I was browsing through mediabistro.com, which is a pretty good site, if you haven’t been to it. It is designed for people who are (or would like to be) in careers in the various media outlets. There’s tons of information, job postings, course listings (although I’m not sure if the courses are legitimate/accredited), a section for freelancers, tons of blogs, and more. It’s pretty impressive.
I was browsing through the job postings, as I often do, looking to see what’s available, and where I might have to move after graduation. I was pleased to see that a lot of the jobs that are listed are looking for the specific skills that are being taught to us in the book publishing program. I noticed that a lot of jobs that didn’t directly have to do with web design still wanted a familiarity or working knowledge of html and/or other platforms. As freaked out as a lot of us seemed to get after last class, I’m certainly aware that forcing myself to at least learn the terminology and basic functions of web design will greatly help me in working with programmers and web designers in the future. So thanks Marty, even though I’m still a little worried about our mid-term. But I digress…
One of the blog posts on the site was about Nike’s most memorable TV ad campaigns. It highlighted Nike’s relationship with Portland’s Wieden & Kennedy. A quote from the blog reads: “Nike has been one of those brands that worked out that it's better to influence culture than simply reflect it.” I thought this was interesting in terms of our discussion of brand and product marketing.
How might book publishers influence book culture rather than reflect it? It seems as though publishers, especially the big-name, longstanding ones, are constantly trying to react to changes in the industry, or to make their old strategies keep working (even when they clearly are not). I’m not sure what the answer is, but it’s certainly interesting to consider the ways in which publishers might go about changing the game, so to speak.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Friday, January 29, 2010
Brand vs Product Marketing
The big difference between brand and product marketing is clear in the names. For the former, a company is marketing itself, above and beyond, its particular products. For example, I used to work for a large Pacific NW law firm. Its marketing strategies were very brand oriented. It wanted to create awareness and a good reputation within the community. Few, if any, of its clients would simply see an ad in Portland Business Journal and call to hire an attorney. Publishing ads, as well as planning events and marketing in the community, helped the company to create awareness that translated into potential clients doing research and deciding whether to hire the firm’s attorneys.
Product marketing is the promotion of a product above and beyond the brand it comes from. Nike might market a newly developed running shoe. The commercials will focus on that shoe, and all its benefits and promises. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the shoe is coming from a well-respected and successful company. But the campaign would not focus on Nike as a company, but rather that particular new shoe.
Book publishers, for the most part, rely on product marketing. This is especially true of larger companies that have been around for a long time. Most consumers, though they will likely recognize the Penguin brand for example, will not buy a book they are not interested in just because it is from Penguin. So publishers must promote individual titles, in order to find the audiences that are interested in the particular subject or theme of those titles.
This is a little different for companies that publish for a very specific niche market. It is important for a brand like Timber Press to do some brand marketing, so that readers who are looking for horticulture books know that Timber is a company that can be trusted to produce a good product. If I want a book on tulips, I know that Timber might be a good place to look. But such publishers must focus their marketing plans on particular titles as well. They would want to make consumers aware that there is a new book on tulips, and simply putting out an ad for the press will not be an effective way to do this.
Overall, I’d say that brand marketing, while important for some publishers, is certainly not as effective in selling individual titles as product marketing.
Product marketing is the promotion of a product above and beyond the brand it comes from. Nike might market a newly developed running shoe. The commercials will focus on that shoe, and all its benefits and promises. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the shoe is coming from a well-respected and successful company. But the campaign would not focus on Nike as a company, but rather that particular new shoe.
Book publishers, for the most part, rely on product marketing. This is especially true of larger companies that have been around for a long time. Most consumers, though they will likely recognize the Penguin brand for example, will not buy a book they are not interested in just because it is from Penguin. So publishers must promote individual titles, in order to find the audiences that are interested in the particular subject or theme of those titles.
This is a little different for companies that publish for a very specific niche market. It is important for a brand like Timber Press to do some brand marketing, so that readers who are looking for horticulture books know that Timber is a company that can be trusted to produce a good product. If I want a book on tulips, I know that Timber might be a good place to look. But such publishers must focus their marketing plans on particular titles as well. They would want to make consumers aware that there is a new book on tulips, and simply putting out an ad for the press will not be an effective way to do this.
