LJNDawson.com, Consulting to the Book Publishing Industry
Book Publishing Industry Consultant

Mike Shatzkin Explains It All

Category: Digital Publishing , Industry Events
Shatzkin declaiming

"You either OWN the tollgate, or you PAY at the tollgate."

So said Mike Shatzkin at his presentation this morning on disruptive technologies and the publishing industry. Defining "horizontal" marketing as a sort of carpet-bombing, standardized (mass-market) approach, and "vertical" marketing as an approach that targets niches in the same way special sales departments have been doing for years, Shatzkin talked about the power of the niche, about publishers leveraging the many communities that are coming up around these new technologies like MySpace and Facebook - how empowering authors to do their OWN marketing (because THEY are the brands, and THEY reach the niches) is far more effective than buying banner ads.

He also made this observation, which appealed to me tremendously, as my great-grandmother was a Sooner (one of the Oklahomans who raced over the border and staked a claim just PRIOR to the border opening - getting her land "sooner" than everybody else): "Pubishers need to be Internet-niche Sooners."

Another crucial point - and one I continually try to get across to clients: "Don't shut out your competitors: manage their involvement." A version of "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer." We learned about "co-op-itition" in the late '90s - it's come back around again, folks.

His presentation can be found here.
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Posted by Laura Dawson , May 31, 07, 10:35 PM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post
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