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The marketing mix is the planned package of elements that makes up the prod-
uct or service offered to the market. It is aimed at supporting the library and
information service to reach target markets and specified objectives.
The key issues to consider are user convenience, user cost and user com-
munication; taking core services and packaging them according to the needs
of specific user groups is a priority.
The objectives of this chapter are:
• to define marketing mix for librarians and information professionals
• to outline the nature of the elements of the marketing mix
• to discuss the traditional 4Ps of the marketing mix: product, place,
price and promotion
• to introduce 4Cs as more appropriate for libraries and information
services: user considerations, user cost, user convenience and user
communication.
The marketing mix is a key concept in marketing, but it needs to be under-
stood thoroughly before strategic decisions are made on its applications.
Is it the magic formula that will put all to rights, whatever the organiza-
tion, whatever its problems? No, like all marketing concepts and techniques
the marketing mix is an integral part of marketing planning that depends on
environmental scanning, market research, understanding users, readers and
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clients, and offering quality products and services. But it is a substantial part
of effective marketing strategy, designed to cover all the aspects of the prod-
uct or service that are important to the customer, or user: how does it answer
user needs? Is it attractive? Easy to access? Is it marketed at the right price?
The marketing mix helps to position the library or information service very
firmly in the perceptions of their communities served: the wider commu-
nity for the public library, academic community for the academic library or
the clients and customers for the business or specialist information service.
Marketing mix needs more properly to be termed marketing mixes, to
encourage librarians and information managers to perceive the value of dif-
ferent marketing mixes for specific market segments or groups of users.
Marketing mix elements each have a number of controllable facets or vari-
ables tuned to specific markets and the markets for libraries and information
services vary enormously. This is why the various elements of the market-
ing mix are considered at greater length later in this chapter and promotion
and public relations discussed in the following chapter.
It is vital to remember that a marketing mix will change over time in accor-
dance with shifts in the macro- and microenvironments, with changes in
market segment characteristics (market segmentation is discussed in Chapter
6) and as and when the library or information centre’s own vision changes.
The four Ps
The consideration of the interaction of Product, Price, Place and Promotion
provides a valuable structure in working towards a set of strategies. When this
is coupled with substantial market information and used against a back-
ground of careful analysis of the micro- and macro-environment then
marketing objectives are more likely to be achieved:
• Product – all the product or service characteristics aimed at the target mar-
ket
• Price – the real cost to the customer or user, including other costs than solely
money
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• Place – everywhere and every way the product or service is made available
• Promotion – all the methods of communication used to reach the target mar-
kets.
McCarthy’s (1978) classic model of the four Ps – how the product or serv-
ice is best presented, in attributes, price, availability and promotion, to the
desired market segment – is a development of a theory put forward initially
by Neil Borden (1965). Borden’s mix is now more precisely found in mar-
ket research and market strategy.
Librarians and information professionals will need to know that extra ‘P’s
have been added to marketing mix considerations for service marketing:
• People – the people who play a part in service delivery
• Physical evidence – the environment for service delivery and any tangible rep-
resentation such as brochures or delivery vehicles
• Process – the activities by which the service is delivered.
For those new to marketing, these aspects are already implicit in every facet
of the existing four Ps. It is not particularly helpful to seek to pigeon-hole
all marketing mix elements in this way but they are useful reminders of what
might be considered.
The four Cs
The strategic change and approaches implied by Kotler’s four Cs will be a
more readily acceptable mix to many librarians and information profes-
sionals, who should nevertheless examine both marketing mix formulas
closely.
Philip Kotler, the ‘experts’ expert of marketing’, says that marketing must
focus more sharply on the customer. He convincingly argued that the seller’s
paradigm of the four Ps – product, price, place and promotion – should
become the four Cs of a buyer’s or customer’s mix as propounded by Robert
Lauterborn (1990) in an interview with Mazur (1991–2). Kotler’s name is truly
synonymous with marketing. The fact that just about every student and
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practitioner of marketing has studied and benefited from his work is a tes-
tament to his contribution to marketing thinking and practice.
In a customer-oriented marketing mix, product becomes value to the
client or user, i.e. customer value; price becomes cost to the customer and
includes time and energy cost; place for the customer is convenience and pro-
motion becomes communication. Librarians and information professionals
will, therefore, be looking to a marketing mix addressing:
• customer (user) value
• user convenience
• user cost
• user communication.
Some might argue that this is a mere play on words, but it does portray a mas-
sive shift in marketing management thinking, philosophy and strategy. The issue
is not what words are used but what is the best way to offer value to the user.
