Barnes & Noble - marketing plan

BARNES AND NOBLE 2016 MARKETING PLAN 1
Barnes and Noble 2016 Marketing Plan
By: Cole Ericson, Laurissa Brunk, Leanna Rutledge, Deepika Singh
University of Colorado, Colorado Springs
For: MKTG 4800
April 27th
, 2016

Executive Summary
Barnes and Noble is a large American retailer specializing in books and also offering
eBooks, music, educational material, gifts, games, toys, and the Nook. Barnes and Noble is up
against strong competition with large retailers coming into the book scene (Barnes & Noble Inc.,
2014). As the only surviving brick and mortar bookstore chain in America, competitors such as
Amazon and traditional retail stores are offering a competitive advantage of convenience through
shopping online from home. Barnes and Noble has been competing in the technology industry
with the Nook and online shopping, but has not seen much success since it has proven
complicated to utilize. B&N’s target customer broadly encompasses all Americans and narrows
down to mainly women with children and non-technology savvy shoppers for the Nook (Owen,
2011).
Recent results show B&N claiming the majority of the book market, but currently there
are disappointing trends in market share (MarketLine, 2015). To overcome their competition
B&N needs to make changes that align with their main benefit of offering a large variety of
books with great customer service and the dynamic benefit of offering community and in-store
events that competitors cannot offer. B&N’s marketing objective is retention of multi-brand
users, and to strengthen their brand the strategic initiatives of attracting competitor’s customers,
defending against a competitive product, and strengthening the brand will be implemented with
their respective tactics. These tactics will be carried out in an ethical manner that will align with
B&N’s mission and values and the values of Daniel’s Ethics Initiative. The plan will be
implement over B&N’s fiscal year and will start in May of 2016, and the overall strategic
quadrant that B&N should be in for this plan is retention steal-share. Financially, these
initiatives will be reached by reallocating funding to strengthen the marketing and online
presence and will be measured through increase in same store sales and changes in market share.

Agenda
Executive Summary..............................................................................................................................................2
Agenda.......................................................................................................................................................................3
State of Business....................................................................................................................................................4
Vision and Branding Position........................................................................................................................................ 4
Target Customers............................................................................................................................................................... 5
Value Promise and Competitive Advantage............................................................................................................ 6
Recent Results ..................................................................................................................................................................... 7
Business Challenge & SWOT Analysis........................................................................................................................ 8
Big Picture Analysis..............................................................................................................................................9
Goals and Objectives......................................................................................................................................... 11
Strategic Initiatives & Tactics........................................................................................................................ 11
1. Attract Competitor’s Customers...........................................................................................................................11
2. Defend Against a Competitive Product...............................................................................................................13
3. Strengthen the Brand.................................................................................................................................................14
GOST Diagram ..................................................................................................................................................... 15
Ethical Decision-Making Framework......................................................................................................... 15
Financial Implications...................................................................................................................................... 17
Cost of Plan .........................................................................................................................................................................17
Success in Achieving Objectives.................................................................................................................................18
Risk and Contingencies.................................................................................................................................... 19
Incentives and Messaging.............................................................................................................................................19
Nook vs Kindle...................................................................................................................................................................20
Adjusted branding and related advertising...........................................................................................................20
Milestones............................................................................................................................................................. 21
Summary ............................................................................................................................................................... 22
Works Cited.......................................................................................................................................................... 23
Appendix ............................................................................................................................................................... 26

State of Business
Vision and Branding Position
Taking a look at Barnes and Noble’s mission statement will give insight into their current
vision and branding: “To operate the best omni-channel specialty retail business in America,
helping both our customers and booksellers reach their aspirations, while being a credit to the
communities we serve (Barnes & Noble, 2012).” Given that the mission statement is mainly
focused on retail business, the focus of this analysis will assess Barnes and Noble as part of the
market in the book category. Barnes and Noble carries and sells traditional paperback and
hardcover books, digital books, the Nook digital book device, and a book-publishing branch. To
compliment these products Barnes and Noble also sells games, toys, music, magazines,
educational materials, and accessories and gifts (Barnes and Noble Inc, 2012).
Barnes and Noble has a unique brand and position. B&N is positioned as a retail store as
opposed to primarily books. To stay competitive in a market with businesses like Amazon,
increasing foot traffic and driving sales must be the focus (Alter, 2015). In a recent interview
with B&N CEO the current direction was unveiled, “…Mr. Boire is leading a push to rebrand
Barnes & Noble as more than just a bookstore by expanding its offerings of toys, games, gadgets
and other gifts and reshaping the nation’s largest bookstore chain into a ‘lifestyle brand’ (Alter,
2015).”
For the B&N image and brand as a whole, the company does not have a specific sign or
symbol other than their traditional Barnes and Noble label that is distinctive with green and gold
colors. The Nook has a more modern look with a letter “n” as the recognizable symbol. There is
room for development in this graphic design and artistic area. The in-store activities and
programs create an experience style of branding and are a current focus and priority as CEO

