The competition can be your friend

To piggyback on my post from yesterday, it’s not only important to keep on top of changes in your community, but you also need to keep a sharp eye on the competitive landscape.  An article from yesterday’s WebProNews explains how to do just that by conducting a competitive marketing analysis.  The first step is to figure out exactly who those competitors vying for your patrons’ attention are.  Google comes to mind, of course, but I also think of the physical places where people go to study and socialize.  I know a number of our students hang out at Panera and Starbucks where wireless Internet connections make it easy to get work done (and it doesn’t hurt that they have food!).  It might be helpful to think about what things people come to the library for (quiet study, community, reading and research materials) and then think of who else out there is trying to satisfy the same needs.  Along those same lines, you can also look at those services that are aimed at your same target market (undergraduates, senior citizens, etc.).  The list gets pretty long!  These businesses must be doing something in particular to appeal to our patron base, and you could learn something from their strategies, even if you only learn what not to do.  

The next piece of advice from the article is to shop the competition.  I whole-heartedly agree with this.  Next time you go to a hotel, bookstore, or retail outlet (really any service provider) dissect your experiences to see what makes those businesses tick.  Recently, I filled out a survey for a hotel I stayed at and I was pleasantly surprised that an actual human being read my survey and addressed all of the major points in it.  Needless to say, I’ll be going back.  But more importantly, I learned an important lesson about service and following through with personalized attention.  Even if you don’t shop with direct competitors, you’ll be surprised how many marketing ideas you can generate just by keeping your eyes open.  There’s always a new niche we can fill or innovative approach we can try.  That’s the fun (and challenge) of marketing!

For skeptics out there

If you have colleagues out there who aren't sold on the whole marketing "thing," here's a perfect example from OCLC of why marketing/market research is not just relevant, but downright imperative. Is it time for you to do an environmental scan?

Tool-time for marketers

Lots of marketing tools, tips and training opportunities have been cropping up this week.  Here’s some I’ve stumbled upon:

OPAL is hosting some webinars that look promising for librarian-marketers.  If you work with older adults at your library, you may want to peek in on Library Services for Older Adults: Preview of the White House Conference on Aging.  It takes place on Thursday, November 17, 2005 beginning at 3:00 p.m. Eastern.  If promotion through podcasting is your cup of tea, get in on Podcasting:  An Introduction on Thursday, December 8, 2005 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern.  Added bonus:  they’re free!

Another tool you may find useful comes from Emerald by way of its new Librarian Toolkit, which contains posters, presentations, suggested e-mails and step-by-step guides to name a few items.  [The Toolkit was noted by Chris Olson on the AcademicPR listserv – thanks for sharing!].

KnowThis.com has come out with its latest piece of its Principles of Marketing Tutorial:  Distribution Decisions.  While not all of this will be relevant for us, distribution is an absolutely crucial piece of the marketing mix and an important one to be familiar with.  You may want to pay particular attention to the Marketing Issues in Channels segment.  In my unbiased opinion (ha!), I think that RSS is a very attractive distribution channel for us librarians, and it just so happens that MarketingProfs.com has been featuring a lot of articles on this topic including The Full Circle of RSS, Your 7-Step RSS Marketing Plan and What is RSS and Why Should You Care? (free registration required for this one).

Take a minute (please) to read over a recent Church of the Customer blog post called, Corporate evangelism vs. customer evangelism.  The post outlines the differences between these two kinds of evangelism and describes the “customer loyalty ladder.”  I’m excited by the idea of making the most of our patron-evangelists in spreading the word about how great our services are.  The key to accomplishing this, according to the authors:  a welll-defined cause.  Another post from COC refers to a series of posts from BeConnected that give pointers for creating spread-worthy e-mail newsletters – Good stuff!

That’s it for now! Choose your marketing tools wisely! ;)

Free, on-demand marketing webcasts available

ON24 launched a Integrated Marketing Best Practices Webinar Series offering free webcasts led by marketing experts. The 3 topic areas are:

• Real Impact: Dove's Real Beauty Campaign


• Top 5 Trends & Dangers in IT Marketing


• Developing a Strategic Marketing Plan

They each run 60 mins. (audio) and you can listen to them any time you want. For more details about the content, check out the press release. Free registration is required and I'm guessing you may get added to some mailing lists (it's marketing, after all!). I haven't listened to any of these yet but the Strategic Marketing Plan catches my eye. Also, I've heard a lot of talk about the Dove campaign, and it might be nice to see if there are any strategies we can adopt. If I do give these try, I'll let you know how it goes.

Take it to the polls!

If you haven't checked out Harris Interactive's web site in while, it's worth the trip. Harris Interactive is one of the country's largest market research firms and conducts fascinating surveys on all kinds of topics.

A recent survey conducted by Harris and the Public Relations Society of America polled business executives, congressional staff and the average consumer to find out their opinions of various marketing methods. Among other things, the survey revealed that only 16% of the general public approves of pop-up ads and 17% approves of text messages. Here's a related press release and you can find complete results on the PRSA web site (although I had trouble viewing them from the computer I'm on now). Hopefully, Harris will post a summary soon along with the other poll summaries from 2005. Check out the 2005 list and you may find other survey results of interest. One in particular you may want to peruse is about consumers' acceptance of new technology.

Survey results like these can be a great help in guiding your marketing decisions!

Your brand, their blog

More and more consumers are distrustful of company sponsored marketing and are taking it upon themselves to own the brand. One area where this is most apparent is in the blogosphere. A New York Times article (via CMO blog) discusses the many brand blogs out there. These bloggers discuss their opinions, angst and elation about their favorite brands, which seems to generate a lot of interest from fellow consumers who tend to trust peers over the company line. Companies, in turn, are looking at brand blogs as continuous focus groups to better understand how users perceive their products. The examples are abundant, but here are some from the article for starters: Starbucks, Disney, and Gatorade.

Brand blogs offer a heck of an opportunity for librarians too! Not only can libraries scan blogs for mentions of libraries to better understand patrons' points of view, but why not turn over a blog to your patrons to generate word-of-mouth? Sure, there's some risk involved here. It means giving up some control and turning over a piece of your brand identity to your users, but the payoffs could be worth it. One library I mentioned in my Internet Librarian presentation is doing just that. Take a look at Roselle Library's Blogger Book Club where anyone interested in children's literature can contribute. Ceding control can make anyone a tad uneasy, but the new marketing reality is that patrons are just as much involved in creating our brand as we are and we're missing an opportunity if we ignore this trend.

If this idea gets your creative juices flowing, you may want to drop in a the blog Micro Persuasion where the author discusses how new technologies are shaping marketing.

D-lightful marketing

Customer service is where the "marketing rubber" meets the road, so to speak. And if you think you're doing it right, you may want to think again. An article from Harvard Business School's Working Knowledge found that when they surveyed 362 firms, 80% of them thought they provided "superior" service, but only 8% of customers thought so! The study found that those who got it right followed 3 D's: designing the right offers and experiences, delivering those propositions, and developing their capabilities. The authors make excellent points about customer advocacy, gathering and analyzing feedback and training employees.

Engaging America's youth - an IMLS initiative

The Institute of Musuem and Library Services released details about their Engaging America's Youth initiative. The intiative focuses on children ages 9 to 19 and will "examine what works, share best practices, encourage more effective programming, and build bridges among libraries, museums, and public policy makers." The Institute's web page has the full scoop!

Just read it!

"Just read it" is a slogan that will be gracing the sides of buses in the Boston area. An article from the Boston Herald details the $120,000 promotional campaign that is underway to increase awareness of what the libraries have to offer. Is this a worthwhile venture? As one librarian states in the article, "There's nothing wrong with advertising something that belongs to the people. There are people who don't know about the resource, and it's an amazing, amazing resource - the palace of the people"

Alluring lattes (and more!)

