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TrendAlert: Defining Target User Markets
In This Briefing
Putting the “Target” Back in Target Marketing ............................................ 2
Trendpoint: Changing Roles and Target Marketing................................. 3
Market Assessment: Differentiating Library Users and Non-Users.............. 4
Target Marketing Decisions: Attributes to Look For .................................... 6
In Outsell’s Opinion ...................................................................................... 7
Volume 8 • January 21, 2005
SM
Putting the “Target” Back in Target Marketing
Bottom Line Most information content users have embraced independence from traditional
information channels. They are not necessarily abandoning old channels, but
they refuse to be limited to them. Information options abound, and users are
creatively exploiting new information-rich environments in response to their
preference for direct access to content. “When they want it, where they want it,
how they want it” has become the ubiquitous catch-phrase – almost a cliché –
in articles and presentations that address the new face of end users. Savvy
organizational information managers know their roles must shift to addressing
needs at the enterprise level, but they’re also well aware that they offer the best
solutions for a portion of the potential users, or user groups, who currently go
elsewhere. The challenge is to identify which potential user constituencies to
actively pursue and which to cut loose.
At Outsell, we’ve been receiving more questions from information managers on the
topic of organizational “fit” and strategy, and a major element of these questions is
often: Which workers should we target with our higher-value solutions and services?
Should we define our user market broadly (the whole organization, for example), or be
selective (targeting specific groups or functions)? Aside from the larger issue of
whether the information function’s mandate and services are organization-wide,
underlying these questions is the need to understand which potential users gain or could
gain the most value from the information function’s assistance, and whether marketing
to those who are currently non-users will provide a recognizable payoff.
In Outsell’s 2002 publication, ToolKit: Marketing 201 – Targeting Information Services
(Volume 5, Number 35, August 23, 2002), we detailed a three-pronged marketing
philosophy that included:
Know who you are (strategic assessment).
Know your customers or target markets (target market assessment).
Know what you will do (product and service portfolio assessment).
Where many information managers get stuck is in selecting target markets and then
pinpointing which user attributes justify actively pursuing (or not pursuing) those
markets. In particular, marketing to non-users is often a haphazard affair that springs
from a mindset of “more is better.” Many of us with information management
experience have been guilty, at one time or another, of lapsing into a paradigm that says
simply getting more users increases our value proposition. This thinking ignores the
“target” in “target marketing.”
Strategic information managers are moving away from this scattershot approach and
toward identifying and using the characteristics that make a particular user group worth
serving. They’re also looking at the directions their organizations are moving in and
targeting users who are the likeliest movers and shakers in the future, not just the
© 2005 Outsell, Inc. All rights reserved.
2
present. Outsell’s overarching theme for 2005, “Power Play,” underscores the need to
take into account a potential user group’s relative influence and importance when
making these determinations.
Trendpoint: Changing Roles and Target Marketing
Outsell has written much about the diverging roles of the “information professional.” It
seems the term has become as generic as “healthcare professional” and requires another
full paragraph to explain exactly what roles are being fulfilled. Oh, for the simple days
when we were all “librarians!” If you’re the flavor of information professional who has
organization-wide responsibility for content licensing or for the organization’s Intranet,
for example, your target market may indeed remain the entire organization. If you’re
tasked, instead, with providing research assistance to a specific department or functional
group – some are explicitly functions of R&D, for example – then that group alone may
represent your entire target market as formally mandated by the organization. This
TrendAlert primarily addresses those information managers who make their own
determination as to what market(s) they will serve and with what services. Target
marketing is an activity that is often more applicable to high-touch services (such as
intermediated research or topical newsletters) than to syndicated or one-to-many
services (such as enterprise Web sites or organizational content management).
Currently, just under one-half of information managers actively market their services to
prospective or potential users. Information professionals have told Outsell that this
marketing is usually in the form of blanket communications to their organizations or
departments within their organizations.
Marketing Practices
Base
Market via e-mail to prospective users
Maintain regular contact with potential users for marketing
purposes
Position our services vs. those of our competitors (internal or
external)
Total
Corporate
Total
Government
(309)
%
47
(183)
%
48
46
39
22
12
Multiple responses allowed. Not all response options shown in table.
Source: Outsell’s Information Management Benchmark Database
CD4-10c
© 2005 Outsell, Inc. Reproduction strictly prohibited.
It’s easy to see why this strategy has been used. Two of the top three reasons users say
they don’t use the library are “I don’t know what services they offer” and “It never
occurred to me to use them,” and libraries certainly don’t want to lose users who can
gain value from their services purely for those reasons. However, it’s important not to
fall into the “more is more” trap where user markets are concerned. When resources are
limited and expenses scrutinized, information managers are often forced to make
decisions about which groups not to serve with high-touch services.
© 2005 Outsell, Inc. All rights reserved.
3
Market Assessment: Differentiating Library
Users and Non-Users
Bottom Line Differences between those who prefer to use their organization’s library (or
information center) or the library’s portal when seeking information and those
who prefer other avenues are more qualitative than quantitative. The
difference between the two segments probably has as much to do with
individual personalities as with explicit needs. Deciding to target markets with
a preponderance of one or the other type of user largely depends on the
mission of the information professionals making that decision.
