S Use music to connect to boomers. Whether it is Elton John’s “Rocket Man” in an AT&T commercial about a father who travels a lot for work and misses his family, or Steppenwolf ’s “Born to be Wild” in a recent Valvoline ad, classic rock connects with boomers. Some evoke a tear; some cause even the most staid executive to play a little air guitar; all bring attention to the brand being advertised. “Using a rock song that boomers already love in an ad allows products to piggyback on established emotional connections and connect with customers,” says Eric Steinhauser, vice president of J. Walter Thompson. “Breaking through the clutter is easier when they not only recognize the music but relate to it and become actively involved with it.” The power of music is massive. It enters the minds of consumers peripherally, without the filter of thinking about direct claims featured in the advertisement. Classic rock songs serve as extrasensory connectors between memories and associations stored in consumers’ minds, relating the connections to new products or ads. This makes acceptance of an ad’s message more likely, writing the brand indelibly into the minds of consumers, to be retrieved as they drive by stores or choose brands within the stores.

S Use transgenerational appeal. The best of rockers reach across the ages with a transgenerational appeal. You see it most vividly in the appeal of Elton John, Aerosmith, and the Stones, but it is omnipresent in the bands described in this article. They’ve found the sounds and emotional appeals that transcend cultural values and ages. That’s what boomers want. Whether they are dining, traveling, or shopping, they like to be able to do it with their children and their parents and sometimes both. This is changing the way winning firms configure stores and advertise products.

The only way they thought they could do this would be to record a live album, which producers and label execs insisted never sold well. They didn’t understand KISS fans and how they were different from fans of other rock and roll bands. KISS’s management fought for what the fans wanted, and the result was Alive, not a single disc but a double album compilation of live recordings of concerts in Iowa, New Jersey, and Michigan, where the band’s connection with its audiences and fan appeal were strongest. Released in September 1975, immediate success ensued, with the album selling over 4 million copies. “After Alive came out, we became the biggest band in the country,” says Simmons.

The album featured a song that would forever synonymous with the band. “Rock and Roll All Night,” which had been recorded on a previous album, was the brainchild of Neil Bogart, Casablanca Records’ president and a staunch believer in the KISS brand. He went to the band with the idea that it needed an anthem (a jingle, if you will) that would represent what its fans believed and what the band stood for. The world of music was devoid of rock and roll anthems at that time, and Bogart thought it would become important to the positioning, image, and fan appeal of the band. As Paul Stanley explains, “To me, the essence of rock and roll is celebrating life.” The rest of the band and its fans would agree. “Rock and Roll All Night” was not deep, but it was concise and it represented what the band stood for at that point-having a good time.

The live version of “Rock and Roll All Night” got the attention of listeners. The song would go on to become one of the top 500 influential songs in rock and roll history, according to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Though it climbed only as high as number 68 on Billboard’s pop chart, it emerged as the theme song for a whole generation of kids and young adults who wanted to forget about the pressures of life and the deeper meanings hidden in the lyrics of other songs and just have fun.

“The Greatest Discovery,” in contrast, was a piano lullaby describing one of life’s most emotional experiences, the birth of a baby.

Other songs spoke of the cultural gaps associated with poverty (”No Shoestrings on Louise”) in a country melody, similar to what the Rolling Stones were recording at the time. Race relations and the consequences of bigotry were encompassed in “Border Song,” with soul themes so profound that Aretha Franklin recorded a cover of the song the next year-the first major star to do so. The final song, “The King Must Die,” was interpreted in the culture of the time to be about the death of Martin Luther King, although Taupin actually wrote it about assassination plots through the ages.

A Transgenerational Appeal This album, and subsequent others, connected at the deepest level with people of all ages, genders, and cultural groups. It laid the foundation for Elton John’s transgenerational marketing strategy- creating a product that may be designed for a specific segment but whose appeal transcends a variety of age groups rather than just teens or just boomers. Other artists have had success with a similar approach, although few are really able to create a music product that appeals to multigenerational audiences. The fact that the classic rock bands highlighted in this article have been around for so long helps to explain why they are more likely to attract varied audiences today, but it isn’t often that new artists can attract the same mix.

One breakout example of late is Norah Jones, whose fairytale success story began with the release of her album Come Away With Me in February 2002, culminating in eight Grammy awards, ranging from Best New Artist to Album of the Year. But this Cinderella’s night at the ball was not the result of an invitation by the prince, rather because the townspeople drove her to the palace and pushed her inside. Her voice is sultry, her look exotic, her sound lush, her talent enormous and genuine. With low expectations for the commercial success of the album, critics and fans alike were surprised by the runaway acceptance of her style of music, and no one was more stunned than Jones herself.