ve to market.
Traditionally, bookstores have been small single-unit businesses. However, recent growth has been most pronounced among chain stores, and the independents' share of the market has declined. In 1958, 90 percent of all bookstores and 72 percent of all bookstore sales were made by stores that were not members of chains. In I977 the proportion of non-chain stores had dropped to approximately 80 percent, and their share of total sales had fallen to 51.6 percent. The bookstore chains have stimulated major changes in bookstore selling practices. (Coser, Kadushin, and Powell 336)
Regular book buyers come to know the fareùmeager or richùof their local retail book outlets, from the single rack of paperbacks in the general store of a small resort town to specialized bookstores dealing only in mysteries, the occult, or science fiction in larger metropolitan areas. But the sad fact is that there is always a reader unsuccessfully searching for a particular bookùand five thousand copies of that book somewhere in a publisher's warehouse. (Coser, Kadushin, and Powell 333)
To better achieve the company goal of providing fellow travelers with timely and specific information on travel information to some of the world's most exotic locations, the company needs to move to a content focus rather than a product focus (McVeigh). Instead of concentrating on writing travel guides, the company needs to focus on getting the best information to as many travelers as possible, be it in print or otherwise.
The attempts to write a company mission statement are a waste of time. The company already has a strong brand identity and relationship with its customers (Lewis 778). Further restrictions will not help the company to perform. Rather than a mission statement, the company's management needs to set priorities that will maintain the creative environment at Lonely Planet while empowering the employees to do their jobs better.
Th...