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26,8/9 Strategic planning for marketing
library services
Samuel Olu Adeyoyin
494 Circulation Unit, Igbinedion University Library, Okada, Nigeria
Background
Any modern economy consists of households or consumers, business enterprises, and
non-business organizations, all of which constantly interact within the context of a
dynamic environment. The interaction results in the conception, development,
production, distribution and consumption of goods and services whose major purpose
is to satisfy human needs.
Within any organization, a number of activities are necessary to generate, facilitate
and direct the flow of goods and services. The entrepreneur must acquire resources
(men, materials, money, machines and technology) and combine them in suitable
proportions. The production unit, the personnel department, the finance unit and the
accounting department, should all work towards achieving the organizational goal.
The contribution of marketing to the attainment of the enterprise objective lies in
ensuring that there is a ready and profitable market for the company’s products (i.e.
goods and services). This role includes, but is not limited to, finding a market. Finding
a market presupposes a post-production search while ensuring that there is a market is
a continuous process that precedes and outlives the production activity.
Problems
It is observed that, despite clarion calls by the stakeholders in the field of information
provision – especially the academic librarians and researchers, through the avalanche
of information available in the literature, for the library managers to create effectively
an enabling environment through various types administrative planning, to market
library services both in quality and quantity to the users, it is apparent that while some
are making frantic efforts but being impeded by lack of funds, especially in the third
world countries, others have engaged themselves in the attitude of “siddon look”.
Experience has, however, revealed that there is yet a group among the library
managers who find it extremely incomprehensible, how marketing is applicable to
library services since most libraries is not commercially-based.
In the words of Stanton and Futrell (1987):
The growth in services has generally not being due to marketing developments in service
industries, but rather to the maturation of our economy and the rising standards of living.
Traditionally, executives in our service companies have not been marketing-oriented. They
have lagged behind sellers of products in accepting the marketing concept, and have
LM generally been slow in adopting marketing techniques. Marketing management in service
firms has not been especially creative. Innovations in service marketing have come typically
26,8/9 from product-associated companies.
We identify some of the reasons for this lack of marketing orientation. No doubt, the
intangibility of services creates more difficult marketing challenges for service sellers
than for product sellers. In many service industries, particularly professional services,
496 the sellers think of themselves as producers or creators, and not as marketers, of the
service. They are proud of their professional abilities. They do not think of themselves
as business people.
They further noted that the all-encompassing reason, however, is that top
management does not yet understand two basic things: what marketing is and/or its
importance to a company’s success. These executives seem to equate marketing with
selling, and they fail to consider other parts of the marketing system. They also do not
effectively coordinate their marketing activities. Many firms lack an executive whose
sole responsibility is marketing.
According to them, there are of course, exceptions to these negative generalizations.
Some extremely successful service firms have adopted modern marketing techniques.
The success of such organizations is traceable in large part to their marketing
orientation.
Dibb et al. (1991) observed that, in an attempt to marketing its services, one of the
strategic conditions employed by some libraries is to have units that travel to different
locations during slack periods. This innovation is called the mobile library service.
The purpose of this paper therefore, is to put the author’s shoulder on the wheel of
other writers in the field of library and information management, to elucidate those
library managers by taking form the pool of marketing concepts as treated by various
scholars and authors in the field of marketing and apply the “olive branch” which is
non-business marketing to the idea of marketing library services.
Definitions of marketing
Early definitions of marketing tended to be narrow in comparison to contemporary
ones. For example, in 1960, the Committee on Definitions of the American Marketing
Association (AMA) conceptualized marketing as: “the performance of business
activities that direct the flow of goods and services to the consumer” (Alexander, 1960).
Although this definition did reflect a more or less general consensus among marketers
at that time, it is today generally criticized for its parochialism.
In view of the criticisms that greeted the marketing definition by AMA, more
acceptable and less parochial definitions have been proposed. A noteworthy example is
that offered by Pride and Ferrel (1980). According to them:
Marketing consists of individual and organizational activities aimed at facilitating and
expediting exchanges within a set of dynamic environmental forces (Pride and Ferrel, 1980).
