MARKETING OF LIBRARY INFORMATION PRODUCT & SERVICES

Presented By:Jagmohan Singh Rathore College of Technology & Engineering Udaipur, Rajasthan

Introduction
Marketing has been one of the oldest professions of course the formal study of marketing started in 1920s. Marketing has been maligned and misunderstood for most of its existence as wasteful, intrusive and unprofessional. It is also equated sometimes with advertising or selling. These activities and many more are part of modern marketing operations. Perhaps one can be successful in marketing by giving the customer what be wants at the right price and by making it available at the right place and at the right quantity.

Definitions
1. Philips Kotler a well known marketing scholar and writer define marketing as those human activities directed at satisfying needs and wants through exchange processes. 2. In the words of Stanton marketing is a total system of interacting business activities, viz to plan, price, promote and distribute want, satisfying products and services and to present these to potential customer.

Subject Matter of Marketing

Marketing is the fundamental concept of human need, which is a state of felt deprivation. A basic need is shaped by culture and personality into a human want. This want, when backed by buying power, becomes a demand. Marketers address these demands by creating appropriate products and services. These products satisfy needs and wants by offering customer value, the customers perception of the difference between the benefits of owning and using the product and what it costs of obtain it. If the product offers good value, it will create customer satisfaction.

Marketing of Library services and Products

Libraries have been ignored in much of the marketing literature published up to 1970 Kotler basic texts Marketing for Non-Profit organization, second edition published in 1982 Libraries appears in the list. The passage of time has conceptualized the marketing into library and information science by various authorities.

The libraries are suffering from rising costs because they have no profit making operations, and that they are the first to suffer because of diminishing support and grants. Like all other organizations, libraries are a group of people, materials and facilities seeking the accomplish a purpose in the world. In order to survive, they need to attract resources from their from their donors or funders, they need to convert them to products, services and ideas and then to distribute them to a receptive, consuming public.

Roshan Raina has suggested following needs for marketing of Library products and services:1. Information's is a powerful tool for developments and shall have due importance for all the societies. 2. Information Technology has immense value for handling the knowledge of the world as a whole. 3. Increasing resource constraints particularly financial resources are a big difficulty to obtain by government support only. 4. Inadequate resources utilization resources in terms of knowledge available with libraries if opened to the pubic in general can be utilized fully. 5. Increasing cost of Information and IT which can be manage only through the finance generated through marketing.

Marketing Strategy in Libraries

Once marketing opportunities have been identified, a strategy must be formulated for taking advantages of them. Strategy in the broadest sense is a dynamic, action oriented blue print accomplishing the organizations mission, goals and objectives. Marketing strategy involves determining the level, mix and allocations of the marketing effort over a time.

A productive marketing strategy requires that all aspects of the marketing mix be considered. The components of an overall marketing strategy are product planning, distribution strategy, promotional strategy and pricing strategy. Marketing mix components are subsets of the overall marketing strategy. Marketing mix or 4Ps namely product, price, promotion and place.

1. Product- Consumer Needs and Wants:Kotlers definition of product is anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisitions, use or consumption that might satisfy a want or need. It includes physical objects, services, persons, places, organizations and ideas. The library products include all goods and services, which are made available through library. The librarys products can be arranged within the following three dimensional structure:

(i) COLLECTION Books, Periodicals, videos and films, audio recording, CD-ROM etc. (ii) SERVICES Circulation, inter-library loan, On-line searches, reference service etc. (iii)PROGRAMS Bibliographic instruction, displays, lecturers etc.

2. Price Cost to the Consumer:

Price has various names in the society: Fare for taxi, train travel; tuition fee for education, honorarium for lecture, rent for a house, and wage for a worker. From the customer point of views it is cost and is one of the major deterrents consumption of the product. Price is the amount we pay for the goods or service. According to Kotler price is the amount of money charged for a product or service, or the sum of the values that consumers exchange for the benefits of having or using the product or service.

Libraries are not free, and that there is in most cases, a large capital investment. Funding too is required annually to maintain the Library . In times of declining budgets, libraries may find charges essential in order to remain viable. If such a situation does arise the fee for services will depend not only on the cost of the services, but on the price that the market is willing to pay. The major pricing strategies are: (i)Cost based pricing. (ii)Demand oriented pricing, (iii)Competitor oriented pricing.

3. Place Convenience to the Consumer (Physical Distribution)

In the marketing mix elements, place or distribution refers to the creation of special utility to the consumers. It comprises of management of distribution channel and physical distribution of product. Physical distribution is set of interdependent organization involved in the process of making a product or service available for use or consumption by the consumer. There are two dimensions of the physical distribution process the flow of information from the individual consumer or organizer to the producer and to the consumer or the user. So far as the library is concerned, place become a major issue for library service. Traditionally, place has meant the physical location of branch, academic and central libraries. Computerized networks, remote access through computer modems, and electronic mail and delivery systems have changed the sense of place to include more than physical access to the library. Communication media, such as, mail, telephone, TV and computer terminals form important distribution channels.

4. Promotion Communication with the Consumers.

After an information product or service has been developed, the price for it has been determined and the way to reach it to the users, at the place, where they want it has been worked out, then the potential clients must know about the product or service. Without this basic information awareness, they cannot act. Therefore the fourth P in marketing, after product, price and place stands for promotion. Promotion is any marketing effort whose function is to inform consumer about the merits of a products or service for the purpose of introducing the product or service at the some price.

Normally libraries are not involved in promotion activities, directly, but they use advertising, point of sale displays, publicity and personal contact for existing users for expansion of their services. Brochures, Leaflets, Posters, Newsletter are some methods for promotion of library information products and services.

Conclusion
Due to enormous growth of literature users have been find it difficult to keep track of the latest developments in the subjects of their concern. To overcome this problem, different kinds of information products and services have started by Libraries. In order to continue, these product and services or bring about improvement, application of marketing mix are essential in Libraries. If Libraries does a good job of understanding users needs; develops products that provide superior value; and price, distribute and promote then effectively these products will sell very easily.

THANKS