WebJunction

What’s Marketing Got to Do with It?
Marketing Trends Present Librarians with Promising Opportunities[1]

For many librarians, “marketing” is one of those business terms that seem far removed from our everyday work. We don’t manufacture widgets and we aren’t pushing our wares to make a profit. Nevertheless, marketing is an integral part of our practice.  Consciously or not, all librarians engage in marketing activities all the time.  If you’re planning or implementing services, constructing Web pages, conducting needs assessments, promoting events or interacting with patrons, you’re marketing.  Since library work and marketing are inextricably linked, librarians must be responsive to marketing trends so that they can distinguish themselves in an over-crowded marketplace where patrons can readily find alternatives to using the library.  This article will review major marketing and consumer trends and offer advice on to how to address them in daily practice.

Marketing Gets a Bad Rap

If marketing conjures up recollections of unwanted e-mail spam, ill-timed phone calls from telemarketers, or pop-up Internet ads, then you’re probably not eager to apply marketing principles to library services.  However, most of these negative associations are not the result of marketing per se, but the result of poorly-executed marketing tactics.  Furthermore, many of the activities commonly associated with marketing are sales or promotion functions, which are the most visible aspects of marketing, but they represent only a small part of the marketing process.  Marketing encompasses a wide range of activities such as market research, product and service planning, and distribution and pricing, whereby marketers identify and fulfill customer needs in mutually beneficial manner (Perrault & McCarthy, 2005, p. 17).  At its core, marketing is about getting the right product or service to the right customers at the right place and right price.  Good marketing is customer-centric and seeks to accommodate, not irritate, target customers.  Rather than avoid marketing, librarians should embrace it as a means of better identifying and fulfilling patrons’ needs.[2]

Marketing Redefined

Marketing is changing…a lot.  It is no longer a means of pushing products on customers.  Customers demand products and services customized to their exact needs and don’t tolerate being “sold to.”  Progressive companies understand that customers are more informed and empowered than ever before and that effective marketing planning must consider customers at every stage in order to create useful products that fulfill their needs. In fact, some organizations involve their customers behind the scenes by inviting them to participate in various aspects of the marketing process. This trend is commonly referred to as “open-source marketing” or “participatory marketing.” In the same way that Wikipedia allows users to tinker with its entries, open-source marketers allow customers to manipulate their brands.  James Cherkoff, Director of Collaborate Marketing, wrote a manifesto introducing the concept of open-source marketing on ChangeThis.com.  In it, he writes, “To date, marketing has been about command of the media and control of the message…But the new marketplace doesn’t respond to this approach.  It is made up of more powerful consumers who use technology to shelter from brand-bombardment” (2005, p. 5-6).  He concludes that Open Source communities “are increasingly creating their own content to entertain, inform and educate their peers” (Cherkoff, 2005, p. 6). With an open-source marketing model, organizations give up absolute control to allow customers to take part in designing products and promoting them.  The shoe company Converse, for example, asks customers to create 24-second films that capture the spirit of the Converse brand, which are featured on its Website.   

Making Conversation

As the barriers between organizations and customers crumble, and as new social technologies facilitate instant exchanges among widespread groups of people, listening and communicating become indispensable marketing skills. This trend is most noticeable in the blogosphere. Here, vendors and customers meet openly to participate in a dialogue. Sometimes employees exchange thoughts and ideas directly with customers, as in Microsoft’s employee blogs. Other times, executives themselves chat with the public such as on General Motor’s Fastlane blog. Librarians also use blogs to share and discuss new initiatives with patrons, as is the case with the Hennepin County Library. [3]  In this way, forward-thinking organizations like these foster genuine, informal conversations to establish lasting relationships with customers.

