Mohammad Hasham Ansari , Aleem

Akhtar Mohammad Asif Mustafa Khan

ABSTRACT
In this article efforts have been made to find out new ways and means for the
marketing of library and information services and products in the digital era
.i.e. Marketing concepts, components of marketing in initial stage of
marketing and basic skills necessary for it. Market oriented thinking is
necessity in today’s competitive world in digital era. There is a competition
not only among companies but also among non profit organizations. In this
article the need of marketing, its trinity concept, usefulness in libraries, and
method of providing “LIBRARY AND INFORMATION PRODUCTS AND
SERVICES”, guidelines and implementation of marketing and the feedback
mechanism for improvement in Digital Era has been discussed.
INTRODUCTION:

 Today we are living in the Knowledge age where in

Knowledge is the key to societal development; libraries and
information center are potential sources of revenue generation
if the resources of the libraries and information centres are
marketed. Library professional are today aware of the
advantages of marketing and the library literature is teeming
with concept of marketing, marketing plane and marketing
strategies, case studies on marketing of library and information
services. But libraries and information centers in India still
hinder marketing of knowledge products and services in
Libraries.
DEFINITION OF MARKETING:
PHILIP KOTLER: “Marketing is the Analysis, planning,
implementation, & control of carefully formulated programmes designed
to bring about voluntary exchanges of values with target markets for the
purpose of achieving organizational objectives. It relies heavily on
designing the organization’s offering in terms of the target market’s
needs & desires and on using effective pricing, communication &
distribution to inform, motivate & service the markets.”

MARKETING & LIBRARY RELATION:

 The library is considered as a non-profit organization. Therefore, it will
be more appropriate to put its marketing strategies under the category of
social marketing, the social marketing concept is:
“the organization task is to determine the need , wants, and interests of
target markets and to deliver the desired satisfaction more effectively
then competitors in a way that preserves or enhances the consumer’s and
the society’s well being”.
CONCEPT OF MARKETING:
From the above definitions the following major points are
describe.
Marketing is managerial process involving analysis, planning,
implementations and control.
Marketing is concerned with carefully formulated programmes.
Marketing seeks to bring about voluntary exchanges.
Marketing selects target market and does not see to do all things
to all people.
Marketing is directly correlated to the achievements of
organizational objective.
Marketing emphasize on the target markets (consumer or user)
needs as and desires rather on the products preferences.
PRE-REQUISITIES IN MARKETING:
 Marketing program of any organization encompasses various activities,
decision and policies. But those which are identified as being suitable to
enhance the library operations are:

 (a) MARKET RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS:

Market research and analysis provide the organization with information

necessary to analyze decisions regarding specific structure of the
marketing programme. It is essential for the libraries to conduct
marketing as due to the huge growth of literature in India the teachers,
students and research scholars have been finding it difficult to keep track
with the latest development in the subject of their
Concern to overcome this problem, different kinds of information services such as
abstracting and indexing services, state-of-the art reviews etc. have been started by
both profit and non-profit organizations at national and international level. Reddy
defines marketing research in the context of information environment as: the
systematic collection and analysis of information about services.
Market analysis is done to enable decision on:
Product design,
Strategies whether to introduce a new product,
The trade-off that are required to be considered when two or more alternatives are
available and
The priorities that need to be assigned to market segments, products, and the
marketing mix components.
In the context of academic libraries, the services of other libraries and information
centers, database vendors and commercial companies are analyzed.
(b) MARKET SEGMENTATION:-

Market segmentation aims at evaluating the total heterogeneous market into

homogeneous segments and deciding which segments require great priority.
This activity involves the identification of the users (target groups) actual
and potential and their needs assessment. Two or more consumers for a
particular product or service and grouped together so that their needs are
better served.
“Try to segment your users into different categories, identifying the most
important and most influential.”
Users should be the most important criteria to judge good management of
academic libraries and information centers. Library visitors, information
users, teachers and students form the most important components of the
academic libraries.
Management of these activities must first focus on the customer’s. In this
regard I quote the words of Mahatma Gandhi:
“A customer if most important visitor in our premises
He is not dependent on us
We are dependent on him
He is not an interruption on our work
He is the purpose of it
We are not doing a favor by serving him.
He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do.”

(c) MARKETING MIX:

