Books and the Consumer: The Who, What, and Why

of Consumer Book Purchasing

Leslie Henry

In 1988, the Book Marketing Council (BMC) of the Publishers Association of Great Britain determined the need to establish consumer behavior and attitudes toward book buying and reading, and to monitor these over time. After extensive desk and pilot research in 1988, the study was put into the field for the first time in January 1989 and is now in its fifth year. Book Marketing Limited was established from the BMC in 1990, and has run the survey since then. This article describes the develop- ment and current conduct of the survey, summarizes some of its results, and suggests questions that might be examined in the future.

Why a Survey?

I n Great Britain, as in most countries, reliable da ta about the book i ndus t ry are r emarkab ly scarce: it is difficult to establish h o w m a n y of any par t icular

title actually have sold, let alone the size and t rends in different genres of books, or the extent to which people buy th rough specialist outlets, m o r e general outlets, or by mail. Even bestseller lists are at best r ega rded as a guide, and there are certainly no accepted b rand share figures.

Historically, publ ishers in Britain have had little to do wi th marke t ing re- search, genera l ly prefer r ing to rely on their own instincts to tell them w h a t books to produce, to w h o m to sell them, and how. From time to t ime indiv idual surveys were carr ied out, looking at var ious aspects of the indust ry , bu t it w o u l d probably be t rue to say that the bu lk of the w o r k was carr ied out for booksellers, and in par t icular the major chains of specialist bookshops and books and s ta t ionery stores. Publishers themselves k n e w little, if anything, about the people w h o buy, or might buy, their b o o k s - - w h o they were, w h e r e they bought , w h y they bought , and so on.

While not p re t end ing that research can really hope to p inpoint exactly w h a t books to produce , or de te rmine the success or o therwise of a n y par t icular title, it should be self-evident that publ ishers and booksellers w o u l d benefi t great ly f rom k n o w l e d g e of their c u s t o m e r s - - w h o they are, wha t their a t t i tudes and behavior pat terns a r e - - t o help them plan their make t ing and publ ishing strat-

Leslie Henry is research director of Book Marketing Limited, which specializes in the provision of information and advice to the book trade. Address for correspondence: 7a Bedford Square, London WCIB 3RA. This article is_�9 1993, Book Marketing Limited.

Henry 29

egies and tactics. Such data car~ be used to supplement the publishing instinct, to provide a foundation on which such decisions can be based.

Objectives

In very simple terms, the objectives of the research have been to establish the attitudes and behavior of the public and to monitor these over time. This includes investigating and establishing:

1. who buys books, of what sort, in what numbers and for whom

2. where and how people buy books, and preferences

3. book reading habits and preferences

4. attitudes to the reading and buying of books

5. ownership of books, and use of public libraries

By carrying out this study on a continuous, annual basis, it is possible to track changes in behavior and attitudes, and to be sure that findings are not merely statistical quirks and do not simply reflect a lack of sensitivity.

Research Approach

[t is a fundamental requirement of the study that the data produced are representative of the total consumer market situation, which means that a quantitative approach needs to be taken, even where qualitative information is sought. Initially, however, it was considered vital to talk in depth to consum- ers, to understand how they view and talk about books in detail, and to ensure that when questions are asked of them on a large scale, the terminology used is clearly understood and meaningful, and the most appropriate and relevant issues investigated. This initial stage of the research was carried out by means of a series of group discussions and depth interviews among the general pub- lic.

Additionally, and of equal importance, it was necessary to talk to potential users of the data, to ensure that information of real use was being collected, and that data were not merely being obtained for "interest's sake." This was carried out through the auspices of a working party controlled through the BMC. The choice of quantitative approach was between a panel approach and individual, but comparable, samples selected on an on-off basis.

Superficially the panel approach had several advantages, particularly in the ability to concentrate the survey on core issues, since background information (e.g., demographics) would need to be collected only once. The panel would also have allowed a simple approach to recontacting specific subsamples of respondents to examine issues in more detail. In theory, once the panel was recruited, further recruitment would have been necessary only to replace panel

30 Publishing Research Quarterly / Fall 1993

"drop-outs" and to supply a rolling panel if it was felt necessary to change part of the sample from time to time.

However, there are rather more weighty disadvantages. Respondents in any survey are somewhat self-selecting; how much more so are they when agreeing to join a panel? If nothing else, it is likely a panel would be biased toward those with a more positive attitude toward books and reading. There is also the danger of the panel effect: the known chance that people modify their behavior and attitudes (however unintentionally) simply because they are are on a panel. Panels are not easy to maintain, and drop-out rates can be quite high, so that one of the benefits, easier and cheaper recruitment, is cut back straight away. There is also the danger that if there is anything biased in the original recruitment this will go unnoticed and be maintained over time: with individual surveys, it is extremely unlikely that the same bias will be repeated continuously, so problems can be spotted more easily and their causes explored. For all these reasons, and more, it was decided that individual annual surveys should be conducted.

