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A hundred years ago, it wasn’t easy being a reader. Books were expensive and libraries weren’t common, so it was hard to get your hands on your next read. In 1926, a magazine editor, professor, and book publisher tried to solve the problem with a mail order company called the Book of the Month Club. The men would read upcoming books, select what they considered the best, then mass-produce them, thereby driving the price down. For decades, thousands of readers across America relied on the catalog to discover new literature. But by the early 2010s, when Blake Orlandia recent Harvard Business School graduatestumbled across the company, it had lost its luster. Consumers had no shortage of places to buy affordable books, from Amazon to Barnes & Noble to their local indie bookstore. Book of the Month had sunk to offering books at bargain-basement prices, but even then, it was quickly shrinking. “Amazon did everything that Book of the Month was purporting to do, but better because of technology,” says Orlandi. “The company was basically hollowed out.” [Photo: Book of the Month] Still, Orlandi couldn’t get Book of the Month out of his mind. The legacy company seemed to have so much potential, if only it could be reimagined for the current reading landscape. “Consumers today have a paradox of choice,” he says. “Book of the Month’s original mission of curating books suddenly seemed compelling again.” Along with his business partner, John Lippman, Orlandi bought the skeletal remains of the Book of the Month Club. In 2016, in the midst of the direct-to-consumer boom, they relaunched it as a subscription business targeted at millennialsand particularly women, who make up the majority of its customers. Every month, the club offers a selection of only five recently released hard cover books, largely fiction with the occasional memoir. Since the company acquires the right to publish each title with a “Book of the Month” logo on the cover, it can price these books cheaper than you were to get them at a book store. Members pay between $13 and $17 a book, depending on their plan, but they can skip anytime. Growth mode Orlandi is now the brand’s CEO. Over the past nine years, Book of the Month has grown to 400,000 members. It generates money from subscription fees and is profitable. It has lower margins than a traditional bookseller because it publishes the books itself. “We have a very different business model than a bookstore that pays the publisher for each book it sells,” Orlandi says. “We publish a small number of titles and we’re highly incentivized to make sure we sell all of them.” Book of the Month is now a powerful player in helping to put books and authors on the map, along the lines of celebrity book clubs, like those founded by Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, and Jenna Bush Hager. V. E. Schwab says when her novel The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue was selected by Book of the Month Club in 2020, it exposed her work to a new audience. Until that point, she had been largely seen as a fantasy author, but the club introduced her work to fans of literary fiction. [Photo: Book of the Month] Book of the Month’s success is particularly impressive given that the percentage of Americans that read fiction is actively declining: In 2017, 42% of adults read fiction, and in 2022, that had gone down to 38%. A 2022 Gallup survey found that Americans read an average of 12.6 books a year, three fewer books than they read in the early 2000s. But over last nine years, the company has gained deep insight into the habits and identities of millennial and Gen Z readers, what makes a successful book, and how social media is transforming the reading experience. “There is this narrative that reading is dying because we’re glued to our phones,” says Brianna Goodman, Book of the Month’s editorial director, who runs the team that selects each month’s five books. “But that’s not what we’re finding. People seem to be turning to books precisely to escape being online.” [Photo: Book of the Month] What Women (Readers) Want Over the years, Book of the Month has zeroed in on the demographic of people who still continue to read for pleasure. It found that more women than men are reading on a regular basis: a quarter of men read fiction while for women, that figure is roughly half. “We didn’t have a clear sense of the target market when we bought the company,” says Orlandi. “But we quickly began to figure it out.” Book of the Month’s most devoted members are college-educated women in their early to late twenties, who read one or more books a month. Orlandi says that this age is the sweet spot when people are no longer reading for school, but don’t yet have kids. When the brand relaunched, it tried to make the brand enticing to this demographic of millennial women. Much of its branding was similar to millennial-oriented startups of that era, like Glossier, Away, and Warby Parker. The website and app were clean and minimalist, with playful fonts, and saturated in a sophisticated blue color. In contrast to Amazon’s overwhelming volume of books, Book of the Month focused on curation, spotlighting the five books available that month. In the early years, when social media marketing was still affordable, Book of the Month advertised on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, targeting women with ads that portrayed reading as part of a chic lifestylesomething you did with wine, in an attractive apartment. Over time, when the brand hit a critical mass, it began to grow by word of mouth. Members get a free book for every person they get to sign up. The physical books themselves have become home decor, with members often posting photos of them on their bookshelves. “Our members seem to like the idea of books as objects,” says Goodman. “So much of our life is digital, and there’s something satisfying about seeing a physical pile of books you’ve read and loved.” Now, Gen Z is just hitting the late twenties prime-reading age. But that doesn’t mean that older readers