This document discusses the long tail theory and how online distribution has changed traditional models. It explains that while brick-and-mortar stores relied on a few popular products for the majority of profits, online retailers can profit from small sales of many niche products over long periods due to lower storage and distribution costs. Specifically, it notes that digital products can be stored online at low costs and made available indefinitely to sell to the occasional customer looking for that niche product. This allows online retailers to cater to the long tail of unpopular products that still provide significant cumulative profits.

1. BIG PICTURE
Task 4 – Social Media, Online
Distribution and the Long Tail
theory
KEYWORDS
The Long Tail – the Pareto
Principle, the 80/20 principle,
niche,
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
To understand the pareto
principle and how the long tail
of online distribution has
changed this for online
products
SUCCESS CRITERIA
Group work presentations and
detailed individual answers to
short questions
Take your seat. Bag under your desk.
Have your equipment and planner out.
Topic – Unit 6 – Social Media and Globalisation
http://www.hpocrunit6.wordpress.com
Before the internet and social media – if you heard a song
on an advert or in a film or tv show, how would you find
out what it was and who it was by? How would you get
hold of a copy of it?

2. TELL ME
STUFF!
TAKE ME
THROUGH
IT…
LET ME
HAVE A
GO…
DO I GET
IT?
1 2 3 4 5 6
SETTING THE
SCENE
JOINING UP
LEARNING
LINKS TO LAST
TIME
PASSING ON
KNOWLEDGE
GUIDED PRACTICE
& MODELLING
INDEPENDENT
PRACTICE –
APPLYING THE
SKILLS TO NEW
SITUATIONS
ASSESSMENT &
FEEDBACK
PULL IT TOGETHER
JOINING UP
LEARNING
LINKS TO NEXT
TIME

3. This is about social media, globalisation, distribution and
something called 'the long tail'.
• Most business organise their sales strategy
around something called 'the pareto principle'
• 80% of profits will come from 20% of
products
• 80% of sales will be made by the top 20% of
sales people
• In programming, 80% of the problems will be
caused by 20% of the code
• In film production, 80% of your cinema box office
will come from the first 20% of the run time
(probably the opening weekend)
• 80% of the music sales will be made up of the top
20% of the charts.
• Online distribution has changed this radically
• In the past, you would sell lots of a product
when first released and then less and less of it
until fairly quickly sales would dry up
completely
• Now, your products always remain available
through online retailers – iTunes or Amazon –
or now particularly through streaming –
Spotify, YouTube or Netflix – or through the
world wide marketplace of sites like eBay.

4. The Long Tail of Online Distribution
• There are several reasons for this
• One is that online, with a whole worldwide
marketplace, everything just is always
available to anybody looking. Before the
internet you'd have to walk into the right
shop at the right time.
• Another is that online retailers can 'afford' to
keep 'copies' of things available for the very
occasional niche customer because they
don't have to keep a physical copy, which
involves production costs, or buying in a
physical copy plus physical storage costs
• Instead you can store a digital version on your
servers or in a cloud (or both) - which isn't free
but is much much less expensive than physical
storage – and only have to make a physical
copy if somebody orders one
• This means that you can afford to make
products available even if you're only going to
sell a very low volume of copies a year in a way
that you couldn't if you had to store physical
copies of everything you offered for sale.

5. Answer the revision questions on the blog
• There are questions relating to computer games
and to social media and media products more
generally.
• There are different articles on the blog arguing
that this is an important thing but also arguing
that it's not a big deal – make sure you look at
both of them to get an overview and work out
what you think

6. The key idea about the long tail
• Old style shops made money by selling large
quantities of a few different things, often over a
short period of time before the next big thing
came along. New online retailers can also make
money by selling very small quantities of a huge
number of different things over a long period of
time.
• This is about Distribution – not marketing
or product creation.
• In the exam, you might be asked to explain
what the long tail is and why it matters
• In part, the important thing is that you
don't have to rely on having a huge
opening in order to make money, you just
need patience.

7. BIG PICTURE MY LEARNING
How did this
lesson fit into
your other
lessons?
What is my top
take- away from
the lesson?
Have you contributed to the lesson? Will you be able to improve
next lesson? Do you know what you need to go away and do?
o Marketing is a distinct part of
the production process - it
mens making products that are
separate from (but linked to)
your 'main' product
o You have to be able to think
about evaluating and
developing your marketing
campaign whilst it's ongoing as
well as evaluating your end
product
o We will come back to this.