Bowker Market Research - The Magic and Mystery of Book Consumer Research: A Focused look at activities, purchasing influences and behaviors of today’s book consumer. Presented to the YPG (Young to Publishing Group) on 7/28/11.

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2. Director of Publishing Services, Bowker
James oversees the client relationship of a host of Bowker business
intelligence services, including the PubTrack Consumer Research Service
reaching annually over 80,000 ‘e’ and ‘p’ book consumers.
In addition to being involved in the consumer research panel, he oversees
sales data collection and analytics tools for the higher education and trade
book markets for Bowker.
Before his current position James served for Nielsen BookScan UK and US
managing client relationships with Point of Sale data.
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3.  Introduction to consumer data
 Background on the best practices
 Introduction to how book consumer data is
used sales, editorial and marketing
professionals
◦ What are you using now to support your
decisions?
◦ What would help you?
◦ Does having a consumer perspective give you an
advantage?

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15. Survey
Sample: 6,000 Unique Book Consumers per outgo
Type: Online
Frequency: Monthly
Length: 75 questions
Rewards: ZoomPoints
2011 Annual Consumer Sample Size
 80,000 Unique US book consumers
 Selected according to Age, Gender, Income, Household size, and
location balanced to US Census
 Representing an annual view of 205,000 book purchases and
140,000 shopping occasions

16. Case Study: Acquisitions - Using Consumer Data
to Understand the Cookbook Market Decline
Cookbooks
 2009 = 3026 new
cook books
published…
 BookScan sales
numbers show a flat
to declining market
over past 6 quarters
Question: Does the
world need another
cookbook?

17. Quarterly Sales of Cook Books By Generation
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Q1 '07 Q2 '07 Q3 '07 Q4 '07 Q1 '08 Q2 '08 Q3 '08 Q4 '08
Gen X Boomers Matures

18. Demographics: Who buys and reads different kinds of books?
How old are they? What gender? How much do
they earn? Where do they learn about books?
Categories & What do they buy? Which genres or subject
Formats: areas? What formats? Which price points?
Market Where do they buy? How often do they shop
Channels: there? How much do they spend?
Motivation: Why do they buy? As an impulse? As a gift?
Where do they learn about books? Why do they
choose the titles they ultimately purchase?

19. 33%
59% 54%
62% 64%
70%
89%
67%
41% 46%
38% 36%
30%
11%
All Books All Fiction Graphic Mystery Romance Biography Cooking
Novels
Gender/Males Gender/Females

20. 100% 0% 65+ Years
13% 18% 16% 13%
18%
90% 29%
80% 55-64 Years
70%
45-54 Years
60%
50%
60% 30-44 Years
40%
30%
27% 18-29 Years
20% 23% 26%
22%
10% 13% 15%
13-17 Years
0%

21. 100% >=$150.0K
90%
13% $100.0-149.9K
80% 19%
16% 15% 13% 19%
17%
70% $75.0-$99.9K
60%
$50.0-$74.9K
50%
40% $35.0-$49.9K
30%
$25.0-$34.9K
20%
10% 17% 17% 20% 17% 21% <$25.0K
13% 13%
0%

22. 30%
26%
25%
25%
21%
20% 18%
15%
15%
9% 8%
10% 7% 7%
5%
5%
0%
Year 2009 Year 2010

23. >=$150.0K
100% 4%
90% 15% $100.0-149.9K
13%
80%
$75.0-$99.9K
70%
60% $50.0-$74.9K
50%
$35.0-$49.9K
40%
30% $25.0-$34.9K
20%
<$25.0K
21%
10% 12% 9%
0%
Amazon.com B&N Wal-Mart

24. 100% 2% 6%
13% 18% 12% E-Book
90% 19% 19%
80%
Audio
70%
60%
Hardcover
50%
40%
Trade Paperback
30%
20%
Mass Market Paperback
10%
0%

25. 20.0%
18.0%
16.0%
14.0%
All Books
12.0%
Graphic Novels
10.0%
Mystery
8.0%
Romance
6.0%
Biography
4.0% Cooking
2.0%
0.0%
Qtr 1 Qtr 2 Qtr 3 Qtr 4 Qtr 1 Qtr 2 Qtr 3 Qtr 4 Qtr 1
2009 2009 2009 2009 2010 2010 2010 2010 2011

26. Graphic
Ranking of Units Q1 2011 All Books Novels Mystery Romance Biography Cooking
Like Author 2 3 1 1 2 4
Like This Series 3 1 2 2 14 10
Like Character 8 2 3 7 4 15
Liked Topic/Subject 1 4 4 3 1 1
Price 6 9 5 4 9 3
Recommend Fr Someone I Know 4 8 6 10 3 8
Intrigued By Book Title 7 11 7 8 5 6
Cover/Jacket Descp./Testimonials 10 14 8 5 13 12
Looked Thru Book, And Liked It 5 5 9 6 7 2
Special Offer/Price 11 10 10 9 11 5
Other Reason 9 13 11 11 10 7
Good Book Review 12 12 12 13 6 9

27. Graphic
Ranking of Units Q1 2011 All Books Novels Mystery Romance Biography Cooking
Other Awareness 1 1 1 1 2 2
In-Store Display/On Shelf/Spinning
Rack 2 3 2 2 3 1
Friend/Relative Recommend 3 2 3 3 1 3
Best Seller List 7 14 4 8 7 17
Book Club 9 16 5 7 9 6
Online - Book Review 5 5 6 6 5 5
Online - Retailer Recommend (e.g.,
Amazon.com, B&N.com) 6 4 7 5 11 4
Online - Author's Website 10 9 8 4 12 22
Book Review (Not Online) 12 19 9 9 6 18
Email From Retailer 18 23 10 13 22 16
In-Store Sales Clerk 8 11 11 11 17 8
Received as a Gift 14 20 12 14 14 13

28. 13% Impulse Purchase
22% 20% 25% 21%
36%
19%
17%
25% Plan A Book At Specific Time,
38%
42% 22% But Not Specific Bk
33%
28%
22%
Plan This Specific Book, But Not
21% 18%
15% Specific Time
31% 35% 34%
21% 24% Plan This Specific Book At That
18%
Specific Time

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32. Purchase Interest
Top 2 Box (Net) 24%
Definitely Would
Buy 5% OPEN
Probably Would 81%
Buy 19%
Might or Might
Not Buy 57%
Probably Would
Not Buy 12%
Definitely Would
Not Buy 4%
Bottom 2 Box
(Net) 16%
The likes are all around the opening in the
scene with light. The darkness surrounding
Attributes:
the opening is generally getting less positive
Diagnostics: POSITIVE: Top 2 Box reactions.
POSITIVE: Top 2 Box
Contemporary 46%
NEGATIVE PI OPEN ENDS:
Liking 22%
Cool 34% Is it about a foggy bench in
the park?
Intriguing 64% Looks sappy
Uniqueness 13% Too dark
Provocative 44% Doesn’t relate to the title
Value 9% Stylish 44%
Trend Setting 20%

33. Listen. Interact. Collaborate. Act
Today’s Imperatives
> Listen to consumers as they
talk candidly to one another
> Interact with them in
familiar and engaging
environments
> Collaborate with them on
new solutions to meet their
needs
> Act on improving existing
solutions and processes for
better experience
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34. Threaded User
Forums
Customizable Picture and video
themes and logos uploads with user
ratings/ comments
Polls
Articles that users
can comment on
(including the
ability to respond Rule-based points
to other user’s system for
comments) incentive
management
And more!!!

35. www.bookconsumer.com
PubTrackInfo@bowker.com
@bookbuyrinsight