Chris Anderson: The theory of the Long Tail is that our culture and economy is increasingly shifting away from a focus on a relatively small number of “hits” (mainstream products and markets) at the head of the demand curve and toward a huge number of niches in the tail. As the costs of production and distribution fall, especially online, there is now less need to lump products and consumers into one-size-fits-all containers. In an era without the constraints of physical shelf space and other bottlenecks of distribution, narrowly-targeted goods and services can be as economically attractive as mainstream fare…
Amplified word of mouth is the manifestation of the third force of the Long Tail: tapping consumer sentiment to connect supply to demand. The first force, democratizing production, populates the Tail. The second force, democratizing distribution, makes it all available.
But those two are not enough. It is not until this third force, which helps people find what they want in this new superabundance of variety, kicks in that the potential of the Long Tail marketplace is truly unleashed.The new tastemakers are simply people whose opinions are respected. They influence the behavior of others, often encouraging them to try things they wouldn’t otherwise pursue. Some of these new tastemakers are the traditional professionals: movie and music critics, editors, or product testers. As our interests expand with the exploding availability of wide variety, the demand for such informed and trusted advice is now extending to the narrowest niches. Companies such as Weblogs, Inc. have built thriving businesses around starting blogs to serve narrow interests, from scuba diving and the WiMax wireless standards, to medical informatics…
When consumers are offered infinite choice, the true shape of demand is revealed. And it turns out to be less hit-centric than we thought. People gravitate towards niches because they satisfy narrow interests better, and in one aspect of our life or another we all have some narrow interest (whether we think of it that way or not).
2007.05.29 at 8:38 am
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