Once, the marketing segments are established and needs of users are known, the marketing strategy
can be developed by the library using the marketing tool known as ‘marketing mix’. The term “ the
term marketing mix’ was first coined by Neil H. Borden to describe the combination of the fair
inputs which constitute the core of a company’s marketing system : the product, the palace or the
distribution system, the price structure, and the promotional activities, these four elements are
traditionally known as 4P’s (Product, Place Promotion and Price).
COMPONENTS OF INFORMATION MARKETING
The literature on marketing both in management and science
and library science appears to be unanimous in accepting the 4
P’s to be the ingredients of marketing i.e. product, place, price
and promotion.
The 4 P’s are the ingredients of successful marketing strategy
these ingredients have different components. All these have to
be mixed in the right promotion to achieve the desired results.
Hence these are also known as “Marketing mix”:
1. Product: - The product is the heart of the system it
proposed to be marketed. The products are produce by all
organizations which could be either tangible or intangible.
In marketing, product means both product and services e.g.
SDI services, or Journal circulation, are products etc. With the
advent of information technology, access to international
database, online research results on diskettes, database on CD
ROM also constitute information product.
Price: - Pricing of information services and product is relatively a new
concept. It has not been consider seriously since library services where
being provided “free”, but with the increased emphasis on
accountability and self sufficiency in relation to recourse it has been
come necessary to cost the various activities to recover cost as such as
possible further for the fact that information brokers and consults are
charging high fees for services provided and are their being successfully
is indicative of the users willingness to pay for good product.

Place (Distribution):- The way in which a product or services is to

distribute or where that is located (e.g., Are services delivered to
people’s mailbox, or do users have to fetch them?)
Promotion: - Promotion is an important in marketing mix, but it has received more attention then other
elements it is considered synonyms which marketing promotion is widely practiced by all library
information professionals.
Promotion uses all the tools of public relations persuasive communication, advertising, personal selling,
publicity and incentive. The purpose of promotion is to communicate, to convince and to compete,
promotion in library and information centers can be taken care in following way:

Personal Contact.
Public Relations.
Advertisement.
Personal selling.
Incentives.
Publicity.
PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT OF NEW
PRODUCTS AND SERVICES. :

New product planning and development usually

begins after market analysis, consumer research,
needs assessment and resource analysis. The
concept of ‘Product lifecycle’ is associated with
product planning. A product usually has four stage
lifecycle:

PRODUCT LIFECYCLE
Introduction
Growth
Maturity
Decline
 PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE:

New products are not always produced. Sometimes the old products
are repackaged and promoted in a different place or for a new segment
of consumers. The purpose is to promote the product initially with an
influential segment of the population whose support and satisfaction
will ensure that other sections of consumers probably will also
become consumers of the product.
• A new service can first be tested with few carefully chosen users whose comments
and suggestions may be taken into account in modifying the service, if necessary,
before launching it more widely, Academic librarians consciously build awareness of
new product and service soon after the service is introduced.
• Awareness is usually built through brochures, announcements, presentations,
personal selling and other promotional methods like display and charts. if the product
meets the expectations of the target group, demand for it will grow during the second
and third phase of its cycle.
• Finally, it is quite possible that the product or service is no longer capable of
satisfying needs possibly because of other better products or services that have since
appeared on the scene or because it is no longer cost-effective. When this happens,
the product is withdrawn and the user is encouraged to seek alternative products.
INFORMATON MARKETING
a) OBJECTIVES:-
Recognizing the vital of libraries in education and research the present
study has been undertaken with the following objectives:
1. To examine some approach of marketing products and services for
solving the problems of libraries in India
2. To examine the level of customer’s satisfaction for the products and
services offered with traditional methods;
3. To examine the new information and products and services which can
improve the collection of libraries; and
4. To examine the level of penetration already achieved by libraries.
b) NEEDS: -
 The present age is rightly characterized as the age of information. The
fact that information is a key for the economics, socio-cultural and political
development of a nation is gaining increasing acceptance.
This being so, availability of right information at right time and right cost becomes critical. It means that
LIMs will have to chip in accept the challenge and make it happen by playing a more pro-active role.
 LIMs will have to appreciate that just having information and storing it will serve no purpose unless it is
put to effective use by those who need it i.e. ,LIMs will have to bring the user and information closer.
Information Technology (IT) has ushered in a variety of media that can help LIMs in efficient and
effectiveness acquisition. Computer and CD-ROMs have found increasing acceptance in LICs;
multimedia has shown much potential for LICs; and information networks have broken down time and
space barriers. By virtue of using a variety of IT tools and techniques LICs are now able to generate
various kinds of information products and services in addition to performing the routine takes. However,
it is a little unfortunate that these remain largely under utilisized, or even in case, wholly unutilized.
c) TRINITY CONCEPT IN MARKETING: -

PRODUCT BOOK

MARKETING LIBRARY
STAFF READER
SELLER CONSUMER
• In a library book, staff and reader make a trinity. Without any of
these element library becomes non functional. In the same
manner, marketing also has a trinity product, seller and
consumer. Seller acts as a mediator between product and
consumer. Seller brings the product and consumer together.
In the context of library, consumer is the user, librarian is the seller who
creates different types of products and services keeping in mind the well
defined need of his/her users. In this trinity consumer is very important
element because if the consumer needs will not be fulfilled then there will
be no products and thus no seller therefore, consumer is very important.

• IMPLEMENTING MARKETING IN LIBRARIES:

• Implementing a marketing program in library involves the following steps:
The first step should be to formulate a marketing division in the library.
The head of marketing division should appoint ‘Marketing Consultant’ to
advise the division on different marketing strategies. He should be
responsible for carrying out a “Marketing Audit”.
FUNCTIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF A
MARKETING DIVISION

 The functions and responsibilities of a marketing division can be

listed as follows.

