Sometimes the product innovation is the distribution (interconnected)

Did you know that Moleskine notebooks have their own ISBN?

I used to run a tweeting machine bookstore called Machine Supply. It was the smallest member of the Association of Booksellers (I had a sticker on the glass and everything) and I worked with a great book wholesaler.

The book sector is therefore dependent on wholesalers. They buy the books from the publishers and bookstores buy the books from them. They provide storage and distribution for the publishers… but, crucially for the bookstores, they provide a trading account. Credit! The ability to return stock! Order systems and consolidated invoices and regular shipping! A big problem.

It all depends on ISBNs.

One day I discovered Moleskine notebooks in the book catalog.

They had an ISBN, which meant they fit in Mine Automation of vending machines too. (I’ve built a lot of custom software.)

I ordered some…standard wholesale discounts. They arrived along with the regular books. I put them in the machine. (They installed the shelf mechanism, of course.) They sold well!

Would I have had Moleskines in stock if they had not been distributed by the book wholesaler? No, it wouldn’t have been worth it.

It’s such a clever hack.

Moleskines are notebooks. Not real books.

But they are book formed. By that I mean the margins are about the same, and they can be stored exactly the same, and they can be sold on the counter of the exact same stores.

The publication date of “Moleskine Pocket Hardcover Lined Notebook Black” (ISBN 9788883701009) is March 2003.

The Moleskine company was only founded in 1997.

I remember they were everywhere early 2000s.

This ISBN hack may have been part of the why, early in their history.

Every now and then I see another product that is shaped like a book, but plain not a book, but still has an ISBN number, and I’m like: aha.

Psychobox (Amazon) from 2004 comes to mind: it’s a box of optical illusions and tricks, plus a short pamphlet.

It’s packaged to fit on a bookshelf! It has an ISBN number! It reaches a whole range of customers that it normally would never have reached!

There are fewer indie bookstores than there used to be. This was a very smart approach for a while.

Music.

I remember hearing about one of the big music publishers back in the day – EMI maybe?

This was during the transition from CDs to MP3s. There is no streaming yet and people still buy CDs to rip them.

We’d call this a drop these days: they had just released a new album.

They sold it as a USB memory stick on a lanyard in JD Sports, a major sports and lifestyle chain.

And that was it so smart.

USB memory sticks were very popular at the time, you always needed a few.

MP3 piracy was a big problem and of course free, but difficult.

So to place the digital files conveniently and visibly in a place where your audience will come anyway! Smart distribution play.

When we think about product innovation, we often start with: how have customer needs changed? Or how has technology changed? And we look for opportunities to change the product.

But instead we can ask ourselves: where do our customers congregate? Can we find a new way to distribute our product so that it reaches our customers there?

Or you can even start distribution before the final form of the product:

Where are there busy markets with established distribution channels and potential partners? How can we hijack that distribution to do something interesting?

Designers, this part is for you.

Coincidentally, I’ve had three? maybe four? conversations with designers and independent studios, over the past few weeks, where they have a side project product they want to sell, or have tried and haven’t quite found their way yet.

And as we talk, I see that this is because go-to-market is an opaque process, or that the product would suddenly become much more interesting or tractable with an adjustment to the market or distribution.

That’s why I’m thinking about distribution.

I would like to see more design studios bring their own products to market.

So open offer: if you’re a design studio running into how to commercialize something alongside your client’s work, especially if you’re friends with studios here in London and the UK, I’d be happy to talk to you, share what I know and I am a sounding board. Send me a message.