The next choice was how to approach these peoplemby post, by telephone or face-to-face--and, if the latter, at what venue (e.g., at home, in the street). In fact, there was little hesitation over this. The need for a representative sample of the population and the length of the interview (expected to be over an hour in some cases) both ruled out anything other than an in-home personal inter- view. It should be added that interviewing consumers at home by telephone is fraught with problems in Great Britain, caused by the numbers of people not having access to telephones in their own homes, the problems of sampling, the increasingly high proportion of people who are not listed in directories, strict rules on when telephone interviews can take place, and so on.

The Current Survey

As a result of these considerations, Books and the Consumer was set up, and continues to interview 1,800 adults (aged fifteen years or over) in their homes each year (fifteen is the age at which British students may leave school). These 1,800 are selected to be representative of the adult population within Great Britain, regardless of their book buying or reading habits.

The fieldwork is divided into two equal waves: January to March and August to October, with 300 interviews in each month. The idea behind this is to avoid possible distortions from interviewing during what are known to be the peak buying periods, Christmas and the summer holidays. It was hoped, and it appears that those hopes were well founded, that respondents would be able to consistently recall their purchases over the past twelve months without being unduly influenced by their most recent behavior.

The sample is selected by means of a grid random location sampling, using ACORN (A Classification Of Residential Neighborhoods) variables. This allows for many of the benefits of true random sampling, without the very high costs that the latter approach implies. Further, interviewers are given strict instruc-

Henry 31

tions as to which houses can be selected, and how to choose the particular respondent within a household, reducing the dangers of interviewer bias.

The 1,800 interviews are then weighted to form a precise representation of the known population, according to age, sex, region, social grading, and household size/composition variables, though it should be noted that weighting factors are very small, and we have found the unweighted data sufficiently accurate to use on occasion.

In the first three years of the survey, the sheer comprehensiveness of the survey led to the average interview lasing about forty-five minutes, while some took twice as long. By judicious pruning of certain questions, where the extreme stability of the responses allowed, the core questionnaire was reduced in 1992 to around thirty minutes on average, which has allowed certain clients of the survey to add their own confidential questions.

In brief, the survey covers the areas shown below:

Outline of Survey Coverage

Purchasing Retail--self (75 book types) Retail--other adult (4 types) Retail--children (7 types) Postal Hardback/paperback Secondhand

Behavior Reading Trends Library usage Purchase occasions

Outlets 17 types--used at all

- -used most --preferred

Attitudes Reading and books Value for money Types of shop Postal buying

Media usage Newspapers Magazines TV Radio

What Clients Get

Before looking at some of the information and the way it is used, it is worth- while quickly explaining what it is that clients get from subscribing to the survey.

Twice a year they receive the results in tabular format--the first based on 900 interviews, the second based on all 1,800, but allowing a comparison be- tween the two waves of fieldwork.

Each year, in February or March, BML organizes a conference (to which clients get a number of free places) at which the latest main findings and trends are presented, and at which various case studies and speeches--based

32 Publishing Research Quarterly/Fall 1993

on the Books and the Consumer data, but also incorporating other information where appropria te--are given by clients. In addition, clients receive a written summary of the main findings, and synopses of the various conference speeches.

BML runs. an advice hot line, to assist clients in unders tanding and interpret- ing the data, and to offer more detailed analysis as required, looking at specific issues (for example, profiles of people who buy both romantic fiction and war stories).

The Results

In many ways one of the most startling results to come out of the research was the number of people who buy books. It is true that this depends to a certain extent on what is defined as a book, but until the advent of Books and the Consumer it was believed that only around half of all adults bought a book in a year. Indeed, one of the opening questions of this survey also produces that result.

However , the extremely thorough nature of the survey, probing the seventy- five book types, purchases for oneself or other people, from a shop or by post, leads to a conclusion that eight out of ten adults buy a book in a year. The market is not so concentrated as it was believed to be, and there is not nearly such a large number of people who do not buy books, or who could be con- verted into book buyers.

Book buyers themselves divide into three equal buying categories:

Light -- 5 books or less

Medium = 6-15 books

Heavy = 16 books or more

Not surprisingly, most books (75-80 percent) are bought by the heavy book buyers. Importantly, these heavy book buyers are extremely catholic in both their taste and the outlets they use: they will seemingly buy any sort of book, from any sort of outlet, for any occasion.

The importance of the gift market is also exposed by the survey. Around 40 percent of books bought by adults are intended for someone else--in particular for ch i ldren--and books are seen as being a good value for the money, a personalized and long-lasting present. This has provided the impetus for pro- motions aimed at exploiting the acceptability of books as gifts.

