As millions of UK holidaymakers board flights for their annual trip to sunnier climes, in their bags, along with their sun-tan lotion, there will no doubt be a book or two to read by the pool.
Sales of books soar over the summer months, and the seasonal trend has not gone unnoticed by Tesco, which is seeking to tap into it with the launch of a range of branded books that will be sold online and in its 750 stores.
The Tesco Book Club has been set up in partnership with publisher Random House. The initiative will see the retailer produce a special edition of one of the publisher's books each month, featuring additional content and a branded bookmark (Marketing, 13 June).
Tesco's decision to move into publishing coincides with an overall rise in UK book sales. The sector is worth more than 拢1.7bn, according to Nielsen Bookscan, with sales of 拢30m in the past week alone.
Tesco is already one of the country's biggest book retailers, but the launch of a branded book club signals its intent to pile the pressure on high-street rivals WH Smith, Borders and Waterstone's. 'We have a large number of book customers who are looking to try something a bit different from their normal reading selection,' says David Cooke, category manager at Tesco. 'Our aim is to help make this choice easier for them.'
Titles will feature the Tesco seal of approval on the cover and include a letter of introduction from the Book Club team. The idea is to introduce shoppers to more aspirational literature as the retailer extends its range of titles beyond contemporary bestsellers and celebrity autobiographies. The first book available is Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir; this will be followed next month by Kate Atkinson's One Good Turn. The scheme will be backed by point-of-sale and email activity, and ads in Tesco Magazine.
The intention is for the Book Club to grow into a brand that shoppers will rely on when choosing a book. 'We're confident that the Tesco endorsement will drive paperback sales in-store,' says Claire Round, marketing director at Random House. 'Consumers often need guidance when selecting suitable reading matter.'
A book club created by Channel 4 talk show Richard & Judy has proved how influential they can be, with sales of titles including Brick Lane by Monica Ali and The Farm by Richard Benson rocketing after they were featured on the programme. Similarly, in the US, talk-show host Oprah Winfrey's book club has helped transform a number of obscure titles into bestsellers since its launch in 1996. Despite a lack of celebrity support, Tesco is seeking to replicate this success, capitalising on its huge in-store footfall to drive sales of the titles.
Tesco will support its Book Club with a dedicated area on its website, where it will showcase one title each month. It will also feature information about the authors, consumer reviews and a selection of further recommendations.
The supermarket's attempt to create a community of interest around its branded books online will place it in Amazon's territory. The latter offers 9m titles, as well as personalised reading recommendations; despite posting a dip in profits in the three months to December 2006, it expects to generate more than $13bn (拢6.6bn) in revenue this year.
With competition on this scale, retail analysts are questioning Tesco's ability to make a success of its Book Club online. 'If Tesco is to have any impact here, it needs to expand its offering beyond one novel a month,' says Richard Perks, director of retail research at Mintel.
Tesco is no stranger to brand extensions, having diversified beyond its core grocery market into CDs, clothes and electronics. It is also exploring beyond the confines of consumers' houses with a 拢155.6m bid for the Scottish Dobbies Garden Centre chain.
The retailer's ubiquity coupled with its buying power make it a force to be reckoned with, and it has already demonstrated its ability to sell thousands of books a week. But this latest scheme will require consumers to have trust in the brand to inform purchasing decisions. 'The majority of books sold in supermarkets are impulse purchases,' says Perks. 'Tesco needs to position its Book Club carefully if it is to succeed in making consumers think before they buy.'
With an annual media budget of more than 拢67m, Tesco has the marketing muscle to make its club a success. Moreover, its partnership with Random House will help it expand the range of titles on offer in-store and use the web to develop a relationship with readers. Whether it has the brand heritage to rival WH Smith, Borders and Waterstone's in bringing literature to the masses is quite another matter.
- 拢30m worth of books were sold in the past week
- 200,000 unique titles were sold in the past week, up from 180,000 in the same period last year
- 拢1.7bn worth of books were sold in 2006
- 3.8m books were sold in the UK in the past week.