Mohammad Hasham Ansari , Aleem Mohammad Hasham Ansari , Aleem Akhtar Mohammad Asif Mustafa KhanAkhtar 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 andThe 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 premisesHe is not dependent on usWe are dependent on himHe is not an interruption on our workHe is the purpose of itWe 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 MARKETINGThe 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 IntroductionGrowthMaturityDecline

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 MARKETINGa) 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: -

MARKETING LIBRARY

• 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.

SELLER

PRODUCT

CONSUMERSTAFF

BOOK

READER

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 servicesPhotocopying 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.

CONCLUSIONFrom 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-

320Services 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 :09319774928Email : hashim_lis18@yahoo.co.in

Aleem Akhtar (Librarian)Khandelwal College of Management andTechnology, Bareilly, (UP).Phone: +91-9286139008Email: akhtar.aleem@hotmail.com

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