R.R. Bowker Exec Offers an Inside Look at New Consumer Data Service

“This is the only product that we’re aware of in the U.S. that is going to provide static product information,” Gallagher says.

Random House was on board as a licensee at the time of the launch, Gallagher says.

Bowker’s primary goal was to have a publisher with the size and respect of Random House in place prior to the actual launch of the product. Now, he says, they are in the negotiating process with several other publishers about licensing the product.

Besides book publishers, Gallagher say other segments of the industry could benefit from the new data.

“If you were going to create a bull’s-eye, the center point of the bull’s-eye would be publishers,” he says. “However, retailers would closely follow. A retailer knows their own customer very well. What they either don’t have, or what costs them a considerable amount of money is to research their competitors. This product, because it’s capturing at the consumer level, shows sales across the entire market space and beyond.”