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I'm a Bookaholic
19.06.09 | Damian Horner
Hello. My name is Damian Horner and I'm a Bookaholic. In recent days I have also been labelled a "moron", an "amateur" and a "waste of time". It is a shame that the most negative voices are always the loudest and least articulate.
Such criticism is to be expected though. It comes with the territory when you try to develop a cross-industry initiative of any sort. The fact is—it is impossible to please everyone.
Nevertheless, most acknowledge that if the majority of the industry can unite behind a single marketing message it will ultimately benefit all.
Great in theory, but without a dedicated marketing budget we have to recognise that this message is going to make very little impact. By relying on bags, point-of-sale and the odd window display this campaign would take years to build any momentum. To put it in context, every three days the NHS' "Change 4 Life" campaign spends more on PR than the book industry will be able to spend on its own initiative in an entire year.
So why bother? We bother because whatever we can do to increase spontaneous awareness of books will help. Long-term sales will benefit from anything that gets books to pop into people's heads more quickly and more frequently when they are considering how to spend their leisure time or what to buy for a gift.
But how do we decide on the right message? This is the hard bit. Since we were children we have all been told how good books are and how important reading is and yet despite years of this indoctrination, most adults in the UK don't buy books and they find reading "hard work".
It is fundamentally important to remember this in judging the cross-industry marketing initiative. Whatever we do has to shake people up, make them re-appraise books and book readers.
That is why we are moving forward with the Bookaholic concept. It gives a new twist to the mantra "You can't put a good book down", one that provokes comment and debate. And with limited resources, that debate will be crucial in providing the campaign with the oxygen it needs to get noticed.
That doesn't mean anyone should be put in a compromising position. It is for that reason this campaign will be made up of more than a single strapline. It will be modular in structure and extremely flexible so that retailers and publishers alike can choose just how much they want to get involved and exactly how they want to express the core thought. That seems like a sensible way forward—even to a moron like me.
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Apart from giving Mr Horner the opportunity to complain in a delightfully passive-aggressive fashion about being bad-mouthed (I trust everyone who has received any negative coverage in The Bookseller will now be afforded a column), what exactly is the point of this blog piece?
Hello Jonathan
The point of this piece is to explain what is happening with the 'Bookaholic' concept and to provide people with some insight into the thinking behind it. Given the importance of this campaign and the comment it has provoked that seemed like a good thing to do.
I won't presume to ask the point of your post...
Is there any evidence that generic, "cross-industry"
initiatives ever work? I'm sure everyone's intentions are good, etc but increasing "spontaneous awareness of books" strikes me as a very nebulous concept and even if it were achieved it may or may not lead to increase purchasing, certainly not in any measurable sense. Just a thought - don't for heaven's sake mark me down as a negative voice, a moaning minny, a cynic or any other derogatory term for someone who reasonably and rationally questions the validity of such a project. I suspect that such name-calling arises precisely when the proposers themselves aren't sure (understandably)how to successfully fulfill their brief.
Hi
There is quite good evidence to suggest that cross industry initiatives do work and do increase sales though it has to be said that this is usually when they invest serious time and money in the campaign.
We have very little money to play with which is why as an industry, it is important that we get as many people as possible behind the campaign. The cumulative value of every bookshop and publisher doing something with their bags, POS, book covers, posters, windows, etc, etc over a sustained period would actually be quite considerable. Hence the attempts to get everyone to pull in the same direction.
As for the value of increased spontaneous awareness, it is worth noting that when it comes to discretionary purchases (like books) spontaneous awareness does play an important role. Basically, when people are wondering what to spend their money on (such as for Fathers Day for example) the more quickly and the more often they think of books as a good option, the more likely they are to spend their money that way. I know that for many in the book trade this seems an odd concept as to them, books are an obvious choice for 'leisure time spend' but for most light to medium book buyers there are many other things that our potential consumers would think of first.
I hope that this helps to clarify why we are focusing on spontaneous awareness and why we are tryng so hard to get the industry to work together on this idea rather than pull it apart. We will never get the perfect solution but even if we can the majority of the book trade behind an idea it will get some traction and benefit all.
Damian Horner: OK I'm ready to suspend disbelief............Best of luck.
