The 4 Ps: The Marketing Mix for Youth-Serving Libraries
Dr. Lesley S. J. Farmer, Professor and Librarianship Program Coordinator,
California State University Long Beach
The term "marketing mix" refers to the marketing tools of product, placement, pricing,
and promotion: the 4Ps. This session gives a brief overview of marketing, and explains how
to plan a marketing mix for optimal results.
What is marketing? How does it differ from PR or advertising or strategic planning? The
American Marketing Association defines it as "an organizational function and a set of processes
for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and for managing customer
relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholder." Core are VALUE and
relationships. Marketing PLANNING is a 6-part structured process, which will be explained
briefly. The term "marketing mix" refers to the marketing tools of product, placement (channel),
pricing, and promotion (some add the tool of people): the 4/5 Ps.
In order for the library to add value to its stakeholders, it has to know what it can offer in
terms of products and services: its internal environment. The library staff also has to analyze the
external environment to understand the issues that impact the library and its stakeholders. The
foundation for market and customer analysis is a SWOT analysis (strength, weakness,
opportunity, threat). In libraries, S/W may arise from personnel, boards, support groups,
facilities, money, collections, services, tech, customer database, open hours, etc. External issues
might be local demographics, competition, tech, politics, govt. and agencies, economic
environment, legal environment, etc.
Once the library knows what it has to offer, it can determine which market to target. If
the library tries to reach everyone, that approach is called mass marketing, and tries to find an
issue/value that is the common denominator for everyone. Alternatively, the library can focus on
a few key market SEGMENTS to provide more specific services/approach. In general, libraries
tend to segment markets by age or type of use. each market are subgroups or niches: e.g., seniors
who want to volunteer in the library, local business people, mystery buffs. Typically, a library
has resources or services that are underused/undervalued that they want to push. Perhaps they see
a target user market potential that has ignored the library. In general, libraries try to go to the
biggest bang for the buck: the best return on their investment.
Why do marketing? To get results! Most libraries focus on managing key relationships
and activities, but they might also have social responsibility goals (e.g., providing positive
reading experiences to the incarcerated) or financial goals (especially for special libraries or
information brokers). Additionally, to insure that goals are reached, support must be present:
customer support and internal marketing (getting employees on board). The customer focus and
support can be confusing: think of wanting happy readers -- librarians need to provide them with
good service (e.g., readers advisory, good reading material in stock) to attain the goal.
Products are more than boxes; they can be goods, services, places, ideas, organizations,
and people. Wood notes "when planning services, marketers must focus on delivering benefits
through the appropriate combination of activities, people, facilities, and information." Product
development, even as a service, needs to go through development processes to insure its success.
And what makes a good product/service? Librarians should think about performance, features,
reliability, durability, esthetics, perceived quality.
Branding distinguishes the product and builds connotations that lead to valuing and
loyalty. Think about the Library of Congress's American Memory collections, the Folger
Library, or Girl Scouts. That's why ALA has the @yourlibrary campaign: to create memorable
branding--and help libraries around the world by providing an easily recognizable brand that
libraries can adopt -- and leverage at the local level.
Pricing strategy may seem irrelevant for libraries, but services and resources do cost, and
some services might include a fee (how do librarians price a lost book, for instance?). Many
private library/info entities have cost recovery plans, which entail determining the financial value
of their services. They need to show good ROI (return on investment) to their
corporate/institutional body.
The third part of the marketing mix is "place": how, when, where to make library
products/services available to the target market. To do that well requires knowing how that target
market accesses goods/services, the external environment (including competitors) as well as the
product itself and its life cycle. What value accrues along the way from its inception to its
delivery? What is the flow -- the logistics?
Promotion calls upon the advertising "front line" and PR tools as well as other
techniques. Wood emphasizes integrated marketing communication built on analyzing the
audience, clarifying objectives and budget, identifying issues, and doing background research.
Note that communication will change over the life cycle of the product. Communication tips are
shared; Kotler asserts that PR is a set of tools: PENCILS (publications, events, news, community
involvement activities, identifying media, lobbying, social responsibility activities).
The communication arena has really changed because of Web 2.0. Librarians also hear a
lot about viral marketing. The trend is to co-opt/enlist the help of the target market to identify the
desired product as well as to communicate about it. A tradition version of that is the READ or
library poster contest. Librarians need to be aware that they are sharing control of the message
and communication channel so be prepared... happy with what people Twitter about the library?
The best marketing plan is the one that sells: gets optimum results. Did the marketing
plan work? The library needs to assess the plan's effectiveness all along the way and make
adjustments accordingly. Indeed, the type of assessment measures/instruments should be
determined from the start. The concept "metrics" is often used; it refers to numerical measures of
specific performance-related activities and outcomes, which can be applied to marketing
evaluation.
Guth, D., & Marsh, C. (2012). Public relations: A values-driven approach (5th ed.). Boston:
Allyn & Bacon.
Smith, R. (2009). Strategic planning for public relations (3rd ed.). NewYork: Routledge.
Wood, M. (2010). The marketing plan handbook. (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice
Hall.