Assignment 10
1. Identify the major (monetary and non-monetary) costs one might incur when visiting/using a
library (or any other nonprofit.) Review the article 'Marketing Mix," before answering this
portion of the question.
Major monetary costs that one might incur when visiting a library could be any those listed
below. Libraries differ from place to place but it is not uncommon to see library users having to
pay for specific article requests, paying to print off the internet, paying to use the internet for a
certain amount of time, playing fines for lost materials, etc. Non monetary costs that one may
incur while using a library could be any of the following, finding the time to visit the library,
having to deal with overcrowding, lines, and limited hours of access, finding transportation to
attend the library and managing stress while trying to study in a noisy atmosphere, etc..
2. Select a product/offer of your choice. If you managed a library (or another nonprofit), which
costs associated with this product/offer might you to try to reduce? Why? What steps would you
take to reduce the costs you identified?
I would like to start a breakfast book club where my participants would be able to discuss our
book and share our thoughts while eating breakfast before school in the morning. Snacks and
books would be provided. In order to keep costs down I would look to list serves, used
bookstores, donations, and yard sales to gather enough copies of each title to take some of the
financial burden off purchasing brand new books. In order to cut down on food costs I would
make sure to shop local deals and seek out the grocery store in town to see if we could get a
student discount on the total price for this good cause. I would also let parents know that snack
will be provided, just maybe the parents wouldn’t be opposed to providing snack once every two
weeks depending on the size of the group. This tactic goes over well with children’s sports
teams; it could work for the breakfast book club as well.
3. Describing the five pricing objectives, give examples of agencies/organizations and how each
might benefit from the pricing objective. Which objective or combination is suitable for a
nonprofit of your choice, or library or museum? Please substantiate (pp.379-383.)
Basically the five pricing objectives have to do with maximizing profits, meeting specific target
returns, achieve a certain sales level, maintain and enhance market shares, to meet or exceed the
competition.
Currently fast food restaurants can maximize their profits by trying to attract new customers. A
great way to do this would be to offer more healthy choices as opposed to fattening and greasy
options. Many Americans recognize the issue with obesity and are now trying to curb these
unhealthy food options.
A wealthy business such as Wal-Mart is able to meet specific returns by being able to mark
prices lower than their competitors. This company is able to make a profit by making available a
hot, popular item that is cheaper and will attract more sales because it is the best price around.
Toys R Us could achieve their target sales level by using excellent marketing tactics to catch the
attention of kids and their parents. In order to measure their success with revenue their prices
must match or be better than their competitor. Offering a deal to beat a competitor’s price would
surely help with revenue.
A new local health food store would be able to maintain and enhance their market share by
offering prices on their food at a slightly lower cost until they get a feel for their total sales. Once
they are sure that their product is wanted and needed in the community they can then raise their
prices slightly to match other well known organic and health food organizations because the
community will know that the fresh product is worth it.
Local hardware stores that have been around this area for ages are now slowly closing their doors
after many years of service. The reason is because they cannot compete against the big box
stores. In order to be successful and to stay in business it extremely important for these small
businesses to meet the competitive prices that Home Depot and Lowes are offering. In order to
meet the competition they must scale back their prices to the average industry price and look in
to offering a product that may not be found at the big box store.
For my non-profit I would have to say that the objective related to meeting and exceeding the
competition. The Bangor Public Library does a great job at doing just this. When it comes to
programs and resources offered the Bangor Public Library beats most of not all of the
competition around in the library category. Fogler Library located on the University of Maine
campus is the largest research library in the state of Maine, however, they do not offer the
programs and services that BPL does. At this library there is something for everyone and I feel as
though when it comes to competition, this library exceeds their competitors, such as big box
book stores, small book stores, local academic, public, and school libraries.