Barnes & Noble E-Reader Looks To Rekindle Brand Loyalty

Barnes & Noble has a new e-reader device, and it is named the “Nook,” as in: “it hopes to corner at least a nook of the e-reader market.” But there's stiff competition to be the next iPod of literacy.

And like the iPod, there will probably end up being one dominant brand of machine, with all others lucky to maintain their respective nooks. Of course, after Amazon’s Kindle sucked all the air out of the room during its introduction a few months ago, competitors have been trying to catch up. Barnes & Noble is expected to price its Nook to match the Kindle (about $250).

Meanwhile, Sony is pushing its e-reader full bore, with an exasperating “Experts” campaign that is not only maybe culturally insensitive but also preposterously expects a viewer to know who both Payton Manning and Amy Sedaris are. But Sony’s Reader Pocket Edition aims to offer more for less, featuring music features and larger storage for about $50 less.

Completely unlike the iPod music market mountain, e-book sales are a molehill, totaling just $113 million in the US last year (though that was up 68% from 2007). But there is certainly an opportunity for a brand to stand out. Barnes & Noble has an opportunity too, if it can make its Nook part of a larger social network based on a love of reading. And that’s exactly what the brand is aiming to do.

After establishing an iTunes-like e-book store at BN.com, the brand jiggered the Nook to permit lending of digital books between friends. And then there’s the Nook’s “killer app”: Google. Nearly a half million books will be available via BN.com for free, thanks to a deal with Google to provide books in the public domain. This is a feature Kindle does not (yet) offer.

But deal with the devil Google won’t be enough. Barnes & Noble must leverage its existing strengths to cultivate Nook’s brand as more than just a machine. This might include exploiting B&N’s many brick and mortar locations (which neither Amazon nor Sony have) for Nook Nights, or some activity that drives people to love the Nook the same as a book.