Critical Essay on the Packaging and Positioning of a Children's Story Book (Marketing for Book Publishers)

The purpose of this essay was to write a critical review of the packaging and positioning of a newly released book. We were asked to consider questions such as:

-Does your new release appeal to a browser or unplanned shopper? 

-Does it appeal to a commercial, literary or specialist reader? 

-How does the specific retail experience in which you found the book and the quality of its packaging and positioning effect the potential closure rate? In other words, does the quality of the retail experience or the role of book design (or neither) lead you to expect that the book will become or remain a bestseller?

We were also asked to include a diagram of the retail environment in which the book was acquired and an image of the front and back cover of the package.

Running Head: PACKAGING & POSITIONING 

Publishing 350 Assignment 1

The Productive Packaging and Positioning of 

“The Super Adventures of Sophie and the City: All in a Day’s Work”

Written and Published by Kelly Florio Kasouf

Renée Thomson

301084243

Simon Fraser University 

First time author Kelly Florio Kasouf may not have a book publisher for her children’s book “The Super Adventures of Sophie and the City: All in a Day’s Work,” but she certainly has a publishing company backing her; namely, Condé Nast, publisher of established magazines including The New Yorker and Vogue. In fact, the story is a tribute to Kelly’s late father, former CEO and President of Condé Nast. It tells the tale of a young girl who explores the “glamorous life inside magazine publishing,” (Florio Kasouf, 2011) complete with whimsical water-coloured drawings of some of fashion’s finest. Though the tale is fiction, it is based on Kelly’s childhood spent visiting her father’s esteemed office in Times Square. Her insider knowledge of Condé Nast and the fashion world only grew with her positions at both Vogue and Vanity Fair during her adult years.

Self-publisher and author Kelly Florio Kasouf positioned her children’s book in the marketplace exceptionally well by use of publicity. Physically, it wasn’t the easiest of books to obtain, but because of its tantalizing review in InStyle, a fashion magazine I had purchased during a recent holiday in Hawaii, I sought it out. (*Note – “Sophie and the City” was also mentioned in Vogue, Teen Vogue, Glamour, New York Post, Vanity Fair and W, all magazines published by Condé Nast, along with numerous blogs aimed towards fashionistas and mommy’s alike. Visit the Press tab on http://superadventuresofsophie.com/ for a complete list.)

After a failed trip to Indigo in North Vancouver, a discouraging phone call to Vancouver Kidsbooks, and a dismal experience at Book Warehouse on Broadway, I was about to give up on my search for “The Super Adventures of Sophie and the City.” However, after a quick Google search and subsequent visit to www.superaventuresofsophie.com, a website designed as beautifully as the book itself, my buying options expanded, and I reprimanded myself for not looking online in the first place, considering the increasingly digital direction of the book market. 

While the only brick-and-mortar buying option for “Sophie and the City” is at high-end New York department stores Barney’s New York and Bergdorf Goodman, the self-published book is available online at Amazon.com and Barneysnewyork.com. Because of my boyfriend’s cousin’s recent appointment to senior account manager for Amazon.com’s retail sector, and the promise of prompt shipping, I decided to make my first-ever purchase from the online-retail giant. 

I proceeded with my order fulfillment, only to encounter another problem – Amazon.com would not ship “Sophie and the City” to my Canadian address (and it wasn’t available at Amazon.ca). Determined to obtain the book at this point, I had it shipped to a PO box in the US, and drove down to retrieve it five days later. 

The inability for a Canadian consumer to purchase a book that is heavily promoted in fashion magazines that are available in Canada can be considered a flaw in Florio Kasouf’s placement plan. Because of its lack of availability in the market, “Sophie and the City” does not appeal to an unplanned Canadian shopper or browser. However, its unavailability did create an aura of exclusivity, which is known to be a successful publicity strategy in book publishing, according to “The Five Es of Publicity.” 

