Evolution Part 5: Push vs. Pull Marketing

Pull Marketing

What has just been described could be called "pull" marketing rather than the traditional "push" variety. It is a version of the better mousetrap idea. Customers will come if they can find a product easily and buy it with very little trouble. Sales and marketing becomes a question of reading market signals and piling on support when a title shows potential. Pull marketing starts slowly and builds in a gradual way, with low quantities of returned books. On a sales graph it might look like this:

Push Marketing

"Push" marketing of books, on the other hand, must be coordinated with the publishing seasons, which means very long lead times. It requires a strong initial lay down (prepublication sale) which means a large first printing. Publicity and PR must be extensive, highly concentrated in time, and coordinated with a fixed publication date. If all goes as planned, push marketing gives a title high visibility and a strong start. If it does not work the returned copies will be, for a small publisher, a financial catastrophe. The sales curve will usually look like this:

Part 4: The Power of Data

Part 6 of 7: SPU, PR, and IBPA