The Kindle, Amazon’s Latest Search Traffic Driver
Written by Stephen Bagg (contact - e-mail) -- January 28th, 2008 | Recommend This
Launching a new product is hard work, and sometimes you have to twist reality for the sake of revenue. Just ask Amazon.com about their recently-released Kindle, the newest offering for portable reader technology. Back in December, the venerated month of holiday ka-ching, a ‘sony reader’ search on Amazon listed the Kindle as higher in relevance than the Sony reader itself. Contrast that with a kindle search, where, at the time of this post, the Sony Reader doesn’t even appear in the product results. Touchè, Amazon.
At two months out, a measurement of the search terms referring to Amazon reveals the Kindle ad campaign succeeded in raising consumer awareness. Joining the lofty ranks of Webkinz, Zune, Uggs and video game consoles, Kindle-related terms for November debuted in the top tier of brand terms most often referring to Amazon from search engines – quite a feat considering the product released late in the month – and 683,000 people visited the Kindle product page during those last two weeks. That momentum didn’t propel it into a much better showing in December, when 660,000 people saw the same page in the entire month. However, the search term breakdown remained largely unchanged month-over-month, with Kindle-related terms a prominent search driver in a search term space with a short head and an extremely long tail.
One point of interest in this traffic is its markedly different composition from the gadget audience norm. Mostly a glorified book and newspaper, the Kindle should cater to the same breadwinner crowd that predictably flocks to the newest device and its short-lived prestige. With most critics bemoaning its unattractive bulk, though, Kindle’s audience center shifts. For instance, the gadget standard that is the iPhone generates most interest with the young 20-something set, with a correlating peak in lower income brackets that defies high premiums. Alternatively, the Kindle skews more to the 30-something business professionals, with an audience peak at a higher income segment that can more easily manage the asking price. Clearly, the new reader appeals particularly to this demographic. Perhaps its ‘80s throwback design reminds them of a simpler, clunkier time with bigger hair… or maybe they just read more books.
Amazon wisely realizes the Kindle can ride the “new gadget” wave only so far, and formed its marketing strategy accordingly. In its first two months the Kindle has done well despite its body-only-a-techie-can-love: the initial launch with a paltry number of units immediately sold out, and readers popped up on eBay with markups twice over the original. Just how tired of papercuts are consumers?
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January 28th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Pretty interesting article clearly outlining the demographics of the Kindle’s audience. The higher income group is definitely reflective of the Kindle’s relatively high price point for a “glorified book and newspaper”. A lot of people I have talked to find it hard to justify actually buying the Kindle. The Kindle is the new tech status symbol for the older crowd. I guess the question is will the Kindle become mainstream? Interestingly enough, there is an article in the NYTimes about this from yesterday.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/business/27digi.html?_r=1&ref=business&oref=slogin
Steve Jobs paints a bleak picture for the Kindle and throws out some stats on the amount of books people read. I would have to agree in part with him - that people don’t really read all that often and for those that do read occasionally won’t dish out $400 for the Kindle. I think that the Kindle is the start of something great, but the future of e-book readers won’t be actualized for a long while.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Interesting take on the Kindle.
I actually own one. And, by way of comparison, I own an iPhone and four iPods of various sorts.
My take on the Kindle? It is more useful in many ways than all of the others put together. Each has its own purpose. But, try reading a newspaper - or a magazine - or, a book (God help us) on any of the other instruments and you’re going to appreciate the Kindle.
Also, as to Steve Jobs, he also stated strongly that video was not something people wanted on an iPod. Then, her turned around and jumped in with both feet.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a Mac person - I have two Mac computers and the other things I mentioned. But, Steve Jobs and his prognostication? Take it with a grain of salt.
My suggestion: Get a Kindle, use it for a while, take advantage of it’s features, then report back. I refused to buy an iPod at first because I thought it’d never fly. :-)