An article about the University of Minnesota's efforts to lure in undergraduates outlines the creative steps librarians have taken to compete for students' interest. Like other university libraries, UM librarians aimed to address the particular needs and preferences of undergrads by adding a coffee bar, comfy chairs and more computers. Most interesting, UM spent 18 months developing an "Undergraduate Virtual Library," chock full helpful resources tailored to undergraduates including an assignment calculator and a Google-esque search interface. Excellent! If anyone knows more details about this project, I'd love to hear about how this developed. Talk about marketing in action!

Much ado about branding

A brief but good article from Forbes.com appeared today called Building a Better Brand. The author discusses steps companies, and service providers in particular, are taking to manage their brands. Importantly for us, one source said, "service companies are most dependent on customer contact experiences to manage their brands, since it's mostly people rather than products driving the consumers' satisfaction. Few things can hurt a brand's word of mouth like a rude hotel desk clerk, a high-pressure stockbroker or a perpetually late airline with unsympathetic flight attendants." Something to think about for us librarians too!

Also, the article references a Forbes.com special report on communicating. I haven't read it over yet myself, but it looks like an incredible resource! For library-types, it includes sections on "Cutting Edge Computer Interfaces," "Coolest Communication Devices of the Future," and "Ten Things you Communicate Unintentionally."

If you got it, flaunt it

An article from Entreprenuer.com outlines ways you can use speaking gigs to connect with your target audience. The first thing to do is track down your target market and then find an audience within that market that might benefit from what you have to say. The article mentions Chambers of Commerce and industry associations as examples. Once you have the opportunity to speak, make it count by offering solutions to real problems, collect contact information, etc. This strikes me as particularly useful advice for business audiences, but may be adapted for others as well. Read over the article for more tips and advice.

Put your money where your value is

A terrific post to what has become one of my favorite blogs outlines how to spend your marketing and ad budget (even if you don't have one). What I like about the author's ideas is that they are not only exceptionally creative and innovative, but people-oriented. Marketing, to a large degree, is about making people happy (satisfying needs). To do this effectively, both users and employees require close attention, as the post illustrates nicely.

Marketing opportunities for librarians

Here are a couple of marketing opportunities that have popped up recently:

• Submissions for the John Cotton Dana Library Public Relations Award are requested. The Award "honors outstanding library public relations, whether a summer reading program, a year-long centennial celebration, fundraising for a new college library, an awareness campaign or an innovative partnership in the community." Submissions are due December 9, 2005.
• Registration is open for the ACRL Midwinter Workshop Creating a Marketing Plan for your Academic and Research Library to take place Friday, January 20, 2006, 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., San Antonio, Texas. More info here.

Try This Tuesday

For this week's "Try This," I'm highlighting a new marketing trend called, appropriately enough, Tryvertising. According to TrendWatching.com, Tryvertising is, "a new breed of product placement in the real world, integrating your goods and services into daily life in a relevant way, so that consumers can make up their minds based on their experience, not your messages." The idea here is to allow customers to experience your service firsthand in a context that is relevant for them to understand what you have to offer.

Who's doing it? Lots of businesses are Tryvertising such as hotels, bars and restaurants, and even schools are in on it. It remains to be seen if this strategy can work for libraries. Since library services are free and fairly low-risk to begin with, there is probably little need to "try before you buy." However, the idea of delivering these services in contexts relevant to patrons (other than the library) might be worth consideration. For instance, maybe a library kiosk loaded with health resources in major health care provider locations could be effective.

Since we'll be seeing more Tryvertising in our day-to-day life, it's worth knowing about. And, who knows? It might even inspire some creative library marketing ideas!

Money can't buy you (marketing) happiness

The days when big bucks could buy marketing successes are quickly slipping away, or at least so says a couple of business consultants out of Minnesota. In their article, they argue that a good story well-told, creative promotions that spark conversation and value-added services are the "new" ways to reach people. They also note that people are seeking personal connections with companies, not just a series of nameless, faceless interactions. These trends are consistent with what's going on in the marketing world and are worth considering. It doesn't take piles of money, but today's marketing takes effectively relating to people on a personal level.

This week in marketing

My favorite marketing site is at it again! KnowThis.com now offers Marketing Stories for the Week. One you may want to check out this week is This is Your Marketing Campaign on Steroids. (Available via RSS)

Pitfall prevention

Stop on over to Forbes.com to peruse Nine Major Marketing Mistakes.  For my money, the top 3 hit close to home.  What are the top 3 mistakes, you ask?  They are (drum roll please):  me-too thinking, overly-complicating offerings, and underestimating the role of perception.  Judge for yourself!

Gone for a bit

I'm off to beautiful Monterey, CA tomorrow morning (very, very early) for the Internet Librarian conference. I'll be speaking on Tues. in a session called Marketing the Weblog. I hope I'll see some of you there. Please say hello! I'll continue blogging away when I'm back on Thursday.

Feeds, they are a changin'

It’s now fall. The air is crisp, the leaves are changing color, and my blog is making a move over to LISNews! I was very excited to be asked to contribute to LISNews’ brand spanking new marketing section (thanks, Blake!). It’s still a work in progress. I’ll be working on getting the design and title worked out in the near future (after I get back from Internet Librarian), but until then things will be in limbo for a bit. I’ve already put up a couple of posts you can check out. I will let you know how to update your feeds and all that stuff once things are settled (I don’t want to lose any of you!).

Now, here’s where I’d like help from all of you wonderful readers. This move is an opportunity to start from scratch in some ways and I’d like to get your ideas. Consider it an exercise in participatory marketing:

• The name: Should I change the name of the blog? What should it be?
• Any features or design elements you’d like to see?
• Anything else?

Please leave a comment and let me know!

Playing catch-up

Time to catch up with a few library marketing news items I’ve been meaning to tell you about!:

• The October issue of Marketing Treasures is out and a good read!


• Get to know the lingo – A brief article in the Poughkeepsie Journal (great name!) outlines the deference between marketing, public relations and advertising.


• Check out how the Montana State Library is reaching out to seniors through a publicity campaign called What’s Your Story.


• Too much great stuff to mention in this week’s MarketingProfs newsletter.  (You do get their feed, right?)


• A short article in Myrtle Beach Online lays out the basics of word-of-mouth advertising and “preaching to the choir.”


• Stop by and take a peek at the September/October issue of Marketing Library Services.  The free article features derby-racing librarians!

Whew!  Marketing news waits for no one!  Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Business 2.0 marketing stuff

Business 2.0 has selected a list of marketing sites that appear to be pretty useful. Take a gander!

Speaking of branding

On the topic of branding, the It's all good blog has a couple of, well, good (of course) recent posts (here and here).

What are you all about?

Interesting article featured on Forbes.com Monday about brand identity and how some companies like Coke have muddled their personality with too many confusing brand images.  The author argues that sticking to your positioning strategy for the long haul pays off.  I’d have to agree.  Consumers are overwhelmed with marketing messages, a problem that’s made worse by fuzzy brand identities.  If you can find a brand that captures what you’re about and be persistent with it, people will be more apt to instantly recognize you and your message.  I do think that libraries, like business, have their own personalities.  When I walk into different libraries, I usually find a distinct “feel.”  Portraying that sense through branding could go a long way toward helping our promotion efforts.  Doing so usually starts with finding out where patrons currently position us and then repositioning that image as necessary.

For those of you in my neck of the woods (Maryland, Virginia and D.C.), you may be interested in some related CAPCON courses on the subject taught by Chris Olson (author of Marketing Treasures).  Sessions include Branding 101 and Planning Library Promotion Campaigns.

Try This Tuesday

I'm still thinking through this idea for "Try This Tuesday," but I thought I'd throw it out there for those of you who can pick it up and run with it. Why not try experimenting with unique ways to package your existing services to make them easier to shop around? One comment I get over and over from students is "Wow! I didn't know you could do (or have) all this stuff!" Part of this promotional problem has do to with the fact that we have so much "stuff" to offer, and much of it can be complicated to explain. A possible solution is breaking down our offerings into easily digestible chunks based on the needs we serve. In the academic setting, we do this to a small degree. Usually, we don't get much further than grouping our services by majors or rank (undergraduate, faculty, etc.). My impression is that public libraries also rely on demographics, mainly age, to group services (adults, children, teens, etc.). These groupings make sense and often relate to the nature of the information we provide. I'm certain, though, that there are other, possibly better, ways to bundle our service offerings, which don't necessarily entail developing new services. Maybe we have a service package for "Students-on-the-go," where we describe our chat and telephone reference services, a basic general database, instructions on how to get online from off-campus, and our citation management software. We could then shop that package around to off-campus students and other relevant groups. Like I said, it's an idea in progress, but I think it has potential. Give it a try! (That's what Tuesday's are for, after all).

