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Andrew Davidson 
Susan Menke 
Susan Wolfe 
Lisa Hronek Technology
Electronic Reading Technology is Changing How Publishers and Advertisers Interact with Consumers
I recently read a quote from the writer Maurice Sendak, author of the children’s book “Where the Wild Things Are” that stated his views on e-books, “I hate them… There isn’t another kind of book! A book is a book is a book.” I understand some people’s affection for real books (or even newspapers or magazines). There are the aesthetics of a nice hardcover, or the feel of opening the newspaper with a coffee of cup on a quiet Sunday morning. Not to mention the reading experience that they can deliver, such as reading a good book next to a warm fire on a cold night or relaxing on the couch with a good magazine. But current technology has changed how we read and interact with publishers and advertisers. I recently noticed in USA Today that three of the top selling books are not even available in printed form and are self-published. The technology of e-books and e-readers did not exist until a few years ago. However, e-books now own 15% of the top 20 book listings. This got me thinking about the various traditional print delivery methods that we utilize today and how things are now published. Newspapers, books, and magazines were previously only available in printed form, but they are all usually available electronically now as well. So how are publishers and advertisers taking advantage of this new electronic medium to target, engage, and interact with their consumers?
I recently looked at some magazines and newsletters online and it appeared to me that publishers and advertisers have not yet taken full advantage of e-readers on tablets and smartphones. Unfortunately, it appears that most advertising was presented only in straight PDF format, or it was almost identical to the printed format. With the new electronic reading technology available on tablets and smartphones, why are advertisers not taking advantage, or even embracing the new technology, to include video, web links, and social media with their ads on this new medium? Publishers do not publish the same ad in newspapers as they do online. So why would they not tinker their ads for these new e-readers? Likewise, companies that send newsletters could customize their content to take advantage of the electronic reading technology that is currently available to them.
The electronic reading technology has already been embraced by Bradley University, which published its own custom campus tour guide electronically on the iPad. When prospective students at the university take tours of the campus, they are given an iPad to take on their tour. The iPad shows a campus map and is loaded with 10 videos that show the prospective students different views of the going-ons at Bradley. Campus officials felt the iPad made the tour more engaging to prospective students. To me that surely beats some booklet or campus map that they published and given to me as a handout, right?
In the end, I wanted to challenge Mr. Sendak on his views of reading electronically. Why couldn’t the experience of electronically reading a book (or magazine or newspaper) be expanded with technology for consumers? Why couldn’t the words and images come even more alive with tablets to enhance, rather than replace, the written form? For example, Bradley University incorporated the technology to make it more engaging to prospective students on their campus tour. Likewise, publishers can take advantage of the electronic technology to better interact with consumers through live links, video, and social media. Regardless, the technology now allows people to read more frequently and that is a positive thing for publishers, advertisers, and authors looking to connect more with their targeted audience. The reading world is changing and advertisers, as well as publishers, will need to adapt their previous content to this new technology. In the end, I am just happy that the technology is reducing the weight of books in my messenger bag!
Netflix for Books
You have video game rentals from GameFly, you have movie rentals from Netflix, and soon you might have book rentals from Amazon. Amazon already has the necessary platform of the Kindle to offer this envisioned rental service for eBooks. Now, it is rumored that Amazon is in discussions with publishers to offer books a la Netflix for consumers.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon approached publishing executives with the idea for a digital book library featuring their older titles. The library of content would be available to Amazon Prime subscribers, who pay $79 annually. Amazon Prime subscribers also receive other benefits, such as free two day shipping and unlimited instant streaming on thousands of movies and TV shows. WSJ theorized that Amazon would limit the number of books that customers could read each month and that Amazon offered revenue to publishers for participating in the program.
It appears that publishing executives are not thrilled with the program since it could potentially downgrade the overall value of the book business. It also has the potential to strain their relationships with the remaining book retailers that have not declared bankruptcy. On a positive note, the proposed service would save publishers on printing and shipping costs to book retailers. However, the service from Amazon raised concerns for both publishers and retailers due to its potential effect, which could be similar to how Napster and iPod permanently changed the record store business.
The service could benefit writers by increasing their profits and by increasing their distribution of titles that never attracted previous attention from publishers. Smaller audiences could support the lesser-known authors through the online model of publishing of eBooks. The online model could also allow publishing of more specialty or niche books. For example, Discovery Channel could publish a supplemental book for their annual Shark Week every year. Alternatively, an author could publish a military history book on the Battle of Palmito Ranch from the American Civil War.
It is not known yet how the service would work. It could be unlimited downloads with no expiration dates. Or it could be similar to the Chicago Public Library policy of downloading eBooks. The consumer downloads the book and the book disappears after the expiration date, which results in no overdraft or late fees.
If Amazon does offer this service, I cannot imagine competition sitting on the sidelines. Apple could easily offer a book service through iTunes for their iPad. Google could offer free books on their Android platform through their Google Books Library Project. If the service launches, I am sure both competitors will be a fast follow and competition is always good for the consumer. I know I will look forward to reading (or downloading) more about the new service when it launches.
The crowd isn’t always right
Or are they? It just depends on how you read what they say.
“If I’d asked my customers what they wanted, they’d have said a faster horse.” – Henry Ford
I just introduced some speakers at a fantastic conference hosted by IIR USA called Future Trends 2010. There was a wide range of backgrounds – everyone from the CTO at Hewlett Packard, to a VP for the Chairman’s Innovation Fund at American Express, to a space architect who works on the NASA Human Spaceflight Program. Everyone agreed that hearing all of this diverse information allowed us to look at our industries (and the world) in new and interesting ways.
There are so many things that I could write about, but as an economic anthropologist, I tend to hone in on social networking and where that might be going in the future. One particularly interesting focus was online brand building and how our definition of communities is changing. The related “hot topics” would be how online tracking and social media are allowing us to not only personalize the marketing message, but also to reinvent the “focus group” by crowdsourcing ideas for new product design (among other things).
On one end of the spectrum (the micro-segmentation end), companies are focusing heavily on metrics from behavioral data such as that from social media sites like Facebook. The problem is that we are all becoming so overwhelmed by data that we need to constantly reassess the data was have and how to use it.
On the other end of the spectrum is the “macro” impact of social media, i.e. companies are just beginning to look at reputation management and the possibilities arising from crowdsourcing as a result of the explosion of social media in the last few years.
But crowdsourcing can result in a reversion to the mean – you may not get exceptional answers, just the answers that appeal to the largest number of people. It takes a real creative focus to look at the ideas and determine if there is anything exceptional that can lead the company in new directions. Companies need to remember the impact of “tastemakers” in any social group, no matter what the “crowd” may say.
From what I heard at the conference and from our clients, the biggest danger is going overboard in either direction; there is no “magic” answer for social media. It can actually lead to negative consequences if too much emphasis is placed on one or the other (who else thinks that the personalization of messages on Facebook is kinda creepy?)
This is a topic that deserves and ongoing discussion, so more on this (and the conference) soon…