Aero Dynamic wins Octane Publication of the year.

[Hillman]

Geoff is right, the authors must be congratulated for producing this important publication. Similarly, the defence of the price made by Mr Charlesworth has to be respected. We Bristol enthusiasts have to remember that given Bristol production volumes the number of interested parties is never likely to be large.

That said, I am left to question the publishers marketing professionalism as evidenced by their decisions on communications and from that price. Pricing is something that many marketers struggle with (often arising from a lack of mathematical literacy) - computing the population Vs sales volume/value to the customer Vs production cost and margin relationship.

If you start with a perspective that 'volumes will never be large so why invest time and effort on promotion' the inevitable result is a price that aims to maximise return from a small sales volume (a tactic that has the saving grace that it will always prove that the driving perspective was clearly the correct one).

The challenge starts with the definition of the target market. It will be considerably larger if one puts the effort into actually defining the sub-populations of likely buyers i.e. not only as Bristol enthusiasts but I appreciate that getting that information together takes time and effort.

If the publisher only relies on the views of the specialist retailer then the volume opportunity will be tiny as essentially, as far as I can see, little or no effort has been made to grow the motoring book market in years.

When it comes to the mechanics of promotion, really there's no excuse for the lack of communications. The available media (print and broadcast (this website, the BOC and BODA websites and YouTube vlogers)) is clearly identifiable and their interest in motoring books readily noted.

Did this important book need to be so hugely expensive, we'll never know. I recently spent a three figure sum on a two volume set on another of my favourite cars to add to an extensive motoring library so I would have happily paid the same again for this book but I cannot justify the ridiculously exorbitant price being charged for Aero Dynamic.

Inter-library loan is a wonderful thing.