[Update: I forgot to mention that the "digestible chunks" concept was described in the Creating Customer Evangelists webcast I wrote about in Sept., if you want more details.]

Live from Omaha

Here's a story about a library marketing campaign out of Omaha, Nebraska. The director wants to increase the number of people who hold library cards by emphasizing the convenience of using library resources from home and the ability to download materials like audiobooks. What was most neat to see was a local news reporter showing viewers how easy it is to use the library's website and materials (I haven't see that on my local news!). You can view the news clip from the article.

Who you gonna call?

If you're a college student and need information, odds are you're going to turn to a search engine to find what you need. No big surprise for us librarians, but it's a bit surprising (disturbing?) how much they trust what they find. According to a study by Yahoo! Search Marketing (via MarketingVOX), the trustworthiness of a web site is second only to info from family and friends, but not by much. Sixty-five percent said family and friends were the most trustworthy; 63% said that keyword searches were most reliable. (!) What does this mean? For advertisers, it's a good bet they'll continue to plunk more and more money into online ads. For librarians, it means that we have to try harder than ever to market ourselves and our services through our web presence so that students get the best info they can!

Investing in word-of-mouth

Entrepreneur.com's piece, "The Best Advertising Money Can Buy," relates some interesting points about word-of-mouth. (I have to admit, I'm a bit biased toward word-of-mouth because I think it makes perfect sense for libraries). In this article, the author discusses some techniques that hadn't occurred to me before. Namely, word-of-mouth is often generated by non-verbal offerings (like, the author notes, playgrounds at McDonald's). Letting your patrons discover your amazing service themselves, rather than telling them it's amazing, is important also.

Time to tinker

The New York Times featured an article this week about the many dramatic changes going on in the advertising world (see "Tinkering With the Recipes for the Media Mix"-registration required). What's going on "out there" is true for us in libraries too. Traditional media and techniques are not the sure things they used to be. Advertisers now need to be more savvy and selective in how they disseminate their information. It seems that target markets are getting smaller and smaller, a fact reflected in the success of highly targeted adverstising such as what Google offers. As librarians, we too should keep an eye on these trends and strive to find new, creative ways to identify and reach markets.

New hispanic marketing trade magazine debuts

Adweek unveiled Marketing y Medios, a new trade magazine for anyone interested in marketing to the Hispanic population.  If many of your patrons fit in this demographic, you may want to read this as part of your regular routine. Here's the scoop on the publication.

UPDATE: Looks like this actually came out in 2004! I read it as 2005. Sorry for the oversight! Still looks like a good resource, even if it's not-so-new. :)

Do you have what it takes?

Here's another brief but important article from yesterday's MarketingProfs.com entitled, "What Makes a Successful Salesperson?". You'll appreciate this one if you've ever had to participate in a fair of any kind, or even worked at a service point. We continually defend/celebrate our libraries in all the work we do.

On a related note, the Alliance Library System and TumbleBooks, Inc. are offering a free online book called, Why Libraries Matter - A Story Long Overdue to all public and elementary school libraries. You can view the animated book online (it's pretty cute!).

Even if you don't think you're a salesperson, odds are you actually are one, at least some of the time, so be prepared to "sell" your library at a moment's notice!

Don't sit on that research!

A good article appeared yesterday from MarketingProfs.com called, "How to Get the Most Out of Research". We librarians are good at collecting data, but this article outlines 7 practical steps for getting some mileage out of it.

Borrowing a bit of brand power

Apparently, library marketing news keeps on coming whether or not I have to take a break from blogging!  There’s a lot to catch up on so I’ll be doing my best.

Recently, I came across an interesting post on a listserv about an academic library raffling off popular Target gift certificates for a program they put on.  I thought it was a neat example of borrowing some brand power from a popular company.  Elizabeth Smigielski of Kornhauser Health Sciences Library at the University of Louisville was kind enough to give me the details of the event that she and her colleague Mary K. Marlatt planned.  Here’s what Elizabeth had to say about their open house and lessons the staff learned:

“We did an open house for new students (medical, dental, nursing, public health, graduate).  We expected about 150 people.  We served sandwiches, chips, dessert and drinks.  Food was set up in different stations throughout the library that we wanted people to learn about:  circulation, reference, ILL, history collection, quiet study area.  The theme was pirates; we had a treasure map.

The raffle involved getting a "passport" which was a discarded card catalog card, visiting each station, getting it stamped, and turning it back in.  The stamps we used were: discard, withdrawn, overdue, history stacks, and Kornhauser Library.   Each passport had a label with name and email fill-ins.

We had about 75 people come through and eat, but 39 bothered with the raffle.  

We simply bought a gift certificate from Target using our library credit card.  Target didn't donate it; in fact, they probably don't know we did this.  

Lessons learned:
Distribute the work amongst more staff.

Plan ahead; start preparations earlier.

Better promotion before hand.  People didn't know about it.  Many commented that they already ate lunch and would have visited the library had they known.

Co-promote with Target and try to get a free gift certificate next time.

Make the point that there is free food explicitly clear.  We got too caught up in the piratey things and occluded the core message.  

Make the participation less demanding.  Our clientele didn't want to bother. They don't have time.

Overall, it was a success.  We learned a lot and will do it more efficiently next year.  We do this because we get great feedback from the administration.  They really appreciate what we do for students, probably more than the students do."

Thanks for sharing, Elizabeth!

I know of some libraries that partner with companies like Barnes and Noble, but I think there is a lot of potential here, as the Target example shows.  Let me know of any libraries that have found fruitful partners and I’ll be happy to blog about them!

Know any library marketing movers and shakers?

Marylaine Block is looking for a few good librarian-marketers for Library Journal's Movers and Shakers issue. Please give her a hand and submit someone deserving. Here are the details from Marylaine:

"The editors of Library Journal need your help in identifying the emerging leaders in the library world. Our fifth annual Movers & Shakers supplement will profile 50-plus up-and-coming individuals from across the United States and Canada who are innovative, creative, and making a difference. From librarians to vendors to others who work in the library field, Movers & Shakers 2006 will celebrate the new professionals who are moving our libraries ahead. Deadline for submissions is November 1, 2005. To nominate someone, please print out the form at http://www.libraryjournal.com/contents/pdf/LJMoveShakeForm.pdf and return it to Ann Kim, Library Journal, 360 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10010 or fax to 646-746-6734. Movers & Shakers 2006 will be distributed with the March 15 issue of Library Journal.

HINT: Instead of using the pdf form, you can use the copy-and-paste version of it that Jessamyn West constructed and fill it out as an e-mail:
It's at http://pasta.cantbedone.org/pages/5qtQgQ.htm "

[Update]: An online form is now available: http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6266446.html?cache=FALSE

Tuesday Try This

For this Tuesday's Try This, try reverse engineering marketing campaigns. I do this all of the time with television and print ads, but you could do the same with place, product and price decisions as well. Basically, I play "name that target market" whenever I see an interesting piece of marketing. I try to figure out why marketers chose a certain slogan/imagery/reference/venue, etc. and for whom. Next time you're cruising the grocery aisles, ask yourself questions like Why is that product on that shelf? Why did they choose that shape for that bottle? Why are they playing that music over the speakers? And who are they doing all this for anyway? You'd be amazed at just how carefully constructed your shopping experience is! Sometimes I'm impressed by companies' creativity, and other times I'm just confused! Marketing doesn't just happen, it's a result of hundreds of individual decisions made all along the way that attempt to shape our perceptions of reality. By deconstructing how these experiences are pieced together, we can learn a lot about which decisions work, and which fall short. Not only does this help to make us more sophisticated consumers, but better marketers as well. Reverse engineering takes almost no time to do, but can be very valuable.

