So what do Henri Bendel and Francois Coty have to do with eBook publishing? Well, the answer to that question is nothing directly, but bear with me for a minute, and I’ll bring it back. I promise. It’s Friday, and I’m feeling adventurous.

A few weeks ago I took my very first trip to New York City. One of the stores we visited during a shopping excursion was the Henri Bendel store. For those of you who don’t know, Henri Bendel is a fashion accessory brand, and they create the type of pieces that make girls say “oooooh” and “aaaaah”. While for the most part, the extent of my accessorizing is typically a pair of pearl stud earrings, I am not immune to the draw of Henri Bendel. However, as an entrepreneur and aspiring writer, I choose to spend my money on things other than jewelry that elicits such responses. So I had to bide my time in other ways than torturing myself by looking at jewelry I wasn’t going to purchase. I tucked myself into one of the corners of a showroom while my travel companion flitted around from display to display. While in my corner I looked up to find writing and old pictures. Now that was something more my speed, reading. So I started to read about the history of the building. As someone who studied architecture for a year and a half I enjoy learning these things, but as an individual who ended up in marketing, the story of the man behind the building became even more fascinating.

The Henri Bendel store is located within the historical Coty building. The building is named after Francois Coty, a famous French perfumer, who is also associated with newspaper publishing and fascism. The information I was reading on the display focused on Coty’s ability as an astute marketer of perfumes that launched him to astronomical success. One of the things that really stuck with me was Coty’s philosophy on business which is summed up in this eloquent quote:

“Give a woman the best product to be made, market it in the perfect flask, beautiful in its simplicity yet impeccable in its taste, ask a reasonable price for it, and you will witness the birth of a business the size of which the world has never seen.”

Beautiful and simple. Coty understood his target market. Anyone who is trying to sell anything must do the same, even if it’s an ebook. First you have to know to whom you are selling, and secondly you have to know what your readers are looking for. Coty understood that with perfume women were looking for something that smelled great, looked pretty, and was reasonably priced. So here are a few questions to ponder over the weekend. How well do you know your target market? When it comes to your product, have you made the best product you can make? Does it have the perfect cover? Lastly, is it priced reasonably?

If you’ve answered “yes” to these questions then sign up for your Kbuuk account right now, and get your product out to the market. Even if you answered “no,” you should still register for a Kbuuk account because we’ve got tools to help you achieve your author dreams.

Have a great weekend and happy reading and writing to all!