Overall, I’d say that brand marketing, while important for some publishers, is certainly not as effective in selling individual titles as product marketing.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
E-reader rumor, speculation
I was reading through some blog postings on mediabistro.com, and found that a lot of them (not surprisingly) are dedicated to rumors about the Apple Tablet. There’s speculation about what it will look like (probably pretty much like an iPhone), and rumors about Apple being in talks with McGraw-Hill, Harper Collins, and Hachette about content partnerships with Apple.
Interestingly, another blog discusses the sales of a particular title, Shivering Sands, by Warren Ellis. Ellis is a self-published author who makes his books available through print on demand and downloadable PDFs. So far, his book has sold 708 copies (as of 1/22/10), 44 of which were in electronic form. The post speculates that this is actually a pretty high percentage of e-book sales. That’s a pretty small percentage. The e-book version is less than half of the price of the print version.
This got me thinking about all the hype surrounding e-readers. Of course, many people love new technology, and it’s definitely interesting to speculate about the future of the book as everything becomes more digitized. But I thought about our discussion of publishers’ websites being geared toward the consumer, when only about 2% of publishers’ sales are direct to consumer. So what percentage of book sales are e-books? Amazon reported that on Christmas day, its e-book sales were higher than its print book sales. A lot of what I read denounced this as a marketing ploy, or a result of people wanting to buy new books for the Kindles they got as Christmas gifts. Amazon doesn’t really provide clear data on its e-book sales, mostly stats and figures without any hard numbers.
I would love to find some hard data on numbers of e-book sales. Maybe once Apple unveils its Tablet as a competitor to the Kindle we will be able to see something more concrete.
Interestingly, another blog discusses the sales of a particular title, Shivering Sands, by Warren Ellis. Ellis is a self-published author who makes his books available through print on demand and downloadable PDFs. So far, his book has sold 708 copies (as of 1/22/10), 44 of which were in electronic form. The post speculates that this is actually a pretty high percentage of e-book sales. That’s a pretty small percentage. The e-book version is less than half of the price of the print version.
This got me thinking about all the hype surrounding e-readers. Of course, many people love new technology, and it’s definitely interesting to speculate about the future of the book as everything becomes more digitized. But I thought about our discussion of publishers’ websites being geared toward the consumer, when only about 2% of publishers’ sales are direct to consumer. So what percentage of book sales are e-books? Amazon reported that on Christmas day, its e-book sales were higher than its print book sales. A lot of what I read denounced this as a marketing ploy, or a result of people wanting to buy new books for the Kindles they got as Christmas gifts. Amazon doesn’t really provide clear data on its e-book sales, mostly stats and figures without any hard numbers.
I would love to find some hard data on numbers of e-book sales. Maybe once Apple unveils its Tablet as a competitor to the Kindle we will be able to see something more concrete.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Why target consumers?
I think there are a couple of reasons that publishers’ websites are targeted toward consumers. The first is that, even if most consumers do not buy a book directly from the publishers’ site, most do expect a Web presence, and expect to be able to find information about titles and other information that is relevant to them as readers. I buy a good share of my books online, never from publishers’ sites, but I frequently check those sites to see what information there is. If I were to do a Google search for a book, and the publishers’ site didn’t come up, I would be thrown off. I want to see that the publisher is putting out information about the title, not just selling it through Amazon and forgetting about it.
Secondly, I think there is probably a status quo among publishers. A company is unlikely to reconfigure its website to target booksellers if none of the other publishers are doing so. Also, do booksellers even go to publishers’ websites for information about titles? It seems as though there is already a pretty well established system for publishers, bookbuyers/sellers, and distributors to exchange information. I wouldn’t think that the publishers’ website would be the first place a bookseller would go for information about a particular title. That information is likely going to be presented to the bookseller, without having to specifically seek it out.
