Introduction
Simon&Schuster is one of the biggest and most popular publishing houses in the USA. It is well-known worldwide and may serve as an example for novice publishers aiming to produce different types of content for a very large audience with various preferences and aims. The analysis of the business strategy and competitive advantage of such a successful company seems to be a useful research topic.
Main body
An important element of the publishing house’s corporate strategy is diversity. To maintain it, Simon&Schuster provides books “in genres as diverse as graphic novels to poetry” and established such positions as Director of Workplace Culture and Diversity Initiatives and Director of Multicultural Marketing (Simon&Schuster. Corporate overview, para.15-16). To be able to focus on various genres and forms of content without losing its high quality, Simon&Schuster established several imprints.
Simon&Schuster received much recognition for its products. The books printed by Simon&Schuster regularly appear in the lists of bestsellers of the most popular American newspapers. Recent examples include the book “The Chancellor: The Remarkable Odyssey of Angela Merkel,” by Kati Marton, which entered the USAToday’s list of “5 books not to miss” (VanDenburgh, 2021). In 2020, Simon & Schuster published 226 New York Times bestsellers (Simon&Schuster. Corporate overview, para.10). In brief, Simon&Schuster maintains a high quality of its products.
Simon&Schuster’s major competitors include Wiley and Arcadia Publishing. The publishing houses provide high-class products in their respective specific fields, which is the strength of their strategy. However, they lack diversity and, thus, have a smaller audience, which is their weakness. Simon&Schuster’s strategy seems to be quite different with its focus on diversity, but one should also note that its content’s quality is also great.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Simon&Schuster is one of the most influential publishers nowadays. The key point of its promotion strategy is a diversity of genres and forms of the provided content. Its major rivals, including Wiley and Arcadia Publishing, cannot beat Simon&Schuster at the breadth of its coverage. The publishing house has quite a sustainable competitive advantage as it provides various products of high quality, which is proven by multiple awards.
References
Simon&Schuster. (n.d.). Corporate overview. Web.
VanDenburgh, B. (2021). 5 books not to miss: ‘Going There’ with Katie Couric, unpacking Alan Cumming’s ‘Baggage’. USA Today. Web.