The Long Tail
New marketing ideas don’t come along very often, but Chris Anderson of Wired magazine may have one. He thinks that the arrival of online distribution and retail is bringing about a profound change in the way consumers relate to books and other media. Until recently, media businesses were governed by the 80-20 rule: 20 percent of the products would generate 80 percent of the sales. Now, as the marketing of media products migrates to the web, customers are able to find and buy anything they want. Web-based retailers such as Netflix, iTunes, and Rhapsody offer hundreds of thousands of products and sell virtually all of it. They generate more revenue from the products down in the catalog than they do from the best-selling hits.
Plot sales on a graph. You have a spike with your best-sellers on the left. Then sales fall off gradually in a long, long line. Anderson calls it “the long tail.” There’s a market for everything. If people can find it, and if the price is right, they will buy it. It is, he says, “an entirely new economic model for the media and entertainment industries.”
Sounds good to me. The books we publish appeal to widely dispersed niche audiences — just the kind of people who are profitable customers for internet-based media companies. It’s hard to find Catholic books in bricks-and-morter book stores with limited shelf space. But shelf space is unlimited on the internet. Our books are always available, and they’re getting easier to find. Let’s figure out how to ride the Long Tail. Begin with Chris Anderson’s “Long Tail” article in Wired magazine here. He also has a blog about the concept here.
Availability is a key but you have to make the ultimate consumer aware of your book. Once they are aware of a title and want this title they can easily find it on the internet or special order if not in a bookstore. Marketing is still the key. Just publishing a book and putting it out in a store or on the internet does not guarantee sales.
Comment on July 5, 2005 @ 12:59 pm
I agree with the article but don’t know how it would work in the book world since things still need to be printed.
We have noticed that as we increase the number of products offered on our site, the number of buyers increases much faster than our traffic volume.
If the Spring Arbor Lightning Source and Xlibris idea of printing on demand were embraced by publishers, nothing would have to go out of print and we could sell things at a lower cost.
Comment on July 6, 2005 @ 5:50 pm
Ian, it sounds like you’ve seen seen the Long Tail in action. You stock items that appeal to a small audience, but those people find them and buy them.
Comment on July 6, 2005 @ 9:09 pm
[…] digm that just might change our business. If the concept is unfamiliar to you, check out my post on the subject a few weeks ago, and follow the link to Chris Anderson’s article about it in Wired m […]
Pingback on July 25, 2005 @ 2:51 am
[…] else who has specialized products to sell. We’ve written about the Long Tail here.
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