MKT310- W6 Post and Response

Nicholas Masters

1. Is there a way to use sales promotion to reduce the cost of textbooks for students? Demonstrate an understanding of sales promotions key concepts from the textbook.

I'm not entirely sure if sales promotions would be able to drive down the price of textbooks for students. The podcast explicitly talked about how a major reason textbooks are so expensive is the principal-agent problem. Maybe the textbook publishers could do is use push strategies to make sure that their books are carried by a large number of university bookstores in order to spread out their profits and make sure they are more reliable. Other solutions could maybe be some kind of bulk buying deal for students. For example, if 3 students bought 3 copies of an  "advanced" version of a book together, then they could each get a reduced price. It's a complex issue to work through because of the principal-agent problem.

2. Is there a sales promotion or other Marcom tool that can help reduce prices when the buyer is not the 'principle agent'?

I don't think it's a problem that can be solved by Marcom solutions. The professor in the podcast specifically said that he doesn't care if the students spend more money. It's not his job to care. Obviously this thought process isn't universal but it is not uncommon. I've had plenty of professors here at CMU that were definitely concerned with the price of the textbook and worked their own class outline on making sure that students who didn't buy the overpriced new edition will be able to learn just as well as students who have. This problem will only be solved when professors and publishers can work together to provide students with cheaper alternatives to expensive books. The CEO of McGraw-Hill mentioned how this is likely going to involve custom software.

- Nick M

Cole Nelson

1. Yes, I believe the best way to use the idea of sales promotion in the attempt to lower the overall costs of textbooks is to figure a way to create a sort of service that is along the lines of Hulu or Netflix. An idea where publishers would gain compensation through subscriptions. I believe this would allow students and professors alike to spend less on academic books as well as allow publishers to try to fix the "spiral of destruction" that they have been spinning in. 

2. An idea that would help is to have the publishers not update their textbooks as often, this often leads to the price of textbooks lowering over time. The publisher may not make sales on their latest editions every year, but students would be more inclined to buy a later edition if able.