De Ja Vu with the Book Industry

Last semester in my undergraduate CMGT 456 course with Karen, one of our assignments was to draft a couple briefing memorandums that outlined a marketing tactic from one media industry that could benefit another.

After learning about the slow decline in physical book sales over the past decade, I wanted to focus on improving its publicity. In one of my memos, I suggested using a marketing strategy from the movie industry by incorporating DVDs with every book purchase. The DVDs would implement extra background information about the plot, the author, and the making of the book. In addition, it would include an extra audio book previously released from the same author in order to create an extra 2-for-1 incentive. Of course, the offered book would be less popular and less expensive.

When I read the article entitled, "With Kindle, the Best Sellers Don't Need to Sell," it reminded me of the same assignment that I wrote about just a few months ago. The article discussed the pros and cons of giving away free e-books through Amazon's new electronic book device called the Kindle. One of the most popular products purchased on Amazon this past holiday season, Kindle created more than just a buzz for the book industry.

And what's not to like? It's portable, convenient, environmentally friendly, and...gives out free content? That's right. As a way to facilitate word-of-mouth for less popular authors, some book publishing companies are offering free downloadable books in anticipation of the author's next book release in a series. For many authors of all genres, such as romance and Christian thrillers, sales have exponentially increased. However, some companies want to retain the integrity of the books and refuse to distribute them for free.

When I read this article, I was pleasantly surprised to see the same concept that I wrote about in my assignment. The main point was to stimulate a stir for less popular authors and simultaneously increase physical book sales. Only in this circumstance, the free book correlates with e-book sales. Even though the comparison is not exactly the same, I'm glad that this tactic succeeded and I could actually see this strategy come into fruition.