Customer Reviews

The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More

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Note: The review that follows is of the revised and updated edition of a book that was first published in 2006. It offers essentially the same information and insights except that Anderson has added a new chapter on marketing, one in which he explains "how to sell where `selling' doesn't work." More about this chapter later.

In the October 2004 issue of Wired magazine, Chris Anderson published an article in which he shared these observations: "(1) the tail of available variety is far longer than we realize; (2) it's now within reach economically; (3) all those niches, when aggregated, can make up a significant market - seemed indisputable, especially backed up with heretofore unseen data." That is even truer today than it was when The Long Tail was first published years ago. The era that Anderson characterizes as "a market of multitudes" continues to grow in terms of both its nature and extent. In this book, Anderson takes his reader on a guided tour of this market as he explains what the probable impact the new market will have and what will be required to prosper in it.

According to Anderson, those who read the article saw the Long Tail everywhere, from politics to public relations, and from sheet music to college sports. "What people intuitively grasped was that new efficiencies in distribution, manufacturing, and marketing were changing the definition of what was commercially viable across the board. The best way to describe these forces is that they are turning unprofitable customers, products, and markets into profitable ones." Therefore, the story of the Long Tail is really about the economics of abundance: "what happens when the bottlenecks that stand between supply and demand in our culture start to disappear and everything becomes available to everyone."

If I understand Anderson's most important points (and I may not), they include these:

1. Make as much as possible available to as many people as possible.
2. Help them to locate what they need, quickly and easily.
3. Offer maximum inventory only online.
4. Customize supply chain in terms of niche markets
5. Maximize its efficiencies and economies (especially inventory control, order processing, and distribution,)
5. Be customer-driven in terms of "crowdsourcing"
6. Have strategy that separates content into its component parts (i.e. "microchunking")
7. Have a pricing strategy that is "elastic" (i.e. based on the ROI of fulfillment per product per niche).
8. Have an open source business model for information sharing.
9. In markets where scarcity exists, "guesstimate" costs, margins, sales, profits, etc.
10.Where there is abundant competition, let those markets "sort it all out."

These and other points can guide and inform decision makers as they struggle to compete profitably during the era of "long-tailed distributions," when culture is unfiltered by economic scarcity and high technology is turning mass markets into millions of niches. Anderson provides invaluable advice with regard to how minimize the cost of reaching, penetrating, and then developing a multiple of niche markets. The paradigm has shifted from selling more in fewer markets to selling less in more markets but also, key point, selling as much as possible within as many segments as possible -- and prudent -- within those markets.

With regard to the new chapter, Anderson devotes much of his attention to online marketing and suggests that critical issues to address include these:

Who's influential "in our space (and how we know)"
Who/what influences them
How to get Digged
Effective blogging
Using beta-test invite lists
The art of begging for links
"Link bait" (e.g. stunts, contests, gimmicks, memes)

How to view the Web? "Forget it as a marketplace of products, and instead think of it as a marketplace of opinion. It's the great leveler of marketing. It allows for niche products to get global attention. Most products will be sold offline, as they always were. But in years to come, more and more products will be marketed online, taking advantage of Web methods to fine-slice consumer groups and influence word of mouth more effectively than ever before in history. Not all industries lend themselves to an infinite variety of products, but all industries have an infinite variety of customers. Finally we can treat them like the individuals they are. It's the sunset of the thirty-second spot."

There are several reasons why Anderson believed there is a need for a revised and updated edition. Here are two. Because the earlier version became a bestseller, it attracted lots of attention, generating an abundance of discussion of his core concepts. Also, the process of adopting his ideas (many of which at first seemed counterintuitive, if not precious and naive) was complicated by the globalization of culture. Focus shifted to distributed audiences around the world. Anderson was asked for additional examples of Long Tail effects outside the digital realms of media and entertainment. He certainly could not cover all of the extensions in fashion, travel, organic and "artisanal" food, and even alcohol as indicated by -- to cite one example -- Anheuser-Busch's embrace of niche beers, the establishment of Long Tail Libations, and the increased number of beers from 26 brands in 1997 to 80 in 2007. Given the fact that change continues to be the only constant in the global business world, think of this revised and updated edition as only the latest update on some Long Tail developments thus far.

Presumably the tail will continue to lengthen in months and years to come.

