Eureka Bar: 8 Lessons for & from a Bookstore

I just love reading books. It's not that I'm a big enthusiast but whenever I get some time, I'm into it. So this habit of mine usually takes me to a place where I personally feel very relaxed i.e. A Bookstore. Though trust me I used to hate going to the library when I was in school and used to think it's a simple waste of space by keeping books rather than making a playground out of it. Hehe :-)

Anyway this month's flavour is "Why do I love these People" by Po Bronson (thanks to Gaurav via Facebook Apps). I will give a review of it later in my Facebook profile if not in my blog. But first things first. This post is about Bookstores. I learnt new things during my visit which actually made me sit and write this post. So some of the learnings as well as the strategies that bookstores may/can use are:

• I came to know that modern day Bookstores use mostly two types of cataloging- One is the type of books kept on categories like on Management, Sociology, Philosophy etc and the other is shelving books of all A's or B's separately like you will find all the books of Seth Godin under "S" named shelf and likewise. But my personal favorite is the former one. Thinking how many people buy like me...I mean by topics rather than having a book already in their mind??


• The inner ambience is more important than the external visual appeal.


• People get inside the bookstore to spend some quality time. So have plenty of comfy chairs strategically placed in between the shelves.


• Don't keep nudging the customers too often to make him buy a book rather make him more comfortable and if possible give the options of variety of book (this should be used only if it's a first time customer).


• Give him a booklet with a small "thank you for visiting us" smiley as well as of the category of books that the store has and if customer service is your prime aim then booklet with the store layout is not a bad idea.


• Personally I don't like bookstore having two or more floors as it becomes tedious to stroll through easily but if it is then go back to #5.


• Pass the rebate as discount coupon on the next item they buy. Just stamp it at the back of the coupon to keep a track.


• A must have section dedicated only for “Harry Porter typo kids” where a storyteller can recite small part of a story and then suddenly stop and make it all the more interesting for the kids to pester their parents to buy that buy. Trust me it works (seen it, it works…Parents beware!!!). Anyways please excuse me if I’m acting like a hard-bound marketer here.

So let me know if you have experienced something like this in a bookstore or some new type of strategy bookstores are using...

What Businesses can learn from Seth's Books

If you have read last few books by Seth Godin, 3 things are the basic take-aways:

• You somehow know about the content before you have read the book.
• You know, how important is an "Authentic story".
  
• Unique content worth talking about.

If you talk about business in that measure, it's not different. The above 3 points can be summed up in two words. "Idea spreading" or "Idea diffusion". Basically, we all are living in the "Century of Idea diffusion". The business which was able to spread their idea, won the customers and which didn't kept producing "Average products for Average customers" i.e Mass Market. So no wonder, chances of failure for mass market products increases since these customers most of the time IGNORE you as they have more choices and less time.

So how to spread the "IdeaVirus" to succeed:

• Let them Talk about you: Your communication should raise questions in the mind of the customer. This fosters engagement which never leaves them indifferent. So how well the communication is crafted will ensure your success.


• Usage of different Mediums: With the advent of technology, customer touch-points has increased. So different media platforms like Social Media etc should be used to touch your customers. Here the catch is that it should be very subtle, not like "On the Face Ad" like in movies.


• Humans are more emotional & less rational beings: Your customers are basically human beings with more emotions and less logic. So touching your customers on more emotional front forms a long term bondage than tickling its rational part.
  

Blogs : The Flip side of Narcissism

I have always liked Seth Godin starting from his books to his blog about anything under the sun. He has this immense talent to take minutest thing on this earth and making it easier to comprehend in his own way. So when Seth comes up with latest post about "Blogs & Self Promotion", one thing becomes crystal: People talking about you is far more effective than talking about yourself in world wide web (Thanks Seth).

So two things are to be done after reading this post. First, get a copy of "Meatball Sundae" (Seth's latest book) and secondly if you have a business then put these proactive thinking (not reactive) in your marketing messages and avoid the plight of getting vanquished.

Also, the thing about "New Age Marketing" is word of mouth. You are in or out is very much proportional to the word-of-mouth your idea generates. So selling books is no different from business. So going by the same paradigm, word of mouth is the new phrase that should be written as a new commandment for every marketer.

But blogs add a different dimension to your business. The real term is "Credibility". It may be in the form of other bloggers talking about it or general mass spreading it which is in term adding to that credibility factor. So narcissism which most often than not, we bloggers generally attach ourselves to won't be that good (not for this blog or for your business). So using this tool to sheer perfection will definitely lead to better sales (I'm sure I'm doing good for Seth) not only for books but in a broader sense to your dipping business.

My 5 most favourite books- Have you read them?

It seems that the difference between a good marketer and a (not so good) marketer depends by and large on the amount of knowledge that he/she possesses. Now for me thats not all. For me it also depends on how the theory that we learn from these books can be practically transformed into real life solutions. Now thats what is required from a neo age Marketer.

So for all those knowledge thirsty marketers who are always on a lookout for refined knowledge resource, I fortunately came across some of the books which shaped me, guided me, molded me all this while. So this post is dedicated to all those greats who have written those books.

1. All Marketers are Liars by Seth Godin
2. The Cluetrain Manifesto by Christopher Locke
3. The Long Tail by Chris Anderson
4. The Search by John Battelle
5. Join the Conversation by Joseph Jaffe

This list of 5 books have been my best read books of the year 2007 (though the list is not on the priority basis). Hope to read some more like those in the next year. So what are you reading now?

How those lines say so much about us...!!!

Now this is something which I will aptly called "Weird". Though most of us will refrain from calling us by that name. But I am sure most of us have and will observe something like this.

No, I am not keeping the mystery unfolded for a long time. I will definitely pull the rabbit out of the hat. Actually it's quite interesting to see how many people mark or highlight some lines of books while reading. The other day I was going through a book by Tom Peters named "The pursuit of Wow!". Now thats what I call quenching your thirst in some form. But it's amazing to find out people marking some lines or paragraphs in the book (even though that it not right if you are taking books from the library). Still people won't chuck this small little habit. Yikes I must say...!!!

Oh I must tell you the lines which I saw marked in the book. Thats interesting actually.

"...and I'm struck by how timid most people are in fending off staleness."

Though there were more lines like these which I see marked abrubtly in nearly every book which I get from some library. Now whenever I see those lines marked I'm halted in my reading to understand more deeply what it is trying to convey. As if the lines remarkably stand out from other words that I have read before.

Now trying to understand why some people do this, I am again taken to the age old mystery about "why we do, what we do". Now one of the main reason for every individual has been to stand out in the crowd. So when we mark something in the book which will definitely go in someone else's hand will make us different (though that person is not in the picture). The fundamental thing remains the same. We, human beings are born marketers. We like to tell stories about us, about how we feel & so on and so forth. So those little lines tell about the person what he is...!! Eventually though that doesn't matter still it feels different, isn't it?

By the way have anyone thought of marketing (since some marketers talk about "Permission Marketing") through those marked lines. For example, spreading some mysterious facts about some company or brands or for that matter "You".

Try it, it's exciting I must say (although creativity should be yours).