Boire stated, “We believe we have further opportunities to create these one-of-a-kind
experiences that are unique and make our stores a community destination (Wharton University of
Pennsylvania, 2015).” This goal of providing community throughout the B&N stores aligns with
their mission statement and goal of being a great retailer that helps customers and suppliers reach
their goals while being a part of the community (Barnes & Noble, 2012). By offering creative
opportunities for customers to participate in store events Barnes and Noble is attempting to be
known as a brand of community and experiences. The following visual shows the emotional
relationship and thinking that the average customer currently has with B&N and how that
relationship should ideally look.
Target Customers
In Barnes and Noble’s mission statement, they claim their broad target category as
America (Barnes & Noble, 2012). Taking a look into their digital books a clearer market
segment can be found. The Nook is designed to appeal to women and children and according to
Barnes and Noble’s CEO, the market is specifically, “a woman with 2.3 kids. (Owen, 2011).”
The Nook’s features are appealing to that target market since parents can record themselves
reading a book to the child and they can listen to the recording while they follow along with the
Currently Do: I
buy books
online
Current Belief: I
like shopping
from my home Consumer
Proposition:
B&N has online
shopping and
great in-store
experiences
Desired Belief: I
like customer
service and the
experience at
B&N
Desired Do:
Purchase books
and attend
events at B&N

book. Additionally, the size and shape of the Nook fits easily into a woman’s purse (Owen,
2011). Other target markets Barnes and Noble is reaching out to are “avid readers” and
“technophobes (Owen, 2011).” Barnes and Noble prides themselves in offering free technical
support for the Nook in their stores as a service to their customers. The attempt to reach avid
readers is being done by using celebrity endorsements who are also in the writing field along
with other highly acclaimed authors who will be appealing to a person well-versed in literature
(Owen, 2011).
After analyzing what Barnes and Noble has to offer, their main benefit is that they offer a
large variety of books and great customer service. The dynamic benefic is the community and in-
store events that Barnes and Noble provides through having actual physical stores. These
qualities are hard to compete with in the online bookstore world, and the variety of material
B&N can offer is not readily available in small local bookstores.
Value Promise and Competitive Advantage
𝑉𝑉𝑉𝑉𝑉𝑉𝑉𝑉𝑉𝑉 =
𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵 𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁! + 𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴 𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴ℎ𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒
𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃 𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃 𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃 + 𝑊𝑊𝑊𝑊𝑊𝑊𝑊𝑊 𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖
The above value equation describes what B&N has to offer that will attract users. When
consumers want a physical location that enables them to browse and discover books, they go to
B&N. In the retail environment, customers can actually hold the book in their hand and turn the
pages to decide if they want to buy it. When they have made their purchase decision, they can
take the product to the cashier and own it immediately; there is no need to wait for the book to be
shipped.
B&N also provides more than just books to service other retail customer education and
entertainment needs by providing educational toys, music, community events, and other products
and services. On top of all of this, B&N has a special relationship with Starbucks coffee to offer

a café within their bookstores where customers can truly relax and enjoy B&N products even
within the store (bn.com).
Retail is the key element of B&N’s competitive advantage as their 648 physical
bookstores located in the US form the last remaining, large, national bookstore chain. The retail
segment includes other business assets but the brand is strongest with the physical locations
because no competitors reach the US books market on this physical scale (Barragan, 2016). The
challenge with retail is that it commands higher prices, which makes competing with Amazon on
price difficult (Newman, 2012).
Recent Results
The good news is that the overall B&N
brand is strong and their educational toys are a
promising diversifying opportunity (Barragan,
2016). The chart to the right demonstrates how
B&N has been performing in terms of revenues
and profit margins. B&N’s biggest advantage, their physical stores, is also the overall book
market’s biggest segment providing 73% of the market’s value. Even better news is that this
market is expected to grow nearly 1% between now
and 2019 (MarketLine, 2015).
However, the bad news is that B&N same
store sales are down, and Amazon is starting to
introduce their own stores. (Macauley, 2015) The
chart above shows B&N’s five-year stock price
history. There is an alarming downward trend,
Figure 1 Barnes & Noble Revenues and Profitability
(MarketLine, 2015)
Figure 2 Barnes & Noble 5 year stock price history
(Google.com)

