by Marina Shemesh

Created on: September 26, 2010

Book review "The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More" by Chris Anderson

Chris Anderson is the editor of “Wired” magazine and wrote an article called the “Long Tail” that was published in the magazine. He soon afterwards expanded the concept of the long tail and how the Internet has changed our buying habits into a book called "The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More".

The long tail refers to the statistical graph that plots the way of which products are sold. It follows the shape of an “L” that has been turned around. The short leg presents the most popular products or “hits” that are bought by or consumed by the majority. It then tapers down into the long leg (or tail) that shows us that even the oddest and must obscure products will and do find a buyer.

Take the movies for example. Netflix has enabled people to order and watch movies of their own choice. They are not longer bound to the choice of a movie house manager who will only show the most popular movies guaranteed to be profitable. Documentary movies, that are rarely shown in movie theatres, are extremely popular at Netflix.

The digital age and endless “shelf space” has provided the consumer with an extraordinary range of choices.  In a bricks and mortar shop (with limited shelving), 20 percent of the products bring in 80 percent of the revenue. The old 20/80 rule.  In online retail Chris Anderson shows us that 98 percent of all choices are chosen. Added together, all the small and long tail products can outsell the popular products. As mentioned in the title – the future of business is selling less of more.

The problem of niche marketing however is helping people find out about all the choices that are available. It is no longer content that is king, but context.  People are being matched with products that they might buy with recommender systems that are getting more sophisticated by the day. Online reviews and recommendations, keyword searches and actual purchases are all data that can be harnessed to inform customers and make sales.

In the book "The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More" Chris Anderson use the internet giants Netflix, Amazon and Rhapsody to explain and illustrate the long tail. These companies have all realized that it makes sense to offer their customers the widest variety of products. It would have been interesting if he could show us how and if, small businesses are also profiting from the changing buying habits that the digital age have created.

The book is written well and packed with information and will probably been known in the future as the book that first documented niche marketing. The statistical explanations are sometimes long but can be skipped without missing too much of the essence of the book.

Learn more about this author, Marina Shemesh.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.