So Misguided

In Part 5, Dan and I talk about the marketing of books.

With the many multimedia channels that are being explored by publishers is it creating a move away from point-of-sale in-store marketing to direct consumer marketing?

Dan:
In a Wall Street Journal article earlier this year, Jim Warren, the Chicago Tribune’s managing editor/features said publishing is “The last industry in America to go to for any wisdom about marketing!”

So I suspect the question is not ‘digital vs POS?’, but rather ‘how do we market books better?’…

Monique:
It’s a strange question. As Dan mentions below, I’m not sure POS materials were ever really for the consumer. They look good in the store, maybe they help customers notice certain titles. But are we talking about displays and posters? They don’t have any interaction or engagement on a customer level, not like a blog, online review, podcast. That to me is more about having a conversation with potential readers. A poster is a poster.

In your opinion, are in-store materials still as effective as they have been in the past?

Dan:
Are in-store materials for customers or for the store themselves? Isn’t POS marketing a way of giving the bookstore something other than a bigger discount?

I’m sure customers like freebies too, but I am not sure it is about selling more books directly.

As long as there are bookstores I am sure there will continue to be POS marketing. 

Again, I agree with Dan. If we’re talking about bookmarks, posters and displays, it’s not the same as a shampoo sample in the drugstore. And I’m not sure if it was ever meant to be.

Perhaps that’s why they are ineffective, the purpose behind them is unclear.

Do most customers respond to the digital content, traditional advertising, or POS materials?

Dan:
Nobody really believes advertising works and yet everybody still does it just in case it does… So whilst I’m not sure any of these things work by themselves, they probably don’t hurt, so we’ll keep on doing them … I point you back to that Jim Warren quote …

Monique:
Digital content: people respond to digital content that is engaging.
Traditional advertising: people respond to advertising that is creative.
POS materials: people respond well to point-of-sale materials that make sense.

I refer you also to the Jim Warren quote.
I think publishers get it, perhaps they just don’t get it right.

Does this represent an opportunity to reach out beyond the traditional market for books, to reach potential consumers that traditionally may not have been prone to walk into a bookstore?

Dan:
Yes for sure, but also it allows you to appeal to niche markets that aren’t necessary in one geographic area. It ties in quite nicely to Chris Anderson’s long tail ideas in that sense …

Monique:
Where did the questions come from this week?
Who is this “traditional” market and when did we only include bookstore customers in that market. Geez.

I don’t have numbers on this, but I suspect that non-traditional or non-book retailers collectively outsell and outnumber traditional book retailers. This is one of the challenges for independent retailers and for publishers. The barriers to entry for carrying book stock are very low. This means there are a lot of people in the market who are selling books, including Home Depot, Costco, Superstore, London Drugs, and Starbucks.

With so many players--and big players who usually only want to carry bestsellers and new releases at discounted prices--this creates a marketplace that overvalues the bestsellers and new releases. Something Chris Anderson tells us to stop doing. All those big players with deep discounted prices also create a market that puts a lower perceived value on books. That’s not good for anyone, in particular independent retailers who can’t match the discounts.

The challenge then is not “should we look beyond traditional marketing to our traditional market base,” but rather “how in a fragmented market do we match readers to good books?”

Better books. Better marketing. Better questions next week.

Better Books--a conversation in multiple parts:

* Introduction
* Part 1. Market challenges.
* Part 2. The music industry and the book industry.
* Part 3. We go on a bit, discussing what we’ve learned.
* Part 4. Ebooks and POD.

I’ll probably go backwards and respond to the past parts since I can’t seem to keep up

I think point of sale items have been point of sale items for too long.  Perhaps it’s just from my small amount of experience but I think people would rather have value-added content/items than take yet another point of sale item.

We don’t need an excerpt on the bookmark, we don’t need another look at the cover image, we need stuff that expands and works as an extension of the book.  As you put it Monique, we need POS items that make sense, not to us ... but to the consumer who has no clue about the book.

Chris Anderson makes a good point about focusing on the long-term, however most businesses can’t operate only focusing on the long-term.

With traditional marketing, I often find that it’s almost as if we use the same formula over and over again.  What’s funny are our expectations and beliefs about these traditional methods of marketing. 

Often I find we are tackling the same market—those who love books.  We are not focusing on those who don’t love books, those who dislike reading and those who don’t care enough about books to keep up with what’s going on.  These are people who are interested in a large variety of topics but they are not going to be motivated simply by someone telling them it’s a good book, here’s an excerpt, go read it.

The Internet however has given use the potential to reach these people but how we go about it is important.  The same formula does not work with them and more often than not, I find the author plays a huge role over the Internet.

Random House is lucky in the sense that they can afford to have someone in-house develop a widget-like book search/quote module that people can use on their websites and blogs. 

Amazon is also lucky because they can connect directly with users on Facebook now that Facebook has opened up their platform allowing users to use an Amazon widget and enter in book reviews.

Where does that leave the Canadian book publishing industry?  Where does that leave Canadian booksellers?  What should take place is a collaborative effort between booksellers and publishers alike to further develop these open source opportunities and share it with the industry.  Otherwise all that will really happen is a little bit of leap frogging between publishers who can afford to invest into a little technology and then watch as it becomes outdated.

I think most Canadian publishers and booksellers are simply overwhelmed. They are experiencing rapid changes in some parts of their industry and a stagnation in others. With online marketing and sales, they need to set realistic expectations, follow best practices and be prepared to ramp up when things go right.

As an industry we spend far too much time, planning and planning and planning to do something great online, but we never get to the doing. We also spend a lot of time listening to experts from the US. No offense to those experts but the American market, although similar to the Canadian market, has distinct differences in online behaviour. And, it kills me that there are experts in Canada, people who get the internet and get Canadian publishing or get marketing to Canadians, and yet they don’t get called upon.

I’m not ranting or airing grievances here, I’m simply saying that there are places for us to start. Let’s start.