Presentation from BISG's "What College Students Think: Making Information Pay for Higher Ed Publishing" Conference, held Feb 9, 2011 in NYC. TITLE: Textbook Marketing and Student Choice in a Time of Transition DESCRIPTION: Today's students are presented with a rapidly expanding selection when it comes to educational materials and price points. This presentation focuses on what students choose and what drives those choices, what causes students to select one format over another, and what they expect from each. We will also share some thoughts on how those choices can be influenced by publishers who want to take advantage of a changing marketing environment.

1. Textbook Marketing & Student Choice
in a Time of Transition
BISG – February 5, 2011
Confidential

2. The Changing Collegiate Retail Landscape
 Students are the most dynamic
and engaged retail consumers
 Ever-increasing technological
expectations in an on-demand
world
 Desire for consistent multi-
channel experiences – in-store,
online, mobile
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3. The Changing Textbook Landscape
 Formats are: new, used,
rental, digital
 Content is: Multi-media,
multi-source, open-source,
text, audio, video, faculty-
generated, student-
generated, social sharing
 Distribution is: in-store, on-
line, mobile
 Access expectations are: in
class, at home, in the dorm,
in the café, on any device
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4. Types of Textbooks Used Today
2010 by the Numbers
 229,000 unique titles adopted
 Over 224,000 of the 229,000 titles had demand of fewer than
1,000 units
 16% of the titles used by faculty do not have ISBNs
 22% of these were custom titles
 24,000 of these titles had a digital option
 10% of titles used by our faculty
 2.5 million adoptions collected
 7,661 unique publishers represented
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5. What students…
Do Prefer Demand
65% Compare prices 50% Used Convenience
60% Purchase all required 21% New/used combo Value
32% Share 14% New Choice
Textbooks
22% Skip 5% Rentals
16% Swap 3% eTextbooks
11% Photocopy
Source: Student Monitor LLC and Barnes & Noble company research
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6. What faculty…
Do/would do
69% Consider price when choosing a textbook
72% Would support giving students a choice of renting a book for all or some of their
courses
Textbooks
42% Would be more inclined to submit their adoptions to the bookstore if rentals were
an option
54% Would consider using the same book for a period of two years if it meant a rental would be
available
Source: Barnes & Noble company research
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7. Student & Bookstore Affinity
10 9.23
8.6
9 8.25 8.2 8.2
7.9 7.9
7.6 7.41
8
6.9
7 6.28
5.6
6
5
3.8
4
3 2.1
2
1
0
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8. Choice, Convenience, Cheap
Providing new, used, rental, digital – in-store and online
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9. Student Savings
The numbers behind the options
NEW USED RENTAL$ DIGITAL
$100 $75 49 $40
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10. Textbook Rentals
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11. Textbook Rentals
 2/3 of Barnes & Noble
Stores now offer
textbook rentals
 Students save more than
50% off new textbook
price
 Students rent in-store
and online
 When offered a choice,
30% of student choose
rental
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12. etextbooks
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13. eTextbooks & NOOKstudy
e-TEXTBOOKS GROWTH
 All Barnes & Noble Stores We have seen a
significant increase
offer eTextbooks in digital sales this
 Students save up to 60% off year.
the new textbook price
 Student can preview 14% of students
etextbooks with 7-day free have purchased a
digital product as part
trial of their studies.
 Students purchase and rent
etextbooks in-store and The general
online acceptance of digital
 When offered a choice, 5% of reading for pleasure
is bleeding over to
students choose digital higher education
 This percentage is growing content.
rapidly
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14. Student Reasons for Purchasing eBooks
 Savings is the primary factor
 Sole option -- Only way to obtain the textbook [out of
stock, preference by the professor, custom PDF type eBook
that the professor created for sale].
 18% of students who purchased an eBook did so because
they enjoy the features.
 10% of students who purchased an eBook did so because
they had never used one and were curious.
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15. Higher Education Digital Strategy
 Solutions designed to meet users’ needs
 Goal is to create a better learning experience
 Organizational and study tools are student requirements
 95% of students have access to PCs & MACs
 eTextbook and eResources Sales are projected to be 20% of
Higher Education Sales in 2016
A free, downloadable software
solution expressly designed for
learning
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16. Innovative Software
NOOKstudy lets students study smarter, not harder
 Features most important to
students:
 Search within and across
content
 Annotation/highlight and
sharing of notes
 Downloaded texts over
online access - Flexibility of
where and when they can
access their books
 Integration with other
course content including
lecture notes, professor
guidance
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17. Overall research conclusions
 Given the opportunity, students are willing to experiment
with reading and studying digitally.
 When students do read and study digitally, results indicate
that they find it as effective or more effective than studying
with the physical book.
 When students do read and study digitally, their responses to
usability of features shows that their expectations are high.
 Expect basic features to be as good as print experience (e.g., notes and
annotations.)
 Also, expect that there are compelling features that go beyond what is feasible
in the physical book experience (e.g., tags across notes, organizational
capabilities.)
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18. Challenges to digital transition
 Content availability
 Student perceptions of DRM -- philosophical objections primarily
 Non-philosophical reasons for objecting to the limits:
 Wants to download the eTextbook to 3 computers (home, work and school.)
 Desires access to the eTextbook on a lab (shared) computer
 Given the opportunity, students are willing to experiment with reading and
studying digitally.
48% 49%
60%
50% 39%
37%
30%
40% Don't Know
25% 27% 24%
30% 20%
Not Enough
20% Enough
10%
0%
-10% Amount allowed to be Amount allowed to be Download eTextbooks to
copied printed a maximum of 2
computers
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19. Marketing to and educating students and faculty
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20. Getting The Textbook Message Out
Biggest Challenge
 Educating faculty & students
 In-store and online messaging
 E-mail & text messaging
 Social Media & Cause Focused
 Facebook
 Blogs
 Twitter
Confidential

21. Textbook Marketing & Student Choice
in a Time of Transition
BISG – February 5, 2011
Confidential