Organizations aren’t the only ones initiating the talking. Customers are talking amongst themselves via online communities, blogs, opinion sites like Epinions.com, and good old-fashioned word of mouth.[4] In fact, word of mouth is receiving renewed attention by marketers as a means of cutting through promotional clutter.  Marketers purposefully encourage word of mouth by giving customers communication forums, free information, and constructing memorable experiences worth talking about with others.[5]  With this flurry of discussion taking place on- and off-line, marketers are losing absolute control over their organizations’ images and must find new ways to interact with customers and build their brands.

What Marketing Trends Have to do with Libraries

Marketers are learning to navigate a new marketplace where customers are more in control and they insist on fast, customized services at the time and place most convenient for them.  Customers also seek greater involvement with service providers and eagerly voice their opinions, positive and negative, with others.  Like any other organization, libraries operate within this dynamic marketplace and they are not immune to such changes in consumer behavior.  Just as marketers must adapt to these new demands, so too must librarians.  Librarians can take a cue from how marketers are acclimating to these new realities as they suggest promising opportunities for librarians to market themselves and demonstrate the value of their services.

Technology is largely responsible for today’s marketplace trends, and it is also where librarians can find unique opportunities for addressing them.  Thanks to technologies like blogs, wikis, and social networks, the Internet is becoming an increasingly interactive place where people can socialize, share information, and create multimedia content. If librarians are to be effective marketers, they will need to participate in and understand the online environment so that they can deliver relevant services at patrons’ points of need. The following are suggestions for getting up to speed with the latest technologies:

• Create, subscribe to, and participate in blogs. Blogs allow authors and readers to carry on two-way conversations with one another and they are becoming popular modes of self-expression. Organizations use blogs to present a human face to the public and to reach out their customers on a personal level. The best way to understand the potential applications of blogging is to create and maintain your own blog. Numerous blog software products exist, but for a relatively easy-to-use and free Web-based product, consider setting up a Blogger account. Have fun using your blog as a place to write about articles, hobbies, ideas, and any other topic that interests you. You’ll quickly develop your own writing style and identify creative ways you can apply blogs in library services.
  
  In addition to writing your own blog, it’s equally important to read and respond to other blogs. Listening to conversations taking place in the virtual and physical worlds is an invaluable marketing skill. Technorati, PubSub and Google’s Blog Search  allow you to search blog posts by keyword. Do your own market research by searching for mentions of your library, librarians in general, or topics important to your patron base. You may be surprised by the contexts in which discussions about libraries take place and you’ll also learn a great deal about the lives of your patrons and their perceptions of libraries. Don’t be shy about submitting comments on posts that interest you. The interactive nature of blogging is one of its greatest benefits and part of the blogging culture.

• Become fluent with RSS.  RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication.” It is a means of syndicating Web content so that patrons can identify and subscribe to items of interest and be notified when new content is added.  Many major Web sites offer these feeds and all blogs automatically generate them.  For example, Topix.net lists news items by subject that readers can subscribe to using an RSS aggregator.  One of the more popular aggregators is Bloglines, but Web browsers such as Firefox also offer this functionality.[6]
  
  Marketers and librarians are finding creative uses for RSS as a precise promotional tool to deliver specific, relevant content to target audiences. Georgia State University, for instance, lists feeds for its numerous subject-specific blogs so that patrons can focus on only the information that is most pertinent to them.[7]  

• Experiment with social networks, text messaging, wikis, podcasts, and any emerging technologies.  While blogs and RSS are dominant features of the online landscape, they are by no means the only technologies shaping marketing and library services today.  For instance, marketers are using text messaging to deliver coupons, restaurant specials, and interactive scavenger hunts to customers’ cell phones, while librarians at the Sims Memorial Library use texting for reference transactions. Not every technology will have staying power, but savvy marketers know that it’s important to stay ahead of trends to discover new ways of serving customers. Librarians too should create accounts on MySpace or Facebook, play with iPods, listen to podcasts, and visit YouTube.com so that they can keep current and remain relevant as technologies evolve. Experimentation also promotes creativity, which in turn often uncovers new opportunities to serve patrons. One good Web resource for learning about the latest technology tools and gadgets is Gizmodo.

