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Textbook Marketing & Student Choice in a Time of Transition

BISG – February 5, 2011

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Students are the most dynamic and engaged retail consumers

Ever-increasing technological expectations in an on-demand world

Desire for consistent multi-channel experiences – in-store, online, mobile

The Changing Collegiate Retail Landscape

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Formats are: new, used, rental, digital

Content is: Multi-media, multi-source, open-source, text, audio, video, faculty-generated, student-generated, social sharing

Distribution is: in-store, on-line, mobile

Access expectations are: in class, at home, in the dorm, in the café, on any device

The Changing Textbook Landscape

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229,000 unique titles adopted Over 224,000 of the 229,000 titles had demand of fewer than

1,000 units

16% of the titles used by faculty do not have ISBNs

22% of these were custom titles

24,000 of these titles had a digital option 10% of titles used by our faculty

2.5 million adoptions collected

7,661 unique publishers represented

Types of Textbooks Used Today

2010 by the Numbers

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Do Prefer Demand

65% Compare prices

60% Purchase all required

32% Share

22% Skip

16% Swap

11% Photocopy

50% Used

21% New/used combo

14% New

5% Rentals

3% eTextbooks

Convenience

Value

Choice

Text

book

s

Source: Student Monitor LLC and Barnes & Noble company research

What students…

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Source: Barnes & Noble company research

Do/would do69% Consider price when choosing a textbook

72% Would support giving students a choice of renting a book for all or some of their

courses

42% Would be more inclined to submit their adoptions to the bookstore if rentals were

an option

54% Would consider using the same book for a period of two years if it meant a rental would be availableTe

xtbo

oks

What faculty…

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Student & Bookstore Affinity

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10 9.23

8.257.9

7.6 7.41

6.28

2.1

3.8

7.98.2 8.2 8.6

5.6

6.9

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Choice, Convenience, Cheap

Providing new, used, rental, digital – in-store and online

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NEW$100

USED$75

RENTAL$49

DIGITAL $40

Student Savings

The numbers behind the options

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Textbook Rentals

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Textbook Rentals

2/3 of Barnes & Noble Stores now offer textbook rentals

Students save more than 50% off new textbook price

Students rent in-store and online

When offered a choice, 30% of student choose rental

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etextbooks

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eTextbooks & NOOKstudy

All Barnes & Noble Stores offer eTextbooks

Students save up to 60% off the new textbook price

Student can preview etextbooks with 7-day free trial

Students purchase and rent etextbooks in-store and online

When offered a choice, 5% of students choose digital

This percentage is growing rapidly

e-TEXTBOOKS GROWTH

We have seen a significant increase in digital sales this

year.

14% of students

have purchased a digital product as part

of their studies.

The general acceptance of digital reading for pleasure is bleeding over to higher education

content.

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Student Reasons for Purchasing eBooks

Savings is the primary factor

Sole option -- Only way to obtain the textbook [out of stock, preference by the professor, custom PDF type eBook that the professor created for sale].

18% of students who purchased an eBook did so because they enjoy the features.

10% of students who purchased an eBook did so because they had never used one and were curious.

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Solutions designed to meet users’ needs Goal is to create a better learning experience

Organizational and study tools are student requirements

95% of students have access to PCs & MACs

eTextbook and eResources Sales are projected to be 20% of Higher Education Sales in 2016

Higher Education Digital Strategy

A free, downloadable software solution expressly designed for

learning

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Innovative Software

Features most important to students:

Search within and across content

Annotation/highlight and sharing of notes

Downloaded texts over online access - Flexibility of where and when they can access their books

Integration with other course content including lecture notes, professor guidance

NOOKstudy lets students study smarter, not harder

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Overall research conclusions

Given the opportunity, students are willing to experiment with reading and studying digitally.

When students do read and study digitally, results indicate that they find it as effective or more effective than studying with the physical book.

When students do read and study digitally, their responses to usability of features shows that their expectations are high. Expect basic features to be as good as print experience (e.g., notes and

annotations.)

Also, expect that there are compelling features that go beyond what is feasible in the physical book experience (e.g., tags across notes, organizational capabilities.)

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Challenges to digital transition

Content availability

Student perceptions of DRM -- philosophical objections primarily

Non-philosophical reasons for objecting to the limits:

Wants to download the eTextbook to 3 computers (home, work and school.)

Desires access to the eTextbook on a lab (shared) computer

Given the opportunity, students are willing to experiment with reading and studying digitally.

-10%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Amount allowed to be copied

Amount allowed to be printed

Download eTextbooks to a maximum of 2

computers

48% 49%

37%

25%30%

24%27%20%

39%Don't Know

Not Enough

Enough

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Marketing to and educating students and faculty

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Educating faculty & students In-store and online messaging

E-mail & text messaging

Social Media & Cause Focused Facebook

Blogs

Twitter

Getting The Textbook Message Out

Biggest Challenge

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Textbook Marketing & Student Choice in a Time of Transition

BISG – February 5, 2011