How do you turn a business around? One way James Daunt, CEO of Barnes and Noble, attempted to do this was to simply turn the store’s books from a traditional library display, where a customer only saw the spine and title of a book, to having the cover face forward. This meant, when you walked in the store, you would see mostly book covers and not spines.
Although this took up more room on the shelves, Daunt was convinced having customers experience the entire book – artwork, title, and author’s name – would more likely create an emotional response with a potential reader.
Along with decluttering bookstores, and giving local managers permission to shape their inventory in response to their own particular community, having covers face the customer helped turn around Barnes and Noble’s bottom line.
The choice between showing someone either our “cover” or our “spine” is an interesting thought.
In other words, do we turn to others and offer them “the whole package,” or just a part?
Are we living our lives on a library shelf, or in Barnes and Noble?
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