In spite of the obvious strength of Pride and Ferrel’s definition, Agbonifoh et al. (1998)
improved on it and according to them:
Marketing consists of individual and organizational activities designed to sense and serve the
consumer’s needs and to facilitate and expedite exchanges with a view to achieving the goals
of the individual or organization through the satisfaction of the consumer’s needs.
Marketing, as defined by Pulil Mazer, “is the delivery of standard of living to a society Planning for
as it bridges the gap between the producers and consumers” and according to the marketing
London Chartered Institute of Marketing, marketing is “the management process
responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements library services
profitably”.
From the above, we could derive that concept of marketing revolves on three pillars
namely, marketing:
(1) is consumer-centered;
(2) is profit-centered; and
(3) is anticipating of changes through time.
Target markets
Library as a non-business organization serves many diverse groups. This is
particularly determined by the type and objectives of the library. A target public is
broadly defined as a collective of individuals who have an interest in or concern
about an organization, a product, or a social cause. The terms “target market” and
“target public” are difficult to distinguish for many non-business organizations. For
instance, an academic library has its target public as the potential and current
students, staff and university community. However, the target market of an academic
library is current students and members of academic and non-academic staff of the
university.
Product
Product refers to the services which the library generally offers to its clienteles and
prospective users. In the general sense, library services encompasses the following:
.
Loaning: charging and discharging of library materials.
.
Referral services: offering reference services to the library patrons.
Packaging 501
Since intangibility is one of the distinguishing characteristics of marketing, one might
not be able to see packages of library services neatly unwrapped like Lux or Joy Soap.
Libraries must make it possible for its clientele to identify the lines of services they
offer with out mistake and clearly.
Promotion
Owing to the increased level of competition (from other sources such as compact disks,
the internet, etc.) the library needs to promote the services it offers. This could be in
form of advertisement, public enlightenment, sponsorship of events, etc. It is
imperative to appreciate the present and as a matter of fact shift ground from the
library’s publicity approach of traditional book jacket display, window display and
unimpressive book exhibition that hardly communicates, to a more vibrant and
dynamic approach. The traditional approach is no longer tenable in this “global
village”. Aggressive marketing of library services is required if the significance of the
library’s contribution to the development of the intellectual world in particular and
economic in general is ever to be acknowledged, appreciated and reciprocated.
Place
This refers to the convenient locations where the patrons could conveniently obtain
various library services. This is the reason why a library needs to have network outlook.
For instance, for a university library to be able to serve the academic environment where
it belongs effectively and efficiently, LAN is crucial to its operational system. The
various faculty and departmental libraries should be properly networked to enhance
proximity to the information, avoid congestion in the main or central library. This also
ensures the convenience of the students, lecturers, researchers and faculty members.
Price
This refers to the cost outlay plus the mark-up to cover the outlay and the expected
profit. Pricing information services in the library sounds repugnant to some people, but
the economic indices world-wide clearly show that quantitative and qualitative library
services can no longer remain absolutely free. A recent survey among the Nigerian
library patrons revealed that more people are embracing the provision of library
services at a subsidized rate. However, the survey also revealed that they hate to be
bugged by the idea of full commercialization of library services (Adeyoyin, 2003).
The marketing approach that librarians need to be versatile with in order to market
effectively the library services are identified as follows:
.
Have a good knowledge of the library’s capability to offer users’ services.
.
Ability to identify the user’s needs.
.
Identify which products/services meet those needs.
LM In the context of library, marketing concept means recognizing that a library cannot
26,8/9 sell its services unless those services have been developed so as so satisfy the needs of
certain patrons of the library. According to De Saez (2002):
[. . .] marketing concepts and techniques can contribute a dynamic approach to total strategy
development for libraries and information professionals that will ensure effective
management, the achievement of goals and the creation of a confident blueprint for the future.
502
Applying non-profit marketing characteristics to marketing library
services
.
Education. Some non-profit organizations see their role as not only meeting
current needs of their customers, but also educating them in new ideas and
issues, cultural development, and social awareness. These goals may be at
conflict with maximizing revenue or audience figures. The library managers
should take note of this as the type of the library, its parent body and objectives
should determine the library’s public.
