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Services Marketing Mix in Library and Information Centres

Anil Kumar Dhiman
Information Scientist
Gurukul Kangri University
Haridwar (Uttarakhand), India
akvishvakarma@yahoo.com

Hemant Sharma
Reader & Head
SOS in Library & Information Science
Jiwaji University, Gwalior (Madhya Pradesh), India
hsharma@yahoo.com

Abstract depends among other thing on its image in the minds

Services marketing mix is the planned package of
elements that makes up the product or service offered to
the market. It can also support library and information
services to reach target markets and specified objectives.
This paper discusses services marketing mix concept
and its application in library and information centres
(LICs).
Keywords: Marketing Mix, Library and Information
Centres, 4 Ps Model, 7 Ps Model.
Introduction
The philosophy of librarianship encompasses the
fundamental principles on which the practices,
techniques, and activities of libraries and information
centres are based. These principles serve as
guidelines for successful librarianship and as a means
for resolving problems. Marketing is a set of activities
by which the demand for goods, ideas, and services
is managed to facilitate exchange (Kotler, 2000). It is
a planned strategic approach of bringing together
consumers and the products. The integration of
marketing into library services is helpful because it
reinforces and reiterates the basic values and beliefs
of the profession in the changing environment.
The most widely believed notion about library service
is that its primary aim is to provide the right information
to the right user at the right time, but today’s libraries
are becoming obsolescent owing to poor approach of
modern marketing strategies. New business
information enterprises have emerged to challenge and
compete with libraries. Besides, information and
communication technology has also changed the way
of library management (Dhiman and Rani, 2004, 2005).
It is rightly stated that “While libraries have been
closing or struggling to stay afloat enterprising
companies have begun to discover the commercial
potential of what we do, and are competing with us to
sell much of the information the public has declined
to pay for through taxes.” So, the survival of a library
of the users and the fund allocators. This image as
narrated by Narayana (1991) should be “the outcome
of the quality and effectiveness of the services, the
ability to anticipate the desires and requirements of
actual and potential users and their fulfillment.
Marketing is the instrument through which these
library objectives can be fulfilled.” Besides, there is
also an increasing competition for libraries as the
commercial sector began to recognize the profit
potential of the information super highway.
Snoj and Petermanec (2001) opined that librarians
need to comprehend marketing orientation as well as
have know-how of marketing as a process. Possession
of marketing skills will contribute to better
performances, more aggressive marketing and
professional library and information service. In order
to remain viable in the environment of competition from
other information sources such as Internet and web-
based commercial services, libraries must market their
services to make strong connection with community,
anticipate trends and use new technology in ways to
make services as timely and convenient as possible
for their patrons (Lankes et al., 2006). Therefore, in
order to survive and surpass other competitors,
libraries must have to follow modern marketing
principles.
Services Marketing Mix
Marketing mix is the key concept in the marketing
task. It is the strategy used to perform marketing
functions. Marketing mix according to De Aze (1985)
is the planned package of elements which will support
the organization in reaching its target markets and
specific objectives. Marketing mix helps to position
the library or information service very firmly in the
perceptions of their communities served – the wider
community for the public library, academic community
for the academic library or the clients and customers
for the business or specialist information service.
ANIL KUMAR DHIMAN AND HEMANT SHARMA
Marketing mix needs more properly to be termed
marketing mixes, to encourage librarians and
information managers to perceive the value of different
marketing mixes for specific market segments or
groups of users. These are inter-related, inter-
dependent, and also a combination of many factors.
Four Ps
All marketing decision-making can be classified into
four strategy elements, referred to as the marketing
Figure 1: 4 Ps Model of Marketing Mix
Product
A product is anything that can be offered to a market
to satisfy a need or want. The products, which can be
marketed, include physical goods, services, persons,
places, organizations, and ideas. In the deeper sense,
the product is not a physical item but a perception of
the consumer or the user. Product means the
satisfaction of the customer rather than a physical
good. Goods are ingredients of customer satisfaction.
Marketing mix is the process or device that makes
this customer satisfaction.
All of the services offered by the library – lending
services, inter library loan, on-line searching, house-
bound readers’ services, picture loans etc. are library’s
products that can be marketed successfully. Library
can provide bibliographic information, abstracts and
summaries of information, which disseminate the core
level information. Books, databases, journals,
bulletins, etc. represent the tangible information.
Library can also augment information through quality,
reliable, speedy and timely professional services.