Establishing contact with other divisions of the library/information

center,
Give suggestions and recommendations to information services
division to create quality, timely, user targeted, reliable and
validated information products/services,
Developing efficient and effected methods for marketing,
Developing mechanisms to study user needs,
Developing pricing policies,
MARKETING OF LIBRARY AND INFORMATION
PRODUCTS AND SERVICES:
• All above mentioned marketing concepts can be applied to the
marketing of library and information services & products but when
we have to define what kind of marketing it is we have to study the
basic concept behind the library and information services.
• The basic nature of library services is related to some kind of advice
or search. There are more services than product involved in serving a
library clientele.
• In other words, marketing of LIPS means informing the user what
libraries can provide, how these can be obtained, what is the fee or
terms and conditions for obtaining LIPS, Assessment of user needs of
LIPS i.e. feed back from the users, improvement of LIPS within
certain limitations and public relations with the users of LIPS.
EXAMPLES OF LIBRARY & INFORMATION SERVICES
AND PRODUCT
Some of the library and information services and product which can be
marketed are given below:-
Access to Library and information resources.
Access to online networked based services such as delnet and internet.
Access to Audio Video Cassettes.
Access to CD-ROM.
Access to Library information resources to institutional membership.
Current Content.
Bibliographies, current awareness.
Indexed Bibliographies, abstracting bulletins, customer searches.
Digest extracts, descriptive review/trend, reports compilation.
Translation, editing, publishing, and reprographic services
Photocopying services.
Inter Library lending services.
Exchange of Publications.
Forthcoming conference/symposium seminar services.
SDI service to faculty members.
User’s education.
Organization of book exhibition, technical demonstrations.
Audio/Video Recording and displaying facilities.
Marketing of digital information resources.
Electronic Databases.
Print Databases.
Digital resources.
Training and consultancy.
FEEDBACK FOR IMPROVEMENT OF LIBRARY &
INFORMATION PRODUCTS AND SERVICES (LIPS)

• It is very essential to ascertain whether the LIPS being provided by the

institution concerned or being utilized by the end-users appropriately or not.
• The ways by which LIPS can be improved are given on next slide.

Meet the Members :-

• The meeting serves as an opportunity to have face to face interaction with
members to know the level of their satisfaction. It should be done after regular
intervals.
• The library staff should pay undivided attention to the users when he/she has
to say something. Because a library should project a positive image by
listening to the users which will pay rich dividends in the long run.


 User Survey:-
User survey should be done so as to know about
views of the users. It could be done with help of various
techniques like questionnaire, interview schedule. But both
the questionnaire as well as interview should be kept short
so as to encourage a better response frame the users.

 Suggestion Box :-
The library or information centers should maintain
suggestion box or registers where users can drop there
suggestions for improving (LIPS).
The feedback, thus obtained from above discussed
ways can help in improving or substituting the LIPS in
accordance with the requirements or expectations of the
users. This will lead to the optimum use of the available
LIPS and, thus archive the aim and objectives thereof.
 CONCLUSION
From the above discussion it is clear that the library can be called an information
market and the library user is a consumer. The present information society is Digital
Era and maximum literature is available in Electronic/Digital form. It is information
which revolutionizes the society. In such a society information forms the vital
resources and the key products. Therefore it is information marketing which will be
in the forefront of marketing arena. In this way the purpose of marketing
information products and services is to make service more responsible to user needs,
wants and improve people’s satisfaction. Like any other commodity information can
also be produced, sold and consumed.
In view of this, information marketing is very essential. Library acquisition,
organization and dissemination must be based on the modern concept of marketing
to achieve reader satisfaction. It must endeavor to nurture culture of customer
service to enhance its image in the eyes of the users.
Whether, the information is marketed with a price tag or without a price tag, with a
profit motive or without a profit motive, training for the information of the
worker /providers is necessary.
 REFERENCES

Kotler, Philip. (1995) Marketing for Nonprofit Organizations. 2nd ed.

American Marketing Association. Marketing News March 1985.
Indian Journal of Information Library & Society.
Encyclopedia Britanica.
The Marketing of Library and Information Services. Aslib. p. 298-320
Services Marketing. Zenithal A. Valerie 4th ed.
Services Marketing: People, Technology, strategy, 5th ed.
Seetharama, S (1990) Guidelines for Planning of Libraries and Information
Centers.
Mohammad Hasham Ansari (Research Scholar)
UPRTOU, Allahabad U.P.
Phone No :09319774928
Email : hashim_lis18@yahoo.co.in

Aleem Akhtar (Librarian)

Khandelwal College of Management and
Technology, Bareilly, (UP).
Phone: +91-9286139008
Email: akhtar.aleem@hotmail.com

Mohammad Asif Mustafa Khan (Librarian)

Indian Business Academy, Plot No -44,
Knowledge Park 3rd Greater Noida, (UP).
Phone No: +91 -9891639305
Email: akhan@ibagreaternoida.org