Week 2: Pub355 Introducing the Longtail

Intro to The Long Tail
PUB 355: September 15, 2011
by Monique Trottier

monique@boxcarmarketing.com
You should follow me on twitter @boxcarmarketing

Last Week’s Reading
• Course Outline: http://bit.ly/sfu-pub355
• Also available: http://pub355.wordpress.com
• Darren Barefoot and Julie Szabo, Introduction and Chapter 1,
Friends With Beneﬁts, xxiii – 20

• Chris Anderson, "The Long Tail," Wired 12.10,
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail.html

twitter: @boxcarmarketing

The Theory of the Long Tail
• Hit-driven economics is a creation of an age
without room to carry everything for everybody.

• Hit-driven mindset suggests that if something isn’t
a hit, it won’t make money.

• With the web, the cost of reaching customers has
fallen dramatically.

• The “misses” or non-hits usually make money too.

• More choice in the market significantly changes
consumption patterns.

• iTunes, Amazon, Netflix built businesses off the
misses

• We’ve moved from consuming a small number of
hits and bestsellers to a large number of niche
products.

• Example: Amazon and iTunes

• Source: http://www.novelr.com/2008/02/08/the-long-tail-and-online-ﬁction-how-to-get-
read

The Cost of Reaching Consumers Has
Dropped because of 3 Factors:

• Democratization of the tools for production

• Democratization of distribution

• The ability to connect supply with demand


Democratization:
Tools of Production
• Personal computers, the internet and cheap
technology have given the majority of people
access to tools of production:

• Blogging software like WordPress is free.

• Video and music production software is cheap
- iMovie and GarageBand come pre-installed
on macs.

• Production costs are no longer a major barrier to
entry.


Democratization of Distribution
• With the web, anyone can distribute – there are
no geographical limits and no costs of physical
shelf space or warehousing.


The Ability to Connect
Supply With Demand
• In the past, we found products through mass
media (TV, radio, newspapers and magazines).

• We are in a period of transition, where we now
also ﬁnding products by searching online and
reading peer reviews.

• The web allows us to ﬁnd niche goods that are
tailored to our personal tastes and areas of
interest.


What the Long Tail Means
for Marketing

• The examples of Amazon and iTunes shows us that customers have
more and more products to choose from.

• Just 25 years ago there were, GUESS HOW MANY

• Running shoe styles

• Over-the-counter pain relievers

• Soft drink brands

• Choices on a McDonald's menu


What the Long Tail Means
for Marketing
• As marketers, we need to ﬁnd ways to stand out.
But how?

• The media landscape has changed. It’s more
fragmented. There are more tv channels, more radio
channels, more magazines, more news sources …
This means that as marketers we can’t depend on
“mass media” because it’s not reaching the same
“mass audience”.

• Audience attention is fragmented.


• There are 2 ways to think about the Long Tail.

• What it tell us about the market
(number of products, choice architecture)

• What it tells us about marketing
(mass market vs. niche markets)


With the Long Tail, Publishers Should
Be Asking Themselves:
• How do I take my book or newspaper content
and sell it in all diﬀerent channels?

• If I can’t sell exactly the same thing, because
we’ve trained people to think that things online
are free, then what can I get them to pay for?

• Or, how do I just communicate to my audience in
all the places where they are, rather than forcing
them to come to my channel, my newspaper, my
website?


What’s Fascinating about Google,
Amazon, Netflix, iTunes
• Their business model is the clue to how customers
behave in markets of infinite choice.

• Those companies are at the head because they’ve
build business models based on availability, trusted
sources, filtering, searchability and discovery. Those
players have the attention because they’re using
technology that responds to what users want to do.

• People no longer only buy what’s available. They buy
what they want. And if they can’t find exactly what
they want right away, there’s the internet—someone,
somewhere is offering exactly what they want.


In-Class Exercise

You should follow me on twitter @boxcarmarketing

Positioning Statement

1. For (who is the customer?)

2. Who need (what is their pain?)

3. Product X is (what is your product?)

4. That provides (how does it solve the pain?)

5. Unlike competitors (what competes with your product?)

6. Our product (what makes your product superior?)

7. Also provides (what added punch is provided to seal the
deal?)

Week 2: Pub355 Introducing the Longtail

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Week 2: Pub355 Introducing the Longtail