Adding to the exclusivity was an option on Amazon.com to purchase a used copy of the storybook for $175, roughly six times more expensive than a brand new copy, which sells for $29.99 plus shipping. While Amazon.com gives no cues as to why the used book is priced so high, my assumption is that the copy was signed by the author at her book launch, held at an upscale children’s boutique, complete with “heaps and jars of rock candy, gumballs, M&M’s, Ladurée macaron trees, cotton candy tufts, … mini-mocktails … [and a] digital photo booth (Alfano, 2011).

Targeting the scarcity profile is an effective technique for the assumedly fashion-obsessed audience that this book appeals to, because in high fashion one-of-a-kinds are the best you can get.    

While obtaining a copy of “The Super Adventures of Sophie and the City: All in a Day’s Work” is difficult for a Canadian consumer, the curb-appeal of the book is so great that I went out of my way to purchase it. Because of its curb-appeal, the book will have a great deal of success in the US with unplanned shoppers and browsers. 

Consider where the book is physically sold – Barney’s New York and Bergdorf Goodman. Neither are places in which women go to buy children’s books; instead, they go to buy expensive fashion items. However, as stated in the course content of Publishing 350, impulse buying is at the heart of the book industry; people do not buy what they need or plan to buy. Instead, they buy things that resonate with them enough to occupy mental space in their heads. Women in particular purchase products that they believe will improve them in some way (Underhill, 2009, What Women Want). 

The Barney’s and Bergdorf’s stores are both designed so that women feel comfortable spending enough time there to do the necessary research before making a purchase decision (Underhill, 2009, What Women Want). Therefore, the unplanned shopper is able to pick up “Sophie and the City,” read the inside jacket flaps and flip through the pages for long enough to be intrigued and then persuaded to make a purchase; as Underhill states, there is a clear connection between reading and buying (2009, What Women Want). Moreover, $29.99 is a reasonable amount of money to spend on “fashion” at Barney’s or Bergdorf’s. 

While “Sophie and the City” appeals to the unplanned shopper in the US, it is also positioned to appeal to the specialist and commercial reader. In particular, it appeals those who love fashion, magazines, children’s books and unique coffee table books, and is positioned this way in its press reviews. 

Furthermore, the genre of “Sophie and the City” is part of a larger trend in the entertainment industry towards “chic lit/flick” – think “The Devil Wears Prada,” “Sex and the City” (notice any similarities in the title?) and “Gossip Girl.”  

“Sophie and the City” has also been compared to “Eloise,” a hugely successful children’s book series, written in the 1950s and set in New York City’s Plaza hotel. However, while “Sophie and the City” appears to be a children’s book, I suspect it is more appropriate for an adult audience due to the element of excessive consumerism, which is not a value to be instilled in children.   

When considering the packaging of “Sophie and the City,” “the book is a visual delight … [with] frame-worthy illustrations” (Melissa, 2012) composed of pen and watercolors, giving it a child-like appeal mixed with the techniques of fashion illustration. Its sensory elements encourage a browser to pick up the book and flip through, which is the first step towards making a purchase. 

The raised typography on the matte and gloss cover is a feminine and artistic rendition of a serif font, and is used throughout the book to accentuate phrases, along with a traditional serif typeface for the body text. There is no type on the back cover and only a short, easy-to-read plot summery on the inside front jacket flap, inviting readers to “Come explore New York City with Sophie” (Florio Kasouf, 2011). 

On the inside back jacket flap there is an attractive photograph of the young female author, along with her sell-worth biography. This is an important part of the positioning of this book, as the author’s personal role in the publishing world has helped her create a significant amount of buzz around “Sophie and the City” amongst fashion’s elite. 

Not only is her own role in the publishing world a contributing factor to the success of “The Super Adventures of Sophie and the City,” the fact that the book is a tribute to her late father, CEO and President of Condé Nast, adds an intimacy factor and a celebrity factor, both effective media pegs in book publishing. While Kelly may not have used a publisher, her family history carries a significant amount of symbolic capital on its own, which has contributed to the success of her book. 

Based on the positioning and packaging of “The Super Adventures of Sophie and the City: All in a Day’s Work,” I believe this book has strong potential to become a best seller, and predict similar success for her planned sequels. I do believe, however, it would be beneficial to sell “Sophie and the City” in major brick-and-mortar bookstores in order to maximize sales.