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The Long Tail by Chris Anderson, Chris Anderson (2006, Hardcover)
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Author: Chris Anderson,Chris Anderson
Publisher: Hyperion Books
Publication Date: 2006-07-11
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN-10: 1401302378
ISBN-13: 9781401302375
Product ID: EPID51695820
Description: In THE LONG TAIL, business journalist Chris Anderson examines the revolution in the online world, identifying key trends that affect the way people sell and shop. THE LONG TAIL is an expansion and a rethinking of Anderson's widely circul...
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| Synopsis In THE LONG TAIL, business journalist Chris Anderson examines the revolution in the online world, identifying key trends that affect the way people sell and shop. THE LONG TAIL is an expansion and a rethinking of Anderson's widely circulated 2004 Wired magazine article in which he highlighted the importance of niche markets in the new economy; his ideas are grounded in economics, mathematics, distribution curves, and marketing. Using graphs, Anderson illustrates the phrase "the long tail," which refers to products that, in the old economy, did not sell in large quantities, and thus did not merit space on the very limited shelves of brick-and-mortar stores; the blockbusters, or "hits," which made profits and were restocked, fall into the "short head" of the graph. Anderson explains how and why, using virtual inventories, e-commerce sites can exploit the "long tail," by recognizing niches--small pockets of high interest--since, as he says in his subtitle, selling less of more things can be profitable. Anderson shows this to be true by means of examples drawn from the fast-evolving music and entertainment sectors. Essential to all of this are more sophisticated search engines--including Google--and "aggregators," companies that assemble and organize information about products so that companies can sell further down the long tail. Anderson also sees a trend toward the greater use of filters and recommendations, including sites, such as Daily Candy, that do nothing but advise shoppers about what to buy. Anderson shows how enormous profits are being made by companies such as eBay, Netflix, Rhapsody, and others whose virtual inventories offer a selection of products many times greater than brick-and-mortar stores--independent videos, for example, versus Hollywood blockbusters. In THE LONG TAIL, it all comes down to "hits" and "niches." In THE LONG TAIL, business journalist Chris Anderson examines the revolution in the online world, identifying key trends that affect the way people sell and shop. THE LONG TAIL is an expansion and a rethinking of Anderson’s widely circulated 2004 Wired magazine article in which he highlighted the importance of niche markets in the new economy; his ideas are grounded in economics, mathematics, distribution curves, and marketing. Using graphs, Anderson illustrates the phrase "the long tail," which refers to products that, in the old economy, did not sell in large quantities, and thus did not merit space on the very limited shelves of brick-and-mortar stores; the blockbusters, or "hits," which made profits and were restocked, fall into the "short head" of the graph. Anderson explains how and why, using virtual inventories, e-commerce sites can exploit the "long tail," by recognizing niches--small pockets of high interest--since, as he says in his subtitle, selling less of more things can be profitable. Anderson shows this to be true by means of examples drawn from the fast-evolving music and entertainment sectors. Essential to all of this are more sophisticated search engines--including Google--and "aggregators," companies that assemble and organize information about products so that companies can sell further down the long tail. Anderson also sees a trend toward the greater use of filters and recommendations, including sites, such as Daily Candy, that do nothing but advise shoppers about what to buy. Anderson shows how enormous profits are being made by companies such as eBay, Netflix, Rhapsody, and others whose virtual inventories offer a selection of products many times greater than brick-and-mortar stores--independent videos, for example, versus Hollywood blockbusters. In THE LONG TAIL, it all comes down to "hits" and "niches."
Publisher's Note Examines how, thanks to a drop in the cost of reaching consumers, the marketplace is changing from a one-size-fits-all model to an abundance of variety to appeal to consumers who want more of a choice, and can get it thanks to the commercial viability of distribution, manufacturing, and marketing. Industry Reviews (08/10/2006) (01/19/2007) | See an error? Submit a change request | ||||||||||||||||
Top Reviews Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of MoreReview created: 08/23/06  8 of 9 people found this review helpful. The phrase The Long Tail (as a proper noun with capitalized letters) was first coined by Chris Anderson in a 2004 article in Wired magazine [1] to describe certain business and economic models such as Amazon.com or Netflix. The term long tail is also generally used in statistics, often applied in relation to wealth distributions or vocabulary use. Anderson argued that products that are in low demand or have low sales volume can collectively make up a market share that rivals or exceeds the relatively few current bestsellers and blockbusters, if the store or distribution channel is large enough. Examples of such mega-stores include the online retailer Amazon.com and the online video rental service Netflix. The Long Tail is a potential market and, as the examples illustrate, the distribution and sales channel opportunities created by the Internet often enable businesses to tap into that market successfully. A former Amazon employee described the Long Tail as follows: "We sold more books today that didn't sell at all yesterday than we sold today of all the books that did sell yesterday." This book should be MANDATORY reading for eBay. eBay are you listening? we don't need no stinking auction magic meg. 1. Make everything available 2. Help me find it If you are too poor to buy the book much of the material is available at the authors Blog thelongtaildotcom. The book was entertaining and makes very good points about online vs. shelf economies. Review ID: 10000000001659006 Was this review helpful? Report this review |
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