In Great Britain, retail sales are dominated by books and stationery stores (in particular W H Smith) and by specialist bookshops. In the early days of the survey there appeared to be a shift away from the former toward the latter, both in usage and preference. This movement now appears to have ceased, at least for the time being. Publishers have been able to make use of the data about outlets to better pinpoint their marketing and sales effort; booksellers have been able to look at their customer profiles in the light of the overall market.

Henry 33

Attitude data have produced some of the more colorful resul ts - -and these have provided insights into what makes people choose books at all, what attracts them to bookshops, and so on. For example, when planning a relaunch of a particular series, a publisher was able to examine the buyers of the genre in terms of the attitudes to cover designs and other features, and from there was able to make more informed judgments on the product 's development.

The survey allows us to examine cross-purchasing of different books. This can be used to consider potential new series (e.g., romantic science fiction), to look at cross-selling (e.g., cooking and gardening), and even to review the placing of books within stores.

Data are gathered on the number of books bought within different categories. Although there may be doubts about absolute numbers quoted by respondents, it is possible to spot trends. Publishers have no other way of really knowing whether disappointing sales of a genre are due to the actual titles or a lessening of interest in the genre, and this survey helps look at possible causes.

One of the main features of the survey is its ability to provide a basis from which to conduct further, more specific research. It enables us to pinpoint those types of people interested in particular types of books and to profile them in some depth, so that further research can be better targeted.

Another issue that has proved of interest is the relationship between borrow- ing and buying books. It was perceived wisdom that many people either bought or borrowed them, but not both. This has been shown not to be the case. There are very few people for whom borrowing is a straight alternative to buying, and the heaviest borrowers are also frequent book buyers.

Some further, summary, results that have emerged are as follows:

�9 In terms of the numbers of adults buying books at all, the recession has had no effect: the proportion stays at about 80 percent. However , the average number bought by each buyer fell by 5-10 percent in 1992.

�9 Since 1989, the percentage buying for themselves has increased, from 59 percent to 69 percent, though the average number purchased has declined more rapidly.

�9 Over the four years, the numbers buying for other people, and the number bought, have fluctuated somewhat within a small range.

�9 There has been a slight polarization in terms of the two main purchas- ing media - - shops and post.

�9 There has been no noticeable growth in the use of nontraditional retail outlets (e.g., supermarkets, chain stores), and speciahst and books and stationery stores remain the most used and most popular.

�9 In 1992 there were indications that the public's perceptions of the value for money of books, both paperback and hardback, had become less positive.

34 Publishing Research Quarterly / Fall 1993

�9 Over the period, the numbers buying reference books for themselves have increased, while fiction has declined a little.

�9 Since 1989, the average numbers of romantic fiction and historical fiction titles bought have declined, while those for computer manuals have increased.

Additional Questions

A client benefit from the survey, available from 1992, is the ability to place their own confidential questions. The value of this is that they then have access to the cross-analyses by all the book buying and reading data on the survey, whereas with a standard Omnibus only demographic data are available.

This facility, which is naturally limited (by time constraints) in scope, has been used by (among others) booksellers to track awareness and image, pub- lishers to look at postal buying in general and concepts in particular, and a government department to look at information needs and sources.

The Future

One of the most valuable aspects of the survey is its ability to track trends. However , the very stability of the book market, al though of vital importance in itself, means there is a danger that users will feel able to dispense with it from time to time.

Fortunately, this stability provides the opportunity to develop the survey into new areas, or more deeply into existing areas, and to bring to light new issues and conclusions. We are able to drop topics from the survey from time to time, and replace them with others of relevance, which can shed new light. Then at a later date, we can bring back the dropped topics and update our information. Provided this is handled sensitively, with due regard for not upsetting the core information on book publishing, we have a valuable long- term tool for providing the book trade with vital information to aid business decisions.

Of course, Books and the Consumer does not, and cannot, answer all questions. Its coverage of the market is incomplete, ignoring for example institutional purchases, and sales made to people age fourteen or under. It cannot define precisely why people buy a particular book, or provide hard information about buyers of individual titles. (Even a book which sells 200,000 copies in Great Britain in a year - -a very rare occurrencemwould only have been bought by 9 of the 1,800 respondents.) There is a limit to how much we can ask respondents.

However, there is no doubt that the survey provides the book trade with a wealth of information not available elsewhere, which allows both publishers and booksellers to look at and unders tand both the overall consumer market and individual sections within it, and to gauge their performance in the proper

Henry 35

context. For the first time the trade has a source of continuous, reliable infor- mation which assists them greatly in developing publishing and marketing strategies and tactics.

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