.
Multiple publics. Most non-profit organizations serve several groups or publics.
The two broad groups are donors, who may be individuals, trusts, companies,
and government bodies, and clients. Managers of public libraries especially
should understand that there is a need to satisfy both donors and clients,
complicating the marketing task. However, to succeed, both groups have to be
satisfied.
.
Measurement of success and conflicting objectives. For profit-oriented
organizations, success is measured ultimately on profitability. For non-profit
organizations, measuring success is not easy. Measuring success in library
services marketing could be difficult. Nonetheless, there have been several
approaches employed by various types of libraries to measure their customers’
satisfaction. The same methods can still be adopted.
.
Public scrutiny. While all organizations are subject to public scrutiny, public
libraries which fall under category of public sector non-profit organization are
never far from the public’s attention.. The reason is that they are publicly funded
from taxes. This gives them extra newsworthiness as all tax payers are
interested in how their money is being spent. They have to be particularly careful
that they do not become involved in controversy, which can result in bad
publicity.
The same researchers developed a list of the major determinants of service quality.
They found that consumers use basically similar criteria regardless of the type of
service. The criteria are as follows:
.
Access. The service is easy to obtain in convenient locations at convenient times
with little waiting.
.
Communication. The service is described accurately in the customer’s language.
.
Competence. The employees possess the required skill and knowledge.
.
Courtesy. The employees are friendly, respectful and considerate.
LM .
Credibility. The company and employees are trustworthy and have the
26,8/9 customer’s best interests at heart.
.
Reliability. The service is performed with consistency and accuracy.
.
Responsiveness. The employees respond quickly and creatively to customers’
requests and problems.
504 .
Security. The service is free from danger, risk or doubt.
.
Tangibles. The service tangibles correctly project the service quality.
.
Understanding/knowing the customer. The employees make an effort to
understand the customer’s needs and provide individual attention.
Having successfully mapped out a regional information strategy for the Caribbean.
Durrant (1987) concluded that, although the systems have all been put in place and are
gradually being developed, one important factor has not been adequately recognized:
communication with the user, in terms of marketing of the information systems, their
products and services.
The decline of one-time growth industries is due to management failure rather than Planning for
market saturation, and the principal failure of management lies in the definition of their marketing
business environment in terms of products and services instead of changing markets.
Should the library managers stay glued to the traditional marketing system, the library services
inevitable tendency is to operate without vision, indeed, with blinders on. Social,
economic and technological events change the very nature of markets and their
requirements, and yet products tend to remain the same. It is high time the library 505
products/services are packaged and marketed in accordance with users’ current needs.
Finally, the provision of the right service at the right time and the right price to the
right users in the right place supported by quality management team is what effective
marketing of library services is all about.
Conclusion
Marketing in non-profit organizations requires an appreciation of the characteristics
that distinguish it from profit-oriented marketing. Many non-profit organizations are
concerned with educating the public as well as satisfying immediate customer needs,
they have to deal with multiple types of public, have difficulty in measuring success
and conflicting objectives, and are subject to close public scrutiny. Their objectives
may mean that rules that apply in the profit sector may not be relevant to their
situation.
Services are intangible dominant products that cannot be physically possessed, the
result of applying human or mechanical efforts to people or objects. They are a
growing part of the economy. Services have four distinguishing characteristics:
intangibility, inseparability of production and consumption, perishability and
heterogeneity. Because services include a diverse group of industries, classification
schemes are used to help marketers analyze their products and develop the most
appropriate marketing mix. Services can be viewed as to type of market, degree of
labor intensity, degree of customer contact, skill of the service provider, and goal of the
service provider.
When developing a marketing mix for services, several aspects deserve special
consideration. Regarding product, service offerings are often difficult for consumers to
understand and evaluate. The tangibles associated with a service may be the only
visible aspect of service, and marketers must manage these scarce tangibles with care.
Because services are often viewed in terms of the providers, service firms must
carefully select, train motivate and control employees. Service marketers are selling
long-term relationships as well as performance.
