Marketing Your Library Internally

© SD Information Services 2013
1
Marketing your Library
and Information Service
to internal customers
Shaida Dorabjee
Information management consultant
SD Information Services
2013
www.sdis.co.uk

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Nightmare scenario
 I don’t know who you are
 I don’t know what your department
does
 I don’t know your reputation
 Now, what do you want to sell me?

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Marketing
The aim of marketing is to know and understand
the customer so well the product or service fits
him and sells itself.
Peter F. Drucker 1909-2005 Management Consultant, Author
Marketing is ‘satisfying customer needs’. It is as
much attitude as action and as much perspective
as planning.
Marketing – An Introduction. Armstrong, Kotler, Harker and Brennan
2009

Internal Customers
 As important as external customers
 Includes all stakeholders:
 Users
 Non-users
and
 Budget holders
 Decision makers
etc

5
The Marketing Journey
Three steps to success
Research
Developing products
and services to meet
customer needs
Identifying/prioritising; Branding and packaging
Your profile/behaviour/culture; Delivering the goods and
messages; marketing plans
Organisational context; The information environment;
Customers/stakeholders; Competitors and
collaborators; Yourself
Communication
and delivery

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 What are the key industry, national and
international issues?
 What is occupying the minds of senior
management?
 How has your budget changed in the last two
years?
 What’s new in research / your graduate
programme at the university / your
membership?
 How are these functions themselves
changing?
Organisational context
Research

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 What are other organisations’ information
services doing?
 How are the producers/suppliers of
information and content operating?
 Are overall budgets increasing or decreasing?
 Is the focus of information services
changing?
 How is mobile technology affecting your
service?
 What benchmarking data do you have?
The information environment
Research

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Finding out
 Are you
 A member of any senior management teams
 Project groups
 Good at asking questions
 Good at your ‘lift talk’
 Do you
 Read the top level newsletters/magazines
 Make friends with those in corporate
communications
 Talk to peers in your external networks

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 They all have different needs
 Some stakeholders are not users of the
service
 Vital to segment the market and
categorise each group of stakeholders
Customers/stakeholders
Research

Stakeholder categorisation
(market segmentation)
 By type of user and influence
 Staff or students
 Managers, Academic staff
 CEO, Leadership Team
 Budget holders
 By extent of use
 New staff/students (users)
 Existing users who are established users
 Existing users who do not (and perhaps should)
use your services
 By function
 Scientists in a specific discipline
 Staff in specialist departments 10

Stakeholder analysis
 List your different key stakeholder
groups
 Rate Interest (in service/products) and
then Influence out of 10 and then add
together
• This will help to clarify and prioritise
what services should be provided and to
whom
11

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Internal and external
collaborators – or competitors
 Who are they
 What can they offer
 Can we collaborate with them

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 Your skills and expertise are also part of
the information service
 Do they match the characteristics
required of an info pro?
 What cpd is needed?
 Individuals have to be promoted as well
 You may need a plan for this
Yourself
Research

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Ideal skills and expertise
 Qualifications and experience
 Writing, presenting, thinking on your feet
 Passionate/enthusiastic about the service
 Inquisitive mind - the wider organisational
environment
 Generating new ideas/thinking laterally
 A business mind
 Quick to adapt and willing to take risks
 Higher profile

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Personal attributes
 The way you look, talk, think, and act
 Communication – visible,verbal and vocal
 Networking – understanding others
 Influencing – persuading, managing, and
influencing up
 Personal power – charisma, gravitas, self-
belief

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Information/Stakeholder AuditsUnderstanding your market (stakeholders) in order to
improve your service in line with business objectives and
stakeholder requirements
 Interviews, questionnaires or focus groups,
social media
 One-off poll on the intranet to a
comprehensive study lasting a few weeks.
 Qualitative or quantitative information
 Resources used
 Usefulness, quality
 Behaviours, attitudes and perceptions
 Opinions, suggestions, issues
Don’t assume you know

