The greatest trick that Micheal Jackson ever pulled on this world is asking them to “Beat It”.

Here’s a man who sang in his own terms, danced in his own terms, lived and died in his own terms. And you can be Black or white or any shades of gray in between, you cannot deny the tremor that the world felt with every click of his moonwalking heels.

As the messages pour in from all corner of the world, we make a silent tribute to the biggest brand in music. Here are a list of things that the world of branding can learn from Micheal Jackson.

1. The power of rituals: When you hear the word Micheal Jackson what comes to your mind? Moonwalking, screaming, those crazy socks and shoes, signature pelvic thrusts, great videos etc. These are nothing but rituals that reached an iconic status after 20 years of doing it over and over again. Thats the power of rituals. He did it over and over again until he completely owned it from now till infinity. Thats what iconic brands do. They own things that none else can own.

2. The power of differentiating: His was the breakaway voice. In today’s world of wannabe rockstars and painted up divas, he showed the world what originality can do for your brand. His was the most original voice coming out of radio. When the world was spending money on distributing LPs, he spent millions on music videos. He tore up the cliched concept of music vidoes as a sort of pseudo-concert. He said, like all video based medium, music videos should have a starting, a middle and an ending.

This kind of original, bold thinking can do wonders for your brand.

3. Dont segment. Unifiy: Who was Micheal Jackson? Is he a black singer with a big mo-town presence? Is he a cross over artist with a fantastic R&B vocal? Is he the King of Pop?

Thats the strength of Micheal the brand. You cant typecast him. There is none that ever lived (Yes not even Elvis my friend) whose tunes helped people to swing from Alaska to Australiz, from Japan to Madagascar. He was the first ever truly globalized personal brand. He was the Coca Cola of music world.

Thats why the label “King of Pop” is not fitting for Brand Micheal. He was simply the greatest entertainer that ever lived. And when it comes to entertainment, there is no segment. There is no segmentation, only unification because everyone needs entertainment. And thats the strength of Brand Micheal. Everyone belonged to one music genre like Pop, Rock, Progressive Rock, R&B etc. But he belonged to entertainment. Thats what good brands do. They position themselves in a way, that makes all the people in the world stand in one common pedestal having one common need for one one common brand.