James Patterson Swot Analysis

Marketing James Patterson

James Patterson is a popular crime fiction author with a unique business strategy: he produces approximately 3 times more books annually than comparable authors and employs unconventional advertising tactics. Patterson’s unique writing style and use of co-authors to write more books has proven to be successful, generating annual book sales of $120 million. Using his advertising background, Patterson has turned his name as an author into a well-known brand.

Patterson built his empire by finding a successful method and using it consistently. Each of his books is written in his signature style – short chapters, minimally descriptive text, and suspenseful endings – and Patterson relies on designated readers
Patterson’s unique style of writing is recognizable to readers and is consistently well-received. He follows an unswerving process to produce a successful book, using the previously mentioned writing style, book format and co-authors. The triumph of this method has been verified by consumers: after buying one brand item, 38% of Patterson’s readers bought another Patterson book; only 28% of consumers are repeat buyers of comparable authors’ books. Patterson’s willingness to collaborate with co-authors has allowed him to produce a higher quantity of books without compromising quality, and his marketing experience has enabled him to spread book release information to a wide audience and generate interest in his books several months after the initial excitement has died off. Patterson has the advantage of maintaining a large base of loyal customers to whom he may introduce his new works; each new release is almost guaranteed to be a hit. His large annual revenue enables him to employ unconventional methods of advertising, such as television commercials and billboards. After building his own brand, Patterson also has the benefit of readers who trust the quality of each new book. This is proven the book club statistics: out of all comparable authors, the percentage of consumers who had bought at least one Patterson book, as a portion of all consumers in the market, was highest. Out of individual consumer spending on all
First, his genre of popular fiction has significantly higher consumer demand than other genres. In 2001, 53.6% of books purchased in the United States were popular fiction – the second highest, nonfiction religious, made up only 9.5% of consumer demand. From 1997 to 2001, consumer demand for popular fiction consistently increased. Regardless of writing style or name recognition, Patterson is already producing the type of books that the majority of readers will buy. The rising popularity of books sold though mass merchants and book clubs is also an opportunity to reach new readers. Since books are more affordable to the public and frequently sent to new readers, more readers are exposed to Patterson’s books. For one book club, Bookspan, 22% of members had bought at least one of Patterson’s books. This puts them in the category of previous buyers, who are more likely to buy Patterson’s other books. This also increases the number of people who have read Patterson’s books and will then be able to spread their opinions to acquaintances, creating word-of-mouth