of an attractive woman and tell her in front of everyone how pretty she was.
- Gene makes women feel superior; he emphasized over and over how women were ’smarter’ than men by taking their money and controlling the relationships.
- Gene has status; face it…super models and rock stars have been a combination for years.
