Harlequin Enterprises
HARLEQUIN
Case Analysis
Memorandum
The Harlequin MIRA decision
Alex
Gold 13
Strategic recommendation of Harlequin’s MIRA Program
Harlequin Enterprises: The MIRA Decision
After examining Harlequin’s current strategy, market position and opportunities available, I recommend that Harlequin should enter single-title women’s fiction market with a campaign strongly focused on the romance genre, featuring some of the best-selling authors that were once Harlequin series authors. I will outline the reasons and related details of execution for my recommendation in the following sections.
Entering the single-title market will benefit Harlequin by expanding product offering to counter the stagnation of sales and profit caused by anemic growth in the traditional series market in the last decade. While looking at romance novel sales in North America, single-title romance books indubitably presented much stronger growth (Exhibit 1) than series. In the six years between 1985 and 1990, single-title romance has been chipping away steadily at the lion’s share of the romance novel market once enjoyed by series. Harlequin’s market share in romance novels dropped by 8% in 6 years – the figure that single-title market share grew by.
(Exhibit 2) The strong market outlook of single-title coupled with a 50% margin, compared to a
45% margin in series, makes single-title an appealing opportunity that Harlequin cannot afford to ignore. The current strategy Harlequin employs for series, if tweaked properly, can be effective in penetrating the lucrative single-title market.
It would be recommendable for Harlequin to approach a few best-selling authors with established reputation in the romance market who began their careers with Harlequin. This approach has the potential of tapping into the portion of the single-title market that is composed of current Harlequin series readers who also consume equal number of single-title books. Because these readers would
Case Analysis
Memorandum
The Harlequin MIRA decision
Alex
Gold 13
Strategic recommendation of Harlequin’s MIRA Program
Harlequin Enterprises: The MIRA Decision
After examining Harlequin’s current strategy, market position and opportunities available, I recommend that Harlequin should enter single-title women’s fiction market with a campaign strongly focused on the romance genre, featuring some of the best-selling authors that were once Harlequin series authors. I will outline the reasons and related details of execution for my recommendation in the following sections.
Entering the single-title market will benefit Harlequin by expanding product offering to counter the stagnation of sales and profit caused by anemic growth in the traditional series market in the last decade. While looking at romance novel sales in North America, single-title romance books indubitably presented much stronger growth (Exhibit 1) than series. In the six years between 1985 and 1990, single-title romance has been chipping away steadily at the lion’s share of the romance novel market once enjoyed by series. Harlequin’s market share in romance novels dropped by 8% in 6 years – the figure that single-title market share grew by.
(Exhibit 2) The strong market outlook of single-title coupled with a 50% margin, compared to a
45% margin in series, makes single-title an appealing opportunity that Harlequin cannot afford to ignore. The current strategy Harlequin employs for series, if tweaked properly, can be effective in penetrating the lucrative single-title market.
It would be recommendable for Harlequin to approach a few best-selling authors with established reputation in the romance market who began their careers with Harlequin. This approach has the potential of tapping into the portion of the single-title market that is composed of current Harlequin series readers who also consume equal number of single-title books. Because these readers would