Marketing

Growing Market Opportunity for Independent Booksellers By Michael F. Hoynes, ABA Marketing Officer Much has been written about the aging of America. A major part of the story is the approximately 72 million baby boomers who are now moving into their fifties. Every shift in demographic patterns creates a new business opportunity for some business sector, and there is a great deal of evidence that the growing number of older book buyers opens a major marketing opportunity for independent booksellers.

How can a regional public radio station that covers parts of seven northeastern states, including New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and New Hampshire, offer local coverage for listeners in very different communities?

For May's white box mailing, which booksellers can expect mid-month, Book Sense Publisher Partners have provided sell sheets, easelback posters, postcards, bookmarks, and some fun promotional items, such as a promotional T-shirt for Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap ... and Others Don't, by Jim Collins (HarperBusiness).

Book Sense and The Minute Maid division of The Coca-Cola Company have teamed up to create an in-store Book Club Sweepstakes that aims to drive consumers participating in reading groups to independent bookstores with Book Sense. The national sweepstakes promotion, the BACARDI® Mixers & Book Sense Book Club Sweepstakes, will start in July and run for four months. It is expected that the promotions will drive traffic to Book Sense stores and raise awareness of the Book Sense brand.

The American Booksellers Association is inviting publishers to participate in the BookSense.com Co-op Reimbursement Program. The new program helps publishers promote their books through both the Web sites and bricks-and-mortar locations of participating stores. ABA has been testing the program with the help of four publishers -- AOL/Time Warner, Harcourt, HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster -- and 30 bookstores.

On April 24, Book Sense and Levenger, Inc., a catalog and Internet company that provides high-quality tools for reading and writing, announced that the two companies had formed a marketing partnership to cross-promote their Web sites and merchandise. Starting in May, all BookSense.com Web sites will feature a Levenger link, and sales resulting from these links will earn participating booksellers an affiliate commission. Additionally, Levenger.com will have an affiliate link to BookSense.com.

Starting in June, Book Sense and the History Channel will launch a monthly in-store promotion called Hardcover History, meant to entice readers to experience history through exceptional books and extraordinary television.

The number of national and local magazines, newspapers, industry publications, Web sites, and, now, televisions programs featuring Book Sense Bestseller (national, regional, or category) and 76 lists continues to grow each month. The media outlets listed below recently began running one of ABA's Book Sense Bestseller or 76 lists. To view the complete list of media outlets, click here. Newspapers The Conway Daily Sun, Conway, New Hampshire (NEBA List)

ABA members visiting BookWeb.org will note new and updated information on the Book Sense program. Among the most notable changes are:

When the clock strikes 12:01 a.m. on June 21, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix will bring its magic to booksellers everywhere. Local events including sleepover parties, midnight openings, and costume balls are in the works at independents around the country. Now Book Sense has brewed a special sweepstakes -- Make Some Magic with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix -- for every purchaser of the book between 12:01 a.m. on June 21 and 11:59 p.m. on June 26. The sweepstakes will have one winner, chosen at random from all entries.