Creating a Marketing Plan for Your Academic and Research Library

1. Creating a Marketing Plan for Your Academic and Research Library Illinois Library Association Navy Pier, Chicago, Illinois September 28, 2004

2. Agenda • 9 a.m. Introduction • 9 -10 a.m. Preparing to Develop Your Promotional Campaign • 10-11 a.m. Doing Library User Research • 11-noon Library Strategic Plan • Lunch • 1-2 p.m. Promoting the Library—Identify Messages, AIDA, and Platforms • 2-3 p.m. Promoting the Library—Vehicles and Campaign Design • 3-4 p.m. Finalize and Implement the Promotional Campaign, Concluding Comments

3. The Materials • Academic Library Toolkit – examples of libraries, librarians and campaigns

4. Preparing to Develop a Promotional Campaign

5. The Fundamental Idea of Marketing is To Focus on How to Better Satisfy Customers

6. Marketing Planning Process Customers Met Needs Unmet Needs 1. Customer and Market Research Customer Needs Customer View 2. Library Strategic Plan Vision and Mission Products & Services Implementation 3. Promotion of the Library Messages Vehicles Campaign Implementation 4. Providing Products/Services Delivery Interaction Adjustments

7. Strategic Decisions Customers Met Needs Unmet Needs 1. Customer and Market Research Customer Needs Customer View 2. Library Strategic Plan Vision and Mission Products & Services Implementation 3. Promotion of the Library Messages Vehicles Campaign Implementation 4. Providing Products/Services Delivery Interaction Adjustments Which customers and which needs? Which products and services and benefits? What is the best way to inform customers? How to be sure we deliver what we promised?

8. Status Inventory – A Tool to Help You Decide Where to Start PM pp. 13-14 26

10. Marketing Planning Process: Doing Library User Research PM p. 15-16 30

11. Undergraduate students Graduate students Faculty Researchers Staff and administration Community members and groups High school students Business Government agencies Others? First, Know Who The Customers Are PM p. 15-16 30

12. Influencers make/influence funding decisions Academic administrators Faculty/Faculty Committees Boards State and Federal Officials Alumni Others Catalysts are key opinion leaders Allies/partners Donors Grant funding orgs. Professional associations Taxpayers Media Second, Know Who Has Great Influence on the Direction of Your Library 31 PM p. 16-18

13. Third, Find Out What Your Customers Want and Need • Wants: products/services the customer would like the library to provide for comfort, extension of services, or to fulfill interests • Needs: basic products/services that customers use to find and use information to fulfill their education assignments and goals PM 18 33

14. Examples of Needs PM p. 21-22 38

15. Customer Wants and Needs Current needs: what do they really need/want now? Future needs: what are their future needs: known and implied? 34

18. Select a Customer Group to Address First • Size of group • Central to your mission • Frequency of use of library • Influence on library funding • Quality of service received

19. Marketing Planning Process: Library Strategic Plan PM p. 15-16 30

20. Promotion: do your customers know what you have to offer? Experience: how do your customers describe your library to others? Product: do your current and future products/services meet the wants/needs of the customer? Price: is the “price” affordable? Place: are the products/ services accessible? Customer Research Questions PM p. 18-19 35

21. Products Book/journal collections Manuscript collections Electronic resources Research guides Services Research assistance Instruction Copy/Scanning services Benefits Available information Best resources available Faster research Skill development Find best resources Manage software Access to data Products/Services and Benefits 50 PM p. 28

23. Relating Products/Services to Benefits • Identify customer needs not being served by library products or services—offering gap. • Determine whether mix of products and services is complete or varied enough. • Specifically identify benefits customers are gaining. • Do benefits gained truly meet customer needs?

