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July 31, 2005
The marketing world is flat
"I loved Amazon.com until it started providing a global platform that wasn't selling only my new books but also used versions. And I am still not sure how I feel about Amazon offering sections of this book to be browsed online for free."
-- Thomas Friedman, "The World is Flat" (page 102)
Dear Tom,
You raise two questions that thousands of content creators, manufacturers, resellers -- just about everyone -- grapple with every day:
1. How much of my product/service do I give away?
2. How do I control the aftermarket for my product?
Let's start with the first question: How should you feel about Amazon making your book browseable? You should feel very, very happy.
Try-before-you-buy is tried-and-true. It's high-value. It's some of the best marketing available to you.
Just getting a book into the hands of a prospect is a victory unto itself. Whether a sampler actually buys your book is determined by an emotional connection you've previously established with the readers, such as your television appearances or your New York Times column, the book's subject matter and its relevance, or how strongly it was recommended by a trusted source. All of the other awareness stuff, like ad campaigns, is expensive and probably not very effective. Amazon makes try-before-you-buy free.
Yours is a common reaction. Every day, customer evangelism change-agents inside organizations argue against "our product is too valuable to give any of it away" proponents. It's a gray-hair inducing battle for word-of-mouth marketers.
But alas, the more you give away, the more valuable it becomes. Indeed for my book, I wish Amazon offered more than six pages (other than the table of contents and index) for its customers to sample. Perhaps an entire chapter. Two chapters. Making more pages available for Amazon customers to browse means a better chance of readers becoming engrossed in a book's message, its style and its knowledge. After all, Tom, your book is 469 pages long.
And six pages on Amazon is nothing compared to a Barnes & Noble cafe browser who might read half of your book in an afternoon, then put it back on the shelf. So, your concern seems misplaced.
Tom, your second issue of used book sales is, well, old-school. It's not about losing a $1.25 royalty. It's about spreading your message. The customer who buys and reads a used copy of your book, or borrows it from a library, could later show up at a cocktail party and casually mention during the festivities: "Have you read Friedman's 'The World is Flat?' Marvelous book. It says we need to wake up to the reality of global competition and open source development and how companies can position themselves into this new paradigm."
That's word of mouth.
So Tom, this flattened world you describe in your terrific book... it's happening to marketing and sales, too.
Your fan,
Ben
UPDATE: Gary Stein of Jupiter Research weighs in on this too, pointing toward research from Amazon (via Boing Boing and the NYT) that indicates the presence of used books on the site leads to more sales of new books. Moreover, the presence of used books does not have a big impact on the sale of new books.
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Love your blog. Friedman's one of those people whom I love one minute and hate the next. What ignorant things to say! Maybe if I trotted down to my local bookstore, I should only be allowed to peruse up to six pages of any book?
Science fiction writer Cory Doctorow releases all of his novels on the internet under a Creative Commons license at the same time that they're published on paper. Doing one helps the other and vice versa. And he's not the only one doing this; more and more writers are.
Good assessment, as always Ben.
I don't believe I've ever bought a book without reading a portion first.
I totally agree with what you're saying. I wish more people felt this way and took the time to express themselves. Keep up the great work.
Mary Anne Martin
http://www.flowersdeliveredfast4u.com
This blog posting is great. Your views are very true. Everyone should start thinking as you are doing.
Andrea Jasperson
http://www.flowersdeliveredfast4u.com
