How we do or respond to something is fascinating, don’t you think? Whether it may be a casual glance, a dismissive wave, or an onerous glare — these are just a few of the many combinations of actions that can occur.
So far here’re a handful that I’ve come up with:
We first run into some random stimulus — something that triggers a response or reaction from us.
The Just Do It Attitude
Some Random Spontaneous Stimuli –> Roll Dice + Take Action
The Deer in HeadlightsApproach
Blank Look –> Hope for the best … and let’s cross our fingers in case
The Puzzle Piecing Fanaticism
Some Random Spontaneous Stimuli (i.e. random tidbit of information) –> Search and Acquire Mode is ON!
The Pondering Life Act
Stimuli triggers mental white noise –> Flashbacks occur in the mind faster than the average CSI episode
No. Nothing else happens.
The AUGH! Syndrome
Perceived sudden stimuli –> Some ear-piercing or bass-heavy scream of sorts
The Swerve & Disintegrate Tactic
Bothersome Stimuli Occurs –> Avoid at all costs until stimuli fades from sight or mind
The Twitch Process
Stimuli triggers emotion –> Result: a form of habitual behaviour
The MudderFudder Grumble
Stimuli Here –> Some form of “pleasant language” spoken under one’s breath
The Rebel Without Even a Reason Effect
Some shape or form resembling stimuli –> A response that happens anyway … just because
The Backwards Logic Drive
A stimulus –> Rational thinking that is triggered but is ignored because it makes too much sense
Perhaps we can compile a list!
So the point — visualizing. What do we do when we visualize something? We seem to make better decisions. We can see into the distance, the impact of our decisions. A simple example would be Amazon’s review chart.
More importantly — being able to visualize our behaviour or the behaviour others allows us the opportunity to change. Check out Chris Jordan’s video on Picturing Excess. Quite astonishing.
Today I ran across and shared two recent articles from the Globe and Mail at work. One being that the Globe and Mail was opening up its business model, and the other being that the Metallica was endorsing a new way of doing business on the web (but really it’s not that new).
I was asked … what does this mean?
It’s just what I’ve been stating over and over again. Book publishers are no longer able to be purely book publishers. Technology has provided a way for different forms of media to converge — take a look at the iPod (and other new mp3 players) or even newer ultra portable laptops like the Asus EEE. This means that your product must be flexible and adaptable (mostly figuratively speaking, although literally would be nice too). This doesn’t mean you can’t have a printed book, but rather that any static product is pretty much obsolete.
Sadly enough, publishers actually have a choice to focus on their core business or diversify. Their core business is typically the reader that literally consumes books at an incredible rate. The funny thing about this market is that despite that consumption level, book publishers still pump out way too many books and overwhelm that market. We expect slower readers or occasional readers to pick up the slack but it just doesn’t happen. Why? I don’t think we really put enough thought into the value of the product — what the customer wants or desires. A customer doesn’t necessarily know what they want but customers are smart. They have and will find more ways to ensure they are getting the best value and experience for their money. If a book uses cheap paper, they know. If we don’t invest time into a book cover, they know.
Production values are interesting because they appear to me as very similar to school work (remember that?). When we don’t put in the time and thoughtfulness into a project, it really shows.
Movies and music are two types of products that have been forced to continually re-examine the way they sell their product. In the late 90s, movie cinemas began raising prices after creating bigger screens and sound systems in order to improve the customer experience. Did that bigger screen and bolder sound help the movie industry? Yes but not necessarily as good as it could have if it were introduced earlier because it coincided with the increase of movie rentals. But the cash kept flowing because people were still interested in seeing a movie on the bigger screen.
Fast forward to 2001 and the mass adoption of DVDs. The bigger screen is in decline. Why? Because the customer experience has changed. DVDs now provides greater value directly into the hands of the customer than a night at the cinema. That and the seven reasons that The Big Picture lists out in an old blog posting. Will the DVD sales decline? Potentially as legal and DRM-free digital downloads become prominent, while pirated DVDs continue to propagate. Toss into the mix far-reaching/long range cellular frequencies and an uncapped/unlimited wireless connection — the movie purchasing equation will be altered forever.
Despite the long and controversial existence of the mp3 file, the music industry has been very lucky in the sense that the mp3 itself and Apple’s iPod infused the customer with a sense of power and freedom that they had not felt before. Sure it caused chaos on the sales of CDs but what really has happened is the resurgence of interest in a wide-range of music regardless of time. Cut the waste (i.e. CDs and albums), focus on the music itself, give the customer the freedom to do what they please with the product sans the packaging, a lower price point for the work they do (i.e. pick and choose individual songs) and they will come back for more to do more. People want to be able to customize their own little jukebox full of music and they want to do it in their own way.
Now with books, add on the fact that Acrobat 9 is about to be released and as Mark puts it, it’s a game changer. The ability for rich media to be embedded within PDF files has arrived. Can’t figure out what that means?