By the way, I should be back 'n' bloggin' regularly by Wednesday. Thanks for your patience and for reading!

Revised ALA online Communication Handbook now available

From the press release:

"The online Handbook (www.ala.org/commhandbook) offers tips on how to develop a communications plan so that you can determine goals and objectives for your outreach efforts, identify key audiences, shape your messages, and develop tactics that will help you obtain coverage from media."

Enjoy!

Grab bag o' marketing goodies

I'll still be posting a little irregularly for a while, but there's so much great marketing stuff out there that I couldn't resist trying to get a post in.

MarketingProfs provides a very good free newsletter (some of the articles are only for paid subscribers, but not all). Their latest edition did have some good info for librarians. Here are the [free] highlights:

• The Four Myths of Professional Services Marketing - Be sure to read over #4!


• Brand Value and the User Experience - Dead-on insights dealing primarily with web presence


• Creating a Winning Organization and Culture - This is a brief must-read about "living the brand" and internal marketing.

A brief pause

Due to a family emergency, I won't be blogging for a little while. Thanks for understanding. I look forward to posting again soon.

Googlewacking for PR

I thought I was kind of geeky, but I had never heard of the term “googlewhacking” until yesterday.  That’s when the Scottsdale Public Library held its first ever GoogleWhack@Your Library event.  Librarians competed with patrons to see who could outplay each other in this wacky word game.  Organizers used the event as a way to highlight library resources.  100 points go to the librarians for their creativity!  Way to go!

(Here's the article from the Scottsdale Republic)

Bustin' out with branding

I stumbled across this incredible resource from Business Week Online today all about Brand Equity (how neat!). If you don’t mind sorting through all the ads (kind of ironic), you can unearth heaps of gems on all things brand. Some pieces I deemed especially noteworthy are Lose the Jargon, Voice Your Brand, Make Your Brand Pop, Creating an Effective Brand and The Myth of Authenticity. Ok, so I was pretty much impressed by everything! Take a sec to look it over!

And, yeah, I still owe you all a nice long post about brand equity, but it's been a rough week for me doing anything quite that ambitious. Stay tuned...

Happy advertising week to you!

How time flies! It's already Advertising Week and I didn't get you anything. Oh well. Maybe next year. Although, isn't every week Advertising Week anyway? Enjoy it! ;)

John Cotton Dana Library Public Relations Award

The John Cotten Dana Library Public Relations Award is now open for competition.

"The award honors outstanding library public relations programs that support a specific project, goal or activity, or a sustained, ongoing program (e.g. the promotion of a summer reading program, a year-long centennial celebration, fundraising for a new college library, an awareness campaign or an innovative partnership in the community)."

Deadline is December 9, 2005. For details, see ALA's press release.

Try This Tuesday

It’s Try This Tuesday time!  This week’s Try This builds off of last week’s, but this time the focus is on websites.  Try to keep an eye out for websites that you think are particularly well-done (and not necessarily from the library world).  Maybe you like a certain color scheme or design; maybe the writing or organization appeals to you.  You might also want to look out for sites that are directed at your target audience so that you can adopt some ideas.  Bookmark or save them in a “marketing favorites” folder so you can refer to them when you have the opportunity to change your site.

A couple that I like:

• The New York Public Library (What’s not to like?)


• Starbucks (Ditto.  Plus, nice organization by using color and graphics.  Does a good job of portraying the “feel” of the brick-and-mortar Starbucks).

You can also find ideas from just a feature or two of a site.  My colleague and I liked Western Kentucky University Libraries' Community Outreach feature and decided to do something similar (it’s not up yet).

You get the idea.  Your web presence is important for many obvious reasons and especially in terms of services marketing.  People look for evidence of service quality in lots of places, including our websites.  If the sites don’t look good, we don’t look good.  For a place to start, try checking in on KnowThis.com.  They offer a continually updated “Featured Brand Website” link to companies with innovative web ideas.  This time it’s Converse (very wacky, but worth looking at).

Brand U.

Here's an article from the Orlando Sentinel about how colleges are reinventing themselves through branding. Why all the fuss about building brand equity? Brands are among the most influential factors affecting purchasing behavior. (More in a later post...).

Real world and open-source

I write a lot about open-source marketing, but it's not just a nice idea. Businesses are increasingly turning to their customers for fresh concepts. Take this example from Wired.com about a website called Adcandy. Here, anyone can submit their own catch phrases and slogans with winning choices earning between $50 and $500 - small potatoes in the advertising world. So what motivates consumers to participate? The opportunity to share their thoughts seems to be a reward unto itself.

Comfort comes to libraries

Take a gander at an article from the Ohio News Network that describes how campus libraries are adapting to their new competitive environment and study habits of their students. Nothing very earth-shattering, but there are nice examples of how external factors drive marketing decisions and the ways in which libraries are perceived. Also, notice how one library allowed the students themselves to choose the new furniture.

How many P's in your marketing pod?

The September issue of Marketing Treasures is out and full of good stuff (10 tips for running focus groups, sample marketing plans and strategies, and more).  One article called “What is a Marketing Mix” got me thinking.  In it, Chris suggests there are 5 P’s (The four basics:  Product, Price, Place, Promotion plus Public Relations).  I’ve heard lots of opinions about how many and what kinds of P’s there are (I’ve seen up to 10!).  A number of texts pertaining to services marketing (that’s us!) would say there are 7 P’s.  The additional 3 are:  People, Process and Physical Evidence.  Here are the details in a nutshell:

• People:  This would be anyone and everyone involved in providing the service.


• Process:  How the service is carried out.


• Physical Evidence:  The environment in which the service is delivered; Has an effect on how people perceive the quality of the service experience.

I do find that these 3 P’s are helpful to think about when it comes to services.  For me, the benefit of thinking of marketing in terms of P’s is threefold:  1.  to make sure nothing important has been overlooked, 2.   to have a model with which to evaluate the logic behind the service offering (do all these pieces make sense together and individually?), and 3.  to have a simple way to help understand something complex.

So whatever P’s tickle your fancy, try not to lose sight of what they center around:  your target market.  :)

Marketing on the cheap

Here’s great article from Forbes.com about getting the most bang for your marketing buck.  In it, the writer describes the considerable success of a trash removal company that utilized simple, cheap but effective marketing tactics that landed them on Oprah , Dr. Phil, and The View!  The major lessons?  Know how you’re different from your competitors and understand the goals of your company [library] in order to allocate marketing dollars accordingly.  Check out the related slide show for 5 Ways of Getting Your Message Out on the Cheap!  We librarians have something waaay more interesting than trash to talk about, so if they can do it, so can we!

Amen to customer evangelists!

As promised, I attended the Creating Customer Evangelists webinar today and found it to be very…inspirational :).  As the speakers explained it, “evangelism” means having a volunteer force of individuals who have a deep connection with the company and who will go to bat for you among their peers and prospects.  They rightly pointed out that customer satisfaction is a far cry from loyalty and that we should aim to reach the 20-25% of our customers who have the potential to become evangelists.  Turns out that what this 20-25% wants most is access to the inner-workings of the organizations they love and to share their enthusiasm for the products/services with others.

The speakers outlined the 6 tenets of creating evangelists, the most important of which is #1:  Customer plus delta, meaning we should gather feedback from patrons on a regular basis to correct problems.  The other tenets about sharing knowledge, building buzz, creating community, making smaller chunks of complex services, and having a cause were helpful also.  I really enjoyed hearing these strategies because I think librarians could excel at this kind of marketing strategy.  We’re already natural information sharers and community builders, and we definitely have a cause! I also like that this is not a generic kind of marketing, but a personal one that values relationships over transactions.

I highly recommend that you review the presentation if you get a chance.  It should be posted tomorrow afternoon at http://www.livemeeting.com/archive.  I’m going to try to read the book Creating Customer Evangelists when I can and pass along what I discover.  I think this is an important route for librarians to explore since there is a growing cynicism toward traditional marketing, especially among young people. Besides, what better way to market than have your fans do it for you?

