The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More

Note: The review that follows is of the revised and updated edition of a book that was first published in 2006. It offers essentially the same information and insights except that Anderson has added a new chapter on marketing, one in which he explains "how to sell where `selling' doesn't work." More about this chapter later. In the October 2004 issue of Wired magazine, Chris Anderson published an article in which he shared these observations: "(1) the tail of available variety is far longer than we realize; (2) it's now within reach economically; (3) all those niches, when aggregated, can make up a significant market - seemed indisputable, especially backed up with heretofore unseen data." That is even truer today than it was when The Long Tail was first published years ago. The era that Anderson characterizes as "a market of multitudes" continues to grow in terms of both its nature and extent. In this book, Anderson takes his reader on a guided tour of this market as he explains what the probable impact the new market will have and what will be required to prosper in it. According to Anderson, those who read the article saw the Long Tail everywhere, from politics to public relations, and from sheet music to college sports. "What people intuitively grasped was that new efficiencies in distribution, manufacturing, and marketing were changing the definition of what was commercially viable across the board. The best way to describe these forces is that they are turning unprofitable customers, products, and markets into profitable ones." Therefore, the story of the Long Tail is really about the economics of abundance: "what happens when the bottlenecks that stand between supply and demand in our culture start to disappear and everything becomes available to everyone." If I understand Anderson's most important points (and I may not), they include these: 1. Make as much as possible available to as many people as possible. 2. Help them to locate what they need, quickly and easily. 3. Offer maximum inventory only online. 4. Customize supply chain in terms of niche markets 5. Maximize its efficiencies and economies (especially inventory control, order processing, and distribution,) 5. Be customer-driven in terms of "crowdsourcing" 6. Have strategy that separates content into its component parts (i.e. "microchunking") 7. Have a pricing strategy that is "elastic" (i.e. based on the ROI of fulfillment per product per niche). 8. Have an open source business model for information sharing. 9. In markets where scarcity exists, "guesstimate" costs, margins, sales, profits, etc. 10.Where there is abundant competition, let those markets "sort it all out." These and other points can guide and inform decision makers as they struggle to compete profitably during the era of "long-tailed distributions," when culture is unfiltered by economic scarcity and high technology is turning mass markets into millions of niches. Anderson provides invaluable advi

Although I try to keep up with hot business books, I missed this one when it was climbing the NY Times Bestseller ranks in 2006. I heard about it in a Q & A session on LinkedIn and decided to read it. Chris Anderson has soundly articulated how the democratization of production and distribution has changed the rules of the game. If you're a creative type trying to produce and sell your own stuff, this book will encourage you to forge ahead. There's a niche out there somewhere that is looking for you.

This is an important book for anyone who wants to understand internet commerce or innovation in services. In addition, "The Long Tail" must be a part of the vocabulary of anyone who wants to talk intelligenly about modern business practices. The new emphasis on marketing in the new release is a valuable addition to the original. A current article in HBR attacks the Long Tail on empirical grounds. However, Anderson's response on his website is compelling. The one quibble with this book is that it is superfluous -- the original essay/article combined with the website covers the issues more fully. However, that said, this book will be more valuable than 90% of the volumes that you have in your business book collection.

Chris Anderson's groundbreaking examination of the new economics that comes with the internet age (the big revenue doesn't come from the handful of blockbusters so much as from the catalogue of little titles) ironically put The Long Tail near the head of the sales curve, up at the blockbuster end. Deservedly so. Anderson presents a compelling argument, and he illustrates it through imaginative examples and through tight, colourful language. He's a clear, persuasive writer. In this updated edition, Anderson adds a new chapter on marketing, and in my view this plugs one of the gaps that emerged with the original work. Marketing executives and agency strategists have for two years now been dropping the "long tail" phrase into their dialogue, but the new chapter will help them put the thinking into practice. A great book just got more timely, more useful. PS. If you're looking to get a handle on today's marketing paradigm I'd recommend this book alongside Rob Walker's excellent Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are

Does the modern world of online markets make you feel like Rip Van Winkle, who awoke from a 20-year nap to find a changed society? Author Chris Anderson has your wake-up call. With hard facts, charts and numbers, plus futuristic insights, Anderson decodes the mysteries of online marketing, Internet-based commerce and other New Age economic realities. His calculations, public feedback and extensive research offer more than just statistics for the sake of proving his point: Online retailing has a long reach into niche markets. This gives its products longevity that stores with finite shelf space can't match, no matter how much steam they get from short-lived, blockbuster products. Anderson credibly explains the decline in box office sales and the rise of niche companies such as Netflix and iTunes. Despite a few redundancies (he believes in thorough explanations), keep on reading. You won't mind: the text is a pleasure, written with wit, style and expertise. We recommend it to Luddites, old school business operators, anyone in entertainment or retail, and New Age Internet-based marketers (although you probably already know just how long this tail can be).