Recent visitors to the Random House of Canada website may have noticed a new Father’s Day promotion. Like many Canadian and American publishers, Random has been selling books directly on its website for some time, but the pitch for the dozen or so Father’s Day titles is unusually aggressive: Random’s offering 30% off the list price and free shipping.
That’s likely to raise some eyebrows, or at least provoke some resigned sighs, from booksellers who are sensitive to competition from publishers. Q&Q e-mailed Tracey Turriff, Random Canada’s senior vice-president and director of marketing and corporate communications, and asked about the rationale for the special, and customer reaction. Below is Turriff’s response:
We see this and any other promotions on our website as a way of bringing attention to our books and authors and communicating with readers, not as a way to sell a lot of books, and certainly not as a means of competing with bookstores. Promoting our books is naturally essential to us. Our website is a promotional vehicle and we are using it, as with our other marketing efforts, to make readers aware of our books and to drive them into bookstores. The Free Shipping and 30% off simply add greater focus. We have done other promotions in the past, such as Mother’s Day and “Green” themes, and are planning a Summer Reading promotion. The sales through our own site have been minimal, but we have seen increased sales through bookstores for the titles featured in these promotions in the past, which suggests it is working.
And in response to a follow-up question:
Research has shown us that many Canadian readers like to look for books online, and our promotions are targeting them, to bring attention to the books and authors we feature. The main focus of these promotions is to interact with readers and build awareness for these books, and with consumers spending so much time online, our own website is a good place to do that.
Whoee. The sump house is working. Now I know who’s writing their catalogue copy.
[...] this direction for a while, doing similar deals in the past on selected titles. They’ve also denied that it’s an attempt to compete with booksellers, though undoubtedly not all booksellers will [...]
[...] Whoee. The sump house is working. Now I know whos writing their catalogue copy. [...]