Lessons from a former librarian

This news article about a former librarian's bookstore caught my eye because it illustrated some important marketing points. The librarian-turned-bookstore-owner specializes in children's literature. Her expertise in this area, in her opinion, differentiates her service offering from larger competitors like Barnes & Noble. She also carefully manages the shopping experience for customers. She keeps only 1 or 2 of any book in stock so that customers are not ovewhelmed by merchandise, which she likens to a book boutique. Of course, we couldn't (and shouldn't) immitate what she's done (we're not bookstores, after all), but we can see how she has a clear sense of what she has to offer, what her customers want, and how she fits in the competitive landscape - good lessons for us to take away.

Try This Tuesday

For this week's "Try This," find one marketing inspiration everyday. (This is actually very easy to do). Here are some that I discovered this week:

• While staying at a hotel this past weekend, I noticed that the hotel provided a new shampoo from Bath & Body Works. I thought this was a great example of partnering (and I think I'll even start buying the shampoo now that I've had the free sample!).


• I enjoyed a TV commercial I saw from Cingular Wireless that employed the slogan "More bars in more places." It finally dawned on me what a great ad this was because the bars (or lack of) on cell phones have become symbolic of service quality and this pithy one-liner makes it clear what the benefit is that the company is offering.


• A Starbucks bottled Frappuccino TV ad caught my eye too. It featured a harried young businesswoman being bombarded with work immediately upon stepping into her office. She takes a sip of her Frappuccino, which the announcer calls, "me time." Really shows Starbucks understands their target market's perspective (at least, I responded well to the ad!).

So, keep your eyes open everyday for one marketing move that inspires you. Oh, and yes, do look out for the bad stuff too (there's plenty of that) so you don't fall into the same trap. Happy hunting!

Getting real with leisure reading

YALSA is pushing leisure reading during Teen Read Week, October 16-22. Check out the ALA press release for Get Real! @ your library for more info and examples of what libraries are doing.

Sex sells in libraries too!

In a bold marketing move, Wisconsin librarians take it all off to generate funds for their institutions. Six librarians put up their own money to produce a sexy calendar called Desperate Librarians, the proceeds of which will go to their respective libraries (with the blessings of their administrators, of course). The scantily-clad posers are partially covered by oversized books. Hmm...well, that's one way to go about creating an image!

Free webcast Thurs. on creating customer evangelists

The Church of the Customer folks put together a Leadership Forum webcast on how to turn customers into evangelists.  The program takes place this Thursday September, 22nd from 9-10am Pacific and 12-1 Eastern and will cover:

1. Customer plus-delta: Continuously gather customer feedback.
2. Napsterize knowledge: Make it a point to share knowledge freely.
3. Build the buzz: Expertly build word-of-mouth networks.
4. Create community: Encourage communities of customers to meet and share.
5. Make bite-size chunks: Devise specialized, smaller offerings to get customers to bite.
6. Create a cause: Focus on making the world, or your industry, better

Sounds like this could be promising for library-types.  I don’t know much about the speakers, but they authored the book Creating Customer Evangelists:  How Loyal Customers Become a Volunteer Sales Force and since it’s free, it probably couldn’t hurt to attend.  I think I will and I’ll let you know how it goes.

What do you call a lawyer without a brand?

You might call him just another face in the crowd.  A New York Times article (care of CMO blog) explains how law firms are diving into the branding arena.  The many large mergers occurring with firms today has left many without a clear sense of identity.  Some firms have chosen to call upon professional branders to fashion an image.  This is a nice example of how service industries (and we’re one of them) are adapting to new marketing realities.

Lessons from Blog-U

I was so pleased to take part in the first ever Blog-U yesterday! It was a great success and was fortunate to meet many wonderful colleagues! I know I took home some helpful advice about my own blog from the other speakers who really know their stuff.  I’ve said before what an important tool blogs are for unearthing some breakthrough opportunities to serve your patrons.  If you’d like the details on how to get going, stop by the Blog-U site where speakers’ presentations will be available shortly.  My presentation on marketing blogs is here (.ppt) if you’d like to take a peek!

The next stop is Monterey, CA where I’ll be speaking at the Internet Librarian conference on the same topic but in more depth (session A203).  I hope I’ll see you there!

Undercover market research

I was immensely intrigued by one professor’s attempt to get inside the heads of her target market—undergraduates.  An Arizona State University professor went “undercover” for a year by living and taking classes with students.  She did everything from eating in the cafeteria to balancing a full course load to taking residence in the dorms!  The results of her research prompted her to make changes to her classes by linking her assignments to current issues and events while only assigning readings with a specific purpose.

I’ve also found it beneficial to take classes with undergrads, since they’re the group I’m most focused on day-to-day.  I’m frequently reminded of the balancing act they have to perform between school, work and family, which helps me keep perspective.

The same strategy can help you too!  Get out of the library on occasion and try look at the world through your patrons’ eyes.  It’s all too easy to start thinking of the library as the Center of the Universe and loose sight of how our services figure in the flow of patrons’ lives.  You could think of the library as a puzzle piece in the greater jigsaw of everyday life.  How do we know what shape we should take if we don’t know the shape of the other pieces?  Accomplishing that perfect fit relies on knowing how patrons view libraries from their perspectives, not ours.

Full of surprises

We all know that in services, sometimes doing "just enough" just isn't enough. A post from Duct Tape Marketing offers a way to add value to your service transactions: surprises! Are there ways that you can randomly or purposefully add little unexpected extras for your patrons? It could be a small gift or some additional effort that turns content patrons into ecstatic patrons.

Coca-Cola and libraries have something in common?

Stop on over to It's All Good from OCLC staff for some Coke/library marketing inspirations. I love seeing library-types getting creative with ideas from the business world. Way to go OCLC-ers!

Try This Tuesday (on Wednesday)

Wow! You know the hectic pace of the Fall Semester is getting the better of you when you don't know your days of the week anymore! Well, have no fear. Try This Tuesdays will work just as well on Wednesdays too! ;)

So, here's something I will be doing in the near future that may be worthwhile for some of you as well: Gather up all of your recent library publictions (flyers, handouts, brochures, posters, etc.) and lay them out on your desk. Take a look at them collectively. Are there themes that emerge? What do those materials say about your library? Do you find that they send inconsistent messages? If so, you may want to try to clean them up a bit. Pick out fonts, symbols, colors or phrases that best portray the "feel" you want to convey to patrons. Then, try to make sure your future promotional materials put forth a recognizable brand image with those elements in mind. You'll probably want to alter that image a bit depending on your target patrons, but try keeping the overall essence of your image the same so that patrons can pick you out of a crowd. Applying an integrated marketing communications approach may be just the thing to increase your visibility while staying in control of your image.

Make smart services

The latest installment of KnowThis.com's Principles of Marketing is now here. The Product Decisions tutorial teaches you how to design smart services for your customers/patrons. While the tutorial seems to focus on tangible products, there are important lessons for services here too. As I see it, here are the biggies:

• Categories of Consumer Products - Library services fall under one of a number of product categories, the exact one depends on how the patron perceives the service. I'm guessing that for most patrons, library services tend to be unsought. In other words, people don't seek us out until they need to (kind of like insurance). This means that our promotion should aim to pursuade, educate and remind people of what we do. Getting to people at their time and place of need is also important.


• Components of a product - The basic lesson to learn here is that patrons desire a whole package of benefits from our services. They seek the service itself plus extras like friendly assistance, and they also want some kind of psychological benefit. (For our students here, it may be a sense of relief that they've found enough articles for their papers, for example). Therefore, if we can get a better sense of what patrons really want when they approach us, we can be better prepared to fulfill their needs on these multiple levels.

Often, well-designed services can sell themselves, so investing more in service design from the get-go can save you time and energy on the promotional end later. Plus, no one is fooled by a bad product. Good products will keep patrons coming back for more.

Your blog needs marketing too!

