Jimmy Buffett Cult Brand Profile

When an unknown Jimmy Buffett moved to Nashville in 1969 to take his shot at making it in the music business, he was not embraced with open arms. After twenty rejections from record labels and two years of writing for Billboard magazine, Buffett finally found a home for his music with Barnaby Records. His first album was hardly a hit, allegedly selling only 374 copies. Although this flop would have stopped most musicians, Buffett moved ahead and landed another record deal with ABC/Dunhill in 1973.

While Buffett churned out songs over the next few years, his unique blend of lively country and folk music with a Caribbean sound left his record company and the entire music industry confused about how to market him. Buffett’s musical sound was truly in a category unto itself, and he fought hard to keep it that way.

It wasn’t until 1977 and the release of “Margaritaville” that he enjoyed his first, and only, Top Ten hit. But the wait was worth it: almost twenty-five years later, anything even remotely sounding like “Margaritaville” is still invariably referred to as “Jimmy Buffett music.” Buffett effectively owns his category of music in the minds of millions. Whether or not you like Buffett’s music, it’s hard not to break into a big smile and have a heck of a good time at a Buffett concert. Where else in the world can you see thousands of happy people celebrating in a parking lot dressed in Hawaiian shirts, grass skirts, or shark-fin hats, and drinking frozen margaritas and eating cheeseburgers?

While most musicians focus their attention on making and selling albums and videos, Buffett aims at selling his fans the opportunity for temporary escapism. This lifestyle is what Parrot Heads around the world are really buying. They are purchasing the opportunity to fulfill their passions with like-minded individuals through various activities, be it a road trip to a Buffett concert, meeting with local Parrot Heads for drinks at happy hour, or volunteering with other Parrot Heads to help a nonprofit organization.

The largest Parrot Head organization is the multi-national Parrot Heads in Paradise, Inc. It started as a small club in Atlanta initiated by Scott Nickerson and sanctioned by Buffett’s Margaritaville team. Although the first meeting attracted only fourteen people, Margaritaville showed its willingness to build customer communities and started to promote the idea to all its fans in mailings.

Soon after reading about the clubs, Buffett fans around the country began contacting the Margaritaville store asking how they could start clubs in their local areas. Next thing Nickerson knew, he was sending out mini-business plans for starting Parrot Head clubs to dozens of fans. The Parrot Head Nation was born.

Today, Parrot Heads in Paradise has thousands of members around the world. Each year they hold a convention in Key West and every year Buffett sends a playful videotaped welcome that thousands of fans see at the opening of the convention. The video greeting is a unique opportunity for Buffett to reward his most devoted fans and tell them that he is thinking of them. At the seventh annual convention in 1998, Buffett took the idea of preaching to the choir to the next level. Although members of Buffett’s band had always attended, Buffett himself had never made an appearance. That’s why Parrott Head fans were pleasantly shocked when Buffett appeared out of nowhere that year and started jamming with all his fans. Spending only a few hours of his time, Buffett created good will with thousands of his best customers that will probably last forever.