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The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More
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Sales rank 39,348
Customers rating (based on 197 reviews)
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What happens when the bottlenecks that stand between supply and demand in our culture go away and everything becomes available to everyone? "The Long Tail" is a powerful new force in our economy: the rise of the niche. As the cost of reaching consumers drops dramatically, our markets are shifting from a one-size-fits-all model of mass appeal to one of unlimited variety for unique tastes. From supermarket shelves to advertising agencies, the ability to offer vast choice is changing everything, and causing us to rethink where our markets lie and how to get to them. Unlimited selection is revealing truths about what consumers want and how they want to get it, from DVDs at Netflix to songs on iTunes to advertising on Google. However, this is not just a virtue of online marketplaces; it is an example of an entirely new economic model for business, one that is just beginning to show its power. After a century of obsessing over the few products at the head of the demand curve, the new economics of distribution allow us to turn our focus to the many more products in the tail, which collectively can create a new market as big as the one we already know. The Long Tail is really about the economics of abundance. New efficiencies in distribution, manufacturing, and marketing are essentially resetting the definition of what’s commercially viable across the board. If the 20th century was about hits, the 21st will be equally about niches.
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| Publisher | Hyperion | | Release date | 07/2006 | | Availability | Usually ships in 24 hours | | Edition | Hardcover |
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Who Needs Blockbusters?: A compelling analysis of how the mass market is giving way to a "mass of niches."
(@ BusinessWeek)
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 A MUST for Marketing and/or Business people
If you work in Marketing or own your own business, this is something you MUST read. Otherwise you must be wasting a LOT of Money and Time. Chris is a great eye opener The Long Tail : Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More
The Long Tail
This book, The Long Tail, is absolutely fascinating! With an ample supply of charts, graphs, facts and statistics, it explains and confirms the transformation of the marketplace that has been taking place around us. Although we all are no doubt already aware of this phenomenon in a general sense (hey, I'm typing this on Amazon, aren't I?), this book brilliantly and concretely articulates the full effect of this across a number of markets/industries/cultures. Also amazing is how readable this book is; the author's style is such that you just have to open the book and gaze on the pages; the words jump off the page, enter your eyes and hit your brain with full effect. There does seem to be a bit of repetition and redundancy here and there throughout the book, but it's probably necessary to achieve the full effect. Most business books are dry; this one is not. Before finishing the book, I found myself already quoting its facts to others (Hey, did you know... / Guess how many...). At other times, I was so stricken by a passage in the book, that I had to put it down and pace the floor thinking about the implications (Hey, is it just me?). The ironic thing is that by giving this review, I have now become part of the phenomenon! Five Stars!
Great education into ecommerce
I found this book to be very enlightening. It offers a wonderful breakdown of various internet retailer's philosophies which can be dated back many years. A lot of it is common sense but it gives you a better understanding into the reasoning as to why things are done the way they are. It has also made me a firm believer in the future of internet retailing, even after the .com bust. Amazon is referrenced several times and I have a greater appreciation for what they do. It is certainly worth your while.
Great explanation for why certain businesses are succeeding
In "The long tail," Chris Anderson provides a unique explanation for the strong economic behavior of ecommerce retailers. The author begins by reviewing mathematical curves that characterize the relationship between two variables: number of times an item has been purchased (on y axis) vs. items available for sale (rank ordered according to "popularity of item" on the x axis). In traditional retailers (bricks and mortar), the curve follows a power law (e.g. y = 1/x)...but x is limited by the physical size of the store...
In contrast, the sales curves for modern ecommerce businesses (e.g. amazon, rhapsody, itunes) take on a different shape: x is much larger--nearly infinite--and as the sales curve flattens out to the right, it drops down much more slowly than one sees for brick and mortar businesses (the tail of the curve is flat or "long." This effectively means that there is "surprising" demand for "niche" products that you would never see in brick and mortar stores (which cannot afford to stock the same number of goods). Amazon, itunes, etc. are effectively able to match demand for niche products with supply of niche products using powerful search tools and (in the case of amazon) third party vendors managing inventory.
Interestingly, Matthews points out that Sears was a pioneer in taking advantage of the long tail model of business economics. Certain businesses (ebay, amazon, itunes) have taken the long tail phenomenon to a new level by using the internet to lower their fixed and marginal costs...and by creating tools that effectively match buyers and sellers for their millions of niche products available for sale. After reading this book, the most interesting question that comes to mind is whether or not the amazon kindle will create the same economic wonders that itunes provided to apple via the power of the "long tail." The next 5 years will tell us...
The Long Tail
I am a graduate student in mass communication and though I was required to read this book for class, I have to say it is one of the better books I've read in a very long time. I would recommend it to any business owner, journalist and even to other college students trying to determine a career path. It is well-written, easy-to-understand and 100% relevant even though a couple years have gone by since it's release. If anything it is a little wordy, still great though.
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