Buy Buy, Book-y.

Book publishers use brand marketing as well as product marketing to sell books.

Penguin, for example, uses their iconic logo to create brand recognition. That penguin on the spine always catches my attention. In a sea of spines, anything that makes the eye focus on a certain book is an example of effective marketing. Because I continue to see and recognize a certain logo (or brand) associated with certain books that I identify with, I begin to trust that brand. I am drawn to the publishers I trust, and I am more likely to blindly buy a book (without first knowing or hearing about it) if I trust the publisher. I am more likely to buy from certain publishers because I trust their judgment as part of the grand filtration system.

Another tool of brand marketing is design recognition. By keeping continuity amongst certain titles, a reader may be drawn to a book that resembles other books they have read. This is the same idea. If a reader associates a book they like with another book they see, they are more likely to want to read it, and in turn, more likely to buy it.

This is sometimes done with author specific design. Many of Kurt Vonnegut’s books, for example, look similar. Because of this, I can recognize someone reading Vonnegut from across a crowded train, or more importantly, across a crowded bookshop. A reader may now associate the look of the book with the author and reach for more of the title that look like similar. It creates a kind of brand around a certain author.

Product marketing is also used to sell books, mainly new releases. But product marketing often relies heavily on the brand— either the brand of the publisher, or, more likely, the brand created around the author. When Dan Brown released his last book, the cover prominently boasted that this was the new book from the author of The Da Vinci Code. In fact, the font was almost the same size displaying the old title and the new title. The publisher was relying on the popularity of the author’s previous titles to sell the new release. In fact, in many cases, a previous release will be displayed alongside a corresponding new release so as to cross market each other.

Publishers rely heavily on whatever they can to make you pick up their book. After all, if you don’t pick it up, you’re not going to buy it.