Under the product mix, library’s resource collection
represents as a product line while product items
include books, periodicals, videos, films, audio
recordings etc. For further fact, services of the library
can be considered as a product line and the circulation
of library materials, ILL, reference services, and on-
line searching represent as product items.
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mix or the four P’s: Product, Price, Place, and
Promotion. As each library product or potential product
is analyzed and developed for its target customer, it
must be viewed with the four P’s in mind. McCarthy’s
(1978) classic model of the four Ps – how the product
or service 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 market research and market
strategy.
Place
It represents the distribution channels that an
organization utilizes to convey its own physical
products or services to the end users. The distribution
of the library’s products refers to ‘When’ ‘Where’ and
‘How’ service is made available for the user. ‘When’
implies the time period in which information is
provided. ‘Where’ indicates the location of the services
and ‘How’ constitutes the type of distribution.
Price
It is a flexible and dominant element, which determines
the revenue/profitability/market share for the
organization. From the customer’s viewpoint price is
a determinant factor because most customers
depending on their income level consider the price
before they purchase the product. The concept of price
constitutes two different types – the monetary price,
and the social price. Monetary price implies the
payment of certain sum by the customer, and the
social price refers to the additional effort that the
customer must make in order to obtain access to a
product. Price for the product is set when the
organization introduces or acquires a new product.
Price can be revised to match the change of the
product.
Librarians should consider the ‘monetary price’
concept as well as the ‘social price’ concept when
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the price is decided for library products. In calculation
of monetary price, factors such as size of the demand,
cost for the product, and the impact of the competition
must be taken into account. Real value of the product
can be ascertained by the practice of cost analysis.
Costing is important even when a service is provided
free of charge. Social price is related to determine
the needs, wants, and interests of target markets and
to deliver the desired satisfaction more effectively and
efficiently.
Promotion
This involves the communication that marketer
engages in with the customers in order to acknowledge
the product. The basic aim of library promotion is to
select a technique that can encourage the recipient
to respond either by buying or requesting further
information, or by filling the promotional material away
for the use in the future.
While these four factors are important individually, their
real significance lies in the mix, the unique way they
are combined into a careful plan or strategy.
The services marketing mix is an extension of the 4-
Ps framework. The essential elements of product,
place, price and promotion remain same but three
additional variables – people, physical evidence and
process – are included to 7–Ps mix. The need for the
extension is due to the high degree of direct contact
between the continuing education providers and the
customers, the highly visible nature of the service
process, and the simultaneity of the production and
consumption. While it is possible to discuss people,
physical evidence and process within the original-Ps
framework (for example people can be considered part
of the product offering) the extension allows a more
thorough analysis of the marketing ingredients
necessary for successful services marketing.
Librarians and information professionals also need to
know that extra ‘P’s have been added to marketing
mix considerations for service marketing. Extra P’s
are :
People – People are the staff who occupy the key
position in influencing customer’s perceptions of
product quality because of the simultaneity of
production and consumption in services the continuing
education. In fact the service quality is inseparable
from the quality of service provider. An important
marketing task is to set standards to improve quality
of services provided by employees and monitor their
performance. Without training and control employees
tend to be variable in their performance leading to
variable service quality. Training is crucial so that
employees understand the appropriate forms of
behaviour and trainees adopt the best practices of
the analogy.
Physical evidence – It is the environment in which
the service is delivered and any tangible goods that
facilitate the performance and communication of the
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service. Customers look for clues to the likely quality
of a service also by inspecting the tangible evidence.
For example, prospective customers may look to the
design of learning materials, the appearance of
facilities, staff, etc.
Process – Process means procedures, mechanism
and flow of activities by which a service is acquired.
Process decisions radically affect how a service is
delivered to customers. The service in continuing
education includes several processes, e.g. first
contact with customers, administrative procedure
regarding course delivery, preparation, delivery and
evaluation of the courses. In library and information
centres, new technology can be employed to provide
better services at lower costs and high quality staff is
to be recruited. The staff should be treated well and
be communicated clearly because their attitudes and
behaviour are the keys to service quality and
differentiations.
Applying Marketing Mixes in Library and
Information Centres
The markets for libraries and information services are
profoundly affected by the elements of the marketing
mix that are handled for the organization as a whole.
To use an analogy, the soft drink manufacturer 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 overall organization. When a new
soft drink is launched, diet style or vitamin enriched,
in new bottles, 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. The
library or information service must also be seen as a
quality organization offering 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?