aren’t still valuable. Orlandi says there’s a certain kind of woman who self-identifies as a reader. It’s not just an activity, it’s how they see themselves. Often, it comes from positive childhood experiences with reading, or growing up in a family that valued books. These are the ideal Book of the Month customers and the company spends a lot of effort trying to bring them into the fold. It targets them on social media and rewards customers who get their friends to sign up with free books. “We’re a subscription business, and ideally, we want to have members with us for decades,” says Orlandi. (Readers can pause the service for months or years at a time with no penalty.) “Readers may go through phases when they don’t have time to read, but they will eventually come back to books, and we want to be there to help them find the right one.” It’s All About Curation While cool branding and targeted marketing are important, Orlandi believes that the success of the business hinges on how well it can curate books. If a member has a bad experience with a book, they may quit and never come back. (The company has Reader’s Guarantee that allows a member to get a new book if they don’t like the one they picked.) If they find an unexpected book that they can’t put down, there’s a good chance they will be a lifelong customer. For many readers, trying to pick the next book is overwhelming, given the pace of publishing. This is also hard for authors, who are struggling to break through. But Book of the Month can help cut through the noise. Take V.E. Schwab, whose book The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue was a Book of the Month pick in the fall of 2020. “As a fantasy author . . . I’d rarely shown up on the shelves of those who preferred more grounded/realistic work,” says Schwab. “But thanks to Book of the Month, my audience not only grew, but so did some readers’ concept of the shapes and scope that fantasy could take.” Goodman, who oversees a team of seven editorial assistants, says picking books is not an exact science. The company hires people they believe have good taste and instincts. Every month, they go through hundreds of books that publishers send their way, and they choose five to seven. Their goal is to choose the very best book in a number of different categories, from romances, to fantasy, to literary fiction, to thrillers. “It’s hard to say exactly what makes it a right pick,” Goodman says. “It needs to feel fresh, like we haven’t read something like this before. The author needs to be doing something original with words.” As experts have analyzed the decline in reading, they argue that screensfrom social media on our phones to video-streaming servicesare edging out reading in our leisure time. Goodman says that part of what her team is trying to do is to get readers hooked on books that are exciting enough to entice them away from their smartphone addiction. This is why pulpy page turners always have a place on the list. Goodman believes that people are also getting tired of being online. They turn to Book of the Month to return to a slower, more analog pace of life, and the company’s curation team takes this responsibility seriously. “People have limited time, and they’re looking to books to get away from their troubles,” she says. “We want to make sure their time is well spent.”
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E-Commerce
In the early morning hours of August 26, South African long-distance runner Sibusiso Kubheka became the first person to complete a 100-kilometer run (thats 62.14 miles) in less than six hours. He beat the previous world record by 6 minutes and 15 seconds. The race featured five of the planets fastest endurance runners at the Nard Ring high-performance test track in Lecce, Italy. With a time of 5 hours, 59 minutes, and 20 seconds, 27-year-old Kubheka not only has expanded the limits of what we thought humans were capable of in terms of distance and speed, but also made one helluva commercial for Adidas. View this post on Instagram A post shared by adidas (@adidas) The run is part of a broader project by the brand called Chasing 100, in which Adidas worked to fine-tune its apparel and footwear in order to break the 100-kilometer record. If this sounds familiar, then youve likely seen Nikes 2017 documentary Breaking2, chronicling its thn-failed attempt to break a 2-hour marathon. Or its newest series airing on Prime called Breaking4, about Kenyan runner Faith Kipyegons quest to be the first woman to break the 4-minute mile. The Breaking2 livestream event attracted more than 20 million viewers and racked up 2 trillion social impressions months before the doc even aired on National Geographic. [Photo: Adidas] Chasing100 is the latest entry in this arms race of branded stunt running content that is pushing athletes, sports science, running tech, and designers into new and exciting places. Just as important, these are benchmarks for the brands involved to showcase their innovation chops to customers and potential customers around the world. Running is a pursuit of fine margins, with brands of many sizes racing for the throne. Here, Adidas has tossed down a gauntlet it hopes will boost its brand image among everyone from elite runners to everyday joggers. [Photo: Adidas] Designing for a world record The four other athletes who took part in the race were previous 100-kilometer world-record-holder Aleksandr Sorokin of Lithuania, Jo Fukuda of Japan, current 80-kilometer world-record-holder Charlie Lawrence of the U.S., and former 50-kilometer world-record-holder Ketema Negasa of Ethiopia. Adidas worked with each one to customize its Adizero Evo Prime X, fine-tuning the shoes to fit each runners distinctive style. The runners also utilized the brands Ultracharge system, which puts the shoes in a pressurized container for several days ahead of the race to give the midsole foam increased responsiveness. [Photo: Adidas] The runners werent the only ones racing. Harry Miles, Adidass director of football innovation, said the process of designing these custom shoes began in