Bottom line, while consumers may not buy titles directly from the publishers’ website, there still needs to be marketing targeting consumers. We learned that an incredibly small percentage of publishers’ income is from direct sales. But consumers are the end users. Though booksellers are the ones who make up the primary market for publishers, the consumer still has to buy the book at some point, or it is pointless for the bookseller to buy it in the first place.
Secondly, I think there is probably a status quo among publishers. A company is unlikely to reconfigure its website to target booksellers if none of the other publishers are doing so. Also, do booksellers even go to publishers’ websites for information about titles? It seems as though there is already a pretty well established system for publishers, bookbuyers/sellers, and distributors to exchange information. I wouldn’t think that the publishers’ website would be the first place a bookseller would go for information about a particular title. That information is likely going to be presented to the bookseller, without having to specifically seek it out.
Bottom line, while consumers may not buy titles directly from the publishers’ website, there still needs to be marketing targeting consumers. We learned that an incredibly small percentage of publishers’ income is from direct sales. But consumers are the end users. Though booksellers are the ones who make up the primary market for publishers, the consumer still has to buy the book at some point, or it is pointless for the bookseller to buy it in the first place.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Web Pages That Suck
Since we’ve been looking into some successful and not-so-successful publishers’ websites, I decided to see what I could find on the Web about effective websites/design in general.
One of the first sites I found was webpagesthatsuck.com. Though it sounds like it would be entirely devoted to making fun of the many terrible websites that can be found online, there is also a lot of helpful information for businesses looking to improve their sucky websites. Really, the majority of the site is dedicated to bad websites, with lists of the Ugliest/Worst Business Websites from 2005-2009 and Worst Webpages of the Decade. It’s harsh, especially because these are actually business or non-profit websites—not just the result of some kid messing around on his parents’ computer. But it’s also true. The websites listed are really bad.
But what’s also there is a Web Redesign Checklist, featuring a long list of things a business should look for to determine if its website sucks. The recurring message is that if your site or its content is designed to meet the needs of your business rather than the needs of the visitors that are reaching the site, your website sucks. A few more ways to tell if your website sucks:
• A quick scan of the homepage doesn’t tell visitors much about your purpose
• There is any Flash, splash, or background music (unless it is a music website)
• There are pop-ups
• The text is too small, or in ALL CAPS
• There are dead links, or sections that are under construction but still accessible
• The calendar information is outdated
• There is scrolling, blinking, fading, or moving text
• Links are not clearly labeled
• The color scheme is ugly
The checklist provides 149 different items, all of which have probably annoyed users at one time or another when visiting business websites. The solution the author provides is for the web designer to go through and fix any items on the company’s website that were checked. It seemed overly simple at first; but really, if you are aware of the bad design elements present on your business website, it shouldn’t be that hard to fix them.
The funny part is that webpagesthatsuck.com is not very well designed itself. The author (designer? Sucky webpage determiner?), Vincent Flanders, freely admits that the site has always been poorly designed. I thought that a poorly designed website about poorly designed websites would undermine the credibility of the information presented, but the checklist Flanders provides seems to me—a person with little to no web design experience—to be legitimate.
One of the first sites I found was webpagesthatsuck.com. Though it sounds like it would be entirely devoted to making fun of the many terrible websites that can be found online, there is also a lot of helpful information for businesses looking to improve their sucky websites. Really, the majority of the site is dedicated to bad websites, with lists of the Ugliest/Worst Business Websites from 2005-2009 and Worst Webpages of the Decade. It’s harsh, especially because these are actually business or non-profit websites—not just the result of some kid messing around on his parents’ computer. But it’s also true. The websites listed are really bad.
