The Long Tail Post

The theory of the Long Tail is truly amazing. Our economy and culture has increasingly shifted from the focus on a small number of hits at the head of the demand curve and moving towards the massive number of niches towards the tail of the demand curve. With the help of the internet and an unlimited shelf space, business can   form new strategies in ways they never could have imagined ten or fifteen years ago. Now, businesses such as NetFlix, iTunes, Rhapsody, eBay, and Amazon have realized the success of providing niche products to the market and are taking over the profits that used to be captured by brick and mortar stores such as Blockbuster (movies), Barnes and Noble (books), and Best Buy and Wal-Mart (music). The idea of zero inventory is every businesses dream, and unfortunately not all businesses can pursue such a strategy. However, the new business models that are revolving around the philosophy of zero inventory are realizing the successes of such strategies. For example, lets talk about print on demand books. Who would have ever thought that this could have been an effective way of selling books? Publishers used/still create batches of books that range up to 50,000 per batch. Depending on what their estimates of demand would be, they would have to guess whether or not they should make more in that batch and chance having too much supply and not enough demand, or risk not making enough books and forgoing profits. Now with the print on demand capabilities, there never has to be an inventory for most book titles. Each book is just a mouse click away from creating something that did not have a shelf life minutes before that click of the mouse. Since there are so many book titles that are not in high demand, it would not be beneficial for anybody to carry all of those book titles that may sell one or two copies a year. However, you multiply that by the huge size of the long tail and you get a market that crushes the top fifty selling books.
Internet sales have been growing and especially this past holiday season. The Coremetrics Holiday Online Shopping Report is proof of that and it doesn't look like that trend isn't going to continue to increase. As more and more people are shopping online, the Long Tail becomes even longer. People are not going to settle for a product because they can't find the ideal product they are looking for in a brick and mortar store. They are going to get on their smartphone phone, lap top, or iPad and become a mouse click away from getting any product they choose.
The three videos that were posted about the Long Tail, two of which by RonAmok and one by Chris Anderson highlight these points in just a few short minutes. RonAmok makes a wonderful point when discussing the double value curve that exists in the market. As mentioned in his video, the value of information is directly proportional to how much an individual needs it at any given moment and it is important to understand that the value of content has to do with the immediate need of a customer.
Chris Anderson makes a great point about the Long Tail when discussing movies that enter the cinemas. Just because these films have it into the cinemas, doesn't make them the hits. Movie theathers are limited to showing about 120 movies each year that represent the so called "hits". However, the number of movies watched outside the cinemas far exceeds those movies any given year. Since Hollywood and high level business executives are creating the head of the demand curve in the movie industry, its clear to make a point in stating that the head of the demand curve in all industries is created by each industries suppliers instead of the consumers- which results in the long tail.