Creating an Electronic Bestseller

Throwing Around $100 Bills - 1

I guess in terms of the country—and the balance of trade—a crashing dollar is a good thing.

For my balance of trade, it stinks.

We flew into London last Saturday and went out for dinner. A bowl of soup for lunch was £8.50, which translates to $17.00. A £4.00 ride on the Underground for 10 blocks to get out of a rainstorm was $8.00 ($16 for two)—not a lot of fun. Dinner for two was at least $100 pretty much anywhere.

An exception was the Albert Pub. The bad news: the food was so-so. The good news: dinner was relatively inexpensive. The best news: smoking has been banned in London, so pubs—and everyplace else—are a joy.

In spite of the prices, for a direct marketer, was a European jaunt a good deal?

Oh, yes.

In the words of Yogi Berra, “You can see a lot just by observing.”

About Loyalty Programs
The media are filled with stories about the beating travelers with frequent flier miles are taking when they try to redeem them. The first loyalty miles program was started 26 years ago by American Airlines—a brilliant marketing scheme that was copied everywhere.

But greedy, stupid marketers corrupted the business model and commoditized free miles. Today half the miles awards are given to non-fliers as bribes for using their credit cards. Now the airlines are flying full, and to compound the squeeze it was announced last week that the six major carriers are cutting back on the number of flights by an average of 4.4%—or 72,000 less seats a day in the continental U.S.—when air travel is up 3%.

Currently 14 trillion free miles are outstanding around the world. You want to cash in your miles? Beyond an occasional upgrade, trying to get free air travel for your miles is an exercise in self-waterboarding. American, Delta, Northwest, Continental, United and US Airways have turned a stunning marketing breakthrough into a giant Ponzi Scheme that creates diss-loyalty.

Jet travel is extraordinary. Airline marketing is abysmal. And airlines don’t care, because they don’t have to.

See the hyperlinks below for confirmation.

Hilton HHonors
My wife, Peggy, who travels frequently for business, is a Hilton customer. As a result of the Hilton HHonors program, she gets free nights at Hiltons when we travel—London, Paris, Budapest, New York. Included are breakfast and sometimes the Concierge Suite, which means free booze and nibbles.

We like Hilton. More to the point, you can trust Hilton—unlike the airlines, where you get b.s. about redeeming points or miles. Last week, no rooms were available at our favorite hotel on Trafalgar Square, so we stayed at the very fine Green Park Hilton. The Hilton Corporation continues the founder’s absolute insistence on excellence. Two quickie Hilton stories:

* Whenever the founder, Conrad Hilton, stayed at one of his hotels and went out for the day’s business, he left a 25¢ piece under the radiator. If the quarter was still there when he returned to the room, he fired the maid for not cleaning under the radiator. If it was missing, he fired the maid for theft.

* Hilton’s reported last words as he lay dying: “Always remember, the shower curtain goes inside the tub.”

Conrad Hilton cared. His chain still cares.

London Theatre
We saw “Glengarry Glen Ross” by David Mamet with Jonathan Pryce in the lead. The story is about a group of land salesmen in Chicago and the importance of getting good leads. These were desperate men, and the salesmen that sold the most got the best leads. The less good salesmen, with the poor leads, fell more and more behind.

Most playgoers saw this as an interpersonal drama about scared men willing to say anything to get a sale and do just about anything to get a decent lead.

I saw it from that perspective of course, but also as a direct marketer. I wanted to get together with the guy on stage, who generated and controlled the leads, and find out what lists he was using, what his mailing piece or ads looked like, and figure out how to make these unhappy salesmen successful.

Every direct marketer should see this work, as it graphically shows the results of the lead generation process. So many of us create campaigns in our ivory tower offices, when we should be out in the field interacting with the sales people whose lives and livelihoods depend on us.

The 1993 movie has an all-star cast—Alec Baldwin, Jack Lemmon, Kevin Spacey, Al Pacino, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin and Jonathan Pryce—and should be terrific. Will rent it and report back.

