CUT AND PASTE: NOT AS MAINSTREAM AS THEY THOUGHT

Thanks to Influx for the Wired article...

Basically, it points to the comeback sensation of the book TOUCHING THE VOID, which did not do well when it was first released. But when a similar title, INTO THIN AIR, was a hit TOUCHING THE VOID became a hit too.

Amazon.com's referral section was to blame.

"Unlimited selection is revealing truths about what consumers want and how they want to get it in service after service, from DVDs at Netflix to music videos on Yahoo! Launch to songs in the iTunes Music Store and Rhapsody. People are going deep into the catalog, down the long, long list of available titles, far past what's available at Blockbuster Video, Tower Records, and Barnes & Noble. And the more they find, the more they like. As they wander further from the beaten path, they discover their taste is not as mainstream as they thought (or as they had been led to believe by marketing, a lack of alternatives, and a hit-driven culture)."

That means that with so many choices, what were once easily segmented markets are fragmenting, and people are taking their own road.

P.S. NOTE " As they wander further from the beaten path, they discover their taste is not as mainstream as they thought (or as they had been led to believe by marketing, a lack of alternatives, and a hit-driven culture)."

-- What does that say?? Which came first? The Segment or our defining of the Segment?