Banding is an economical method of packaging printed pieces of paper using rubber or paper bands to secure them for transport and sale.
Banding refers to merging multiple similar objects – typically books – into one unit. Banding is most frequently applied within publishing industries for cost reduction, increasing shelf space, or increasing readership of certain publications. Banding may also refer to merging several magazines into one issue or edition or several newspapers into a single publication edition.
Banding has grown increasingly prevalent as publishers try to manage declining sales and rising costs, leading them to use it as a cost-cutting measure while offering customers access to an extensive selection of titles. Some publishers even resort to banding labels together that would typically compete to better compete against online booksellers or booksellers that may carry these books directly.
Banding offers both publishers and customers certain advantages but also presents particular challenges. One key drawback of banding is its tendency to group books of vastly differing qualities and cause customer confusion as to which book in that banded volume is best read; additionally, it often results in lesser-known titles being overshadowed by more popular ones, leading to decreased sales for less popular books in that banding volume.
Banding is an indispensable tool for publishers because it enables them to monitor the performance of their books over time and across different markets – which provides invaluable marketing and sales intelligence. Banding may also assist publishers in discovering talent or market trends.