Innovate at the pace of your consumers

After only a year, Atavist Books will be shutting its doors. The book publishing company promised digital-only novels, asserting, “We have to stop treating digital as the bastard offspring of print. Digital is its own format and should have its own resources and its own uses and purpose.” While the company placed a heavy focus on digital-only fiction and creative e-book content, they still published print editions, but never the same novel under both mediums.

It was a highly anticipated venture, expected to “shake up” the world of publishing. So how is it that Atavist Books is already dead in the water?

As a book reader who cherishes her too-full shelves of novels and old textbooks, I would offer this argument: The market wasn’t ready for, and didn’t want, such a large focus on digital. E-books have their place, certainly, but they aren’t the main vehicle of literature. In fact, a study came out last year stating 62 percent of 16 to 24-year olds still prefer physical books. If even millenials still choose a hard copy book, this may not be the time for digital-only offerings.

There is a lesson to be learned here as we are entering a potential growth period in the marine industry. If you’re planning to shake up the market with new ideas, it’s important to understand if those ideas are actually desired.

Consumers are ready for new technology, new designs, new everything, but it’s important to really delve into your research on their wants and needs to determine whether or not the innovation is “too new.” They might not be ready. If you are going to innovate, do so at the pace of your consumers – not at the pace you think they might be heading towards.

This is a time in our industry where we are seeing a number of new ideas to come to fruition, which I anticipate will be a continuous momentum and excite us all for boating’s future. We need people who will take risks and develop new ways to attract consumers to keep propelling us forward. However, those risk-takers should still be well-informed. While you can’t know exactly how your idea will play out in the marketplace, it’s important to do as much consumer research as possible and attempt to best predict how well the idea will succeed.