reflecting that B&N performed -43.18% last year (2015). In response to this, B&N has made a
number of changes to bail out. First, they have spun off the Education division to in order to
focus on improving the customer experience of their retail spaces. (Greenfield, Barnes & Noble's
Big Problem -- and What to Do About It, 2013) Second, they have cut losses from the Nook by
outsourcing the manufacturing to Samsung. The idea is that these cash saving moves can help
B&N focus on improving the retail experience to hedge against Amazon’s creeping in the retail
environment. (Barragan, 2016).
Business Challenge & SWOT Analysis
STRENGTHS. The strengths of B&N are that they have two methods for distributing
their goods, either online or in store. Competitors like Amazon cannot do that because they are
primarily online retailers (Phillips, Henry, & Van Der Wal, 2007). The strong presence of being
in a brick and mortar store helps with the availability of books since a customer can receive the
book immediately. The fastest shipping possible for online retailers takes days to arrive. Another
strength for B&N is their name since they are the last standing big brick and mortar book store.
They are known for their books and discounts and continue to attract customers. Many customers
value the ambiance that is found in B&N, the ability to smell coffee nearby and walk through the
aisle looking at all the books.
WEAKNESSES. B&N is only available in America, meaning overseas they are not able
to compete with other book retailers. This also limits their customer base to only those living in
the US. (Greenfield, A Solution to Barnes & Noble's International Problem, 2012). Another
weakness for B&N is that though it may take longer to buy online, many people do not want to
leave the comfort of their home to buy in store. People are accustomed to the routine of buying
online and receiving the order on their doorstep within a few days.

OPPORTUNITIES. B&N has the opportunity to grow globally, and as mentioned
before, but should test if having a location overseas is profitable. If it is deemed too costly in its
current situation B&N could also make the Nook available overseas to test if the B&N brand is
transferable. (MarketLine, 2016). B&N has a great chance of rebranding their company to grow
their general brand awareness. They could first modernize their logo to be adaptive so the brand
can be easily recognizable. An example of modernizing would be utilizing the “&” sign to make
a distinctive mark (Lynch, Figgins, & Hill, 2012). B&N can also rebrand the physical stores to
offer more services such as hosting book signings and other events.
THREATS. B&N has many competitors, the biggest being Amazon. Amazon is used
worldwide and available to everyone with access to the Internet (Kline, 2015). Many people
would rather not leave the comfort of their home when they have an option of staying and having
items delivered to them. This makes B&N’s brick and mortar stores less appealing because of
how quick and easy online retailers are. Another threat is price wars; B&N offers discounts and
an example is their military ID discount. These discounts are only available in stores, meaning
Nook military users cannot use this discount; threatening their choosing to the next low priced
retailer. The last threat is piracy. Illegally downloaded books are all over the Internet making the
purchase of books unnecessary. This is a threat that B&N cannot solve. Please see appendix
figure A for a table displaying the SWOT analysis.
Big Picture Analysis
The fundamental entity of B&N, according to their website is: “… a Fortune 500
company, the largest retail bookseller in the United States, and a leading retailer of content,
digital media and educational products in the country (Barnes & Noble, 2016).” This implies that