I've had blog marketing on the brain lately since I'm speaking on the topic at the BlogU and Internet Librarian conferences. Well, my favorite marketing guru, Seth Godin, has some terrific thoughts on the idea too, and has put them in an e-book that's available free online called Seth Godin’s Incomplete Guide to Blogs and the New Web (45p., pdf). A blog can be an important asset for you and your library, but no one will read it if you don't market it. So, when you're spinning your marketing wheels, don't forget that your blog needs marketing too!

September blog project

I'm not sure how I missed this one, but I wish I had noticed it earlier! The September Project, funded by funded by the University of Washington's Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities, draws together libraries from around the world to engage in meaningful programming on issues pertaining to 9/11. From the site: "The September Project is a grassroots effort to encourage public events on freedom, democracy, and citizenship in libraries on or around September 11. Libraries around the world are organizing public and campus events, such as: displays about human rights and historical documents; talks and performances about freedom and cultural difference; and film screenings about issues that matter." Well, better late than never! (This will teach me to read through the Chronicle a little more carefully next time!)

The Project hosts a blog and provides promotional resources. Even though it's now after 9/11, you can still plan related events throughout September. I enjoy reading through the blog and events to check out all of the creative programming librarians put together. The Project and the blog in particular are fitting tributes and touching displays of the value of libraries in our democracy and in our communities.

Another acronym to love: OMP

Librarians can't have enough acronyms, and OMP is one more to learn to love. OMP stands for Open Marketing Project. OMP is similar to topics we've discussed before like open source marketing, participatory marketing, and so on. I bring it up again because I'm very excited about the idea and believe that librarians could have lots of success by taking OMP and running with it.

An article from KnowThis.com outlines what OMP is and how it can be applied. They give examples of the possibilites such as "Companies involved in event marketing could seek input from an OMP group who could develop an event plan and even execute certain tasks," and "An online content provider could institute an OMP in order to solicit ideas and designs for adding new content categories."

In my work, I'm attempting to apply OMP in a couple of different ways. First, we are establishing and undergraduate advisory committee in which members will be expected to plan and carry out one program every semester. Also, a professor in the School of Business has graciously allowed me to tailor the term project for her undergraduate service marketing class so that students have to devise a new library reference service for undergrads! How great is that?! OMP has so much appeal to me because it helps me to stay in touch with our patrons and their points of view while giving them a stake in the success of the library. I'll let you know the results of our experiments as they evolve.

Whatta cliche!

An entertaining discussion has shaped up on BBC News online about the stereotypes marketers are overly-fond of using. I have a feeling that stereotypes serve as mental shortcuts for marketers who haven't taken the time to find out about their target market, and instead just rely on old standbys.

Here a brief sample of the themes people mentioned from The Modern Rules of Advertising?:

"Children will not eat fruit or vegetables. Ever."
"Both men and women find driving deeply pleasurable, never boring or stressful."
"Men are inherently lazy/slobbish; women are the reverse."

And don't even get me started on common librarian stereotypes!

If you're up for it, take a look at the response from a creative director who defends advertising, making some interesting points along the way. What, for example, does the advertiser say for himself? He talks about "visual economy," stating that advertisers only have seconds to get their messages across, so putting out images that don't require too much interpretation is key. Also, he encourages people to not play the victim, but rather vote with their dollars if they don't like certain ads (something I agree with completely).

Well, are you satisfied?

A recent post from Church of the Customer got me thinking about some of the things I'm studying about buyer behavior. The post suggests that companies should aim to get referrals, rather than "complete customer satisfaction." Turns out, satisfaction is quite a sticky widget. One of the best ways to make sure that you're pleasing your customers is to make sure you are directing the right products/services to the right target market. If patrons' experiences fall short of their expectations (or even if they just meet expectations), you could risk losing them. For these reasons, it helps to know what exactly it is that patrons expect from you so that you can be prepared to "wow" them by going above and beyond.

MarketingProfs.com (no surprise) has some great articles for helping you to do this (free registration required for all):

Top 6 Tips to Understanding Customer Evangelism
This article offers 6 pointers for helping you to understand what your customers/patrons want to help you go beyond just satisfying them.

What Do You Expect?
The author describes how people come to form expectations (nice if you want an intro to the psychology of this aspect of behavior).

Experiencing Value
Here you can learn which set of values your service appeals to in order to achieve customer/patron loyalty.

Mindshare marketing

c/o ResourceShelf:

An interesting summary of how the National Library Board of Singapore repositioned its libraries and librarians as a "dynamic, forwardlooking, innovative, fun and trendy." Neat to see how they segmented their patrons according to values ("Career-Minded," "Active Info Seeker," etc.) and associated those segments with "Reading Lifestyles." Nice example of repositioning.

Here's the article and abstract:

Title: Gaining Mindshare and Timeshare: Marketing Public Libraries (pdf)

Abstract: "This presentation is an examination of how the National Library Board had successfully gained market share by redefining its market space and remaking the image of libraries and librarians. Libraries were repositioned to gain mindshare and timeshare among Singaporeans, competing against the cinema, TV, video games and other leisure activities, becoming the Third Place after home and work for many."

Try This Tuesday

For this week's suggested Try This, I'm recommending something I just recently started doing. Namely, try keeping a document, notes, or whatever with comments you hear informally from patrons. For instance, I jotted down a comment from a Social Work grad student who told me, "I feel stupid asking you for help because I should know how to do this stuff!", and one from a returning student in an undergrad program who said to me after an instruction session, "Nobody wants to come to these things, but I think it should be a requirement for all freshman. It was very enlightening for me."

I decided to write these insights down because they serve as a reminder to me of what problems students face, and can help me understand how best to appeal to patrons through understanding their points of view. It's very easy to forget what libraries are like from the patron's perspective, but understanding that perspective is key to good marketing.

What types are typical in your library?

An interesting case in point about targeting market segments comes from Best Buy. A WashingtonPost.com article (c/o CMO) outlines how the company profiles its most profitable customers and groups them into 3 categories that are assigned code names: Buzz (the technophile), Barry (the rich professional), and Jill (the soccer mom...why Jill?). Anyway, these customers spell big bucks for Best Buy so they're dedicating a number of their stores to one or more of the types. Jill's, for example, can expect to be escorted into their Best Buy with pink umbrellas on rainy days, listen to their favorite Mariah Carey album on the loudspeakers, and find kid-friendly displays and games. The level of customization here is amazing.

Libraries have no shortage of types either. We have the serious-researcher-types, the must-have-the-lastest-bestseller-types, the I-come-to-the-library-for-socializing-types, and on and on. Wouldn't it be an interesting experiment to uncover some of our frequent user "types" and think through the service implications each brings? Maybe our serious-researcher-types would appreciate rich wood furniture, attractive reading lights, and frequent updates on the latest news in his/her field. Our latest-best-seller-types could be invited in by overstuffed chairs, a coffee bar, book clubs, and the inside scoop on forthcoming titles. To some extent, we do similar studies already, but it might be fun to take a focused look at patrons in terms of "types" and think through our marketing strategies in this light.

eLearning from ACRL

For those of you academic librarians in the house, there are two upcoming training opportunities with marketing implications that you may want to pursue:

Designing Web Sites for Academic Libraries
Monday, September 19, 2005 | 3:00-4:30 p.m. Eastern
"Learn about Web standards and essential usability and accesibility concepts for Web design."

Effective Collaboration for Campus-wide Information Literacy: The Blended Librarian’s Perspective on How To Make It Work
September 8-22, 2005 | Live Webcasts: Thursdays, 3:00-4:00 p.m. EDT
"There is an extensive body of literature on information literacy and the importance of librarian-faculty collaboration in achieving it. The workshop will bring a new perspective on information literacy and collaboration through a conceptual framework the workshop leaders refer to as "Blended Librarianship."