The Queen’s Gallery
One of the great small museums of the world is The Queen’s Gallery adjacent to Buckingham Palace. The Royal Family’s private art collection is (and I hate using this word but it is apt here) awesome, including works by Vermeer, Michelangelo and—incredibly—600 drawings by Leonardo da Vinci. The exhibitions change and a return visit is always worth while.

We went primarily to see one painting. It is a work that was believed to be from the workshop of the 17th century master Caravaggio that had been owned by the Royal Family for 400 years. It languished for decades in the basement of Hampton Court in grungy condition, caked with centuries of varnish and dirt.

The Queen’s conservator decided to give it a cleaning. As the picture began to emerge from the junk covering the surface, it became more and more clear that this was a real Caravaggio—one of only 50 surviving masterpieces by the artist. The estimated value is more than £50 million ($100 million). It depicts Christ with his apostles, Peter and Andrew, at the moment he was telling them to follow him and he would make them “fishers of men.” (See illustration below.)

On the free audio guide to the exhibit, the man who oversaw the restoration of the picture regales the listener with the story of how he and his fellow conservators came to the conclusion it was the real thing. It is a staggeringly luminous painting that rivets your eyes with its composition and execution, and the detective story of its discovery—heard as you stand before the picture—gives you goose bumps.

On Her Majesty as a Marketer
In terms of world-class marketing, the brochure describing the available sites and services at Buckingham Palace is fascinating. For example:

Unlimited Admission
The purchase of your ticket entitles you to register on the day of your visit for 12 months unlimited admission to the site(s) which you have visited. This is valid from the date of your first visit. The offer of Unlimited Admission does not apply to complimentary tickets and is not transferable.

I know of no other museum that offers this benefit. If you want a return visit, either you pay cash money or the institution sticks you for an annual membership at $35 to $75 or more.

Along with an offer of a free newsletter from the Palace, the brochure also includes two panels of questions titled, “We Welcome Your Feedback.”

Like Hilton Hotels, Her Majesty cares.

The Gift Shop
In the lower level of the gallery is the Buckingham Palace gift shop with a splendid inventory of fine china and crystal, books, DVDs, Princess Diana memorabilia and a dizzying array of royal kitsch.

We bought several books and four souvenir ballpoint pens as Christmas gifts. As our purchases were being rung up, the solicitous gentleman behind the register—resplendent in black jacket with brass buttons and red lapels and pocket flaps—slipped the little pens into velvet presentation cases and assured us that they took regular refills and would last indefinitely.

Whereupon he added, “Ah, since you have spent over £25, you are entitled to a free gift,” and produced a box containing two large, green Christmas tree balls printed with “Buckingham Palace” in silver-spangled dust.

A customer is made to feel very welcome at Buckingham Palace. The Queen’s staff is a group of savvy marketers.

The National Gallery
After paying a call on the special exhibition, “RENAISSANCE SIENA: Art for a City,” we went into the gift shop and discovered a nifty device—a machine that makes giant prints on demand. From the Web site:

Print on Demand is the first system of its kind in the world, offering National Gallery visitors the opportunity to order a reproduction of any work in the collection.

(Please note loans to the Collection as denoted by the letter ‘L’ prefixing their catalogue number are NOT available through this service.)

The system uses high-resolution digital images made directly from the paintings, rather than the photographic transparencies used for conventional posters.

The reproductions are printed using a Hewlett Packard 5500ps DesignJet printer. Prints are made with UV-stable pigments on a durable paper and have a lightfast expectancy of 70 years if not exposed to extreme conditions.

All prints are made on a semi-gloss paper, which gives a close match to the surface appearance of varnished painting.

Print on Demand reproductions are colour matched as far as possible to the original painting. It is possible prints may look different in varying light conditions. Images are captured using direct lighting sources which may need to be replicated when hanging reproductions of darker paintings.