The marketing mix elements that the library or information service controls
‘can be used to satisfy or communicate with customers’ (Zeithaml and Bitner,
2000, 18). Interestingly, the customer charters that are now proliferating are
also examples of a paradigm shift toward customer satisfaction as a priority.
Creating the marketing mix
The marketing mix is not, as some writers misleadingly state, akin to a
recipe, for say a cake, implying that the ingredients work in stated amounts
in proportion to each other to produce a predictable outcome. The essen-
tial elements of the marketing mix must all be present, but in relation to the
specific library or information service, to individual products and services,
to the organization and its services at different times, the emphases in parts
of the mix will differ accordingly.
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Influence of the parent organization on marketing mixes
The markets for libraries and information services are profoundly affected
by how elements of the marketing mix – price, place and promotion – are
handled for the organization as a whole. To use an analogy, the soft drink man-
ufacturer offers a range of products and services, just as the library or
information service does. The markets will be diverse and often complex for
each product or service, but the response to those products and services will
be affected according to different market segments’ perception of the over-
all organization. When a new soft drink is launched, diet style or vitamin
enriched, in new bottles or Tetrapak, via supermarkets or expensive fitness
clubs, it is brought to the market in the light, or shade, of its parent company’s
image and reputation.
Marketing something entirely new is very much easier than attempting to
change a target market’s indifference to an existing service or to erase a poor
image and replace it with a more attractive, exciting service. Take the pub-
lic library and its education services for instance: how education services are
used will depend on how the library is perceived by different market segments.
Is it a quality organization, high-technology, budget-conscious, high-
performance – or old-fashioned? The public library is expected to offer
education materials and services to a massive range of market segments: the
under-fives, via their parents; schoolchildren; college and university students,
rising numbers of mature students; part-time and evening-class students who
are learning for pleasure; distance-learning students to whom the library build-
ing becomes their proxy educational institution; the unemployed who wish
to retrain; women returning to work; the third age, living longer and mak-
ing new demands on community services in enhancing their quality of life;
local businesses operating in-house training courses. A marketing mix for each
group served will have to be designed, but each of the target groups will already
have a perception of the public library or the local authority. The marketing
mix must take this into account and all the target markets need investigation
with this in mind.
What proportion of potential users is being attracted? How satisfied are
they with services? Who are the non-users and what are their reasons for non-
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use? What changes might be made to provide more effective services? And
how might products be augmented? Appropriate levels of materials; changes
to loan periods; more comfortable study areas; staff attuned to a different way
of treating requests for help; and a system to allow staff to offer a greater qual-
ity service in terms of time and depth: all these would be possibilities in the
marketing mix. The target markets’ attitudes to the parent organization can
either make for a receptive audience or a hostile one, and it is in this con-
text that research should be conducted, results considered and a marketing
mix designed.
Car manufacturing may provide interesting scenarios for librarians or
information professionals to consider. The car manufacturer is not divorced
from the specific model in customer’s mental maps when choosing a car. It
is vital that the company maintains a high profile and quality reputation. The
customer perception of the reputation of the car manufacturer will have a huge
bearing on choice. The company will be known for its levels of quality, reli-
ability, durability, budget pricing, design flair, high technology or
environmental concern. The specific model will be judged against that back-
ground and selected or rejected initially because of that perception. Some car
manufacturers have had to fight hard to live down past reputations for old-
fashioned design, rust corrosion or lack of spare parts; they have, however,
managed to revive interest in their vastly improved products.
How might this help the librarian and information professional? The
library or information service must also be seen as a quality organization offer-
ing a range of appropriate and effective products and services. Renault, Ford
and Toyota work as hard on their corporate image – networks of dealerships,
staff training, promotion work, after-sales service and the like – as they do
on the technical and aesthetic qualities of their individual car models. How
many, even of our specialist information services, contact users to discuss
whether they have problems that need addressing or merely to check that they
are satisfied with current levels of service?
Corporate image management is a vital foundation, and librarians and infor-
mation professionals will often find they need to win this battle first.
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Product and service/Customer value
Kotler (1984, 463) offered the following definition of product: ‘A product is
anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or con-
sumption that might satisfy a want or need. It includes physical objects,
services, persons, places, organizations, and ideas.’ In 2000 (394), he added
information:
A product is anything that can be offered to a market to satisfy a want or need.
Products that are marketed include physical goods, services, experiences, events, persons,
places, properties, organizations, information, and ideas.
