Consumer Wise

Q: In what ways can you react to this kind of dynamic customer feedback loop?

In a real-time, direct-to-consumer environment, you can see that browsing behavior for a certain author or subject is on the rise, and you can create a just-in-time offer for that community that pushes them toward a favorable behavior–say offering a free download of the first book in a series for which you have a new release coming. We know from consumer research that familiarity with an author’s previous books is the strongest driver of a new book sale.

Right now, publishers’ inability to get that real-time feedback in any way besides social media is a real handicap. It’s like skiing blind, or embarking on a treasure hunt without a map.

Imagine a world where publishers not only see real-time closure of sales from marketing efforts, but where they actually know who and where their end users are in real time. Think of how that could drive business decision-making.

Q: Bookigee deals with a lot of industry data. What are some of the trends you've seen over the last few years?

I really think the consumer is in charge today like never before. They want what they want, when they want it. And consumer behavior is fracturing in a million ways. There are the readers who only download free content. There are the readers who only read short content. There are people who don’t call themselves readers but read thousands of words a day via news feeds or social media. We spend a lot of time studying “readers”. But what about studying “non-readers”? What are we missing? What would we learn?

Q: With regard to consumer relationships, what are some of the major differences between the print book world and the mobile space?