There are four sizes of print available, A4 - £10; A3 - £20; A2 - £25 and A1 - £40. A limited amount of prints are also available at A0 size for £75.

The Print on Demand machine is brilliantly efficient as a marketing concept:

* Like print on demand books, the National Gallery does not need to lay out cash money for a large inventory of prints or posters on paper. The inventory resides inside its computer and it can print individual orders to size.

* No need to guess which prints will sell and which will not—with the possible result of a big inventory of leftover losers. This means a cheap test is possible.

* Unlike many museum prints, the colors in off-site reproductions are not true to the original. The reason: the picture itself is in the museum and the printing plant is somewhere else. The folks doing the pre-press work do not have the luxury of comparing the projected print colors to the original. With everything under one roof—original artwork and printing machinery—the Print on Demand colors can be made to match exactly.

* With the precise color match, the person who wants a print for the home would be a fool to buy the picture from any other source.

We have been to the National Gallery on several occasions and have been stopped by staff members and invited to take a survey. This was not just any survey. We were escorted upstairs to the directors’ conference room where we saw artworks not on public view.

The St Pancras Station’s $1.5 Billion Rehab
Eurostar rail service to the Continent has a new home in London, the glorious reconditioning of the St Pancras railroad station which, when completed, will be its own London destination regardless of whether you are traveling anywhere. The final cost: in the neighborhood of £800 million.

Next to where the European trains arrive and depart is the longest Champagne bar in the world. On our visit, the bar was chock-full of people happily guzzling bubbly and scarfing down snacks and light suppers. When the myriad upmarket shops are opened, this will be the world’s premier railroad station. Abu Dhabi could not make a bigger splash. Peggy and I sipped our Champagne and gawked.

Last October 23, the title of this e-zine was “17 Hours in the Real America,” that described Peggy’s and my train trip from Washington, D.C., to the DMA conference in Chicago and the marvelous efficiencies of travel by rail.

The British and Europeans—with smooth riding welded rails and ultra-modern high-speed trains—have taken land travel to a new level.

We should have it so lucky.

A publisher turned to an online e-book purchase and delivery service to convert a traditionally printed bestseller into an electronic product

by Tatyana Sinioukov

It's no secret that more and more publishers turn to the Internet to market their printed books. Few take it to another level by offering a book in a different shape and form--electronically. In the case of Washington, DC-based Regnery Publishing, a division of Eagle Publishing, two of its bestsellers, The Millennium Bug by Michael S. Hyatt, a #7 bestseller in 1998 on the New York Times business list, and The Year of the Rat by Edward Timperlake and William C. Triplett II, #17 on the Times non-fiction list in February 1999, had already existed in printed form. With the help of The 1stBooks Library (www.1stbooks.com), Bloomington, IN, an online e-book purchase and distribution service, Regnery has converted these two books to electronic format and started selling them online through the The 1stBooks Library.

According to Dan Snow, director of communications and planning at The 1stBooks Library, his company got in touch with Regnery when they noticed how quickly The Year of the Rat was flying out of bookstores during the past holiday season. Figuring that being out of stock--with demand only increasing--didn't make the publisher happy, says Snow, his company offered to turn the title into a downloadable electronic product and distribute it online. Snow recalls that Regnery then asked what the process would involve. "We said, 'Just send us the disk.'"

"The files were beautiful," reports Snow, referring to the PDF files Regnery created while typesetting the printed original and later had sent to 1stBooks for digital distribution.

"We think that it affords us a new market," comments Al Regnery, president of Regnery Publishing, on his decision to get involved in this project. "We are convinced that it won't cut into our traditional market, the bookstores." The online version of The Year of the Rat, he says, should spark some interest overseas, since this is the book "about the People's Republic of China and the involvement of the (U.S.) administration with transferring technology to China in return for campaign money," the book the Chinese government would not allow into the country but can't prevent people from downloading from their home computers.

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