Marketing James Patterson Books Essay

Over the last decade James Patterson has print an unprecedented number of popular grievous bodily harmlyows, cemented a powerful blur take in amongst a loyal following, and redefined the process by which authors create content to amass reader posit. From November 2000 through June 2003, Patterson had cumulative gross revenue of over six one million million million dollars, trailing only John Grisham during that time frame. He has generated the majority of his sales through a loyal readership that consistently lines up to buy his near installment.Keenly aware of this dedicated following, Patterson successfully sought to augment the proliferation of his titles with co-authors familiar with his pit that could share the workload, creating a virtual assembly-line of best-sellers. Despite this enormous success, the Patterson brand good-tempered has a sizeable opportunity for growth. Patterson cites a emergency to prolong his, relative to other best-selling authors, narrow r eader base to seize a greater percentage of the omnivorous readers, amongst whom his brand penetration was practically lower. There are two possibilities for Patterson to consider, both involving his relationship with restrain edicts.The set aside night confederacys provide an excellent source of individualized customer education, but absorb non themselves yielded an enormous amount of profitability for already-established authors such as Patterson. The eldest option would be to negotiate higher club royalties with the existing discussion club partnerships. Patterson himself has advocated this approach, citing that the clubs a good deal erode profits from bookstore store sales, and the clubs need him more than he needs the clubs. The second possibility is for Patterson to embrace the book club marketing stupefy, using the clubs customer information to market immediately to the customer.Patterson could identify on an individual and international alkali the omnivorous reader that has not yet embraced his books. He could then seamster a marketing campaign centered around the promotion of his titles directly to these readers. Recommendation The first option would not really address the reverence about Pattersons narrow reader base. While it may be true that the club needs Patterson more than he needs the club, it is still a inwardness to reach a broader audience. It seems more likely that Patterson has simply under-used the club post, which is why the second option would provide a fall in opportunity forPatterson to reach a larger target audience.He mentions that he has not yet become a badge author, meaning that he has not been able to break out of his genre and create a bombilation across a wide paradigm of readers. He does not yet acquire the name recognition as some of his best-selling counterparts, and without this name recognition he needs to seek other means to create a buzz for his beside title. I would advocate allowing book club members exclusive access to his close put out before it is released in book stores or other retail channels.Clubs, with exclusive rights to the pre-released book, would now encounter incentive to impel Patterson as its preeminent selection. This would help create the powerful, and international, grapevine campaign that he is seeking. First, those already loyal to the brand would now induce the opportunity to create anticipation amongst other non-club Patterson loyalists, driving demand for its ultimate release in stores. Secondly, and more importantly, club members not loyal to the brand would now be possessed of an added incentive to sample a Patterson novel.Being give exclusive access to what promises to be a best-seller might be the impetus necessary to finally penetrate more of the omnivorous readers. Now Patterson would have a broad spectrum of readers across the globe discussing his novel and creating a buzz before it even reaches a mass audience. This is a similar model to the one employed in the movie industry, where movies are pre-released to create a word-of-mouth campaign before its larger release. Patterson notes that the book industry is slackly unimaginative, essentially waiting to retroactively replicate the success of the next blockbuster hit.With an exclusive pre-release to a carefully pre-determined list of customers, Patterson would instead be proactively creating a buzz, and potentially, a blockbuster. In terms of channel management, this pre-release should satisfy all members of the channel. Certainly, the book clubs would embrace the idea of being able to market an exclusive release of a Patterson novel, and with exclusive rights, should be able to retain club members for longer commitments. More importantly, this would not have to come at the expense of the retail chains because club members generally would buy books through the club channel anyways.The retail stores, instead, could benefit from the buzz created by club membe rs, as non-club members may now be clamoring to buy the book their friends have already been talking about as soon as it is released in stores. A true blockbuster would increase the size of the pie for all channel members. Channel (2001) Strategic Resources Patterson ?Brand name dominant in evil fiction genre ?Many titles 3 per year vs. 1 for Clancy, Cornwell ?Cliffhanger endings discontinue Patterson readers eager for next installment ? Marketing Expertise Patterson former head of J. Walter Thompson Badge Authors?Name recognition 90% and 84% for Grisham and Clancy (Patterson 54%) ? Broader range of readers ?Books as a status symbols read these authors to impress others Book Clubs ? severalise customer information ?Name-brand authors ?Capable of tracking all book sales and buying behavior Problems Resources ?Patterson name not as well cognise as his book titles ?Relatively narrow range of readers mainly evil fiction addicts ? Not as much status in variant a Patterson novel ?Re latively small international readership Incentives ?Book Clubs push authors with highest name recognition?Patterson books might not be promoted as firmly as books from badge authors ? Deals with clubs risk eroding bookstores profits ?Club members often terminate contract after commitment is over Coordination ?Retail stores hindquarters only track purchase behavior through surveys Recommendation ?Pre-release next best-seller prospect with book club members oPre-release gives book, as well as club members, premium status oGenerates a buzz before retail release in domestic and international markets with Patterson loyalists and omnivorous best-seller readers oCreates anticipation to drive demand for purchases at retail stores.