Marketing an entirely new product is 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 public 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;
ANIL KUMAR DHIMAN AND HEMANT SHARMA
school children; 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 building
becomes their proxy educational institution; the
unemployed who wish to retrain; women returning to
work; the third age, living longer and making 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- 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 quality service
in terms of time and depth – all these would be
possibilities in the marketing mix.
The promotional activities may vary depending on the
type of library (public, academic, or corporate) and
on its respective marketing objectives and goals.
Information technology has also affected the way of
promoting and providing services to its readers
(Dhiman, 2003, 2006 & 2008a). Some initiatives may
as be as under (http://www.arnoldit.com/articles/
PDF_Web/article1988/chap5_MarketMix.pdf):
Special Libraries
The mission of many corporate libraries is to sell the
library’s function within the company. The marketing
thrust generally is to develop targeted information
products and services and create an indispensable
service department. Some ideas to consider are:
l Write a brochure describing the library and its
services; distribute it throughout the corporation,
targeting heavy information users in marketing,
sales, after sales support, and research groups.
l Send a memorandum introducing the library to
all new employees to participate in all new
employee orientation programmes.
l Announce all new library services, acquisition and
staff expertise.
l Make presentations to such information hungry
groups as marketing, sales and strategic planning.
Highlight the new technologies and information
available that relates to their corporate function.
l Write articles for the corporate newsletter and
other internal publications that are distributed to
key departments or groups.
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l Prepare quarterly or annual reports on the library’s
progress and future plans for management. Include
evidence of where the library has had direct impact
on the corporation’s effectiveness; for example,
the money saved or productivity improved may
be included in the company’s annual report.
l Know your management’s goals and information
needs. Supply executives with tailored information,
such as a clipping service about competition,
market conditions, or a consultant’s analysis of
your firm’s products.
Academic Libraries
Academic libraries can enhance their image as the
intellectual centre for the university’s faculty and
students by applying marketing concepts.
l Write stories for the university newsletter on topics
such as new information technologies available
at the library.
l Organize seminars to promote underused
reference materials, underutilized reference skills,
and new information technologies, such as online
searching.
l Participate in freshman orientation; organize visit
to the library and give a refresher course on
research methodology.
l Work with department chairmen in collection
management and publicize holdings within these
groups.
l Include the library in the university’s promotional
literature.
l Reach out to disciplines where online research
can benefit teachers and the students.
Public Libraries
The large group of population is the ultimate target of
public libraries. For this a public library may:
l Sponsor a Little League team in your community;
host breakfasts for community business leaders
and donate books to charities or local hospitals.
l Target a group of citizens – for example, parents
and children, senior citizens, local businesses-
and develop a newsletter aimed at their information
needs.
l Prepare an annual report in which you present
your image to the community in terms of the
benefit return on investment in the library. Try a
new format such as a videotape.
l Write articles or editorials for local press about
the value of the library’s products and services,
stressing the totality of the institution.
l Use CD-ROM or DVDs technology as a magnet
to pull patrons to the reference service with a
media campaign.
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Conclusion
The marketing mixes aim at communicating effectively
with the ‘publics’ of the library or information service
and satisfying target user, client and customer needs.
It is a significant and substantial part of marketing
policy that supports the mission and corporate image
of the library or information service. Marketing policy
must have serious resources to underpin it. Its
success could mean the difference between merely
surviving and real growth and development, and this
success is very largely based on understanding
market need. But we should never forget that it is the
user who drives marketing and shapes the service
and we, the librarians must keep the needs and wants
of users in the forefront when planning for services
and programs, including Library 2.0 connecting
information literacy, virtual learning and social
technologies. So our approach should be customer
focused (Gupta and Jambhekar, 2002).
“Go where the users are”, this should be applied to
delivery of library services and to marketing the library
products. New resources are available and new ways
exist to market library services, communicate the value
of the library, respond to increasing demands for
mobile services, and meet the growing need to
integrate delivery of services for users involved in online
communities. The banks have become bright, friendly,
customer-comfortable places, where tellers are at open
desks, their names and smiles openly displayed from
awe-inspiring, gloomy, miserable halls of
unapproachable tellers imprisoned by high barriers and
grills. Can the libraries not copy banks in the way
that they have their image and public perceptions
successfully? For the purpose, the librarians and
library staff need to be educated and trained (Dhiman,
2008b; Dhiman and Sharma, 2009). They can learn
from other services; not every service or individual can
afford to be at conferences, national or international,
but simply traveling to a neighbouring authority or
another library in the same region can often produce
fruitful ideas.
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