Gatlin International

In 2004, a writer named Chris Anderson defined a new model of modern Internet driven commerce. He coined it the “long tail,” and its concept is simple. Using his long tail method to gain a larger market share, or consumer base, a business must do two things. First, adhere to the time-tested practice of selling a small number of popular items in large quantities. Second, adopt the new practice of offering a large quantity of niche items to be sold in relatively small quantities. Think of it as a fisherman using many small pieces of bait to catch numerous little fish, rather than using one large piece of bait to catch one big fish. Not all the fish in the sea are big, so why not go after the small ones as well? Naturally, the long tail model utilizes both methods – a few big pieces of bait for the big fish, and many small pieces of bait for the small fish – to achieve optimal results.

As Chris noted in his writings, the long tail currently serves as the business model for many successful and well-known companies, like Amazon and Netflix, as well as thousands of smaller lesser-known businesses around the Web. These companies, both large and small, use the same method of supplying a high volume of niche items to build and expand their consumer base, while still maintaining their limited offering of high popularity items.

Using Chris’ example: Amazon likely carries the same top book titles and authors as any competing bookstore, but in order to draw business to them and away from their competitors, Amazon offers countless lesser-know titles and authors that only appeal to a small number of readers. By the same token, Netflix will carry every blockbuster hit movie, but also innumerable independent films that only fit the movie viewing habits of a small number of consumers. The products and consumers are different for both companies, but the results were essentially the same. Each company now sits atop their respective industries. This new way of doing business has been so effective that their competitor counterparts, who began as traditional walk-in “warehouse stores” (e.g. Blockbuster and Barnes and Noble), have applied the model to their own businesses. The same phenomenon can be seen throughout the retail industry – from Wal-Mart to iTunes.

However, the long tail doesn’t apply exclusively to industries dealing in consumer goods. The model should resonate just as well in academia – even established on-site colleges and universities. Just as the traditional warehouse store’s inventory is limited to the walls that contain such goods, the traditional on-site academic institution’s course catalog is limited by similar constraints, like costly classroom space, faculty, and course development expenses. Less product diversity means less consumer diversity. For the warehouse store it means less prospective sells, and for the on-site academic institution is means a lower potential enrolment.

Much like the warehouse store, an academic institution must expand its inventory (courses catalog) to expand its consumer base (enrolment). Otherwise, the many thousands of students searching for colleges and universities that offer niche courses that better suit their needs will seek their educations elsewhere, and the “search” is where today’s students’ decisions begin. A wider variety of unique course options equates to more ways for a prospective student to find an academic institution through search engines, because those students aren’t likely searching for “English composition” or “contemporary mathematics.” Prospective students are searching for courses like, “green business management” and “social networking administration.” Meaning, the colleges or universities offering the most diverse long tail course catalog will be found more often online, making those academic institutions more competitive in competing for a limited pool of prospective students. Essentially, the long tail allows academic institutions to better attract all the small fish swimming around the Internet looking for the right academic program for them.

So, how can an academic institution increase enrolment without the incredible time and expense associated with expanding their course catalogs by traditional means? Well, the same way Amazon and Netflix increase their customer bases. More specifically, Internet niche course programmes, because the Web is what allows an academic institution to expand its walls without a single brick or stone. Like the modern retail warehouse store, a college or university can now offer much more without taking on impractical costs.

For a college or university, using the long tail model means expensive classroom space is no longer an issue. Expansion and implementation costs are substantially less, and often negligible to non-existent when using the right resources. Instituting niche course programmes, like those offered by Gatlin International, can effectively increase an on-site college’s or university’s enrolment at no cost to the academic institution. No online course development costs, no expensive on-site facility expansion, no additional faculty requirements, no online set-up fees, and no monthly maintenance charges. Clearly, the practicality and sustainability of providing a high quantity of niche courses online is substantially greater than offering the same courses on-site. So, by subscribing to the long tail method, and taking full advantage of the Web as a resource, an academic institution can offer a much larger course catalog and attract and enrol many more students.