A bay window from outside
This week I visited the Borders flagship store in Ann Arbor. I grew to love that place while in college, with its sizeable bay windows to sit and read in, cafe upstairs to meet and study (or likely procrastinate) at, and the great events it attracted (Irvine Welsh, Billy Corgan, & Chuck Palahniuk were top on my list).
If you don't know, as a state Michigan was struggling financially long before the national recession and seeing a Michigan-made company sink, even as the recession seems to be lifting is hard. You want to do something to help. Buy up all their books. Give them a hometown comeback, if only for the chain to exist in-state, or only in Ann Arbor.
Except it's a bookstore. And prices are better online. But you can't buy the experience of sitting in the store's windows anonymously, reading stacks of magazines for free. You can't buy the suggestions and assistance of the people working in different parts of the store. Amazon's suggestion tool is good, but it's not people. So when I spend time in the store, I try to purchase something, whether a drink or a book that's on my big list. It might cost a little more than online, but it feels right.
In my last few visits I haven't wanted to spend that time. Even as bay windows have been open I've found myself wandering away from that area, then around the store, and quickly out. I've heard the same conversation a handful of times now, between this store and another of the chain's now-closed branches. It sounds like helpful customer service and starts with one little question: "What's the difference between the Kobo and Kindle?" As soon as my ears pick up the discussion I'm thinking of what's going wrong, what should be said, and I'm not enjoying being in the space between where I was and where I need to go next; I want to leave.
As you may imagine, two e-readers, like two kinds of computers, will have several similarities. And this is usually where the employees begin, telling what the two machines can "both do". They both download books, they both go online. Both use e-ink, can read PDFs and can play MP3s. Then, often, the customer asks again for the differences. The response varies here, sometimes highlighting the available library each product has, other times describing how the two machines get their books. This goes on until it gets quiet, the customer thanks the informer for their help, and they walk away. I haven't seen one Kobo sold from these interactions yet.
When you go to Borders' website, the Kobo looks promising. It's one of several competing brands for what is essentially the same product. It will read books on a screen. There's nothing amiss about it, as far as I can tell. Certainly, Kobo doesn't have the brand presence Kindle does, but think about the interaction you're witnessing. Here are people in a college town (and its outlying area) walking into a physical space to learn more about a product, rather than going online, where the debate has been laid out for them. All signs point to a potential sale and taking it home today.
So what's going wrong?
1) Customers are being offered the features of not only the product they came to see, but another great product that will do as much, if not more than the product in front of them.
2) When delivered "similarities first", customers are left asking the same question they started with, except now they suspect something is being hidden from them. If the differences were delivered outright, with no explanation of similarities, the conversation would be shorter and the price-comparison factor (the Kobo is cheaper) would stand out as a benefit, not as a concession to being a "lesser" machine.
3) People selling apples on the side of the road are not likely to tell you about the health benefits of raspberries unless they have them to sell too. Here's how you answer the question if you want to sell your product, whether you know the other product or not. "I don't know about what the product you mentioned does, but I really like the product I'm selling. Here's why..."
4) The people who are hired to sell books, especially at Borders, have (at least in my experience) a unique knowledge of the media they actually enjoy. This goes back to the good experience you can have at Borders: thoughtful recommendations, interested questions as you describe what you're looking for, and a occasional geek-out as you find yourself face-to-face with someone who loves the cats-on-the-chessboard scene in L'Atlante. In short, people who know books, movies and music. These same niche-knowledge people probably do not own both a Kindle and a Kobo, if they own either. Why expect them to sell something they don't know?
All of these issues are symptomatic of the greater problem Borders and other stores have: trying to compete on product, not experience.
When every book chain has an e-reader, that market's pie gets sliced among chains, and the most popular product will rake in the best sales. Kindle has the best branding and advertising. So maybe Borders can get a second-place slice of a pie. But at what cost? Funds that could have subsidized bestseller book prices and made the chain competitive on price, at least in one area. Funds that could have made more bay windows to sit in, kept a few more knowledgeable employees on staff to foster community, serve cheaper cafe drinks and keep people coming in and staying awhile. And buy things.
So what's going wrong?
1) Customers are being offered the features of not only the product they came to see, but another great product that will do as much, if not more than the product in front of them.
2) When delivered "similarities first", customers are left asking the same question they started with, except now they suspect something is being hidden from them. If the differences were delivered outright, with no explanation of similarities, the conversation would be shorter and the price-comparison factor (the Kobo is cheaper) would stand out as a benefit, not as a concession to being a "lesser" machine.
3) People selling apples on the side of the road are not likely to tell you about the health benefits of raspberries unless they have them to sell too. Here's how you answer the question if you want to sell your product, whether you know the other product or not. "I don't know about what the product you mentioned does, but I really like the product I'm selling. Here's why..."
4) The people who are hired to sell books, especially at Borders, have (at least in my experience) a unique knowledge of the media they actually enjoy. This goes back to the good experience you can have at Borders: thoughtful recommendations, interested questions as you describe what you're looking for, and a occasional geek-out as you find yourself face-to-face with someone who loves the cats-on-the-chessboard scene in L'Atlante. In short, people who know books, movies and music. These same niche-knowledge people probably do not own both a Kindle and a Kobo, if they own either. Why expect them to sell something they don't know?
All of these issues are symptomatic of the greater problem Borders and other stores have: trying to compete on product, not experience.
When every book chain has an e-reader, that market's pie gets sliced among chains, and the most popular product will rake in the best sales. Kindle has the best branding and advertising. So maybe Borders can get a second-place slice of a pie. But at what cost? Funds that could have subsidized bestseller book prices and made the chain competitive on price, at least in one area. Funds that could have made more bay windows to sit in, kept a few more knowledgeable employees on staff to foster community, serve cheaper cafe drinks and keep people coming in and staying awhile. And buy things.
Where do you go for a good experience, regardless of whether you buy something?
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