Libraries to the rescue of entrepreneurs

An article from Entrepreneur.com via MSNBC outlines the "free" help available from colleges and universities to those starting up new businesses, including help from libraries. The relationship here is mutually beneficial: entrepreneurs reap the rewards of fresh, innovative ideas bubbling up at universities, while students gain valuable practical experience in working with business owners. Librarians can support these partnerships by extending circulation privileges, research services and other accommodations to entrepreneurs while they are working with the schools of business. Identifying these kinds of marketing opportunities may help librarians make inroads in their local business communities, which could result in dividends down the road.

Try This Tuesday

I mentioned last week that I'm done with my Words of the Week and am moving on to a new weekly "thing," which I'm going to call Try This Tuesday. The idea being that every week I suggest one small, simple action you can take to improve your marketing efforts. Try them all or try one or two things that fit your situation. Let me know how it goes!

This week, because I was so excited when I read the aforementioned post from Creating Passionate Users, I thought it would make good fodder for discussions among library staff. Try reading over the post's comparison chart between "Old School Marketing" and "Neo-Marketing" and make a point to discuss these differences and address marketing misconceptions during your next staff meeting or get-together. This could help to clear the air and gain buy-in for your marketing work.

Did you know you were a marketer?

Steven Bell does an amazing job of making sure that academic librarians are kept-up, including yours truly (thank you!), as he showed me a MUST-READ blog post entitled, You ARE a marketer. Deal with it. (Amen!) from the Creating Passionate Users blog.

I say it's a must read because the post gets at what the real essence of marketing is - a means of connecting with our patrons. Not connecting in an artificial, "fluff" kind of way mind you, but bridging the gap between what we have to offer and patrons' needs. The post also discusses the negative connotations associated with marketing/marketers, which I bet at least some of you have witnessed coming up in conversations with colleagues. The author even suggests devising a new word for marketing, which I've thought of doing before too but without any luck. As the post points out, all of us are marketers anyway so it's time to face the music. Be sure to look at the comparison between "Old School Marketing" and "Neo-marketing" (great for showing to skeptics). After reading, you'll be well-armed to get out there and market with pride!

Can you hear me now?

Big news last week as reports about libraries offering audiobook downloads surfaced. A CNN.com article states, "Librarians say such offerings help libraries stay relevant in the digital age," and "Librarians say they had little interest in audiobook downloads just a few years ago, but they have since noticed what everyone else has: the ubiquity of people sporting earbuds on streets, buses and malls". These reports emphasize the importance of two marketing functions: keeping up with trends and improving distribution channels.

Knowing and understanding trends in how peole get their information can help you anticipate what patrons might need and discover breakthrough opportunities to serve them better. Sometimes, those breakthroughs are uncovering new ways to distribute information to patrons, as the audiobook example shows. What's even better is to be the first to recognize and seize these opportunities so that you can establish your relevance and innovation before others do.

It's not easy to be the first to recognize a good thing, but the payoffs are worth it. In staying ahead of technology trends, check in on the technology sections of newspapers, on relevant blogs and web sites, and keep your eyes open in your own community and ask your patrons what technologies they use. You may also want to look at ALA/LITA's Top Technology Trends page for ideas.

A great pyramid

Mplans.com's featured article of the week is called The Strategy Pyramid. Perched at the top of the pyramid is your strategy, followed by tactics and programs. The goal, according to the author, is achieving strategic alignment wherein you match up all parts of the pyramid so that they make sense, and your resources are allocated accordingly. For example, if your main strategy is to enhance your online research tools, are your money and energy being funneled in that direction? Or do other distractions get in the way? The pyramid and related article can help you get a mental picture of how you can achieve your goals.

If you're like me and don't have budget authority, the pyramid can be a great way to organize your marketing work. I'm guessing that most of us are always eager to get involved in any and every project, which, at least in my case, can sometimes mean that I spread myself too thin or get sidetracked from my orignal goals. In those instances, being choosy about what we devote ourselves to, while difficult, can be an effective means of moving forward with our strategy.

WOM wins out among college students

A fascinating study, Hard-Working College Students Generate Record Campus Wealth (pdf), from Alloy Marketing + Media and Harris Interactive found that "fully 91 percent of [college] students say they pay attention to the more nontraditional advertising method of word of mouth, with almost 70 percent of students who pay attention to ads saying that this most influences their purchasing decisions." This should be a wake-up call for how we do promotion in academic libraries. We need to give students the excuse and means to pass along their good library experiences to their friends.

Thanks to WOM Blog from WOMMA for the info. Check out WOMMA's site for word-of-mouth resources and tips you can use (their library and WOM 101 pages are good places to start).

Doing your homework

Who knew that marketing meant doing so much homework? And that you could never actually turn in it in because you always have to redo it?! Doing homework on your patrons, however, will have big pay-offs for you as you market away.

The American Marketing Association website, as I've mentioned before, can be a big help. There's an academic resource center with all kinds of marketing research materials for your use. Many come from, as you might expect, Uncle Sam, but there are other fun tools too that I was unfamiliar with like SecondaryData.com and PollingReport.com.

My favorite marketing web site, KnowThis.com contains a wealth of info too. On their Market Research and Internet Marketing Research page, you can get help with both primary and secondary research including research and survey design.

In related news today, LISNews reports that Beloit College has released it's Mindset List that describes the significant events and perspectives of freshman students. It's mainly for fun, but it's a good reality check.

My tip? There's really no such thing as homework in library marketing. Market research is a day-to-day part of librarianship. Keeping a constant sharp eye out for expressed and unexpressed needs can make a big difference. If you don't believe me, read this short article called How to Create the Accidental Evangelist for examples about little things you can do just by paying attention to the people you serve that count big in the long run!

Why you should become a liar

A while ago, I told you that I would read All Marketers Are Liars, by iconoclast marketer Seth Godin, and give you the scoop on the important points for librarians. I did (finally) and I am. The premise of this book is that marketers are liars in that they tell stories to customers in order to persuade them to buy their products. In order to work, those stories have to be authentic AND they have to connect with an audience that is willing to buy into the story.

Godin points out that in our advanced economy, there are only so many ways to make a better widget, or to brew a better pot of coffee, and that if you are competing with others on the quality of your product alone, you’re fighting a losing battle. It’s easy for most companies to copy your more efficient/better made/technically superior product and, after a point, those differences become quite minor in the eyes of consumers. In libraries for example, we can work to increase our accuracy and speed in fulfilling information requests, but for the most part many libraries do essentially the same basic things in roughly the same way.

They key then is to develop a story or experience that draws in people for reasons other than your better-than-the-other-guy’s product or service, and then to actually LIVE the story. This makes sense, right? We all know intuitively that people don’t make their consumption decisions based on rational thinking; consumers are much more driven by emotion. I may rationally know that the library is where people go to find high-quality information, but I may ultimately decide to go inside because my friends are all studying there, or I’m hungry and there’s a snack bar available, or I enjoy the ambience and comfy chairs, and so on.

There are a number of librarians who have discovered the power of lying, or storytelling, and have made going to their libraries and experience for patrons. The Southfield Michigan Public Library (check out their virtual tour!), and Charlotte-Mecklenberg Public Library come to mind, but there are many others. Libraries like these understand that patrons seeking their services come with a variety of needs, and they want librarians to construct an experience for them that is satisfying on many levels, with a narrative that makes sense.

All Marketers Are Liars is honestly a very quick read if you’re interested in seeing how storytelling plays out in all kinds of ways. I agree with most of the points Godin makes, but, for a librarian, it’s difficult to wholeheartedly accept the notion that we should only tell stories to people who are likely to go along with them, since we have responsibilities to draw in non-users as well. Godin would say that the way you reach those people is to have your fans do it for you, since non-users would just filter out our messages anyway. Whatever your opinions, the book does get you thinking at least, so that alone might make with worth checking out.

Writing for results

I know that a lot of you write newsletters, blogs and brochures aimed at your patrons, so I thought I'd point out a recent article that might be of some help to you called How to Write Sales Literature That Sells. Written from a business perspective, it's not hard to translate into library-ese. Here are some of the salient points (translated for your reading enjoyment):

• Keep in constant communication with your patrons--Use your points of contact and advisory boards to uncover common questions and concerns.


