Audible.com – A Marketing Review
Recently I’ve been seeing commercials for a company called Audible.com, an Amazon company.
What is Audible.com?
Like Amazon was originally known as being an online book store wa-a-a-a-a-y back in the day, Audible.com is an online audio book store. You can search through thousands of books and download the audio files. Then just sit back and relax or do whatever you do and just listen to the story.
What caught my attention was a recent TV commercial for the company. I’ve seen this a few times now, so I know it wasn’t just a one time fluke.
Is it just me, or is this how the company believes that most people act these days?
Or perhaps I’m just out of touch with reality.
Let’s take a look and see how Audible.com presents itself in this TV commercial.
The commercial starts out trying to establish a common problem: People either cannot read (a.k.a. “not much of a reader”) but wish they were more well read, or people have too busy of a lifestyle to sit down and read a book.
One problem can be easily solved, while the other one takes a little more discipline.
Gee, is there an easy way for people to still catch up with their reading even with their busy schedules? Can people become more well read even though they don’t like to read books?
Yes, there certainly is a way! Thanks for asking!
All you have to do is subscribe to a place like Audible.com, and voila! All you have to do is download the audio files and listen to somebody read you the book! It’s just like story time again in Kindergarten! Hooray!
As it states in the commercial, with Audible.com you can:
- “Catch up on your reading”
- “Turn downtime into uptime”
- “Be more productive”
- “Become well read”
Are those valid points to make about listening to audio books?
We’re not talking about a speed reading course here. With audio books, A) you must pay attention to what the reader is saying at all times, and B) the pace goes as quickly as the narrator speaks, often going with the tone of the book itself.
It’s not like you’re going to be able to go through a dozen audio books in a week, suddenly becoming the most well read person in your office.
One of my theories (backed up with zero scientific proof that I’m aware of) is that you’ll actually become a smarter person through actual reading, whether it’s reading a book, newspaper or magazine. Let your eyes do the walking and have your brain convert the letters into words, into sentences, into paragraphs and <gasp> into a story. It takes a little more time and work, but the results are worth it in the end.
For those people who cannot handle a book, I suggest trying a book made into a graphic novel (giant comic book).
Will listening to an audio book really make you more productive as it’s implied in the commercial?
That depends on how well your brain can handle doing two completely different tasks at once. It’s no different than trying to listen to a really interesting movie, TV show or radio personality while at work. If you can successfully write a word document while listening to an audio book, losing no productivity time, making no more errors than usual, and also being able to give me an accurate and semi-detailed synopsis of the audio book, then congratulations, you may be one of the few people who qualify as being more productive while listening to an audio book.
For the rest of us single-minded idiots, being productive while also listening and paying attention to an audio book just ain’t gonna happen.
It’s no different than talking on a cell phone while driving a car.
Sure, people claim that their driving ability doesn’t suffer, but we all know that’s false. Your mind is focused on the person and conversation on the phone, and not the road. You won’t consistently drive as fast as normal. You’ll be more likely to cut off another driver with a lane change. You’ll be a general nuisance to other drivers and at a higher rate of getting into a wreck or a moving violation by the police.
It’s no different than working and trying to listen and pay attention to an audio book.
Very few people can do it successfully, and the rest of us can only focus our attention on one item at a time. It’s not like you’ve got a radio station playing soft music in the background while doing work. This is something that you’re supposedly interested in hearing but you’ve got to do something else unrelated in the meantime. Pick whichever task is more important and stick with it!
Will listening to audio books really make you a more “well read” person?
Nope.
The key to being well read is to actually read something besides the TV directory or a friend’s Facebook update. Take half an hour and start reading a novel. Fiction, non-fiction, it doesn’t matter. Find an interesting subject and go from there. Do 30 minutes of reading each day and see how well read you feel by the end of the week.
Otherwise, you’re somebody who may be a good listener, but certainly not a “well read” person.
But no, the marketing department from Audible.com (or whichever company wrote the TV commercial) wants you to believe that it’s simple and easy to listen to an audio book, whether you’re sitting on the couch, commuting to work, or working on a task.
The woman at the end of the commercial claiming to feel smarter after listening to an audio book was ridiculous.
I’ll bet that she’ll go around telling everybody about how well read she is even though her lazy ass can’t pick up a book and figure out how to comprehend those strange letters and symbols.