In Outsell’s 2002 publication referenced earlier in this TrendAlert (ToolKit: Marketing
201), we discussed the concept of market maturation and detailed the stages that the
information industry is going through as it ages. The second stage in that model is
focused on the bifurcation of the user market into experts (early adopters of selfsufficiency) and “newbies” (those who are new to buying and/or using information
directly – or who, in fact, haven’t done so at all). In the realm of information gathering,
the “experts” represent a user market that is largely satisfied, is highly independent, and
doesn’t see value in intermediation on everyday research tasks.
Experts usually seek information for themselves or rely on alerts (which are often selfmanaged). Even when they want help, they tend to rely on someone on their own staff
rather than using their organization’s library. (See the table that follows, titled
“Comparing Attributes – Library Users and Non-Users.”) Experts use the Internet or
their organization’s Intranet, or they contact colleagues for information, before
involving the library. Expert users are best identified as a target market by information
managers who have a broader, centralized role in content management, since those
users find the most value in direct access to information sources and tools that they’ll
then use themselves. Information functions that have delved into providing expert
databases, training users on Internet use, managing organizational Web sites, and other
high-level services might realize the payoff for including expert users in their target
markets.
On the other hand, information functions with a narrower mission, and particularly
those focused on intermediated research, usually will not find the payoff in targeting
expert users. As Outsell has often said, certainly it is a losing battle to fight the Internet,
and how many of us really want to return to the days of digging up the number of
pickup trucks in Canada or the demographics of Brazil anyway? Further, reliance on
colleagues (peer-to-peer information transfer) is ingrained behavior for a number of
functions Outsell has studied, so libraries are unlikely to win that business (nor want
to).
© 2005 Outsell, Inc. All rights reserved.
4
Comparing Attributes – Library Users and Non-Users
How they usually obtain
information (top three choices),
ranked by preference
Those for Whom the Library or
Library Portal Is the First
Choice
Those Who Prefer Other Sources
to the Library or Library Portal
1.
2.
3.
4.
1.
2.
3.
5.
Where they go for information
when self-seeking (first choice),
ranked by preference
1.
2.
Seek it out myself.
Use my organization’s library.
Rely on regular updates/alerts.
Someone else on my staff gets
it for me.
Hire an outside firm/
contractor.
My organization’s physical
library.
My organization’s library’s
Intranet or portal.
4.
5.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Problems or barriers to
information they encounter
when seeking information (all
that apply), ranked by frequency
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Not enough budget to pay for
it.
Lack of staff to help.
Hard to determine quality of
information.
Not knowing what is
available.
Not being able to competently
compare across alternatives.
Information is too hard to find
or identify.
Inadequate training on
information sources and tools.
Information is too hard to
access once it’s identified.
Hours spent on information
tasks each week.
8.7
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Seek it out myself.
Rely on regular updates/alerts.
Someone else on my staff gets
it for me.
Use my organization’s library.
Hire an outside
firm/contractor.
Internet.
My organization’s Intranet or
portal.
Colleagues within my
organization.
Colleagues outside of my
organization.
Not enough budget to pay for
it.
Not knowing what is available.
Lack of staff to help.
Hard to determine quality of
information.
Information is too hard to find
or identify.
Not being able to competently
compare across alternatives.
Inadequate training on
information sources and tools.
Information is too hard to
access once it’s identified.
10.7
Source: Outsell’s Buyer Market Database
© 2005 Outsell, Inc. Reproduction strictly prohibited.
With respect to preferences and problems, as the data in the table suggests, no
pronounced differences show up when objectively comparing library users to non-users,
with the exception of the time they spend on information tasks. When making decisions
on target markets, information managers will want to understand the return on
investment (ROI) element of time spent and why such a striking difference exists
between time spent by users and non-users (two hours in Outsell’s benchmark data).
The answer could be that library non-users simply have higher levels of need and
therefore naturally spend more time finding and using information. However, Outsell
suspects that in many cases, the fact that the library is not used drives up the number of
hours required, and this may provide a compelling reason to target a particular market
of non-users.
Beyond that distinction, the decision about what market(s) to target with high-touch
services really comes down to individuals’ preferences and personalities. While this
makes the target marketing decisions more subjective, it also frees information
managers to choose service markets based on the value of the library’s services to users
and the value of users to the library.
© 2005 Outsell, Inc. All rights reserved.
5
Target Marketing Decisions: Attributes to
Look For
Bottom Line When deciding which user markets to target, it’s helpful to look for certain
characteristics that reveal openness to or need for your services, as well as the
possibility that you will also benefit from serving the target market.
In Outsell’s December 2003 Briefing, Content User Profile: Update On Corporate
Information Users’ Habits, Preferences, And Needs (Volume 6, Number 31, December
12, 2003), we calculated library-use ROI by various functional groups, on the metrics of
time saved and money saved. We concluded that professionals in Purchasing, who
reported the greatest ROI on both metrics, were underserved by libraries in relation to
the value they receive. Other functions that were similarly seen to be underserved were
Finance, Information Systems, and Sales. Looking at the traits of individuals in these
functions, and the functions themselves, provides insight into why they report high ROI
when they use the library and why they might be good user markets to tackle.
