The Long Tail

Followed up on a Wikipedia link from the Web 2.0 discussion. The link lead to the October 2004 article in Wired by Chris Anderson, “The Long Tail.”

A lot to mull over in the article. Most of his examples are from the entertainment industry. But that doesn’t invalidate the observations for other industries. The main argument is that removing the physical shelf space and distribution of physical media opens up the larger audience of “non-hit” customers. Sometimes sales in the non-hit “tail” can equal to or exceed the mass culture hits.

To succeed, however, both the hits and the non-hits need to be available. The popular items become the lure for new customers. Then, making recommendations help move the customer “down the Long Tail.”

This seems to be a double edge sword for the small business person. Hard to compete on the high volume side (direct competition with Wal-Mart for example). But Chris points out that the big retail chains only stock the hits. There is a huge number of products and subgenre that the big stores can’t economically or physically stock. The small business person, however, can attack the niche demands.

But attacking the niche may not work for all products. Chris also points out that many businesses only draw from a limited geographical area. The larger client base of the Long Tail may not be within 3 miles of your retail location.

I’m not sure that says everyone needs to be online, exclusively. It does argue for an online presence and a distribution strategy for non-local customers.

I understand Chris has expanded the article to a book. And he has a blog concerning The Long Tail.

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