Comments on: Amazon markets Kindle exclusively through word-of-mouth http://www.teleread.com/chris-meadows/kindle-word-of-mouth/ News & views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics Tue, 14 Feb 2012 09:24:03 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Steve P. http://www.teleread.com/chris-meadows/kindle-word-of-mouth/comment-page-1/#comment-886779 Steve P. Wed, 27 Aug 2008 12:49:41 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/2008/08/26/kindle-word-of-mouth/#comment-886779 Hmmm. Exclusively word of mouth? Who are they kidding? -Bezos holding kindle on cover of newsweek (or was it Time?) -Top of Amazon's home page for 8 months, in view of 40 million pairs of eyeballs. That's probably $50 million worth of advertising right there. -Oprah -Direct emails to millions of people. Don't get me wrong, the huge push by amazon has done amazing things for the entire ebook industry. Our sales skyrocketed after kindle was launched. I say, "Go Amazon!" (Yeah, I do wish they had not locked down the drm content to their own store, but I think they will eventually correct that.) But this claim of "exclusively word of mouth" doesn't even pass a rudimentary sniff test, it takes about 3 seconds of research to prove it wrong. -Steve P. Hmmm. Exclusively word of mouth? Who are they kidding?

-Bezos holding kindle on cover of newsweek (or was it Time?)
-Top of Amazon’s home page for 8 months, in view of 40 million pairs of eyeballs. That’s probably $50 million worth of advertising right there.
-Oprah
-Direct emails to millions of people.

Don’t get me wrong, the huge push by amazon has done amazing things for the entire ebook industry. Our sales skyrocketed after kindle was launched. I say, “Go Amazon!” (Yeah, I do wish they had not locked down the drm content to their own store, but I think they will eventually correct that.) But this claim of “exclusively word of mouth” doesn’t even pass a rudimentary sniff test, it takes about 3 seconds of research to prove it wrong.

-Steve P.

]]> By: francois http://www.teleread.com/chris-meadows/kindle-word-of-mouth/comment-page-1/#comment-886450 francois Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:11:33 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/2008/08/26/kindle-word-of-mouth/#comment-886450 "how Amazon markets the Kindle." Personally I think Amazon markets poorly the price of some e-books. For example the new "Crowdsourcing" book form Jeff Howe. 17.99 $: kill a tree version 21.56 $: kindle electronic version I saw this on a french journalist blog who is not really happy about it: http://pisani.blog.lemonde.fr/2008/08/26/amazon-se-fout-de-nous/ I'm also a "fan" of Amazon but I hope they won't hurt the emerging e-books market with this new prices politics (ebooks for the riches vs ebooks for the mass?) “how Amazon markets the Kindle.”

Personally I think Amazon markets poorly the price of some e-books.

For example the new “Crowdsourcing” book form Jeff Howe.

17.99 $: kill a tree version
21.56 $: kindle electronic version

I saw this on a french journalist blog who is not really happy about it:
http://pisani.blog.lemonde.fr/2008/08/26/amazon-se-fout-de-nous/

I’m also a “fan” of Amazon but I hope they won’t hurt the emerging e-books market with this new prices politics (ebooks for the riches vs ebooks for the mass?)

]]> By: HeavyG http://www.teleread.com/chris-meadows/kindle-word-of-mouth/comment-page-1/#comment-886429 HeavyG Tue, 26 Aug 2008 23:19:18 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/2008/08/26/kindle-word-of-mouth/#comment-886429 On the top of the front page of the largest online retailer on the planet there has been, since November 2007, an ad for the Kindle. That would seem to negate the idea that they are relying exclusively on word-of-mouth. Amazon created a separate "See a Kindle in Your City" section in response to many existing threads in the Kindle discussion forum. They consolidated the threads to make it easier for folks to meetup. Mobs, Meetups, product evangelism facilitated via the internet. Wow, what will people think of next. It's all so...Rheingoldian. Is some of this activity motivated by ego - showing off a new gadget? Probably. My guess is though that the vast majority of people doing this are just genuinely friendly book people - you know the kind of folks that join local book club/discussion groups. Does it help Amazon? Absolutely, and they should take advantage this. Does it help potential customers? Absolutely, and potential customers should take advantage of this. Does it help existing customers? Absolutely, the quicker a gazillion Kindles are sold the better for prodding more publishers to release their products digitally. Word-of-mouth advertising has long been a tried and true way of helping the mass market find and support products deemed worthy of owning without all the misleading corporate hype or lies. However, when that world dominating evil mastermind Jeff Bezos helps his customers help themselves well...somehow it just seems so dirty (at least to many here on the TeleRead blog). I'm sure David will play the anti-trust implications card in all this shortly:) As far as the Kindle being "a rather ugly-looking device" - I guess many folks won't be happy until is indistinguishable from all the other shiny look-alike items in the market. On the top of the front page of the largest online retailer on the planet there has been, since November 2007, an ad for the Kindle. That would seem to negate the idea that they are relying exclusively on word-of-mouth.

Amazon created a separate “See a Kindle in Your City” section in response to many existing threads in the Kindle discussion forum. They consolidated the threads to make it easier for folks to meetup.

Mobs, Meetups, product evangelism facilitated via the internet. Wow, what will people think of next. It’s all so…Rheingoldian.

Is some of this activity motivated by ego – showing off a new gadget? Probably. My guess is though that the vast majority of people doing this are just genuinely friendly book people – you know the kind of folks that join local book club/discussion groups.

Does it help Amazon? Absolutely, and they should take advantage this. Does it help potential customers? Absolutely, and potential customers should take advantage of this. Does it help existing customers? Absolutely, the quicker a gazillion Kindles are sold the better for prodding more publishers to release their products digitally.

Word-of-mouth advertising has long been a tried and true way of helping the mass market find and support products deemed worthy of owning without all the misleading corporate hype or lies.

However, when that world dominating evil mastermind Jeff Bezos helps his customers help themselves well…somehow it just seems so dirty (at least to many here on the TeleRead blog). I’m sure David will play the anti-trust implications card in all this shortly:)

As far as the Kindle being “a rather ugly-looking device” – I guess many folks won’t be happy until is indistinguishable from all the other shiny look-alike items in the market.

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