Chris Anderson's groundbreaking examination of the new economics that comes with the internet age (the big revenue doesn't come from the handful of blockbusters so much as from the catalogue of little titles) ironically put The Long Tail near the head of the sales curve, up at the blockbuster end. Deservedly so. Anderson presents a compelling argument, and he illustrates it through imaginative examples and through tight, colourful language. He's a clear, persuasive writer.

In this updated edition, Anderson adds a new chapter on marketing, and in my view this plugs one of the gaps that emerged with the original work. Marketing executives and agency strategists have for two years now been dropping the "long tail" phrase into their dialogue, but the new chapter will help them put the thinking into practice.

A great book just got more timely, more useful.

PS. If you're looking to get a handle on today's marketing paradigm I'd recommend this book alongside Rob Walker's excellent Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are

This is an important book for anyone who wants to understand internet commerce or innovation in services. In addition, "The Long Tail" must be a part of the vocabulary of anyone who wants to talk intelligenly about modern business practices.

The new emphasis on marketing in the new release is a valuable addition to the original.

A current article in HBR attacks the Long Tail on empirical grounds. However, Anderson's response on his website is compelling.

The one quibble with this book is that it is superfluous -- the original essay/article combined with the website covers the issues more fully. However, that said, this book will be more valuable than 90% of the volumes that you have in your business book collection.

I'll be honest. When I bought this book I thought "Come on! Is there really enough content to write 250 pages about the fact that it's now easier to buy hard-to-find stuff on the Internet?" In fact, I was fascinated at the many insight Chris Anderson was able to generate about this interesting pheonomenon.

The fact that 20% of Amazon's sales are from books that sell less than 10 copies each, and are so niche they are nearly impossible to find in bookstores, is merely interesting - deserving, perhaps, a 4-page article in Wired Magazine. But Chris Anderson goes on to explore this phenomenon from many angles, discussing the economics for local booksellers and music stores, sub-segmenting the various long tails that make up the entire long tail, exploring the cultural implications when diverse personalities can find items better suited to their tastes than available in the mainstream, and other interesting twists.

Anderson has an objective and thorough approach. In one chapter, he explores the Paradox of Choice, an insight which says that the more choices available, the harder it is for people to choose, which contradicts the book's claim that the explosion of choice is good. Anderson presents a fair argument for both sides, then reveals that he contacted the authors of the original study for their interpretation. Such self-critical writing is a breath of fresh air.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable book written with flair and intelligence about an issue that is both timely and timeless.

An excellent eye-opening book - highly recommended for the new business models that are changing the landscape for everyone. A must read.

Chris Anderson does a great job explaining the phenomenon that is happening in this new age of virtually unlimited choices in just about every category where "shelf space" or Internet listings cost next to nothing, inventory does not have to be physically maintained and a physical store is not required. Indeed, there is money to be made from products that are not "hits". With so many choices and people searching for an ever-so-specific range of products, companies who offer a very wide range of products will be able to sell a few of each unit per year. On aggregate, these few sales across such a wide range of niches can add up to serious money if your carrying costs are almost zero.

But how do these companies attract their audience?

You'll have to read some other book to learn the answer to that question because Anderson does not answer it.

This book stops short of telling us how these aggregators of vast amounts of products that appeal to a wide range of niche interests build their brands so people find and prefer them in the first place. If anyone can now easily list a virtually unlimited number of products online in just about any product category, what is going to set any one apart from the rest in any given category?

That's where this book falls down.

This book should have talked about the importance of building a dominant brand in your category and how to create strategic brand awareness so YOU are the first choice for consumers shopping your category. In fact, with the cost of entry so low, the author does not tell us how to compete against other companies who choose to operate in the long tail of the same category. If long tail theory holds, then there will eventually be an unlimited number of competitors offering the same vast array of products in your category. How can any one stand out and be preferred?

The answer is to build your brand and the author does not delve into the topic which is a shame.

This is a very good book but it is not going to tell you how to be the supplier of choice in your part of the long tail. You'll have to figure that out on your own.

--Review by the author of the e-book, "How to Build and Manage Your Brand (in sickness and in health)."

Wow.

Where to begin with this one.

Even though this book was released a few years ago, the concepts and contents of this book will probably be relevant for eternity, as long as there are means for abundant choice. I highly recommend everyone read this, particularly if you are in either business or technology, as it is relevant to both fields. (specifically: marketing / internet technology)

Essentially, "The Long Tail" refers to a powerlaw curve, where the vast majority of VOLUME is comprised of very few products, and the vast maority of PRODUCTS individually pull a very small number of sales. (The example used by the author is comparing books / CD's offered by Wal-Mart, which sells only hits, versus the books / CDs sold by Amazon.com, which sells pretty much everything you can imagine). It's a contrasting between "hits" and "niches". In a situation where choice is abundant (such as on amazon) a Long-tail distribution will often emerge.

