The Kindle

I have recently started reading Trade-Off by Kevin Maney and am fascinated by the fidelity/convenice model that he argues is behind either the success or failure of businesses, products and careers (although, I am no where close to that part of the book yet). Interestingly the Kindle, which was just released in Canada before Christmas and saw astronomical sales, is a topic that Kevin often refers to. Basing his discussion of the Kindle on the American launch and marketing, Kevin argues that they need to find the right marketing pitch for the product or risk falling into the "Fidelity Belly". Kevin argues that the product should be positioned for convenience over fidelity as physical books are more than just something to read - they are signifiers of who we are. In competing for the market of the avid book reader Amazon misses the mark as there is no social identifiers given by the Kindle. Using the Kindle on an airplane doesn't tell anyone what you are reading like the cover of a book does and therefore, it cannot convey any sense of who you are to others on the flight. Kevin argues that Amazon should be marketing the Kindle on its convenience aspect - access to a book in 60 seconds; however, he says that the price of the Kindle prevents it from being convenient for many buyers, which limits how successful a convenice strategy can be.

His discussion of the Kindle got me thinking and I began to wonder why a product like the Kindle has never been developed in conjunction with textbooks and offered on university campuses. Kevin argues that the fidelity of a school is in its name e.g. Harvard has high fidelity as there is prestige associated with its image. In my opinion, textbooks only give prestige if you know what subject they are for and that doesn't necessarily tell someone anything about you. I did a Psych and English degree and had to take Calculus, Stats and Bio. Did those textbooks tell anyone anything about me?

If a device like this was developed for schools it would have to be slightly different from the current Kindle, for example, it would have to allow coloured images but, that being said, the cost of the Kindle becomes relatively less prohibitive when geared towards an audience used to spending upwards of $100 on their textbooks. If a student for example takes 5 subjects per term they may have spent $1000 by the end of 8 months. If textbooks were half as expensive for an electronic device a student would actually be saving money in their first year of school and if the product would see them through their university career (say 4 years), they would come out ahead every single year. Throw in that an electronic device significantly cuts down on the weight a student has to carry on a daily basis yet still allows them access to all their textbooks, allows important points to be easily highlight and makes note taking simple, it seems like university students are a natural fit for sucha device.

As Kevin points out, convenience is relative to age, status and other factors, so why not pick a market for whom the price tag isn't devastating and the benefits are incredible to begin your convenience marketing objective. By the time the Kindle was ready to move beyond the walls of universities, one can imagine that the technology costs to make the Kindle would have come down enough to make it more convenient for the general public allowing Amazon to continue their convenience positioning and own the market.