February and testing took place in July. The company shrunk its R&D-to-production schedule significantly, thanks to new methods and tech that allowed for the creation of the shapes and materials much more quickly than ever before. Miles is cagey about the new methods, calling them the brand’s “secret sauce.” We wanted to build the most innovative shoe we’ve ever built for these conditions, Miles says. But we didn’t want to make it easy. We wanted to make it a tough test for the product and also the athletes, to prove that they can do something that most people think is impossible. View this post on Instagram A post shared by adidas (@adidas) On the apparel side, racers used the Climacool system to cool down their core body temperatures before running in the heat and humidity of southern Italy. Its the same combination of cooling and insulating techwith a cooling vest and insulation jacketworn by the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1 team. [Photo: Adidas] Each runner had their own cooling neck bands, which could be swapped out and refreshed during the race. The Clima 3D singlet features 3D-embossed material (like small rubber nubs) body-mapped to areas of the shirt with the highest skin contact and sweat production to improve airflow, sweat evaporation, and cooling. [Photo: Adidas] The TechFit shorts feature stiffening bands strategically placed for each runners body to stabilize the hips, supporting running economy and endurance. Commercial versions of both the shorts and singlet will be available to the public sometime next year. Margherita Raccuglia, Adidass director of athlete performance, led the apparel team. She says that endurance, speed, and heat management were the three main factors in the design process, along with a fair amount of customization for each individual runner. [Photo: Adidas] There is a certain amount of familiarizationand adaptation to the product that is not to be underestimated because, of course, there is always the physiological and physical performance, but there is also the cognitive part [of the] performance, Raccuglia says. Athletes are very ritualistic, and they love their routine. Even a centimeter off in their socks is going to put them off. So our job and our challenge throughout the process was really to fine-tune the product into the best possible performance while still being something that the athletes feel comfortable with. Both Raccuglia and Miles credit the rapid prototyping their teams were able to do with giving the athletes equipment that was optimized for their bodies. The approach is really going back to the basis of what Adidas is and what our fundamentals are, which is only the best for the athletes, Miles says. Really being there and crafting it with them. The most difficult part to solve is the final 5%, right? But that’s also where you just have to kind of roll up your sleeves. [Photo: Adidas] Process vs. Results A project like this is about accomplishing multiple goals simultaneously. For the runners, it is the athletic achievement. For the product designers and engineers, it is a massive investment and opportunity in R&D. And for the brands, more than anything else, it is myth-making. Embracing and aiming for impossible goals will appeal to any athlete or sports fan. So documenting the process and telling the whole story creatively is (or should be) inextricable from the goal of breaking a performance record. It’s truly exciting to go after what is going to be the fastest 100-kilometer run in history, but really showcasing that process is also a critical piece, says Marc Makowski, senior vice president of creative direction and innovation at Adidas. We start by looking at moments that really shape what the future of sport is going to look like, and then use an opportunity like Chasing100 to bring together the most daring designs we’re creating. View this post on Instagram A post shared by adidas (@adidas) Chasing and Breaking In both of Nikes Breaking projects, the brand not only designed and worked on equipment to help the runners achieve their goals but also picked locations with optimal conditions to break records. Adidas took a different approach, choosing southern Italy in the summertime in order to have an intentionally challenging environment for the race. The strategy was to push the runners and their gear to the edge of their abilities. The learnings are almost endless for the team moving forward, Makowski says. There are so many things here that will inform the next generation of endurance- and speed-related projects. So far, Adidas has been putting out social content around the race and Kubhekas accomplishment. There are plans to launch a long-form piece of content in the coming weeks that will tell the story behind the new record. It will be interesting to see just how much this new storyand how its tolddiffers from Nikes Breaking work. In some ways, there is a pretty clear formula to work from: Introduce audiences to a cast of charactersthe runners, designers, engineers, and support staffand use the buildup to the race to establish emotional stakes. View this post on Instagram A post shared by adidas (@adidas) This type of blockbuster, event-driven content is where giants like Adidas and Nike have an advantage over challengers like Brooks, Saucony, Asics, On, and Hoka. Both brands trace their roots to track and field. Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman at the University of Oregon. Adolf Dassler and Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. Their scale as global brands, now across many different sports, fuels their ability to flex that strength in telling these specific stories in running. With Chasing100, Adidas has collected the characters, from the runners and their backstories to company insiders like Miles and Raccuglia. Now it needs to truly convey the drama and gear-nerd design process in a compelling way. If it can do that, we may just be embarking on an intriguing arms race of running content that will straddle sports storytelling and brand innovation in new ways. On your mark, get set.