But what’s also there is a Web Redesign Checklist, featuring a long list of things a business should look for to determine if its website sucks. The recurring message is that if your site or its content is designed to meet the needs of your business rather than the needs of the visitors that are reaching the site, your website sucks. A few more ways to tell if your website sucks:
• A quick scan of the homepage doesn’t tell visitors much about your purpose
• There is any Flash, splash, or background music (unless it is a music website)
• There are pop-ups
• The text is too small, or in ALL CAPS
• There are dead links, or sections that are under construction but still accessible
• The calendar information is outdated
• There is scrolling, blinking, fading, or moving text
• Links are not clearly labeled
• The color scheme is ugly
The checklist provides 149 different items, all of which have probably annoyed users at one time or another when visiting business websites. The solution the author provides is for the web designer to go through and fix any items on the company’s website that were checked. It seemed overly simple at first; but really, if you are aware of the bad design elements present on your business website, it shouldn’t be that hard to fix them.
The funny part is that webpagesthatsuck.com is not very well designed itself. The author (designer? Sucky webpage determiner?), Vincent Flanders, freely admits that the site has always been poorly designed. I thought that a poorly designed website about poorly designed websites would undermine the credibility of the information presented, but the checklist Flanders provides seems to me—a person with little to no web design experience—to be legitimate.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Two Small Publishers' Websites
When I first started to browse book publishers’ websites, I looked at big name companies—Penguin, Simon and Schuster, University of Chicago Press (whose website I liked quite a bit), etc. They all seemed to have it together. There was a lot of information, convenient links, the ability to purchase books via the website, reviews, and more.
I then decided it might be beneficial to look at the websites of smaller presses; after all, Ooligan is a small press, and we are thinking about how to improve our website. Nightboat Press publishes poetry and prose books and is found online at nightboat.org. The website is a Wordpress blog, but it is clear that some thought went into the look and content. The site has most of the information that readers, authors, and distributors would look for. There is a catalog with reviews of titles and links for purchase, a submissions page with clear guidelines, ordering and distribution info, links to current titles with author info, and more. They have also highlighted current news and events on a sidebar on the home page. Nightboat clearly thought about who would be looking at its site and provided most of the information each audience would be looking for.
Antrim House is a publisher of poetry, and can be found online at antrimhousebooks.org. This website is also very simple, but not in the same clean way as Nightboat. The layout of the pages is ugly, and the text is difficult to read. In fact, there is way too much text on most of the pages, especially the About Us page. There, you can find submissions and other info, but the text is so small and cramped that it is difficult to read through and find any relevant information. This is a disservice to both interested readers and potential authors. There is also a page entitled “Seminar Room,” although it is not clear what exactly this page is for. There are some questions for authors, some musings by authors, some reviews, some photos…I couldn’t figure out who the page was targeting or what I could get out of it. The press does have a way to purchase its books from the site and a current list of author events and appearances. Overall, the layout and presentation of information here was overwhelming and confusing. It seems as though the creators did not think about their audience and the difficulties it would have with this site.
I then decided it might be beneficial to look at the websites of smaller presses; after all, Ooligan is a small press, and we are thinking about how to improve our website. Nightboat Press publishes poetry and prose books and is found online at nightboat.org. The website is a Wordpress blog, but it is clear that some thought went into the look and content. The site has most of the information that readers, authors, and distributors would look for. There is a catalog with reviews of titles and links for purchase, a submissions page with clear guidelines, ordering and distribution info, links to current titles with author info, and more. They have also highlighted current news and events on a sidebar on the home page. Nightboat clearly thought about who would be looking at its site and provided most of the information each audience would be looking for.
Antrim House is a publisher of poetry, and can be found online at antrimhousebooks.org. This website is also very simple, but not in the same clean way as Nightboat. The layout of the pages is ugly, and the text is difficult to read. In fact, there is way too much text on most of the pages, especially the About Us page. There, you can find submissions and other info, but the text is so small and cramped that it is difficult to read through and find any relevant information. This is a disservice to both interested readers and potential authors. There is also a page entitled “Seminar Room,” although it is not clear what exactly this page is for. There are some questions for authors, some musings by authors, some reviews, some photos…I couldn’t figure out who the page was targeting or what I could get out of it. The press does have a way to purchase its books from the site and a current list of author events and appearances. Overall, the layout and presentation of information here was overwhelming and confusing. It seems as though the creators did not think about their audience and the difficulties it would have with this site.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Book Choice
In choosing a book for my end of term book report, I first scanned the titles on the list to see which ones stuck out by name alone. I thought about what I am looking to gain from this class, and how each book might help me understand and use online marketing better. As I am not a writer looking to promote my own work or heavily involved in the business world, I was able to eliminate some titles right away. I narrowed my choices down to three: The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Oline Media to Reach Buyers Directly; Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies; and DigiMarketing: The Essential Guide to New Media and Digital Marketing. I then set about researching these titles online.
