Austin Truskowski
MRKT 339
9.17.17
Case 9
1) There are many factors that are leading the conflict between B&N College and McGraw–
Hill. The biggest one in my opinion now is the use of technology in several ways. First
with websites that students can get used text books cheaper than what the book stores
sell them for since a lot of the used books are coming from other companies so they are
costing the book store more to acquire. Another big contributor is sites like amazon
where you can order your books and have them delivered to your house in 2 days
making it much easier for students to get books on their time, this is also a huge issue
with all stores not just for B&N College. Lastly for technology students and get E-Books
that are usually cheaper to rent or buy and you can get that right from the publisher.
The overall issue derives from that issue leaving book stores with extra product since
students are going elsewhere for textbooks.
2) With the balance of power the publisher has the advantage, B&N College has a lack of
security since they are just a retail outlet with lots of competitors. When it comes to the
publisher they hold the power since they are the one with the text book, they can reach
out to professors directly and offer them a cut of the profit for choosing their books. The
most B&N College can do is suggest them not to use that publisher.
3) I think the biggest channel conflict is due to change, that is about all that is happening
McGraw-Hill is losing money because they book stores are ordering to many text books
and had the ability to then send them back at no cost for a refund. This was making the
publisher make more books then they needed and then just end up with a large sum of
them so they started to implement a fee into the return if they were sending back more
than a set number of books and that is what caused the issue. It could also be a strategic
difference since both companies are trying to make a profit and both need to do it
differently.