Remember the two key words for any business success - "competitive advantage". No amount of money, talent or time will compensate for this. Knowing what makes you special and how a market segment values it is the key to a successful business. Read this article through to the end to see this discussed and applied.
As E-Books Gain, Barnes and Noble Tries to Stay Ahead - NYTimes.com
Thursday, August 12, 2010
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3 comments:
This is a very interesting article. We can see there is a very storng trend occuring. The transformation to a digital world is becoming increasingly evident. At first, it was the music industry and now books. Personally, I believe going digital is a clever move, we are now more eco-friendly and it's lowering prices benefiting everyday consumers. We can expect to see a variation of digital transformations in the years ahead.
I actually work in this industry right now and send advanced mailings out for many publishers and also the ABA.
It seems the more the digital selling increases the more they are spending in promotion.
One thing that digital failed in was the advanced copies of the books to reviewers. Imagine receiving hundreds of emails a week with PDFs in them or links to download. This is what has so far killed advanced digital copies.
One thing I also think the business has to weary of is piracy. Once people figure out how to crack and copy they will lose even more sales.
The comparative advantage for selling books lies right now with Amazon because of the way they purchase their books. Most publishers sell their books to B&N and allow B&N to return any unsold copies.
Amazon goes to the publisher and cuts deals like, "we take 50,000 books and we will not return them." The publisher then gives Amazon a lower cost allowing Amazon to sell the book much cheaper then B&N, Borders or any store for that matter.
The comparative advantage that is still up for grabs is who can find the perfect medium for digital and physical books. Is that an online store or is it a brick and mortar store? I think it might be a brick and mortar such as the new lifestyle centers that has an internet cafe, bookstore, and various other stores.
Wow!!! It's amazing to see the changes that Barnes and Nobles is incorportating. With the digital world, of course Barnes and Nobles has to step it up and find new ways to gain business. I'm just curious to see how this innovation will turn out. I personally love Barnes and Nobles its a place that I go to for piece and quiet. Now introducing games and toys for children?? Time will tell how this all will fall into place.
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