Marketing - The 4 P's
William J. Schroer
Librarians use the word “marketing” quite freely. Do we really know what it means? I mean really know??

Well, if you hesitate, you won’t be alone. There seem to be too many people in the Library industry and too many marketing professionals who demonstrate little notion of this discipline's genus and potency.

For example:

- In discussions with some library staff I am continually struck by the fact that if they substituted the
   word "advertising" or “promotion” for marketing, their meaning would not be altered.
- "Telemarketing" as an accepted term.
- Use of the term "marketing" as a verb.
- Being called on by a "marketing representative" to sell me office supplies or a copier.
- Two-thirds of the nation's college presidents believe that marketing consists of advertising, sales and   promotion.

I have interviewed MBA's in marketing who felt the same as the college presidents. Many thought it ("What is marketing?") an odd and puzzling question.

So, what is Marketing? I was taught the following:

Marketing is the direction of business activities which controls the flow of goods and services from producer to customer to satisfy consumer needs and organizational objectives.

That definition is the best I've seen in 17+ years and it comes from an old marketing text.

The operative word from this definition is: "direction".Marketing interprets goals and objectives from management,then coordinates and "directs" the "flow" in the form of four
business building blocks: the famous four "P"s:
  • Product (or Service)
  • Place
  • Price
  • Promotion

Within the past 10 years there has been a strong lobby for a fifth building block or "P". We'll cover that a little later.

Product - Whether its food, ball bearings or library service, the marketing
function is integrally tied to the "product". At Jeno’s Pizza where I worked as Product Manager on Pizza Rolls (remember those?)the management team had product tastings every day. We didn’t talk about our food products as if they were abstracts...but we each prepared, served and tasted the food daily to insure we knew every last detail about our product.

The R&D, manufacturing, sales and marketing people debated over changes to formula, packaging, flavors, etc. Marketing represented the consumer view, often citing consumer taste panels or letters to the Company to influence the outcome of policy decisions on products.

Understanding your library’s products and services, its ideals, allocating resources to obtain it,
using consumer research to modify your collection mix, providing standards for collection enhancement and distribution and CQI (Continuous Quality Improvement) to maintain it, plus new products development are marketing responsibilities.

The lesson: Among the 4Ps, there is a reason why product is first.

Place - Lack of unlimited resources always requires careful consideration of distribution issues. In the case of libraries, it means facilities, main and branch libraries, the use of bookmobiles, storefront sites, etc. “Place” also includes the aspects of distribution sometimes thought of in other terms. Hours are a good example. Access to the services of a library are a function of location and availability.

Through a thorough understanding of the services offered, market testing, distribution channel testing (books by mail?), demand, competition, input from patrons, staff and through the use of custom and syndicated data place alternatives are devleloped.

Price - Marketing's detailed understanding of fixed and variable costs allow consideration of economies of scale, volume purchases, spending on different parts of the collection and investment in new categories (i.e. DVD and digital audiobooks). Cost cutting efforts are balanced against potential losses in quality or customer satisfaction. Studying the elasticity of fines or special fees for services or products may allow for revenue generation for those products or services which are so specialized or expensive the library must charge for them to avoid subsidizing products or services outside the scope of the Library’s mission.

Marketing recommends pricing strategy, impact of discounting, use of price promotions, segmentation and directs price activities based on the above.

Promotion - Finally! Advertising, sales, promotion, public relations, etc. The development of the strategy accepted by management to communicate the values of library services, to the target audiences agreed upon, is a key marketing responsibility.

The execution of those activities is provided by media, advertising/PR/ promotion agencies, sales departments. (Some agencies provide true "marketing"support in addition to the execution of the message.)

People - The fifth "P" and probably the most important. Why it wasn't included before beats me. Practically speaking, most marketing incorporates tremendous levels of effort against the consumer or end-user. To understand consumer needs, wants, actual behavior and integrate that knowledge into the decisions of the above four "P"s is a basic marketing responsibility.

Now that we've refreshed ourelves on some basics, what can we do to improve the general population's understanding of " marketing"?

  1. Resolve to eliminate the term "telemarketing" from our vocabulary. There is no such thing. The practice so referred is telephone selling. Period.
  2. Resolve to never call a salesperson a "marketing representative". Lets give salespersons the respect they deserve for their work so we don't have to apply misnomers like "marketing representatives".
  3. Resolve never to use marketing as a verb. Lets use the appropriate term: "sell", "advertise", "promote", "price", "distribute", etc.

Most importantly, include all five building blocks when you are engaged in the resolution of marketing issues. If you as a library director look at the above and say to yourself “I’m doing all those things”, then congratulations! You are a marketer!