[Sigia-l] books brand: separate site or sub-section?

[PeterV]

>Let's say it's the Business Guru X series of titles on personal
>finance.  Would it be better to create a Busines Guru X section within
>our business bookstore, where we can cross-sell related, non-guru titles
>and get users accustomed to buying from the publisher at large rather
>than a personality or series?

It's a branding issue, not a usability or IA one, and should be solved by 
the branding group. If no decisions have been made there (sounds like it), 
I'd look at it from a market point of view, and ask some of the following 
questions:

Q: Is there competition between Business Guru X and the publisher's site 
(in titles)? That's a + for separate sites.
Q: Is there market overlap between the two (sounds like yes: people who buy 
from one can also buy more similar stuff from the other) That's a + for 
integrated site.
Q: What are the actual up sell / cross sell opportunities in these markets, 
looking at the titles you have? How much would that be worth? That's a + 
for integrated site.
Q: What's the branding value of the separate sites, and how are the brand 
values of those sites different from the brand values of the main site. If 
they are different or even contradictory, that's a + for different sites.

And so on...

>   If users enter Business Guru X.com, they
>are re-directed to its section within our site.

Q: what is the current traffic to GuruX.com?

>  The Guru group does not
>have a lot of time and resources for maintenance, and we have a system
>in place for maintenance and promotion.   What the Guru loses is a
>separate site, and primary branding.

Q: Why can't they have that support for maintenance and production if they 
have a separate site?

Hope that made some sense...
PeterV
http://poorbuthappy.com/ease