The tips presented so far focus on technologies and their marketing applications. However, marketing and technology are not synonymous. Most word of mouth still takes place offline, and not every patron will be eager to accept text messages or RSS feeds. To be effective marketers, librarians must be able to successfully interact with patrons in the real world. The following are some simple low-tech ways you can further your library’s marketing efforts in your everyday work:

• Get out of the library.  Your patrons don’t live in the library, and to truly understand their needs and perspectives, neither should you. Meet key community members for coffee and lunch meetings; visit the places your patrons frequent and examine how those destinations draw people in; make trips to competitors like bookstores as well as other cultural institutions like museums for fresh ideas.

• Foster and measure word of mouth.  At every library-sponsored class or event, ask participants how they heard about the service and whether or not they would recommend it to a friend. Give regular patrons small rewards, prizes, or other incentives for recommending services to others, and offer them literature and promotional items to pass along. Keep in touch with the most enthusiastic patrons and give them advanced notice of important news and events.

• Identify underserved target markets.  Customers want services designed specifically for them, so one-size-fits-all offerings are unlikely to draw patrons. Instead, focus your marketing efforts on smaller, underserved target markets. You can identify these groups by any of a number of characteristics such as age, language, profession, computer literacy, lifestyle, hobbies, etc. Be on the lookout for an overlooked group for which you can offer something unique and worthwhile.  For example, perhaps a growing immigrant population would welcome library services tailored to their needs.

• Open up to patron involvement.  In recognition of the open-source marketing trend, let patrons take part in developing and promoting library services. Perhaps your patrons could co-develop a newsletter or blog with you, design a library logo, create a video library tour, record podcasts, or advise you on new service ideas.  Also, openly welcome patrons to complain about service failures or other problems they may experience so that you have an opportunity to fix them. By promptly responding to their concerns, you can turn dissatisfied patrons into fervent supporters and make your services better for everyone.

• Be your library’s trend-spotter.  Good library marketing relies on a thorough understanding of patrons and the ability to anticipate what they might need. Front-line librarians are the library’s eyes and ears, and are the best-positioned to inform colleagues of trends in patrons’ preferences and opportunities to serve them better in a fast-changing environment. Write down observations of what works well for patrons and where they run into obstacles when using the library. Get out from behind service points to proactively address problems and offer assistance to patrons when and where they need it.  Note any comments you hear about the library, doing research, or using services. Be prepared to share these observations at meetings so that administrators can make well-informed decisions. To keep track of larger consumer changes, visit TrendWatching.com regularly for reports on the most influential consumer trends.

Marketing today is dynamic, open, and interactive. Marketing is also a means of continually fulfilling customer needs as they evolve. By embracing marketing in their daily work and keeping abreast of marketplace trends, librarians can remain relevant despite any social and technological changes that come along. Doing so requires a spirit of experimentation, open-mindedness, and risk-taking, as the examples presented here demonstrate.  By incorporating these marketing trends and strategies, you’ll uncover new answers to problems, deeper relationships with patrons, and a broader understanding the role of libraries in patrons’ lives.

Jill Stover is the Undergraduate Services Librarian at Virginia Commonwealth University and author of the blog, Library Marketing - Thinking Outside the Book.  Jill, a marketing enthusiast, was named a marketing Mover & Shaker by Library Journal and is currently pursuing a Marketing certificate through VCU's School of Business.


References

Cherkoff, J. (2005, February). What is open source marketing? Retrieved October 11, 2006, from http://changethis.com/14.OpenSourceMktg

McConnell, B. & Huba, J. (2003).  Creating customer evangelists: How loyal customers become a volunteer sales force. Chicago: Dearborn Trade Pub.

Perreault, D. & McCarthy, E. (2005). Basic Marketing : A global-managerialApproach (15^th ed). Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Scoble, R. & Israel, S. (2006). Naked conversations:  How blogs are changing the way businesses talk with customers. Hoboken: Wiley.

Notes