Reviewed by Chris Wendel

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion; First Edition edition (July 11, 2006)
• Softcover: $12.00
• Electronic (Kindle, Nook, or other electronic versions): $3.00
• 4 ½ out of 5 stars

Over the past few years, I’ve reviewed business related books in their order of relevance to the audience of the Traverse City Business News. There are plenty of poor business books out there but, I’d rather not waste time trashing a book that readers would likely not read anyway.  With that in mind, let’s look at a book that’s one of my favorites.

In 2004 Wired Magazine writer Chris Anderson wrote an article describing the niche business strategies of companies such as Amazon.com and Netflix. The article begat a book entitled: The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More, and is considered by some to be one of most impactful marketing of the past decade. The Long Tail digs deep to describe the market opportunities today that are imperative for entrepreneurs and business owners to deploy.

The Long Tail describes how we have moved from an information age of a few big selling products to an age of choice that sells a large array of products sold in small quantities. It is the death of this “common culture” where everyone likes the same things that Anderson celebrates.

Today’s endless choices form a marketplace where many different products make up the majority of customer demand. This is the opposite of 20-50 years ago when a few blockbuster or smash hits made up 90% of the entire market. This scarcity was because distribution was limited to a finite number of theatres, bookstores, and record store shelves.

With more choices come opportunities for small business to realize a profitable market share in a short period of time. The catalyst for this shift is the internet which broke down the traditional barriers of distribution and whetted the appetite of consumers to demand products that closely match up with their individual personas. Web sites can offer an endless number of inventory items and authors can successfully (sometimes) publish titles in relatively small quantities while finding loyal readers and profit producing sales.

While the Information Age created the mechanism for The Long Tail, market demand today is predicated less on targeted marketing efforts to a perceived audience and more on permission based models where consumers spread the word of new and unique products through blog postings, social networking, and email.

Not convinced? Consider the small indie band described in the book that turns down a national recording deal realizing that they can market more effectively and reap larger profits operating on their own. Closer to home  there’s the proliferation of older local theatres being renovated throughout rural Michigan. The demand for more diverse movie offerings created a unique form of economic development in towns like Traverse City, Frankfort, Manistee, and Boyne City.

When it’s all said and done, it is clear that Anderson is a gifted writer who can make sense out of technically advanced information, presenting in a pleasant conversational manner intricate topics that combine statistical trends with good old fashion storytelling.

So, how has The Long Tail held up over the years? The publishing business remains at a crossroads with the advent of on demand printing. Retailers big and small continue to diversify into more defined niches. The only notable exception could be the music industry where Wired magazine (remember, this is where Anderson was employed when The Long Tail was written) recently reported that 1% of performing artists today generate 56% of the concert revenues for U.S. concert revenues.  Although plenty of people pay to listen to Indie music, others will still pay the big bucks for an A list musician at a large concert venue.  Regardless of where the trends go from here, The Long Tail should be required reading before any company considers its marketing strategy.