Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Long Tail
Through class discussion and Chris Anderson’s video on Long Tail Theory, I’ve understood that this theory finds selling small amounts of hard-to-find items to consumers just as important as selling large volumes of few products. A personal example of this is when I was in the market for a Johnny Flynn vinyl but I couldn’t necessarily find it in the record store. After recognizing that this item is not a common vinyl in the United States I decided to search for it on Amazon. After finding it on Amazon and recognizing that the product is more available and less expensive than buying in a store, it proved to be a more efficient and effective means of buying vinyl.
Through my online consumer behavior on Amazon, I find that it relates to the cross-subsidies model and the simplifier segment. I use Amazon often and so I finally made the switch to Amazon Prime, which allows for “free two day shipping”. I wanted the products featured on Amazon (the products that entice me) and through the demand for these products I was willing to pay to $99 a year in order to receive these benefits. The shipping is “free” but in reality I am paying for the shipping upfront through purchasing an Amazon Prime account.In terms of the simplifier segment, Amazon has proven to be a reliable source of getting the precise object that I want. I wanted a Johnny Flynn album and with one simple search on Amazon I was easily able to purchase the product.
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I think it's interesting how we pay extra one day for these services to make shopping more convenient, although we're still technically paying for what we're trying to avoid.
ReplyDeleteI think it's interesting how we pay extra one day for these services to make shopping more convenient, although we're still technically paying for what we're trying to avoid.
ReplyDeleteMy brother collects vinyl records and he has the same problem. When trying to find a very specific artist or band it is easier to go online to a website like Amazon. Also, buying from sites like these you usually purchase the item for way less than what you would have paid in a record store. I would consider myself a simplifier too. I really like going to websites like Amazon where I can search for exactly what I want very quickly and easily. I can definitely see where cross-subsidies relates to being a simplifier. Phone companies always get me to pay money, because they make upgrading a phone easy and at the time it seems cheap.
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