The point of my post, Damian, was to suggest that phrases like "provoke comment and debate", "modular in structure and extremely flexible", "increase spontaneous awareness of books", "choose just how much they want to get involved and exactly how they want to express the core thought" are, a), exactly what you've said before in your articles on this 'bookaholic' idea, and, b) meaningless marketing speak entirely lacking in substance and of no use to anyone actually trying to get people to buy more books. You've never addressed the fact that increasing book sales requires appealing to one or other of two very disparate potential markets: those who buy books already and those who don't. If you've got concrete ideas, let's hear them, but I'm fed up with reading articles about how I should get on board with an ill-defined concept (and a concept which many of us find offensive, thus making industry-wide adoption unlikely) which is so far entirely lacking in practical applications. (Maybe I've just been in too many meetings lately about 'progressing' new ideas to have time for all this conceptual thinking, while all the time good indies go under and chains move ever close to uniform, lowest common denominator stock ranges.) If this 'core message' is going to be so differently interpreted and utilised by the different areas of the retail market, then how is it actually any different from what bookshops do already, which is to attract customers with displays and campaigns directed at their particular market(s)? To sum up: my point is that your article communicates nothing new or practical. Nebulous and naive would be my evaluation. (And I reckon the larger retailers are too busy trying to swallow as much of the existing market as they can, preferably while doing fatal harm to their competitors, for any cross-industry initiative to succeed, even if such an approach were feasible.)
I worry when someone with a very respectable ad industry background is suggesting that a few random messages on bags, posters etc will create a long term effective campaign, when I would suggest the evidence is that you need a co-ordinated campaign and substantial budget to achieve this.
Get a multi million
What sells more books, is putting more good books under people's noses. What stops adults buying books is picking up another over-hyped million-
Perhaps I'm flogging a dead horse here, but it really does seem that the statement 'I'm a Bookaholic', as you've presented it Damian, ie "Hello. My name is Damian Horner and I'm a Bookaholic." which relies on implicit irony to have any impact at all, is a slap in the face to alcoholics, especially AA members for whom that statement is part of a ritual of overcoming their addiction. Even if it's funny, it's insensitive. You may as well try 'I've got book flu' (or indeed 'I'm Booktarded'). It's asinine and that's why it's under attack and not recieving the support it might require to 'work'.
Oh ... just in case there'a a frustrated proof reader straining at the bit, that should be "dubious" in my last post.
Damian: .."There is QUITE good evidence" but you don't give it. Because there is none. Unfortunately for the PR /Marketing world some of us out here have had some (or a lot) of scientific/rational education and are immune to hype, requiring reasonable evidence before we accept (and then some) dubios propositions. Did you bunk off these elementary classes? I repeat - what evidence is there? Thought not.
That should be "quantitative" in Mark Twain's post. He's OK but he sure as hell needs me. Pay isn't anything to write home to the folks about either.
It all comes back to whether or not generic advertising and promotion is worth a hill of beans, Plain and simple. Answer that one with reliable, relevant and quantatitive evidence and the problem is solved. Are we going to get such evidence? No. Instead detractors are cast as negative dim wits who are simply being obstructive to the grand (and lucrative plans) of the marketing types. More wasted expenditure, no sure results, more half-brained and shallow PR types in the population, to be followed by general intellectual enfeeblement all around. Hey hoe .....plus ca change c'est la meme chose.
To paraphrase Homer Simpson. "Yes, I'm a bookaholic! I can't live without bookahol!"
Damien, as the founder of a new publishing company, I urge you not to get overly distracted by the negative comments flying at you. I have no doubt that a co-ordinated marketing initiative will have a positive impact on sales, especially spontanious sales, and also that enough members of the industry will support the strategy to ensure success. In my experience, persistence is the hallmark of successful campaigns of this nature and every little does help. In many ways the view that only large budgets are effective reflects the resistance to change and inertia that is stifling our industry.
Agree with Booktard's comment. Yet another attempt to steal a successful 'brand' (AA) and trivialise it.
Bookaholic: look no further. My book buying is out of control and I can't stop. Harmless, though, unless my loft collapses...
As one of the creative director's of a brand and advertising agency I find myself in a quandary. I want to support Damian Horner since I work in a similar creative field and often have to field difficult questions from clients and consumers about the viability of an idea or concept. But I can't help thinking that this concept is fatally flawed. Everything it says, and the connotations that immediately spring to mind, immediately work against what the initiative is trying to do. I am a mass book purchaser (a fair few a week) as the creaking floor in my study will attest to, but I would never, ever be so glib as to call myself by such a name. It would be unethical and insensitive of me to consider the act of buying probably too many books as anywhere near appropriate given the immense difficulties people with true life-threatening and socially aggravating addictions have. I'm sorry to say, Mr Horner, but as one professional to another, I find your stance on this concept questionable at best, and extremely unethical at worst.
Reminds me of The Onion headline a few years back "I'm Like a Chocaholic - but for Booze".
How about I'm 'booktart' any book, any time, any place. They say that sex sells. But maybe the prostitute trade will get offended!
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