How Contemporary Publishers Reach Out to Their Customers: Transition from B2B to B2C Marketing in the Publishing Industry

This study focuses on business-to-consumer (B2C) e-marketing in the publishing industry. Random House CEO Dohle suggested a transition from B2B marketing to B2C marketing and Shatzkin, CEO of The Idea Logical Company, added this transition would be a good way to strengthen brands in publishing, and attract loyal individual consumers. Publishers are already making varying use of the internet and social media in 2011. This research first analyzes existing literature on marketing and e-marketing, particularly in the publishing industry. It then focuses on seven publishers’ online presences, and their interaction with individual consumers on the internet and social media, based on the author’s education in computer sciences, management, and publishing. The case study research is exploratory, phenomenological, and framed within an interpretive research paradigm. The findings are recorded in a structured dissertation, with screenshots of the relevant publishers’ websites. The seven publishers are categorized according to Bernoff’s stages in Managing Social Technology, and the research findings are linked back to literature, discussed, and best practices are identified. As there is very little literature on B2C e-marketing in the publishing industry, this dissertation sets out to offer information on publishers’ efforts in B2C e-marketing: a literature review outlines marketing in the publishing industry, and case studies illustrate seven publishers’ B2C e-marketing efforts, thus contributing to closing the gap in literature on publishers’ B2C e-marketing. It also sets a foundation for further research on the transition of marketing in publishing, either in qualitative case studies with publishers or quantitative research that is based on consumers’ perception of publishers’ B2C e-marketing.