What if you could be read a book and watch movie clips as part of the story? What if you could interact with the characters? What if we could draw our own animation — upload it to the book and share it with other readers? Or on a particular connection point over the internet where all other readers of a book could meet up? What if we could discuss an idea directly within a book with all other readers? Can you imagine what it will be like in the future? Take a look at the introduction of Disney’s Treasure Planet. These ideas aren’t taking away the essence of a book; they are enriching what’s within every book — far beyond the means of text on a page.
Marketing is key to engaging people. Causing individuals to begin examining and questioning their current behaviour has the potential to instigate change — even those who are reluctant may just turn their heads to see what the noise is all about. Well done Dave Schlafman.
I know. Everyone and their great-grandmother has been blogging about the Amazon Kindle today. I figure I might as well jump on the bandwagon so that my two cents can be heard or ignored. More likely to be ignored amongst so many voices.
Being in the publishing industry, I hear a lot of opinions on e-book readers. A lot of negative opinions that almost make it seem to me as if people want the device to fail before anyone really tries it out. I think it’s possible that a lot of people may feel threatened by this device to some degree. The decrease in the price of books, the potential devaluation of a printed book or figuratively speaking, the product as a whole. I disagree — I believe technology has been the key factor in preventing books from reaching even larger audiences than before. I believe that technology is the threshold that prevents or allows any individual book from becoming a bestseller. (Hint:Chris Anderson’s Long Tail)
There are many arguments about why books are so difficult to sell, one primary argument being made by book publishers is the fact that most consumers find little appeal in books by comparison to other products. That is not to say there is no appeal (think relative), but the fact that most consumers find that they would much prefer to spend a hundred dollars on say, a digital camera (alas, a potentially crappy one) than spend $19.99 on a paperback. Consumers also compare movies and music to books. Unfortunately, books tend to have a high production cost and the fact that book publishers decided to print their list price on every book makes life rather difficult for themselves.
One peculiar behaviour of mine (I don’t know about anyone else) is that price is a huge decision indicator in the purchase of a book. Well, not quite but hear me out. If I were to say, see a book that is $29.99 and it was of interest to me, there would be some potential that I may just purchase it. Nevertheless, it’d really really need to be interesting to me.
Now compare that with an e-book that is being sold online for around $9.99 - $15.99. You’ve got my attention. As long as I am interested in the content of that book, I will likely buy it. If I had an e-book reader, I would definitely buy it. Make it wireless — I am so there!! Why? I don’t know but I think that like many consumers, I may view content and data differently than I do a printed book. Similar to consumer reactions to fluctuations in gas prices except that we’re a little more stubborn. Sad? Yes … but perhaps this is a positive outcome for book publishers (who will soon be referred to as content creators or managers) because the profit margin may actually widen. Could this mean better pay for myself and industry colleagues? Possibly … but I won’t touch that topic anytime soon … ha!
Honestly, I really like the Amazon Kindle. I love the idea, the concept, the launch and even it’s damn-ugly appearance (which isn’t really that ugly now that I think about it). But there are five things that I feel I need addressed before I would be willing to dish out the chunk of change for this quality piece of literary hardware.
No Wi-Fi capability — I am sorry. Those who suggest it is not a big deal don’t understand that it’s a global issue. I want to be able to use Wi-Fi hotspots if I want to, rather than the cell phone carrier frequencies. Especially in Canada where carrier frequencies don’t necessarily have absolute coverage of the country (hello… Canada?).
No Colour (yet…) — I want to be able to see vivid colour photographs in the book and online! I know I am picky but for now it’s okay I guess.
No Open Access — If I am going to buy an e-book reader, I don’t only want to buy books from Amazon or read books from Amazon. I want to be able to download a document from work and read it too! Don’t tell me to buy a PDA or else why would I spend $399 USD on a Kindle?
No Book Cover Display — One of the things that makes a book … a book is it’s cover. Being from the publishing industry, a ridiculous amount of time goes into the book cover. Why couldn’t their be a display panel on the back or a top flap that closes on top of the main reading panel which would display the cover image in vivid colour to the reader and those who are in awe of the person who is going through his or her selection of books! (Hint: Think of what happens when someone opens up a book on the subway and the cover is facing outwards to the public.) Okay so more wishful thinking, I don’t mind if this is still black and white but still!
No ability to surf the web freely — This one’s a popular one it seems. Why am I paying for access to various parts of the web that I could get for free? If you are going to offer a function, either make some form of value-added content that would entice people to pay or just don’t offer it at all. There’s just no point!
The Amazon Kindle is definitely a major step for the publishing industry and Amazon as a bookseller (or seller of content). Regardless of what people may think of the Kindle itself, the fact that the device is so connected to the online retailer makes it a much more potent agent of change than the Sony Reader.
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