Teaching new librarians
marketing skills
Penny Braybrook
School of Business Information Technology
RMIT University
TRIG Workshop – Marketing library services, 5 Nov 2004
RMIT’s IM Programs
 Undergraduate
– B.Bus.(I&KM)
– 3 years (new structure, 1st run in 2004)
– common core of (8) business courses
– discipline specialisation in IM (10)
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Postgraduate – Grad Dip in IM
– 1 year
– all (8) discipline-related courses
– articulation into Masters level
Our approach
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We do not teach anything called
“How to market your library” !!
We never will.
We do teach the principles and application of
marketing theory within the IM context,
spread across the curriculum, demonstrated
via various activities and assessment tasks
Marketing 101 - What is marketing?
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“those functions in a business that directly
involve contact with consumers, the
assessment of their needs, and the
translation of this information into sales.”
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Essential to continuance of the business
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Ensure that effort involved in creating the
product/ providing the service is justified
Harry Onsman, Management powertools, Sydney, New York, McGraw
Hill, 2004, p. 87
Marketing 101 – Key concepts
“Marketing mix”
 The 4 Ps of marketing (McCarthy, 1964)
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Product
Price
Place
Promotion
 The 7P framework (Rafiq & Ahmed, 1995)
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4Ps as above
Participants
Physical evidence
Process
E. Jerome McCarthy, Basic marketing, Homewood, IL, Irwin, 1964.
M. Rafiq & P Ahmed, ‘Using the 7Ps as a generic marketing mix.’ Marketing Intelligence and
Planning, vol. 13, no.9, 1995, pp4-15
1. Product
“Products and services are needs-satisfying offerings
that a business makes to its customers.”
 What
needs does your market have?
 What products does your market want?
 What products can you create/provide
to satisfy those needs?
2. Price
“ … linked to the customer’s perception of value”
How much does it cost us to provide
this product/service?
 How much will customers pay?
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3. Place
“… how the market is physically reached.”
What distribution channels are used
to get the product to the customer?
 Do they deliver intangible benefits,
e.g. convenience, increased
availability, to the customers?
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4. Promotion
“ communicating with the customer. Includes
advertising, PR, publicity…”
How do your customers find out
about your service/products?
 Do you know how well your
brand/product is doing in the
marketplace?
 What constitutes “success”?
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5. Participants
“ includes employees of the organisation and its
customers … the interaction between the two.”
 Are
your staff competently &
consistently skilled to provide a high
quality, reliable service?
 Are your customers’ expectations
realistic?
6. Physical evidence
“The environment in which the service/product is
delivered.”
Customers use physical clues to
assess extent and quality of service
 Do your business premises/products
reflect this?
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7. Process
“ … procedures, mechanisms, … employed to deliver
a product/service to a customer.”
How easy is it for customers to
engage with the product/service?
 How reliably is the service delivered?
 Is the customers’ experience a
positive one, would you get their
repeat business?
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What constitutes marketing in libraries?
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“those functions in a library that directly
involve contact with consumers, the
assessment of their needs, and the
translation of this information into
increased use /more efficient use of
products and services provided.”
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Essential to continuance of the business

Ensure that effort involved in creating the
product/ providing the service is justified
Marketing in Libraries 101
1. Product
 Customised products/services
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needs analysis – advice on information processes,
management issues
design a database to customer specification
create information resource guide for specified client
devise and deliver short tailored instruction program
perform mediated search
Critical evaluation
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investigation of available products
comparing products, sources
reviewing materials
what can we learn from our ‘competitors’?
Marketing in Libraries 101
2. Price
 Usually little or no visible cost to customers
but
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time and effort are also costs which customers
must choose to expend
maximise ease of use
differentiate ourselves from similar-appearing
services
efficient work practices and well trained staff reduce
cost of providing service
Marketing in Libraries 101
3. Place
 Investigate alternative distribution channels
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Compare electronic with printed resources for
reference work, delivery of full text materials
– consider advantages and disadvantages
– consider when each is appropriate
– consider different management issues for each
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Compare virtual (chat, email) with face-to-face
reference services
Marketing in Libraries 101
4. Promotion
 What do customers think?
participation in Rodski survey (formal)
 observation of service practices in variety of library
situations (informal)
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 Importance of visibility
evaluation of library websites
 evaluation of some library promotion & branding
campaigns, e.g. introduction of Gulliver
 choice of appropriate medium to reach market
segments
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 How is effectiveness measured?
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comparison of various statistical measures of
performance & use
Marketing in Libraries 101
5. Participants
 Professional knowledge is vital, but so are
excellent people & communication skills
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reference interviews
difficult situations
training & instruction skills
presentation skills
 How do customers behave? What are their
expectations of us?
research into information seeking behaviours
 best practice
 are library websites being effectively used to manage
user expectations?
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Marketing in Libraries 101
6. Physical evidence
 Evidence suggests that, despite the strong
preference for electronic resources, physical
space is still important
 what
factors determine where/how important client
services are sited within the library?
 results of Rodski survey
Marketing in Libraries 101
7. Process
 Policies and practices must be easy to discover,
understand and apply – staff
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review published policies, e.g. collection development,
document delivery, online reference
 Policies and practices must be easy to discover,
understand and use – customers
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review ease of use of resources, services available
(personas)
Summary
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Emphasis on client-centred practices
Keep an eye on competitors
Adopt & adapt any practice or technology that will
enhance service
Marketing activities are integral to successful
running of the library service, not a “frill”
Successful marketing comprises good practice
plus positive attitude* from staff and active
encouragement from management
* Shontz, ML et al - Recent survey - librarians who had more years of library
experience and had taken a course or workshop in marketing had more
positive attitudes to marketing and perceived marketing to be a high priority
in their libraries.
Conclusion
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Marketing is most effectively learned in the
context of the commodity you are “selling”,
whether information or cat food
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know your market
tailor products for that market
ensure market knows about your products
periodically check for congruence between
offerings and market
Bibliography
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McCarthy, E. Jerome, Basic marketing, Homewood, IL,
Irwin, 1964
Onsman, Harry, Management powertools, Sydney, New
York, McGraw Hill, 2004, p. 87
Rafiq, M & P Ahmed, ‘Using the 7Ps as a generic
marketing mix.’ Marketing Intelligence and Planning,
vol. 13, no.9, 1995, pp.4-15
Shontz, ML et al, ‘What do librarians think about
marketing? A survey of public librarians' attitudes
toward the marketing of library services.' Library
Quarterly, vol. 74, no. 1, 2003, pp.63-84 [Available:
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/LQ/journal/contents/v74n1.html ]
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Steadley, Marianne & Chuck Gray, ‘Marketing: The
Power of Ten.’ UI Current LIS Clips, Sept 2003
[Available: www.lis.uiuc.edu/clips/2003_09.html]