Approach Learned From Coca-Cola Proves to Be Successful for Sales of Debut Mystery Novel

The decision to sell THE PROVIDENCE OF DEATH at locally owned stores was not the result of original thinking. Many years ago, as part of the journalism program at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, one of the required courses was in advertising. A guest lecturer during that class was a Coca-Cola representative. He said that better than ninety-five percent of Americans surveyed knew the name, Coca-Cola, proof that the corporation’s marketing efforts were successful.

However, he said marketing was not enough to guarantee sales. There had to be a sales plan that included two elements. First, The product has to be placed WHERE the customers are, in a position WHERE it can be seen. The second element of successful sales was POS (point of sale) advertising that changes periodically. He said that an experiment was held in a sales region near the home of Coca-Cola, Atlanta, Ga., that proved this latter point. For a period of time, all POS advertising was eliminated in some stores, not changed in others. He said the sales drop in the region during the test period reached “double digits.”

I knew that manufacturing reps paid for product placement in grocery stores. And I’d been told had that the big displays immediately inside the front door at Barnes & Noble come about the same way. Money changed hands. That was what led me to decide to be the only fish in several little ponds, rather than be buried alphabetically among dozens of other books on a shelf somewhere in the fiction section.

When THE PROVIDENCE OF DEATH went on sale at these local sites, POS advertising was a part of each sales site, but for a period of time, it was not changed. After the initial surge, sales dropped off. Now that the POS copy is changed on a periodic basis, there has been a measurable increase in sales.

Many folks may not equate peddling books with soap, cereal, or soft drinks, but the principle is the same. Like the producers of these products, folks involved in book selling need both a marketing and sales plan. In today’s world, on-line efforts have become the major venue for marketing. But it like the rep from Cola-Cola said, there also must be a sales plan, a method to put books before the buyers, and continue to grab their attention with new POS advertising.