• Put your main points in headings and subheadings--Patrons won't linger long.


• Show that you understand your patrons problems, and how you can fix them.


• Include captions with your photos--People will read them.


• Use specific examples of how others have benefitted from library services.


• Give patrons extra incentives--If a patron turns up at an event you mention, maybe they can get a coupon for your coffee bar or a sneak peek at a new tool.

It's a brand new day...and a brand new resource

I discovered a new blog out there from Business Week called Brand New Day: Thoughts on Marketing and Advertising, which I recommend you take a peek at even if you don't subscribe to the feed. I like the way that the authors analyze events and popular culture through the lens of marketing.

"Why," you may be asking yourself, "does Jill insist on passing along these business-type sites when we are clearly librarian-type people?" Good question! The answer is two-fold. One: I really, really like marketing. It's fascinating and it affects every part of our lives, not just the library part. So, for me, thinking about how marketing works in the wider world is educational and gets ideas going that I can apply to the library. Two: Libraries are not immune to marketing forces. Ideas about product life cycles and consumer product classifications don't stop applying once you hit the library's doors. Business people have been studying this kind of stuff for a long time and I like to see what they've come up with. But don't worry, I'm always on the lookout for librarian-type info too!

By the way, watchful readers may have noticed that I'm no longer doing an Outside the Book [Marketing] Word of the Week (W.O.W.!). That's because I want to try out an idea for a different weekly offering soon. I might even get it going next Monday...we'll see.

Treasure tidbits

The latest August issue of Marketing Treasures by Chris Olson is out and about and features tidbits about recent conference proceedings and upcoming events, bundling, slogans and more. My favorite piece is Cross Promotion Opportunities, since most of my work involves partering with various campus units and departments. I think this is a particularly effective way of promoting our services because it puts the library in a different and/or unusual context and demonstrates to our patrons that we are relevant in ways that they might never have expected.

What's the big idea?

In celebration of the centennial of Einstein's famous equation (you know the one I'm talking about), NOVA is airing a PBS special on October 11th from 8-10pm called Einstein's Big Idea. NOVA is also supplying a Library Resource Kit with display ideas, handouts, activities and events to help your patrons celebrate this important milestone.

Aim to target your market

Knowthis.com released Part 5 in its tutorial Principles of Marketing entitled Targeting Markets. It's only 10 short pages long and very informative. This tutorial outlines how to go about segmenting your target market and outlines 3 stages of segmenting variables. Each stage requires more specific information about your target, and therefore requires more money and time. I hadn't seen those variables broken down in that way before, and I thought it could be a useful way to think about segmenting.

I'm still trying to find an answer to the question I have about segmenting in the library world: How do you know you've chosen a "good" segment in the absence of profit? The best answer I've come up with is that a "good" segment is one that helps you meet your library's mission and goals, regardless of the raw numbers of patrons you've reached through your marketing efforts. Do you have ideas about that? I'm going to be speaking with some more with non-profit-marketing-types about this question and I'll pass along what I find.

VACATION!

Ahhhh...vacation at last! I will be back 'n' bloggin' on Wednesday August 17th. I'll miss blogosphere, but probably not as much as I'll like vegetating for a while! In the meantime, I wish you much marketing merriment and a minimum of marketing mishaps!

What's in it for me part 2: The sequel

Kind of eery that I found an article about how to effectively communicate the benefits of your services to people in light of my post on Tuesday, but here it is, from MarketingProfs.com.

The author's point is that it takes more than just describing your services' benefits to people to get them to listen. You also have to put those benefits in context so that your customers can clearly see that you understand the problem you are trying to solve for them. To make your publicity materials jump out to people, spell out the big picture. The author's example is that using the phrase "streamlined project management" is not nearly as effective as stating, "No more chasing people down every time you need to know who's done what and how much." So, to use our examples from Tuesday, instead of saying, "Librarians can save you time," or, "Librarians can help you get better grades," how about, "You don't have to pull an all-nighter the day before a paper is due to get a good grade. Ask a librarian for help!" (or something like that anyway).

There are other tips too, like making your copy focused and clear. I really liked the idea of adding context though, which I think is lacking in our promotional materials here. I'll have to play around with that idea some more!

Resource for your reading pleasure

Marketing Group Inc. is another one of those consulting firms trying to sell you stuff BUT that also has plenty of free, helpful resources to offer. Skip over the pitchy parts, to the Articles Library where you will find an abundance of tips and strategies for your consumption.

To the anonymous librarian out there who took my survey and commented that she wanted some how-to's about branding, you may want to look at the Branding your Business section of this site, and in particular read over Branding Through Effective Logo Design, which outlines 8 qualities of a good logo. Remember though, a brand is much more than a logo. Branding is about showcasing the overall image of your library in everything you do. Good luck to you!

September is library card sign-up month

(But then again, isn't every month library card sign-up month?). See ALA's press release or PLA's Smartest Card site for toolkits and other resources.

Heavy duty marketing materials

Thanks to Steven Bell for passing along this interesting resource: The Strategic Marketing Planning Process Using EXMAR (pdf). Sure, the Marketing Process Company is trying to sell you stuff, but the documents they provide, although somewhat technical, outline the processes involved in marketing planning, which can be helpful. They also provide sample marketing plans as well as presentations and white papers. They're pretty heavy-duty though, so read with caution! ;)

Get to know the IMLS

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is "an independent federal grant-making agency dedicated to creating and sustaining a nation of learners by helping libraries and museums serve their communities" AND they have some marketing fodder for librarians!

For some marketing ideas, you might want to peek in on their monthly highlights full of inspirational, creative library and museum initiatives.

What's in it for me?

One of the lessons straight out of Promotion 101 is to showcase your services in light of their benefits to patrons. Makes sense. It's not enough to tell people that your Interlibrary Loan service exists, but you also have to tell them why they should care that it exists ("It will help you get a better grade on your paper," etc.).

So what's considered a benefit to patrons? If you agree with this post from Marketing Genius, there are five benefits (only five) that people seek: money, looks, popularity, health and sex.

Ugh! Do you agree with that assessment?! Can you really boil down human ambition to 5 desires? Although, I think of the benefits of the library that I try to get across to students, like better grades (money/success) and saving time (more time with family and friends translates to popularity), and then there's that saying, "knowledge is power" (money), and I wonder if library benefits could be lumped into one of these broad categories. It's something I'll have to think about it some more, but if it helps your promotional campaigns to focus on those 5, have at it!

Market research - and you're the market!

My blog is about 7 months old now, and I couldn't be more appreciative of all you readers and the wonderful colleagues I have met through the blogosphere - it's been pretty amazing!

I figured that it was time to do a little "marketing research" and find out how I can make "Outside the Book" a better blog to read. If you could please take my survey, I would really appreciate it! I PROMISE that it's VERY short and will only take a minute to complete. All responses are confidential and if I share results at all, I will do so in aggregate form. I'll keep the survey up for a while, or until I get 100 responses.

If you have questions or problems, feel free to e-mail me, as always. :-)

Thanks again for your help!

Outside the Book - W.O.W.!

Here's your terminology fix of the week: price - "The formal ratio that indicates the quantities of money goods or services needed to acquire a given quantity of goods or services." In other words, price is an exchange of something for something else (usually money in exchange for a good or service).

In library land, we may not think about how much our services cost since patrons don't often hand over cash to receive our services, but this doesn't mean that our services are "free" for them. Sure, there are indirect costs that students pay for with tuition and community members pay for with taxes, but there are other direct costs too. A major cost that stands out to me is time. Patrons have to give up valuable chunks of their busy schedules to make the extra effort to consult a librarian. Consider too that there may be psychological costs involved. It's not always easy to aks a question and admit you don't know something. Sometimes patrons have to step out of their comfort zones to approach us. Any other prices come to mind?

As you think about your service offerings, try thinking about whether your services are at the right "price" for patrons. Are they getting their time's worth? Can you think of ways to lower your prices by delivering your services in a more timely manner at the place of need, or make your services more welcoming so that patrons get more "bang for their buck"?