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).