But the true strength of this book is the insight in both the case-studies and applications.

Anderson looks repeatedly to amazon.com, Rhapsody (the music service), social networking sites like Youtube.com or mySpace/Facebook, the iTunes store, and non-long-tail situations like the traditional music and film industry (the people currently trying to sue their way back into relevance), newspapers, and other media that have traditionally flourished in scarce "shelf space" scenarios.

In today's society, Long Tails frequently emerge as the "tools of production are democratized," or as "filters" become easier to access. People are discovering more and more options available, and are, with the assistance of filters and recommendation services (ie. Netflix, Rhapsody, iTunes, etc.) exploring alternatives and new products like never before.

One of my favorite quotes used in this book is regarding television, originally said by David Foster Wallace: "TV is not vulgar and prurient and dumb because the people who compose the audience are vulgar and dumb. Television is the way it is simply because people tend to be extremely similar in their vulgar and prurient and dumb interests and wildly different in their refined and aesthetic and noble interests." As someone that appreciates both South Park and the Marx Brothers, I can definitely relate. Anderson ties this into his opus through comparing those "vulgar and prurient and dumb" interests to the "hits" culture -- which traditionally had to make the most efficient use of scarce shelf space to maximize sales for the store, the producer, and ultimately the content creator. But in a Long Tail culture, we can explore those refined and aesthetic interests individually, because on the Internet, shelf space is an infinite commodity.

As people are more easily able to produce music, movies, works of art and publish their writing without requiring a high barrier of entry (either economically or temporally), and as the means to seek out these productions becomes easier, it will become more apparent that the demand for this kind of niche content was always there, it was just suppressed by prior technological limitations. Hits will always be hits, but with better filters, those hits will merely serve as lowest-common-denominator entry points to drive people down the tail to other genres and micro-genres they never knew they liked (or existed!).

This book is a must-read. It's not terribly long, but if you have any desire at all to "get" today's culture and the society created by the Internet, this isthe book to start with. (Music & Film Industry people, take note!)

The book is great for all managers, especially if they are in the IT business.

[...]

However, the short version is this: The book is easy to read, and it has a ton of practical application for every business from snack food to shoe sales.

Even more important, it's fun, written like an article in a magazine and something you could knock out on a plane flight. Highly recommended.

Chris Anderson in his book "The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More" described the changes that the Internet has made in retailer markets. Anderson wrote the "The Long Tail" as an article for his magazine "Wired" in 2004, since then the article was a global success and a reference for marketers and business people around the world.

The book compared retailer markets before and after the internet success. In the past, our culture was a "massive popularity contest" since retailer markets were driven by blockbusters and popular hits. There was an era in which consumers did not have the opportunity to explore different interests and tastes, because there were no places to find anything different than recently products. It was a market of multitudes.
Anderson used the statistic model "long-tailed distributions" to illustrate the main point of his article, affirming that today companies could increase their sales and market presence by reaching niche markets.
Markets have changed from massive to niche; today people decide accurately what they want, and where to find it, the more they find the more they like.

In the book, Anderson mentioned the role of "scarcity" in the new online business. Today, distributors and retailers have the opportunity to promote their products without "shelf" restriction; they only need online presence. Therefore, there are certain types of products that are no longer "scarce" in the market. The online market reduced the costs of connecting supply and demand.

Anderson explained the concept of the democratization of producers; people around the world are encouraged to develop products and services and use the Internet as a commercialization channel. Cutting the cost of consumption and connecting supply and demand are also important forces in the new online market; people compete with large corporations in the same market.

In the online market people play significant role as tastemakers and filters. The word of mouth is still the most effective approach to spread ideas and recommend products. In the online markets consumers' reviews are essential, no matter how much companies invest in developing products and selling its benefits, people's opinions will determine the success or the failure of a product or service.

I think Anderson did an excellent job; The Long Tail is a key reference for all the people who want to participate in online markets. No matter how big the corporation or the entrepreneur is, the two most important business strategies in the online market are determine and reach the right niche, and provide that niche with the best. You must to believe in your product no matter how rare it is. The Internet has created a market for all the interests.

The book was written in 2006, at that time social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, etc) were in developing process, this is why I think the author did not mention them. Today, these collaborative tools create more accessibility to reach niche markets.