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Identifying the right products and services
Prioritising development/introduction
Branding and packaging
Developing products
and services to meet
customer needs

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‘Satisfying customer
needs’
 Look at what you offer to the customer
 Identify the right products and services
through analysis - Cost vs Value
matrix, SWOT or PEST analysis etc

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Is it really worth doing
Value
Cost
Low
High
Low High
Plot each product/service according to value and cost

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SWOT
 Strengths
 Weaknesses
 Opportunities
 Strengths
 Of yourselves, a product or the
service as a whole

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The marketing mix
The four Ps
Tactical tools that have to be blended to produce the desired response in the target market
• Product (solution)
•Re-evaluate your offerings and address staff expectations
•Pricing (cost, or ‘price’ paid by users):
–Cost of resources
–Time wasted in searching
–Convenience
–Ease of use
• Place (convenience/delivery channel):
–Mobile, I-pad, Intranet, web, etc
–Project meetings, lunch ‘n’ learn
• Promotion (communication):
–To raise awareness and increase demand
Plus two more…
•Positioning
•People

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Case study - Executive
Alerts
 Alerts of top level activities provided to
senior management
 Much resource into creating and
monitoring alerts
 Repositioned to appeal to all executives
as a ‘backgrounder’ to give them
information on specific
collaborators/competitors prior to
company visits

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Executive Alert
 Identified executives as a new target market
 Spoke to them about their work and information needs
through market research
 Evaluated the products and identified weaknesses in
existing product
 Developed – and repositioned the existing product to
appeal to them
 Rebranded the name and look of the Alert
 Through product development offered an ad hoc service
rather than regular Alert
 Introduced a new delivery method via a mobile app tool
 Tested it out on a few and improved through feedback
 Cultivated champions and publicised its existence
throughout

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Branding in the Library
 Logo
 Typeface, style, colour, position
(N.B. organisational style guidelines)
 Strap/tag lines
 Reminders eg expensive online
databases or “From the Library”
 Characteristics of information staff –
you are also the brand

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Identifying growth opportunities
Product-marketing expansion grid
(Ansoff’s Matrix)
Market penetration Product development
Market development Diversification
Existing products
Existing
markets
New
markets
New products
Increasing risk
Increasing
risk

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 Develop the message you want to
communicate
 Branding
 Has to be targeted
 Everyone has to be involved
Your profile/behaviour/culture; Delivering the message
Communication
and delivery

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Delivering the messages
 Six approaches
 The way you operate
 Influencing others
 Using social media
 Training
 Broadcasting
 Written communication
Your profile/behaviour/culture; Delivering the message
Communication
and delivery

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A marketing strategy and plan
why, what, how
 Aims of the organisation
 Strategic aims of the library and
information service
 Evidence from research activities to
support the aims and objectives
 Objectives for the service
 Segmentation of users
 Specific tasks and timetable for achieving
the objectives
 Outcomes and benefits expected
 Responsibilities, costs, timelines etc

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A marketing strategy and plan
Should:
 Reflect the organisation’s strategic aims,
style, timescales
 Be supported from the top
 Provide a framework for and guide to the
work of your service
 Win the hearts and minds of users
 Win the hearts and minds of information
staff
 Demonstrate value, backed up by
evidence

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Measures of success
 Availability
 Access
 Responsiveness
 Reliability
 Credibility
 Authority
 Accuracy
 Understanding
 Value
of :
The information resources
The service
The effectiveness of the staff

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Measuring how well your
marketing efforts have been
 Usage of products and services is monitored
and shows an increase
 Formal and informal surveys give favourable
and improved results
 There is raised awareness of information
services
 You are asked to participate in info-related
projects
 You have some good examples and ‘stories’ to
tell
 You are recognised wherever you go!

3232
Thank you!
Shaida Dorabjee
E-mail: sdorabjee@sdis.co.uk
Web: www.sdis.co.uk
SD Information Services
Trouble-shooting your information service
2013

Marketing Your Library Internally

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