they attract volume by promoting their dynamic benefit of having a physical location for
customers to browse and purchase books.
B&N is a competitor in the “Bookselling” category, which is divided into the selling of
physical titles (hardcopies) and digital titles (e-books). According to MarketLine: “The physical
segment of the books market includes atlases, dictionaries, encyclopedias, text books,
guidebooks, musical scores, maps, fiction and non-fiction. The digital segment of the books
market consists of electronic books (or e-books) which can be read on computers or other
electronic devices (MarketLine, 2015).”
B&N’s core competency is their physical locations. When comparing the recent demise
of competitor, Borders, B&N strengths are clear. Of book retailers, B&N is the best at research;
enabling the business to predict market shifts, most important of which is the rise of the digital
bookselling environment. In addition, B&N has better service, which includes being able to offer
Starbucks coffee to make customers more likely to visit their stores than competitors’ (Sanburn,
2011, Noguchi, 2011, Evans, 2011). Their business objective is to increase same store profits by
creating a retail bookselling experience for consumers that Amazon cannot touch, effectively
stealing 5% of Amazon bookselling revenues in 2016.
In order to help B&N realize this short-term business objective, B&N’s marketing
objective is retention of multi-brand users. Therefore, B&N’s new target customer B&N is a
most avid reader: Michelle. She is an educated woman who is financially well established and
likes to read books in print every couple of months (Zickuhr & Rainie, 2014). She is hand loyal
to B&N as she occasionally wanders into the local store to browse for new reads but often buys
off of Amazon. B&N will improve her customer experience so that she returns to buy from B&N

stores more often. This will convert her into a head loyal brand ambassador who recommends
shopping at B&N to her friends who otherwise would purchase from Amazon.
The source of volume (strategic quadrant) for B&N in this plan is steal share from
Amazon. Amazon is leading in the bookselling category, but B&N can overtake them with their
strategic assets. With conveniences like in-store pickup (implying free “same day shipping”), in-
store browsing, discovery, and discussion of books; and a digital component (the Nook), many
customers will be more likely switch to purchasing from B&N more often. Please see appendix
figure B for diagram of the Big Picture Analysis.
Goals and Objectives
With the threat of Amazon making B&N go extinct, the primary goal of this Marketing
Plan is to increase same store profit growth by 5% throughout fiscal year 2016 by stealing share
from Amazon online sales. To do this, B&N needs to increase foot traffic in the stores by
attracting Amazon customers with benefits they can’t get online.
The secondary goal of this plan is to generate 10% more of all sales from online retail.
This secondary goal will help B&N establish themselves as a long term competitor in the
bookselling category with a two solutions for both of the category’s segments.
Strategic Initiatives & Tactics
1. Attract Competitor’s Customers
The first strategic initiative of this plan is to attract competitor’s (Amazon’s) customers
(Calkins, 2012). These customers already know who B&N is, and sometimes visit the locations,
but do most of their purchasing on Amazon’s website. This is our primary initiative for success
because the books category is only growing slowly, and Amazon is the biggest player. That
means the largest steal share potential lies with Amazon’s visitors instead of the population in

general. B&N will benefit twofold: by gaining new purchases, and stealing those new purchases
from their main competitor, Amazon.
To carry out this initiative, B&N will use two tactics: incentives and messages. On the
incentive side, B&N will offer purchase discounts to members based on likely purchase data.
Amazon is using their endless amounts of data to drive purchases. B&N can collect data as well
by leveraging their membership capabilities. (Yakuel, 2016). For example, when a member has
read the first book in a series (say, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone) B&N will offer them
the rest of the Harry Potter series at a discount. This model can be adapted for an author’s entire
works as well. Another incentive would be a price matching option, exclusively for B&N
members, for identical books found on Amazon’s website. This will help ensure that multi brand
customers purchase from B&N because they can get the same price in-store that they can on
Amazon, and to purchase from B&N more often because they are incentivized to become loyal
members.
The second tactic for this initiative is messaging. Every B&N marketing message from
this plan revolves around the dynamic benefit: having actual stores. A web user whose behavior
identifies them as a potential book purchaser will be served B&N ads recommending the
customer to visit the store and enjoy real customer service and real book browsing rather than an
impersonal website. Visitors to B&N.com will be served messages that recommend pickup in
stores for faster and free shipping. They will also be rewarded for picking up in the store with
exclusive discounts on other items in the store including free Starbucks coffee. This should
encourage customers to spend more time in the store and not on Amazon’s website.