My first step was to simply do a Google search on each book. The first site that came up for both New Rules of Marketing and Groundswell was Amazon, which is not surprising. Each book received an average of 4.5 stars out of five by Amazon readers. But while New Rules had 183 reviews (with 130 being five stars), Groundswell had ninety-eight (with sixty-one five-star reviews). This told me that either more people were reading the first title in general, or that more people felt compelled to review it. Certainly, that many high reviews made me interested to see what all the fuss is about. Digitmarketing had a five-star average rating on Amazon—but it was only reviewed by nine people, which made me want to read it less by comparison.
Each of the titles had a website either associated directly with the book, or with the author. David Meerman Scott (New Rules of Marketing) has an impressive site at davidmeermanscott.com that includes tons of information about his book and his work, as well as an extensive author bio. His site links to his blog, which is updated regularly and which links to his Twitter page. The site makes him seem accessible and relatable. His book also has been reviewed by Publishers Weekly, and spent six months on Business Week’s bestseller list. All of this information, as well as a list of the other books he has written, is available on his site.
The site associated with Groundswell (forrester.com/groundswell) impressed me less. Forrester is a technology and market researching company, and the authors of the book are researchers employed by the company. The company does have a blog, which is updated fairly regularly, but users must pay to access much of the content on the site. The way the site was presented made me feel as though the book was simply another way for Forrester to make more money, rather than educate me as a reader.
I was also turned off a little by the website associated with DigiMarketing (digimarketingnow.com). The way the site is set up almost made the book appear something like a computer manual, rather than an engaging book about digital marketing. There were author bios, but they included limited information and did not make the authors seem as approachable as David Meerman Scott’s site. There was no blog linked to the site.
Overall, the combination of many good reviews on Amazon and an engaging website most heavily influenced my decision to choose The New Rules of Marketing and PR
My first step was to simply do a Google search on each book. The first site that came up for both New Rules of Marketing and Groundswell was Amazon, which is not surprising. Each book received an average of 4.5 stars out of five by Amazon readers. But while New Rules had 183 reviews (with 130 being five stars), Groundswell had ninety-eight (with sixty-one five-star reviews). This told me that either more people were reading the first title in general, or that more people felt compelled to review it. Certainly, that many high reviews made me interested to see what all the fuss is about. Digitmarketing had a five-star average rating on Amazon—but it was only reviewed by nine people, which made me want to read it less by comparison.
Each of the titles had a website either associated directly with the book, or with the author. David Meerman Scott (New Rules of Marketing) has an impressive site at davidmeermanscott.com that includes tons of information about his book and his work, as well as an extensive author bio. His site links to his blog, which is updated regularly and which links to his Twitter page. The site makes him seem accessible and relatable. His book also has been reviewed by Publishers Weekly, and spent six months on Business Week’s bestseller list. All of this information, as well as a list of the other books he has written, is available on his site.
The site associated with Groundswell (forrester.com/groundswell) impressed me less. Forrester is a technology and market researching company, and the authors of the book are researchers employed by the company. The company does have a blog, which is updated fairly regularly, but users must pay to access much of the content on the site. The way the site was presented made me feel as though the book was simply another way for Forrester to make more money, rather than educate me as a reader.
I was also turned off a little by the website associated with DigiMarketing (digimarketingnow.com). The way the site is set up almost made the book appear something like a computer manual, rather than an engaging book about digital marketing. There were author bios, but they included limited information and did not make the authors seem as approachable as David Meerman Scott’s site. There was no blog linked to the site.
Overall, the combination of many good reviews on Amazon and an engaging website most heavily influenced my decision to choose The New Rules of Marketing and PR
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