Barnes and Noble business strategy

Barnes and Noble Pushes Books

Conceptual Application? by Rusty Korhonen

Barnes and Noble’s strategy is simple; capitalize on a customer demand for inexpensive books. This was a cost leadership and a differentiation strategy. Barnes and Noble identified a gap in the publishing industry, which primarily focused on blockbuster types of books and marquee authors that “rocketed to the best seller list” that the publishing industry in turn sold at a premium. These best sellers were not big profit sources for Barnes and Noble, in contrast Barnes and Noble identified, perhaps through its process of data mining and customer focused research, that its customers wanted less expensive books. Barnes and Noble hoped to get a bigger piece of a shrinking pie; research showed that the number of households that purchased hardcover books actually declined and book sales dwindled throughout the industry. Barnes and Noble created a capability and possibly a core competency through its dis...