On Fri, Oct 23, 2009 at 01:11:38AM -0400, Bowerbird@aol.com wrote:
My thinking is that having a huge back-catalogue of titles is mostly a marketing gimmick.
um, i'm not sure how that "gimmick" is supposed to work.
having more titles in your catalog isn't going to make me any more (or less) likely to order a specific book from you. if i want a particular book, i'll order it. if i don't, i won't.
if i don't want it, i'm not sure why your having a million -- or two million, or twenty million -- other titles would make me decide to change my mind and suddenly want it.
You can see this "marketing gimmick" in play every day at places like Amazon and iTunes - check out Chris Anderson's excellent book "The Long Tail" for more on how playing to a marginal market can increase the market impact of a brand. It certainly doesn't mean you're more likely to come to me for a popular item, but if you're looking for something in that "long tail" and you find it with me, you're now "in the door" and I can upsell/cross-sell and target you for future promotions.