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Marketing: A Challenge for Corporate Librarians
A challenge for any corporate librarian is keeping the library’s customers aware of all the services the library offers. A successful librarian needs to continuously market library services and competencies. For many people, librarians included, "selling" their services or competencies is not a comfortable idea. However, if corporate librarians do not blow their own horns, library services may only be appreciated by a few. Marketing is often defined as promotion, but in fact promotion is only one of many management techniques that are included under the blanket term of marketing. Marketing includes "determining market niches, defining products and services, setting prices, promoting services, and building good public relations." (Olson & Moseman) A savvy librarian, realizing that marketing library services is the same as providing good customer service, will create and follow a marketing plan to avoid some common library marketing pitfalls. The effects of marketing library services will be more pronounced if the library staff is following a predetermined marketing plan. Corporate librarians need to start thinking of marketing not as selling, but as another form of customer service. This approach is more familiar to librarians, who are generally customer-oriented. As a start, the corporate mission statement can be used as a guide. (Brown) Using the corporate mission statement keeps the library mission meaningful within the organization’s overall goals. Brown also suggests that the library mission statement:
With a mission statement as a guideline, the library staff should be able to organize their efforts towards supporting the overall organizational goals. The mission of the library thus sets the parameters of any marketing decisions. (Olson & Moseman) The next step is to define the library’s market segments, or, in other words, find out who the library’s customers are. A customer survey can answer this need. As an alternative, the library staff can discuss the following questions to assess their own ideas about customers:
If the staff has trouble answering any of the above questions, the library’s marketing efforts have probably been unfocused in the past. The staff should concentrate on the most productive market services, and think of low-effort ways to answer other, more tangential needs. By identifying its major customer groups, or market segments, within its organization, the library can focus its efforts on the groups that have the most political clout, or influence on financial and personnel resources. Simplify Library Services with Marketing Marketing, with product definition, can help simplify customer relations. If the library cannot name its products, chances are its customers cannot either. This means the library staff probably spends a lot of time creating custom reports and research projects. If the library takes steps to create well-defined products and services, customers know what to ask for. This move eliminates time spent by library staff explaining to every customer what the library does. Examples of defined products and services the library could offer include:
Olson & Moseman emphasize the importance of packaging library products. Packaging is key to identifying library products as distinct products. Information, the library’s main product, is an intangible commodity; a library letterhead or logo can go a long way towards making it a tangible commodity. Make use of other Marketing Efforts Though some librarians see end-user services as "competition," these new players in the information industry can actually take on some of the burden of marketing library services. Advertising done by end-user oriented services will raise consumer consciousness about the benefits of online information services; the ripple effect is sure to be felt by librarians. The best way to take advantage of the increased demand for end-user oriented services is to know what they can and cannot do for the library's customers. Also, library customers who make use of the end-user products can relieve library staff of doing routine searches, freeing up staff time to concentrate on more complex projects. In fact, one of the best services you can provide for your customers is to alert them to the advantages/disadvantages of various end-user products. Though there will be some customers who think that "everything we need is on the web, and it's all free," this assertion can be countered by using a table listing competitive services and their features and benefits. Brown suggests handing out the table to customers to aid them in selecting the best service for their needs. Library customers who ask about using these services are ripe to be educated about the value of indexing, document analyses, and other value-added aspects of traditional databases. The table can help clarify when end-user services are sufficient, and when a librarian's expert assistance is needed. Marketing Problems Specific to Libraries Unfortunately, the library has a somewhat low-quality image for many adults. Not enough people see the library/information center as the place to find the latest information. (Sirkin, 1991) Libraries are perceived as giving information away "for free," and in American culture, anything free is thought to have little or no value. Internal users are all too likely to perceive library services as "free" unless library staff make an effort to educate them about the real cost of those services. Proper marketing efforts can lend a professional image to library services, and help remind users of the value of the services they are lucky enough to receive "for free." The aforementioned marketing plan efforts are supposed to give library staff a sense of exactly what they can and cannot accomplish. While everyone likes to feel needed, it is more useful to be a good judge of resources and know when to say no. If the request is outside the scope of library services or expertise, the librarian should point the customer toward a more appropriate information source. "Offering viable alternatives with your ‘no’ can make you look like an astute information expert who may be too busy to attend personally to a question, but who does have the professionalism to point a customer in the right direction." (Olson & Moseman) Though creating and implementing a library marketing plan may seem like a lot of work, ultimately it can save the corporate librarian some time and effort by allowing him or her to concentrate efforts on the most productive tasks and most responsive customer market segments. Creating a marketing plan, defining customer segments, packaging distinct products, and publicizing about the benefits of end-user products all contribute to making the corporation or organization more aware of library services and competencies. ********** Tips for Finding More Information About this Topic in InSite Pro
Brown, Suzan A. "Marketing the Corporate Information Center for Success." Online. July-Aug. 1997. Trade & Industry Database. Online. InSite Pro. 17 July 1997. Enyart, Michael G. and Rebecca A. Smith. "Reference Services: More Than Information Chauffeuring." Special Libraries. Sum. 1996. Trade & Industry Database. Online. InSite Pro. 17 July 1997. Olson, Christine A. and Suzanne Stewart Moseman. "Overworked? Understaffed? Don’t Stop Marketing!" Information Outlook. Mar. 1997. Trade & Industry Database. Online. InSite Pro. 17 July 1997. Sirkin, Arlene Farber. "Marketing Planning for Maximum Effectiveness." Special Libraries. Win. 1991. Trade & Industry Database. Online. InSite Pro. 17 July 1997. Roslyn Donald, an Information Specialist in the Business Division Client Services group, has been with Information Access Co. since 1994. Past positions at IAC include Managing Editor and Editorial Analyst in the PROMT group. She has also worked in law libraries and for an information broker. Currently she is studying for a Masters in Library and Information Science at San Jose State University. Comments to the author should be directed to Roslyn_Donald@iacnet.com. Return to top or click your browser's Back button to return to the page you came from. | ||||||
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