2. Defend Against a Competitive Product
The second strategic initiative for B&N is to defend against a new competitive product,
Amazon’s Kindle (Calkins, 2012). Even though Amazon has managed to place themselves as the
e-reading leader, B&N has the potential to overtake them. Part of the reason the Kindle is more
successful when compared to the Nook is the user interface each uses. Many of the complaints
for the Nook are about the menus and options that are difficult to navigate, whereas a Kindle is
more straightforward and simple. Before B&N can defend against the Kindle and effectively
leverage the membership with Nook sales, the user experience needs to be improved. Once the
user experience is enhanced, the Nook can easily become a sales-generating product for B&N.
B&N has an opportunity to not only increase sales, but also membership subscriptions,
with the Nook product. Nook owners can automatically become B&N members for life for free,
just because they’ve purchased and own a Nook device. The lifetime membership for Nook
owners can also be expanded to include the same incentives explained in the primary initiative to
make purchasing from Amazon, and using their Kindle, less appealing.
Nook owners will receive the eBook version of every hardcopy they purchase from B&N
for free. This will further boost the appeal and use of the Nook device over a Kindle. In addition,
customers can count on the promise that a book will never be out of stock because B&N will
always have the digital version available to a hardcopy purchaser as they wait on their bounded
book (Trachtenberg, 2013).
Finally, for these tactics to work, B&N will need to raise customer awareness of the
benefits of the Nook over the Kindle with an advertising campaign. This advertising should
emphasize the dynamic benefit of the experience and atmosphere that B&N offers.

3. Strengthen the Brand
The final strategic initiative will be to strengthen the brand loyalty of multi brand
customers (Calkins, 2012). By building customer brand loyalty, B&N can emphasize their
dynamic benefit (in-store experience) and ensure that customers prefer their brand over Amazon.
Based off anecdotal observations, many people prefer Amazon’s web interface to B&N’s and
will simply purchase where it is easier. Because B&N’s current website is outdated, the tactic
that will help B&N be successful in the online brand loyalty game is a website overhaul. B&N
should create a clean and simple web experience that is responsive and user friendly. A few user
experience aspects that B&N can mimic from Amazon would include page load speed,
personalized customer-shopping experience, enhanced product searching, and recommending
similar products based off other users as well (Say, 2013).
The second tactic for strengthening the brand loyalty of multi brand B&N customers is
emphasizing the beneficial events often held in store. B&N can leverage these events to become
a community-meeting place for book clubs and other groups within the surrounding community
(Wharton University of Pennsylvania, 2015). By strengthening the brand and improving
customer experience online B&N can increase traffic both to the store and online. Please observe
the GOST diagram below that will outline the marketing plan goals, strategic initiatives, and
tactics.
To effectively acquire customers from their competitors, B&N will need to drill
down on the customer data they already have and perform any further market research
necessary. Then B&N can launch a new advertising campaign and redesign their
membership program. B&N should implement an integrated marketing communications
plan to spread awareness of the changes they are making in store. This will increase
consumer awareness and potentially increase first mentions of the brand by at least 30%.

From there the marketing communications should convince multi-brand users of B&N’s
better experience and increase this decision by 40-60%. The overall effect of the IMC plan
will increase weekly foot traffic to the brick and mortar stores and result in same stores
sales to increase by 5% every year.
GOST Diagram
Ethical Decision-Making Framework
Within the Daniel’s Ethics framework, the main ethical principles are integrity, trust,
accountability, transparency, fairness, respect, rule of law, and viability. Barnes and Noble has
ethics built into their mission statement and company framework. The values that they claim for
their entire company encompass ethics with consistent use as a cornerstone for company culture
and success (Barnes & Noble, 2012). The strategy initiatives recommended will fall within these
ethical principles.

Integrity will be displayed within the methods of attracting competitor’s customers by
holding true to promotional incentives and being clear about the rules and exceptions to any
sales. Trust will be built within the B&N brand through providing quality products. With the
offer of a free digital copy with every hardcopy purchase, customers will know that the brand is
guaranteed to follow through on its promises. Accountability will be displayed through being
upfront and open about where products are coming from, and by sourcing those products
ethically. B&N has a solid product supplier code of conduct and that will continue to be
implemented through all rebranding initiatives (Barnes & Noble, 2012). Transparency will be
displayed within the strengthened membership program. Customers will be made of the data is
kept in their personal profile as a B&N member.
Since many companies attempt to gain customers by aggressively showing all the
negative attributes of their competition, B&N will use tactics that draw attention their positive
and dynamic benefits. This will show fairness in their dealing with competitors.
Respect will be upheld in all store events, as customers will come from various cultural,
social, and financial backgrounds. Rule of Law will be adhered in all store locations across the
country. As each state has varying laws each store leadership team will be compliant to their
individual regulations pertaining to in-store and community events in addition to daily store
functions. Viability will be the end result of all of these ethical principles. When B&N is able to
base their business off a consistent and accountable system they will gain customers who will
stay with them long-term because they know their needs and wants will be met satisfactorily.

