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On 8/31/02 I wrote an article discussing how Amazon.com
could help themselves and their customers (book
publishers) by promoting book clubs or possibly forming
some of their own using industry experts. I argued
that such a
service offering would be a natural extension for the
company that could (1) increase customer loyalty (2)
increase customer profits (book publishers) and (3)
potentially increase profits at Amazon.com (the key is
execution and how much they manage costs.)
I
found a stunning quote that backed up the information
too....
Page 77 of Management
Challenges in the 21st Century by
Peter Drucker
“Every book
publisher knows that the bulk of its sales (some 60%) and
practically all of its profits come from the
“backlist,” that is, from titles that have been out
more than a year or two.
But no book publisher puts resources into selling
its backlist. All
the efforts are put into selling the new titles.
A major publishing firm had tried for years to get
its salespeople to sell the backlist without any success;
and it also did not itself spend a penny on promoting it.
Then one outside director asked: “Would we handle
the backlist the way we do if we went into it now?” And
when the answer was a unanimous “no,” she asked:
“What do we do now?”
As a result the firm reorganized itself into two
separate units: one buying, editing, promoting and selling
the new titles published in the current year; one
promoting and selling the backlist.
Within two years backlist sales had almost
tripled-and the firm’s profits doubled.
Key Point:
If properly set up a book club could enable
backlisted sales to increase and help drive up
profitability for your customers.
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