Book review: "The Long Tail" by Chris Anderson

I just finished reading "The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More" by Chris Anderson. As is so often the case with these kinds of books, the idea is interesting (compelling even) but frankly you don't need to read all 200+ pages to get the message.

The point is that once upon a time, there were lots of bottlenecks between producers and consumers due to:

* the effort for the producer to produce something
* the effort to make the consumers aware that the product might meet their needs
* the effort of distributing the product to the customer

all of which combine to create a small set of products which each get a large marketshare ("hits")

but with the power of computers and the internet, we can now:

* lower the production costs of making something
* provide more effective tools for consumers to be aware of products that meet their individualistic needs
* lower the cost of inventory and distribution

all of which combine to allow a far larger set of products, many of which will only get a small marketshare but enough to be profitable to the producer and the consumer gets a more "right for me" product.

And because there are more "niche" products often with small revenues, the producers are now not just the "professional" producers but now there is scope for the more "amateur" producer.

Examples (illustrating these points to varying degrees) are Amazon, Netfliks, Ebay, iTunes, etc.

Anyway, the idea is good and every modern person should understand it and think about how they might apply this new way of looking at business to their own endeavours. Personally I think having my Lego parts shop ABStralia is pretty much proof that I've grasped the idea. My little shop may not rival K-Mart say in the sale of Lego and it won't ever make me rich, but it helps me offload surplus parts for a few dollars and makes some other person happy because now they have more of those parts they so desired and couldn't get from Lego.

Interestingly, Lego is mentioned in the book as being innovative in a Long Tail way. As someone in the adult Lego community, I would have to say "umm, yes, but only because their adult market yelled and screamed until they company heard them, ignored them, heard them, ignored them and then finally experimented a little". To begin with, Lego didn't even believe that they had an adult market whose demands for more specialised sets and parts were not compatible with their traditional mass market of children. It was the adult community that established the Long Tail business model for Lego. You only have to look at the 1000s of ebay auctions and bricklink sales that take place every day to see that the traditional Lego retail business wasn't meeting a lot of people's needs. Yes, Lego have moved to online distribution of more niche products for the adult market, they have finally moved a little way down the long tail, but frankly the level of ebay/bricklink activity hasn't diminished so I think Lego have still got a long way to go. You would think that, as the only people who can actually produce the product, the Lego company would be able to market and distribute their products in a way that must ultimately drive every other reseller out of business, but so far they don't seem to have achieved it!

Anyhow the book "The Long Tail" is worth reading and it's not hard reading, but don't worry if you are too busy to finish it.