Marketing concepts

What is marketing?

• Marketing 
• Managing demand 
• Promoting product, service, use 
• Public relations 
• Maintaining relationship with clients
• Managing library image with reasonable explanation turned into positive 
• Advocacy 
• Ambassador 
• Bringing necessary service 
• Managing support 
• Cultivating movers and shakers to fight 
• Encourage passionate support 

Library life cycle

• What libraries can do when they reach the mature or decline stage 
• Attempt to be the market leader 
• Offered Internet, many thought this would be the death of libraries, but they can afford to offer it for free 
• Find a niche of customers
• What value can be added to users’ needs? 
• Move into next cycle of communication 
• Moved into Internet, databases to offer supports for users 
• Divest 
• What makes the library unique from others?
• Add services 
• Remove services 

How do we market? 

• Key marketing concepts 
• Market segmentation 
• Public libraries segment by age – children, teens, adults, etc. 
• Identifying actual and potential markets 
• Who do, and who could, use the library? 
• Determining proportion of individuals who will never be interested in your services 
• Requires careful analysis 
• Answers questions such as: 
• Who are your clients? 
• To what extent are they similar or different to their needs and demands?
• Who are the most/least intensive users?
• How might each type of library segment its market? 
• Who are its primary clientele? 
• Academic 
• Faculty 
• Graduates
• Undergraduates
• Professionals
• Public
• Age 
• School
• Teacher
• Student 
• Special
• Department 
• Market positioning 
• Prioritizing groups of clients 
• Who are primary client groups?
• How much resources should be used in serving each group?
• Allocate 
• Outreach
• Offer
• Staff devoted to specific groups to provide resources 
• Consumer analysis 
• How do we find out who our nonusers are?
• Don’t ignore users 
• Don’t try to convert users
• Find out who isn’t using the library
• How do we analyze nonusers?
• How can we determine the ongoing needs of users? 
• Surveys 
• Focus groups 
• Interviews
• Timed appropriately
• Short
• Keep track of questions and what can and cannot be answered
• Must be easy to answer 
• Clearly stated questions
• Leave room for general comments 
• Interesting feedback
• Positive
• Negative 
• Suggestion boxes
• Bulletin boards 
• Marketing program 
• The 4P’s
• Product 
• What are you offering?
• Make a complete description of the product(s)/service(s) being offered 
• Think about it from the user’s point of view: What’s in it for them?
• What is the ultimate goal?
• What does the user want?
• What are the products attributes and benefits to the consumer? 
• Product/service chart

Product/ service	Features	Benefits
Self-service circulation	Easy to follow screen instructions	Speed in check-out materials
Children's summer reading program	Prizes Contests	Children find reading is fun

• Six elements of quality of product/service
• Performance 
• Should be able to meet deadlines and turnarounds 
• Features
• What could be a value added? E.g. Story time, children participate 
• Reliability 
• Meet deadlines, be consistent 
• Durability
• Stands test of time, repetitiveness 
• Esthetics 
• Packaging 
• Does it look professional? 
• Means a lot
• Perceived quality
• Others recommend
• It’s worthwhile
• Time well spent 
• Price 
• Will it be free?
• Will there be a cost? 
• Link to the service and see the value.
• How is service priced? 
• Once free, printing is more often charged in both public and academic libraries. Special libraries account for all charges.
• What are the costs involved to provide the service? o Should service be “fee” or “free” 
• Levels of pricing 
• Premium pricing
• Charged at highest level for in-depth personal service 
• Competitive pricing 
• Photocopying, videorecording costs – can the library be cheaper?
• Protect material if expensive 
• People will rip or steal books 
• Market penetration (discount pricing) 
• Very aggressive 
• Make place the first place to go
• Libraries offer a lot for free 
• Promotion 
• How do you get the word out? 
• How do you ensure that there’s good demand?
• Getting the message out 
• Personal selling 
• Advertising 
• Public service announcements
• News releases 
• On-site promotion
• Direct mail 
• Place
• Be convenient
• Where will service be offered? 
• On location 
• All branches? 
• Over the Internet 
• Virtual reference 
• Chat
• Various other sites 
• Off site, not at library 
• Politics
• Public policy
• Marketing audit
• How successful was the program? 
• Open house
• Guestbook
• Ask how they found out about the library? 
• Use a decent evaluation form 
• Check boxes
• Additional comments
• Different measures of success
• Return on investment
• Cost-effectiveness
• Cost-benefit 
• Popularity of program 

Marketing plan 

• Determine what to promote (product) 
• Define targeted audience 
• Objectives
• Target group(s) 
• Choose type of outreach (strategy and promotion) 
• Strategy and tactics 
• Who
• What
• When 
• Where 
• How 
• Communication tools 
• Evaluate the program
• Evaluation