Assume you are a textbook publisher. You sell books to students through bookstor
ID: 371897 • Letter: A
Question
Assume you are a textbook publisher. You sell books to students through bookstores. Now with the advent of iPads and e-readers, you could bypass college bookstores. This of course would cause channel conflict. Create a one page executive summary where you submit to the CEO at McGraw-Hill Book publishers your analysis and recommendation regarding what to do about bypass. Be sure to have strong analysis with examples supporting your claim. This is the heart of the paper. The analysis should lead the reader to the recommendations. If the recommendations are not proven in the analysis the one pager fails in its purpose.Assume you are a textbook publisher. You sell books to students through bookstores. Now with the advent of iPads and e-readers, you could bypass college bookstores. This of course would cause channel conflict. Create a one page executive summary where you submit to the CEO at McGraw-Hill Book publishers your analysis and recommendation regarding what to do about bypass. Be sure to have strong analysis with examples supporting your claim. This is the heart of the paper. The analysis should lead the reader to the recommendations. If the recommendations are not proven in the analysis the one pager fails in its purpose.
Explanation / Answer
The popularity of iPads, e-readers such as Kindle and Tablets have definitely added to the popularity of the e-books among the students and other reader segments. But, it has created a nee vertical of opportunity where the company can leverage the channels to offer the soft copy as well as the hard copy of the books to accelerate the sales of the books. Hence, it is not conflicting in nature. Rather, the different forms of the books being sold using the different channels create a set of new opportunities for the company.
It leads to the following recommendations for the company.
1. Create soft copy of the book that can be sold either at full price or the soft copy of the book or eBook can be issued for rent. Here, the reading of the eBook on rent will be facilitated by the app or book reading application of the company. It requires the company to develop an application for reading books on rent that can be accessed online. Pricing should be lower than the purchase price.
2. Build tie-up with online stores that also sell books (hard copy). Here, the books will be sold to the students using the logistic partners. An attractive discount to these online stores such as Amazon will create another channel to access the target audience.
3. Develop the book into the .epub format and offer it on sale via amazon application designed for the Kindle readers. It will also accelerate the sales.
4. Work closely with the college bookstores and offer them attractive incentives upon the each sale of the book. The hardcopy of the books never lose its significance as avid readers prefer the hard copy of books. Besides, the books at the bookstore can be quickly accessed, reviewed and purchased by the students. These benefits are very limited with online sales were detailed review is only possible after the purchase.
The libraries, colleges, Universities and teaching communities also purchase the books and recommend the same to the students. It can increase the sales positively with issuing the reference copies, but selective copies to these entities. It will further facilitate a creation of a new channel that can boost the sales.