Financial Implications
Cost of Plan
As indicated by the MarketLine report, the book industry is continuing to grow
(MarketLine, 2015). Despite this growth B&N continues to see a decrease of in-store sales
(Barnes & Noble, Inc.). B&N will need to reevaluate funding in their marketing department to
allow for the necessary market research to be completed. Often times, market research ranges
from $30,000-$100,000 depending on the information needed (Glantz, 2015). B&N should
allocate $75,000 as a minimum for research to be conducted, which should include analyzing the
data B&N already has on current customers, and utilize quantitative analysis methods
(surveys/focus groups) to generate data on the current customer opinion.
Costs for redesigning a website can range from $40,000 to $110,000 based on the
complexity of the design (WepageFX, 2016). Since the current website is a bit of a mess, B&N
should budget the full amount for the redesign as $110,000. The costs for a new website would
include world class and responsive design for up to 250 pages for customer content, copywriting
for 25-50 pages, and up to 150 keywords for search engine optimization (SEO). This would also
include full development of database integration and agile e-Commerce functionality
(WepageFX, 2016). Redesigning the website will be part of the new communications, and is
included as a subset of the advertising costs.
Other advertising costs would include print (newspapers, magazine, etc.), email, and
SEO. B&N should also budget for pay per click marketing and email marketing to current and
potential customers. Since B&N allocates a certain budget for designing and copywriting, the
focus of this plan will be the cost of running the ads. Average costs for magazine ads are around
$250,000 in the US, newspapers average approximately $113,000 per ad, pay per click and email
marketing varies from $0.05-$3.00 per qualified visitor, and SEO costs are included in the

redesign of the website (WebpageFX, 2016). Magazine and newspaper ads should every other
month, with a total cost of $2,178,000 between the two. If pay per click and email marketing
draws 1,000 customers each month, and the cost per customer is around $2.00, overall cost
would be $2,000 per month and $24,000 per year.
Overall, implementing a new plan to increase foot traffic to B&N’s brick and mortar
stores will not be cheap. The total cost for the initial changes that need to be made being
$2,387,000 for the first year. After the website update has been made, however, the following
years’ costs will drop as the website will only need minimal upkeep and updates. Please see
appendix figure C for graph of financial implications and projections.
Success in Achieving Objectives
B&N’s success will be measured by increase in same store sales and changes in market
share. Currently, B&N owns a small portion of market share in comparison to the dominance
Amazon has on the market. As shown in the image below, B&N holds a very small 8% versus
Apple’s 11%, and an even greater difference compared Amazon’s 74%.
(Kozlowski, 2015)

The goal for the first year would be to increase B&N market share across all mediums
(eBooks, paperbacks, hardcover, etc.) by at least 4%, overtaking Apple, and shrinking Amazon’s
market share. If B&N is able to continue steal share from Amazon, they could increase their
market share to at least 20% if not higher over a five-year period.
Success of this marketing plan can also be measured by an increase in sales over the next
five years. An increase of 5% each year would result in a total change in revenue by $1.1 million
or more (see Appendix for more information). As this is only an estimate based off 2015 sales in
the retail stores, there is potential for larger growth that was has been calculated. By continually
measuring change in market share and sales revenue, B&N can track which techniques are
working and which are not, and then future tactics can be calibrated off this.
Risk and Contingencies
Incentives and Messaging
The risks of discounting bulk purchases are that B&N could get into a price war with its
competitors and could potentially lose both customers and money. Another risk is that once
customers start using these discounts they will continue to only buy bulk purchases at below
price from B&N (Casey, 2012). The contingency of getting into a price war is that B&N would
need to emphasize or work harder on their competitive edge. B&N would need to host events at
physical stores to attract customers away from the online competitors (Simister, 2013). If
customers are only buying from B&N because they are discount shoppers, B&N would need to
increase prices in other bestselling items to recoup prices or they would need to only offer a
specialty. If there is a new book release, B&N should only discount that series as a bulk.