Promoting services is problematic because of their intangibility. Advertising should
stress the tangibles associated with the service or use relevant tangible object.
Customer contact personnel should be considered an important secondary audience for
advertising. Personal selling is very powerful in service firms because customers must
interact with personnel. Some forms of sales promotion, however, such as displays and
free samples, are difficult to implement. The final component of the promotion mix,
publicity, is vital to many service firms. Because customers value word-of-mouth
communications, messages should attempt to stimulate or simulate word of mouth.
Many professional service providers, however, are severely restricted in their use of
promotional activities.
LM Non-business marketing includes marketing activities conducted by individuals
26,8/9 and organizations to achieve goals other than normal business goals. Non-business
marketing uses most of the concepts and approaches applied to business situations.
The beneficiary of a non-business enterprise should be its clients, its members, or its
public at large. The goals of a non-business organization reflect its unique philosophy
or mission.
506 The marketing objective of non-business organizations is to obtain a desired
response from a target market. Developing a non-business marketing strategy consists
of defining and analyzing a target market and creating and maintaining a marketing
mix. In non-business marketing, the product is usually and idea or service. Distribution
is involved not so much with the movement of goods as with the communication of
ideas and the delivery of services, which results in a very short marketing channel.
Promotion is very important in non-business marketing, personal selling, sales
promotion, advertising, and publicity are all used to communicate ideas and inform
people about services. Price is more difficult to define in non-business marketing
because of opportunity costs and the difficulty of quantifying the values exchanged.
In a nut-shell, an in-depth marketing plan that is specifically geared to economic
development should be fashioned by the various libraries. A major marketing
campaign is necessary to increase awareness and educate the library users about
library resources while appropriate promotional materials are created. This becomes
imperative as the mandate now is to change the perceptions of the library.
References
Agbonifoh, B.A. et al. (1998), Marketing in Nigeria: Concepts, Principles and Decisions,
Afritowers, Aba.
Alexander, R.S. (1960), Committee on Marketing Definitions: A Glossary of Marketing Terms,
AMA, Chicago, IL, p. 15.
De Saez, E.E. (2002), Marketing Concepts for Libraries and Information Services, 2nd ed., Facet,
London.
Dibb, S., Simkin, L., Pride, W.M. and Ferrell, O.C. (1991), Marketing Concepts and Strategies,
Houghton-Mifflin, Boston, MA.
Durrant, F. (1987), A Regional Information System Strategy for the Caribbean to the Year 2000,
IDRC, Ottawa.
Kotler, P. (1991), Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning, Implementation and Control,
7th ed., Prentice-Hall, London.
Pride, W.M. and Ferrel, O.C. (1980), Marketing: Basic Concepts and Decisions, 2nd ed.,
Houghton-Mifflin, Boston, MA, p. 7.
Stanton, W.J. and Futrell, C. (1987), Fundamentals of Marketing, international ed., McGraw-Hill,
New York, NY.
Further reading
Baker, M.J. (1997), The Marketing Book, 2nd ed., Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford.
Dibb, S. (1994), Marketing: Concepts and Strategies, 2nd ed., Houghton-Mifflin, Boston, MA.
Enis, B.M. and Cox, K.K. (1988), Marketing Classics: A Selection of Influential Articles, 6th ed.,
Allyn & Bacon, Boston, MA.
Jobber, D. (1995), Principles and Practice of Marketing, McGraw-Hill, London.
Keegan, W.J. (1999), Global Marketing Management, 6th ed., Prentice-Hall, London. Planning for
Kerin, R.A. and Peterson, R.A. (1993), Strategic Marketing Problems: Cases and Comments, marketing
6th ed., Allyn & Bacon, Boston, MA.
Littler, D. (1984), Marketing and Product Development, Philip Allan, Oxford.
library services
McDonald, M.H.B. (1990), Marketing Plans: How to Prepare Them, How to Use Them, 2nd ed.,
Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford.
Paliwoda, S.J. (1993), International Marketing, 2nd ed., Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford. 507
Weitz, B.A. and Wensley, R. (1984), Strategic Marketing: Planning, Implementation and Control,
Kent Publishing, Belmont, CA.