First and foremost, these functions typically have a good deal of power within
their organizations. It makes little sense to spend time and energy targeting nonusers in functions that are not in a position to support the library. Information
professionals, by their very nature, want to serve, but value is a two-way street,
and information managers must ask themselves what’s in it for them when they
target a new group of users. The functional groups that hold sway with
executives may vary from organization to organization, so a hard examination
of the power structure within an enterprise is step one. Seek out new users who
can lend legitimacy to the library and possibly even provide direct funding.
Needs assessments that Outsell conducts usually include executive interviews to
flush out exactly this type of information.
Additionally, some degree of knowledge of funding capability can arise from
research on users themselves. For example, Outsell user data shows that
individual buyers spend the most on scientific and technical content (any
medium) and books (any topic) when making non-centralized purchases. If costsaving is a strong driver in your organization, targeting buyers of these content
types might make sense, particularly when the content function has an
organization-wide scope of responsibility.
Targeting high-level individuals for high-touch services often makes sense.
Outsell research shows that the older workers are, the more likely they are to
consider their own information skills as “novice.” Older workers are less likely
than their younger colleagues to have had formal training on information
seeking and use. Conversely, younger workers are more independent and savvy
with regard to information sources and tools, and they have a strong self-service
preference that will be difficult to overcome (nor would information managers
want to). Of course, older workers are more likely to be in higher-level
managerial or executive roles, and therefore to consider information gathering
as a task to be handed off to the library or to more junior workers within their
own function. As a result, corporate knowledge workers ages 55 or older are
four times more likely to use the physical library than those ages 24 or younger,
© 2005 Outsell, Inc. All rights reserved.
6
for the reasons mentioned above. More information about how age differences
affect information preferences can be found in Outsell’s Briefing, Content User
Profile: Students Today, Knowledge Workers Tomorrow (Volume 7, February
27, 2004).
Information Systems (IS) professionals provide an example of another reason to
target a particular user group. IS workers are notoriously independent when it
comes to information gathering. They consider their search skills to be
excellent, and Internet sites, advisory services, and portals targeted to their
needs abound. So, when they come to the library for help on a research project it
is likely a difficult one, and by the very act of requesting help they are
acknowledging the extra value information professionals bring to the table.
While they’re independent, they also recognize their limitations. Your
organization may have functional professionals, IS or otherwise, who exhibit
these characteristics, and they’re a good bet for new target markets.
In Outsell’s Opinion
Bottom Line More users do not necessarily add up to a better value proposition for the
information function, which is why Outsell recommends focusing on the
“target” in “target marketing.” Carefully selecting which user groups to serve,
and not to serve, will go a long way toward enabling information centers to
build real value into their services and deliverables. The content function’s
mandate will heavily influence what can or should be considered the target
market, but in Outsell’s experience, nearly every information center has some
degree of control over where to focus its efforts.
Deciding specifically what groups of users to target involves examining a number of
user attributes, some of which are based less on quantitative, explicit needs, and more
on “personality” factors or non-quantifiable traits. It is important for information
managers to remember that power, influence, and funding capability are legitimate
factors to use in making these decisions, but underlying specific needs must also be
apparent in order to deliver good value. Look at how your organization is evolving and
what the next hot services or functions are, and “skate to where the puck is going.”
Because all the services and products your information function offers (ideally) spring
directly from user market needs, it is critical to define your target user market well,
before putting together your service and product portfolios. A “build it and they will
come” mentality often leads to solutions that are destined to fail.
© 2005 Outsell, Inc. All rights reserved.
7
Roger Strouse
Vice President and Lead Analyst
Outsell, Inc.
rstrouse@outsellinc.com
Outsell Background
Outsell is the leading research and advisory firm providing actionable
market analytics for the information industry. Founded in 1994, Outsell
helps publishers, commercial information providers, and content software
technology vendors identify, maintain, and grow markets and revenue
streams. Outsell also works with information management executives in top
corporations, government agencies, and educational institutions to
benchmark spending, optimize performance, and demonstrate best practices.
Outsell invests heavily in unique information industry data assets that form
the core of its high-quality, fact-based research, analysis, and
recommendations for clients worldwide.
Outsell, Inc.'s information, analysis, opinion, and reports (the "Information") are based on qualitative and/or quantitative research methods and its staff's
extensive professional expertise in the industry. Outsell, Inc. has used its best efforts and judgment in the compilation and presentation of the Information
and believes the Information is accurate as of the date furnished, but the industry and the Information are subject to rapid change. Except as aforesaid,
Outsell, Inc. makes no other representations or warranties, express or implied, concerning or relating to the Information.
Visit us at our headquarters at 330 Primrose Road,
Suite 510, Burlingame, CA 94010, phone 650-342-6060,
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© 2005 Outsell, Inc. All rights reserved.
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