Nook vs Kindle
The risk of offering the Nook version of a book free when customers buy a hard copy is that
publishers may be upset that they are not receiving profit from eBook sales and may just stop
distributing eBooks to B&N. The risk of advertising is that it can also become costly to ensure
that the proper details and research is done. Also if a bad campaign is made then it may turn
customers away or create a bad image for B&N (DeSelm, 2013). If publishers do get upset and
stop distributing eBooks, B&N will have to reimburse the publishers and discontinue the offer,
or B&N will have to preorder all eBooks from the publishers to continue the service. In the event
of a bad campaign, B&N will need to hire a new advertising team to properly handle the
previous campaign and then create a new one that can attract customers.
Adjusted branding and related advertising
The biggest risk with redesigning a website is that it could not appeal to the customers.
There might be issues with the overall design or inventory being listed incorrectly (Owoh, 2016).
If B&N decided to take the simple look to the website customers may think the page is bland and
old fashion. If redesign issues occur and customers do not like it, B&N will need to hire new web
designers and market analysts to assess the needs of customers in online shopping. The risk of
B&N holding book events is that people may not want to leave the privacy of their home to
attend. Another risk is that others in the store may feel that the atmosphere of B&N has changed
into a more energetic rowdy place. If people do not show up to book events, B&N would need to
target places or people that are already holding book clubs. If people are driven away because the
atmosphere of B&N has changed, they will need to assess which group of people brings is more
profit and continue to provide what they want.

Milestones
For the initiative of attracting competitor’s customers, the tactic of discounts will begin
May 2016. The first step would be to research how much of a discount B&N can offer without
hurting the company, what kinds of discounts customers would want, and how much of a
discount is enough to steal from competitors. Then starting in June, B&N will begin testing these
discounts in select locations to see how well it could work or if further research must be
conducted. After resolving any issues in the testing phase B&N will begin to implement in
August and at the same time B&N will also start researching its customer base on how they
would like to receive messages and in what content they would be interested. Implementation for
both the discounts and messages will last three months before finally analyzing the effects.
In the initiative of defending against competitive product, B&N will need to create an
advertising campaign. For three months, starting in May they will conduct research to ensure that
B&N has all the necessary information collected about their target market. Then for another
three months, the marketing team will begin creating the campaign. Afterwards they will then
test and launch the campaign and then at the end of the fiscal year, B&N will analyze the effects
of the campaign and then decided to keep it, remove it or update it.
The last initiative of strengthening the brand will consist of two tactics: redesign the
website and hosting events. The research for the website will begin mid-way during the research
for the advertising campaign so the two teams can work together and share information on the
campaign with the website. Like the campaign, creating and testing will follow after and take
three months each to conduct. The launch will begin in March of 2017 and a month later reports
on the launch and customer reviews will then take place. Research to host events will begin in
October, after the research on messages is finished. This allows overlapping information about
customers’ attitude toward in store opportunities to be shared. Testing and creating will follow,

and then implementation will begin from March and last two months to ensure a throughout
implementation. Please see appendix figure D for a GANNT chart of milestone implementation.
Summary
Since Barnes and Noble is the last standing book retailer struggling to compete with
online competition, by utilizing this marketing plan to compete in customer retention and steal
share from competitors, they can be in the lead in sales and market share. Implementation of this
plan would cost Barnes and Noble time, money, and resources at a high cost, but the outcome is
projected to increase revenue and give Barnes and Noble a foothold in the market again.
Implementation does not come without risk, but by utilizing the contingency plan and following
the milestone chart, the plan can be implemented with a sure direction. Barnes and Noble can
rise to the top of the competition with Amazon if strategy is implement in the near future and
tracked and adjusted as the implementation process occurs. Overall, Barnes and Noble is a great
family retailer that has a chance to survive the hit it has taken from companies utilizing
technology and rising above traditional sales techniques.

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Appendix
Figure A.
SWOT Analysis Table
Strengths
• Multiple distribution channels
• Immediate availability
• Established brand
• Ambiance in stores
Weaknesses
• Only available in America
• Customers prefer online shopping to
avoid leaving their home
Opportunities
• Grow globally
• Grow digitally
• Rebranding
Threats
• Competition from online retailers
• Price wars
• Piracy
Figure B.
Big Picture Analysis

Fundamental entity:
Book Retailer
Category: Books
Core Competency:
Better at predicting
market shift and
better service
Goal: Increase same
store profit growth
by 5% throughout
the 2016 fiscal year
Retention Steal Share
Business Objective Marketing Source of Volume

Figure C.
Financial Implications
Projected Yearly Increase in Revenue
Year Revenue
2015 4108243
2016 4313655
2017 4529338
2018 4755805
2019 4993595
2020 5243275
2021 5505439
Figure D.
0
1000000
2000000
3000000
4000000
5000000
6000000
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
USD($)
Year

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