Hootie & The Blowfish Is Actually A Marketing Lesson

Okay, I got a story for you. It’s a marketing lesson that you can use in your business. And I’m going to use Hootie and the Blowfish as a reference point. Everyone knows who Hootie and the Blowfish are, and I want to tell you some lessons about Hootie & The Blowfish that are fantastic marketing lessons that everyone can use. But first you have to understand the story. 

The Story of Hootie & The Blowfish 

In 1994 they were playing in Columbia, SC. They had a little band and a music rep. had heard their music and said, “Hey I want to get you on the David Letterman show.” They went to David Letterman, they were on his show and within a week their music was heard by a record label. They got a record deal, and it took off from there. But there’s more to it than even just that.  

Every day for almost a year David Letterman would start his broadcast, and he would say “Hootie, Hootie & The Blowfish.” Now, they weren’t there, but the thing was it sounded funny, and David Letterman, being a comedian, really leaned into this. And for a year people heard Hootie & The Blowfish at the start of the David Letterman show in 1994 through 95. And every time it was said people would go, “Who is that?” And every time they said, “Who is that?”, it made the band more and more popular. 

The rest is history. And by the way, this comes straight from the mouth of Darius Rucker. He gives a massive amount of credit for the speed and success of their band because of David Letterman liking their music and thinking their name is funny and therefore saying it almost like a gag ‘Hootie & The Blowfish.’  

Marketing Lessons 

So, here are the marketing lessons I have for you from Hootie & The Blowfish:  

First and foremost, you have to have a good product. If they didn’t have a good product they wouldn’t have made it past the David Letterman show one time. David would have made fun of them and it would’ve been over. So, you have to have a good product. And they have a great product, their music is really good. 

Second, you have to have a unique selling proposition. And if we think about the unique selling proposition of Hootie & The Blowfish it’s a couple things.  

• The first is their name. Hootie & The Blowfish is such a weird name. It’s one of those band names that makes you go what?! But it sticks with you, so that’s part of their unique selling proposition.  
• The second is they are a southern rock band. That’s something different that makes an audience interested.  

In addition to all of this, the thing they had going on is repetition and a raving fan – the raving fan being David Letterman.  

Business Applications 

There are so many marketing strategies inside of this that you can use for your own business. So, if we’re running through and doing a checklist: 

• How’s your name? 
• How’s your unique selling proposition? 
• How’s your image? 
• Do you have raving fans? 

Now, by the way a lot of people will find this raving fan in essence of a paid advertisement where they’ll get a local celebrity, and they’re paying for that. David wasn’t being paid for that, David just liked it and happened to have a huge audience. Who do you have in your audience that you could leverage that loves you, that will give you that repetition that you need? Word-of-mouth is the ultimate marketing tool. Ensuring you have a strong funnel for review acquisition will help potential customers and clients become loyal customers and clients.  

So, in case you didn’t know, now you know some amazing marketing lessons that you can take from Hootie & The Blowfish: an amazing product, a unique selling proposition and having raving fans tell that story over and over again. I hope that that can benefit you, and I hope you like our unique selling proposition at Service Excellence of igniting the power and the potential that is existing in you. That’s what we do: IGNITE THE POWER WITHIN.