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E-Commerce
Is your team intimidated by you? And if they are, how would you know? Many leaders unintentionally or unconsciously create an environment thats unnecessarily fear-based, whether through their communication style, decision-making, or even the pace they expect from their team. A study by OnePoll and HR software company Bambee found that 60% of U.S. workers feel too intimidated to go to their boss or manager with an issue theyre having. Thats significant, cosidering bosses have a disproportionate impact on employee well-being. The Workforce Institute at UKG found that a managers influence on an employees mental health is equal to that of an employees spouse or partnerand greater than that of an employees doctor and therapist. The good news is that once you become aware of behaviors that could be perceived as intimidating to your team, you can focus on changing them. Speaking in declaratives When it comes to inviting input, theres a universal truth: The more polished, finished or done something appears, the less likely people are to give feedback on it. The feeling is that the window for real input has closed. Similarly, when you speak in declaratives in meetings, like This is the plan, or That wont work, your forceful language tells the group to comply, that things are already decided. Instead, leave some thoughts unfinished to open up conversations. Rather than Were going to move forward with X approach, say Heres what Im thinking, but Im open . . . or Im leaning toward this direction. What am I missing? Intimidation will lessen when people see that your thinking is still taking shape. Inhibiting disagreement You say you want open discussion. But if you get defensive or look annoyed when people challenge the norm, its only going to breed caution. Your employees will read your level of receptiveness and stay quiet next time. Instead, normalize respectful disagreement. Try Thats a valuable challenge, Jane, keep it coming . . . or Im glad you raised that, Marco. Such responses will make it unmistakably clear, in real time, that you see disagreement as a form of group engagement. While youre at it, try to keep a neutral facial expression even as you ponder challenging views: no frowning, eye-rolling, or grimacing. Conveying calm acceptance and curiosity is what youre after. Keeping interactions all business If your touchpoints with people feel stiff and scheduled, youre missing out big-time on opportunities to build trust. You can maximize casual interactions like walking to a meeting together, Slack check-ins, or hallway chats by showing curiosity and interest. For example, you can make a callback to something they mentioned to you earlier, like How are the college tours going? or How did last weeks soccer tournament go? This shows that you actually listen and instantly creates a more humanistic tone. You can also resist jumping right into work in team huddles. To create a friendlier feel, kick off by asking the group a question thats not limited to work: Whats a win youve had recently, personal or professional, big or small? Overspeaking If you want your team to speak up and contribute their best thinking, they need spaces, gaps, and pauses in the conversation to do that. Instead of narrating every meeting like its a nature special, intentionally leave some openings. You might say Whats your read on this? while you pause and visually scan the group with an anticipatory look, or ask everyone to share one opportunity they see with the new direction and one concern they may have. You can even divvy up the agenda in advance if you want to ensure multiple people have speaking roles. Pretending youre perfect I can guarantee youve had a pie-in-the-face moment that was a prime learning experience. When youre trying to communicate a message to the team, pull from a personal story (even better if you werent the hero). Maybe you under-communicated on a project, which led to a misunderstanding. Or failed to ask for help once and spent three days unnecessarily troubleshooting an issue yourself. Perhaps a disruptive, company-wide change that your team is stressed about is also making you a little nervous. Sharing some of your concerns and face-plants helps you build trust and keep it real (yes, even that time you accidentally said Love you when signing off from a Zoom meeting). Being intimidating is often unintentional. But if no ones challenged you in a while, it might be a sign that your team is feeling the pressure to suppress their real thoughts and feelings. Humanize your leadership by integrating these small actions, and youll shift the atmosphere to one that feels safe, not severe.
Category:
E-Commerce
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