Harlequin Enterprises Being Successful in the Publishing Industry - Case Study Example

Harlequin Enterprises – Being Successful in the Publishing Industry 1. Harlequin has always kept its business extremely focused on series fiction novels, which is why the company has done well in this business from the start. In no time Harlequin has created a name globally and many customers are highly loyal to them. The best thing about Harlequin is that they believe in creativity and innovation. When one is dealing with the publishing business creativity is a must factor. At Harlequin the management ensures that it hires creative authors and the management itself is skilled in professional editing[Har12]. Unless the higher management is not aware of professional creativity publishing cannot be made successful in the publishing industry. Through its special packages and order system Harlequin creates value for is customer. The ideal rack size and special covers are some of the features that also add value to the package[Har12]. Print advertisements in famous women magazines are done to capture the attention of the target audience and keep them updated about the upcoming series. Special authors are fixed for writing the series that are well aware of the content expected so in this way customers are satisfied with the series[Har12]. 2. There are a few significant differences that are evident in single title publishing and series publishing. The first one is that the level of sales cannot be forecasted in advance for single title books where as for series publishing the order is signed for the whole year and Harlequin is well aware of how to cut down its costs and make its supply chain highly effective and in accordance to the demand[Har12]. The turnover in case of series was also higher as they used to be with a retailer for a time span of four moths whereas single titles last for a year or so. Single title books also required a different strategy in selling than series fiction[Har12]. The series fiction had a specific format and outline to go about but single title books required special packaging and different cover designs. The topics covered in single title also needed to be of a broader range as compared to the series fiction. The disturbution channels used for selling series books were supermarket drugstores and discount department stores but the disturbutuion network had to be more focused than that for the single title novels. The single title novels required retail bookstores as disturbution centers[Har12]. The marketing of series novels is also much less complicated as they have to sell as a set whereas single title books require special selling and marketing on individual basis. The order cycle of shipping also needs to precise for series novels as they are done on contractual basis. The shipment of single title books is done on demand and does not need through checking[Har12]. 3. Harlequin publishers have always excelled in the field of series romance fiction publishing. Reason being that the focus has always been singular and that is series fiction books. There are many positive aspects associated to profitability through series romance publishing which is why the company has mainly kept its focus on it. First of all for one set of series the company just requires a single business model, advertising, selling and disturbution plan[Har12]. Secondly forecasting and managing demand is a pretty simple job and sales can be forecasted beforehand. This assists the company in lowering the cost of publishing and selling. The company also followed a consumer good strategy whereby they created a product supposedly started a series of books and then with each upcoming series they extended the product line. Each product/ series was given special attention and promoted in a manner that it reached the target market effectively[Har12]. Harlequin focuses on style, composition, design and content primarily. The fact that the book was designed with dimensions that fit the rack size was of prime importance[Har12]. It became difficult for the competitors to imitate the series strategy because Harlequin entered the market and bought the US based Mills and Boons which was a major success at that time. Through that the company managed to climb the stairs of success all the way to the top[Har12]. The only major hurdle that crossed Harlequin publishers was when the romance wars started and a company namely Simon & Schuster also started competing against Harlequin publishers. Very soon Harlequin publishers negotiated a valuable contract with Simon & Schuster to succumb the war and signed them to be their only US distributor for the coming 20 years[Har12]. This was an intelligent move by Harlequin publishers to overcome their future competitor and they succeeded in their plan. The main reason behind their success was that they invested in customer retention because of which many people were brand loyal to Harlequin publishers and had no desire to switch[Har12]. 4. Harlequin made a very prominent struggle to hit the single title market previously but failed due to various reasons. But the second time Harlequin has to offer the single title market was effective prices. Since the infrastructure and operations were already running the company had every chance to venture into the upcoming trend of single title novels[Har12]. The company also had to offer bigger books in size as series are normally shorter and smaller in size. As far as the disturbution was concerned Harlequin managed to research the whole scenario and conclude that selling through retail book stores would be more profitable as retailers knew the type of books their customers purchased. He expenses on each book were expected be only $0.27[Har12]. Through the launch of the new single title novels it would be easier for the company to negotiate a global author deal. A special task force was also assigned for focusing only on the publication and selling of single title books[Har12]. Yes Harlequin has every chance of being successful in the single title market because they have carried out a complete research analysis on the target market and selling points. The publication procedures have also been chalked out along with the expected demand. Apart from that the company also has an opportunity of acquiring mainstream titles through central acquiring office. This will surely ensure a good amount of sales initially[Har12]. The author editor relationship seems to be pretty strong for the company which the main element behind the creation of single title novels. The company also has the opportunity to hire fresh writers that are available in the market with the increasing trend of writing considering the brand name who wouldn’t want to be associated with the company as an amateur. Since initially new authors demand a minimum of $10,000 it would also be effective in decreasing the companies cost[Har12]. Work Cited Har12: , (Harlequin Enterprises ; The Mira Decision ), Read More