Wedding DJs: Push or Pull Strategy?

Push/Pull Product Development and Marketing is one of my favorite subjects, believe it or not. It's a pretty simple concept: some products are generated and marketed as a result of customer demands and some products and generated and marketed that the customer doesn't even know they need yet. The former is a pull strategy and the latter requires a push strategy. I'm a big fan of the push strategy, not because I think I can develop something the public will soon realize they need but because I feel like the public will buy anything you tell them to.

Anyway, now that you're an expert in push/pull strategies I'd like you to ponder a question - are Wedding DJs the result of a push or a pull?

Robin and I are currently looking for a DJ for our wedding. My first choice was djBC but he no longer does weddings. Since I didn't really have a second choice, we decided to scour the World Wide Web for Boston-area wedding DJs. We discovered something pretty early in our research - a Wedding DJ is a guy that wears a vest and a bow tie, is bald or balding, uses tacky inflatable props, and has an extensive playlist that includes Kelly Clarkson, the Electric Slide, and "It's Raining Men." A Wedding DJ is essentially someone who, long ago, decided that they'd never make it in the club scene, on radio, or in the studio and, instead, they'll do the same tired routine day-in-and-day-out at weddings. It seems like a soulless profession, where a script is generated on Day One and forty years later it's being performed for a cool grand. It's not a bad life, don't get me wrong, but if it was my life I'd have killed myself years ago.

But we're not here to shit on the Wedding DJ - we're here to talk about push-pull strategies. So, honestly, looking at the Wedding DJ - is it push or pull? Does the Wedding DJ exist because the customer demands him or does he exist because he feels the customer needs him? I honestly don't know where I stand on this issue - I can't live in a world where a Wedding DJ is needed nor can I live in one where people are convinced they need a Wedding DJ. I'm thinking there's a new paradigm in play here, and that's Lack of Information Strategy. If every advertised Wedding DJ acts, looks, and performs like every other advertised Wedding DJ, how would the customer even know what options are available?

Well, I know what I want in a DJ for my wedding. I want a guy or girl that's young and doesn't own a bow tie. I want someone that's working his or her ass off to break into the club or mix tape or record production scene and doing weddings on the side to pay the bills. I want someone who would REFUSE to play that "Slide to the left now crisscross song" as a matter of artistic integrity. I want someone with Sam Cooke in their library but not just "You Send Me", I want "That's Where It's At" to close the night and some Soul Stirrers "Jesus Gave Me Water" mixed into the cocktail hour. Where is THAT guy (or girl)? Who's marketing that person? There's a pull right here and, I imagine, as my generation marries off that pull will grow - who's meeting us halfway?

I know these people are out there someone and I know they don't even own the Chicken Dance or "I Will Survive."

Labels: editorial, music, wedding

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