Why we buy

There have been some interesting discussions at Penguin Towers about consumers' decision-making processes.

The fiction manager at Waterstones asked me a deceptively simple question: "Why do people buy more Penguin Classics than other publishers'? What is the customer decision-making tree?" I could talk about the qualities of the brand until I'm blue in the face, but what do people actually do in the shop? How do they decide that out of the 8 (count them!) editions of Pride and Prejudice on the shelf, that they are going to buy the black Penguin edition?

More generally, questions about why we make the decisions we do have been the subject of several key books including Paco Underhill's seminal Why We Buy -- based on research watching what people actually did in store, rather than what they said they did (these are not the same thing, so caveat marketeer). More recently, books on behavioural economics such as Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely offer plenty of food for thought for publishers and retailers.

Two of his arguments seem particularly relevant to me as I think about selling Classics:

1. Context is key.
(a) Give people too much choice and conversion from browsing to buying reduces (how many editions of P&P do we need on the shelves?).
(b) People find it difficult to judge the value of something in isolation. He tells the story of the first bread-maker on the market. It didn't sell until they introduced a second, bigger and more expensive model and positioned it in store next to it -- then the cheaper model flew off the shelves as customers had a context and could put a value to that product.

2. Imprinting habits. Once we start to buy something (say, coffee from Starbucks, or Classics by Penguin), it becomes much easier to do it again and again. It becomes a habit.

(Read more here.)

The implications for me include how to bring new readers to the Classics as well as reminding people of how much pleasure they have had from reading them and reminding them that more people buy/read Penguin Classics than any other brand, therefore appealing to what psychologists call the herding (hate that word) mentality. And here's the confessional part -- I love selling Classics, because I love Classics. I have never had a poor experience from choosing to read a Classic (wish I could say the same of every book I pick up). If I were selling cigarettes, or weapons, or Celine Dion CDs, I might feel more morally conflicted.

We've just bought the paperback rights to Thaler and Sunstein's Nudge which explores "choice architecture" and how to improve your decision-making and we'll publish in January (check out their blog). I'm quite seized by this as you can tell. I warn you, this won't be the last time you hear about this.

Fiona Buckland
Sales Manager

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Comments

[Neil]

I buy Penguins because they are so well designed.

[Raquel]

because I am a Penguin Books addict! I buy Penguin Popular Classics, not exactly the black cover, but one day I will buy all different Penguin's Pride and Prejudice editions. I hope...

[Imani]

In my case, of all the publishers in the Commonwealth market Penguin probably has the strongest presence. As a kid if there was any classic on a shelf in a Jamaican store it was probably a Penguin. Ergo, buyer for life. :) (I do love the covers too and find that I have a better track record with the introductions over others like Oxford.)

[Andrew W]

Fiona, in a follow-up post could you share historical sales figures to illustrate the effect of Penguins Classics on the market for a particular book?

It would be awesome to see if, say, Penguin's Pride and Prejudice had a measurable effect on the P&P market as a whole (i.e., how well is Penguin getting a great public domain text into the hands of new readers). For example, in the first five years after introduction, did more total copies of all editions of Pride and Prejudice sell than in the previous five years? Did it take until universities started buying Penguins Classics Pride and Prejudice in bulk for their English lit courses? Are there measurable reasons that some Penguins Classics have a bigger impact than others?

I love Dan Arielly's book by the way. It helps that he's a great guy to boot.

[Robert S]

I'd be interested to know how well the Penguin Red Classics sell in comparison to the Black Classics, as the Reds have the modern look. Has that had any affect?

[RfP]

If I've already decided to buy a copy of P&P, then which one depends on design. I look for a handsome cover, crisp, medium-sized type, and a reasonable heft for my hands and fit for my shelves. Penguin often wins on those criteria.