Writing about the consumer behaviours that underpin the extraordinary successes of blockbuster movies over the last few months, the Economist's writers have identified some interesting distinctions between concepts that become overnight successes … and those that populate the long tail.
The Economist writers demonstrate that the blockbusters' audiences depends disproportionately on people who enter the market extremely rarely; whilst the audience who subscribe to art-house movies or books … tend to be those that know much more about the topic, watch movies, or read voraciously all year long.
A lesson for all of us who operate in the FMCG innovation category. Real category loyalists probably search out the rare and unusual; whereas the FMCG blockbusters are probably driven by people who have a superficial category understanding.