What can be marketed and many of the products and services offered by
libraries and information services are discussed in Chapter 1. The message
is: product or service is anything that the library or information service is offering, or could
offer, that would be of benefit to users and potential users.
Services and products offered must present value to the user, over and above
actual cost. The design and quality of services are manifest in tangible fac-
tors such as timely, up-to-date, appropriate formats, and implicit in intangibles
such as staff motivation and training, effective use of resources, and knowl-
edge of user and client needs. The product line can be offered differently from
different market segments. Hotel chains offer different types of hotel and serv-
ice levels for a range of market segments; car models or pens are offered from
basic function to super de-luxe model. If this seems far removed from
libraries and information services, there are school library services in the UK
and USA offering gold-, silver- and bronze-level services according to sub-
scription paid.
Information services in industry and commerce are today managing infor-
mation resources and focusing on users, on the information requirements
of their individual clients. Their product is knowledge and their services
knowledge management and knowledge sharing. Their product is truly
competitive intelligence, a hugely valuable resource and driver in any com-
pany.
The same process can be seen happening in university libraries, which now
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often treat their undergraduate population differently from post-graduate stu-
dents in lending services, interlibrary loans and access facilities.
Look again at car manufacturers. They produce a range of models to suit
the needs of different market segments from small economical models to top-
of-the-range performance cars. Within each model there will be specifications
and features to attract buyers. A basic, small, economical model will offer bright
colours with lots of trims and a zippy image for the younger market. The same
model may suit mothers, who will look for safety, reliability, washability,
sturdiness, interior covers and childproof locks. The retired buyer may be
looking for a car to reduce running and maintenance costs and will consider
the same model. Moving through the product range there will be cars for the
family, for the business executive, the speed-seeker and the luxury lover.
Each group will be looking for a different set of characteristics or bene-
fits from what is basically the same form of transport. The manufacturer must
offer the most effective package – the additional benefits or services that aug-
ment the product – to meet those needs. Features offered, whether as
standard or optional, will help the manufacturer to differentiate the company’s
products from those of the competition. This is especially desirable in a mar-
ket where it is difficult to produce something really original and where the
concept of unique selling proposition (features unique to the particular product
or service) is not likely to apply very often.
The analogy of car manufacture can also help when it comes to thinking
of ways to make the product more attractive overall. The customer will be
looking for benefits, tangible benefits yes, but also, and perhaps uncon-
sciously, intangibles. Colour, a tangible feature, is a safety factor: according
to motor accident research, some colours make a car disappear in poor light
or bad weather. But colour is also tremendously effective in psychological
terms and while the range of car colours is staggering, the manufacturers are
trying to appeal to the complexity of psychological and physiological responses
that colour arouses. While colour research is expanding, few customers
could articulate the rationale behind choosing racing green or fiery red
rather than lime green or Nevada beige. Entrances to libraries and information
services are immensely important and discussed elsewhere in the text, but
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consider colour in this context and cover any Nevada beige as quickly as pos-
sible.
Innovation and creative approaches can enhance existing services or
develop new ‘offerings’ or products to answer the needs of the various
groups of the library’s users or the information centre’s clients. Academic
libraries can offer very different propositions to academic staff, research stu-
dents and undergraduates in their first year, in terms of access, loan
opportunities, and password-protected intranet sources and activities, plus
seminars for specific purposes in terms of information skilling, support for
research fund seeking or faculty tuition on sources specific to the subject area.
Public libraries can offer subject searching or alerting services to local busi-
nesses, specialist sessions akin to the ‘clinics’ of medical practices at appropriate
times of the week for mothers with children, retired groups, the young
unemployed, to add to the homework clubs now found in most libraries. Spe-
cialist libraries and information services will have their own subsets to cater
for and packaging may be quite literal in the provision of information and
materials, whether in terms of hard copy or web versions. Think of Parker:
they make pens, but they are really in the gift business and successfully pro-
vide the same functional implement, in appropriate packaging, to markets
ranging from schoolchildren to presidents.
Place/User convenience
Place is usually translated into ‘Distribution’ in a commercial marketing mix,
but suits admirably for libraries and information services, since it refers to where
and how a service is made available to the users and clients. That availability
may be via a telecommunications network as well as or instead of a geo-
graphical location, since point of access covers a huge variety of possibilities and
potential, as well as current practice, in the information world. The key word
is convenience, make a service convenient to the user and service use will grow
measurably. Thus a marketing mix for an educational institution, often with
a main campus library plus department libraries and collections, would make
a priority of a campus computer network to facilitate access to all sources.