The Long and Short of the Longtail

The Long Tail is a concept that was first introduced by Wired Magazine’s Chris Anderson. He described the Long Tail as the niche market dominated by the sale of products which are not in the ‘mass market’ and which are rarely found in physical stores due to the fact they do not appeal to the interests of the wider public (2008).

The Long Tail trend has emerged with the development of the internet and online businesses. Many online companies have discovered that there is a significant opportunity to make a profit through combined sales of Long Tail products. This has been particularly evident in the entertainment businesses of music, movies and literature. Amazon, Netflix and Itunes are examples of online stores which offer consumers the ability to search through product listings and make purchases, without the limitations of geographical locations. These limitations are omnipresent with physical stores, which tend to stock products considered more mainstream or with greater purchasing appeal.

The global reach of the internet has been a major factor in the rise of the Long Tail. Physical stores do not often stock less-mainstream products due to the minimal chance of them selling. These stores need people within close proximity willing to buy products. However as these are less-popular products, the probability of them selling, or selling well enough to make a profit, is not likely. Online stores break down these physical barriers. It does not matter where the buyers are located geographically, as they are shopping in a global arena of the internet.

Whilst the Long Tail has the obvious benefit of allowing consumers to better tailor their purchases to their own specific tastes, scholars have also considered potential negative implications of the phenomenon. In particular, Byrnjolfsson, Hu and Smith discuss that a world so adapted to individual tastes may result in social segregation and increased hostility towards others (2006). While this is possible, it is more likely that the trend will simply result in the eventual replacement of large sales of popular products with many small sales of less-mainstream products.

The emergence of the Long Tail in the age of new media technology raises many questions with regards to whom or what has been responsible for determining what is popular in the marketplace. As these online corporations are making such large profits from products deemed part of the Long Tail, it should be noted that it could be the marketplace, as opposed to the people buying in the marketplace, determining what is popular. Prior to consumers having access to Long Tail tailored businesses such as Netflix and Amazon, it was a difficult task to track down an item or product that did not have greater public appeal. Therefore it should be taken into consideration that the limitations physical stores placed on purchasing lower-end products may have in turn been responsible for these products going unsold. As Anderson states, “everyone’s tastes departs from the mainstream somewhere” (2008). Long Tail businesses have simply provided these people with an opportunity to explore their less-mainstream tastes, and have turned a healthy profit as a result.

Reference List

Anderson, C. (2004). The Long Tail. Retrieved March 29, 2008, from http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail.html.

Byrnjolfsson, E., Hu, Y., & Smith, M,D. (2006). From Niches to Riches: Anatomy of the Long Tail. MIT Sloan Management Review, 47(4), 67-71. Retrieved March 29, 2008, from Proquest.