24. Marketing Planning Process: Library Strategic Plan

25. Overview • Why develop a strategic plan?… • The SP process should be… • Components of an SP • Marketing plan components

26. Why develop a strategic plan?… • Assist with making decisions • Anticipate the future • Assist with detailed planning • Explain services and values to others • Assessment activities • Catalyst for change • Build on market/customer research • Assist with marketing

27. The SP process should be… • Forward thinking – 3-5 years • All inclusive • Focused on matters of strategic importance • Strategicissues – growth generating, looking to the future, creating the new. What mountain are we going to climb? • Operationalissues – the here and now, the fix-its, issues of maintenance. Keep a separate list • Given adequate time • Realistic and open • Flexible, yet organized

28. Furthermore… • End product • Ongoing process • Quantitative and qualitative data • Library’s culture • Big picture

29. Important to note: • Many ways to create a SP and MP • Different… • Lingo • Stages • Cultures • Constraints • History

30. Components of a strategic plan: • Mission • Values • SWOT • Vision • Themes • Transformative actions • Strategic initiatives

31. The mission statement… • Rooted in history • Updated to reflect world today • Reflects the university’s mission • Brainstorming • Write-up • Review/revise

32. Questions to answer… • What do we do? • What services do we provide? • Who do we serve? • How do we do what we do? • Why are we here? • What makes us unique? • What is our philosophy? • Do we have a certain image, style, standards? • What are stakeholder concerns?

33. Mission Statement • The Ames Library provides a setting conducive to interaction, consultation, study and reflection and is dedicated to serving the scholarly needs of the Illinois Wesleyan University community.   • Library faculty and staff develop and maintain collections that enhance the university curriculum and provide access to global information networks that assist research.  • They provide expertise in the management of the creation, organization, and distribution of knowledge in a changing environment.  • Library faculty promote information literacy by teaching the use of the tools of scholarship. • In keeping with the mission of Illinois Wesleyan University, The Ames Library fosters inquiry and the pursuit of knowledge, intellectual and ethical integrity, excellence in teaching and learning, and respect for diverse points of view.

34. The values statement… • Why we do the things we do • The beliefs the library upholds • Relationships between staff • Relationship with our community • Groups, discussion, agreement • Enacted values…things we already are doing • Aspirational values…where we want to go

35. SWOT analysis identifies… • Factors that may affect desired future outcomes • Internal strengths and weaknesses • Threats and opportunities of the external environment • Distinctive competencies and key success factors • Societal and organizational values • Ensure the best alignment between the external environment and internal situation http://www.des.calstate.edu/basicmodels.html

36. Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats SWOT

37. The vision statement… • What do you want the library and its services to look like in 3-5 years? • What would someone experience when they walked in your library? • Physical appearance • Services • Collection • Audience • Staff • Brainstorming • Write-up • Review/revise

38. The VS is a combination of… • Core values • Guiding philosophy • Mission • Vivid description of the future

39. Vision Statement As the intellectual heart of the campus, The Ames Library transforms individuals in their quest for wisdom and knowledge and the Illinois Wesleyan University community in its pursuit of excellence. • Students trust that their needs are the library’s top priority. • Faculty eagerly seek the library as an ally in their teaching and research. • Individuals and groups investigating new ideas and researching new fields turn to the library first for support, consultation and collaboration. • Members of the IWU community rely on the library and its staff as a key resource for encouragement, innovation, and service in fulfilling the goals and ideals of the highest quality liberal education. • Graduates leave the university with the realization that the library was indispensable to their academic accomplishments. With our people, services, collections, and facilities, The Ames Library makes it easy for our users to navigate the research process and access the highest quality information resources. Motivated by our desire to understand, anticipate, and fulfill the research and information needs of our community, we continually evolve in our efforts to meet those needs. Our passion and commitment for our work inspire a zeal for inquiry in others and is central to our drive to excel. We enthusiastically reach out beyond the walls of the library, initiating and joining cooperative endeavors with others and delivering our services to individuals where they work and live.

40. A must… • Vision and mission must be clear • Everything is built upon these two statements

41. Themes, transformative actions, and strategic initiatives…Oh my Themes are… • Fundamental issues that must be addressed • Overarching areas • Combination of opportunities and vision

42. Developing themes… • Administrative Planning Team • Based on vision and mission statements • Brainstorming and conversations • Emerge naturally Theme 1 – The Ames Library is indispensable

43. Transformative actions • How to make the themes come true Developing transformative actions… • Small groups, divided by themes • Not all actions end up in the final plan, but all will be kept for future discussions • Actions will take 3-5 years to come to fruition • Actions should be concrete enough to be “actionable” but not a “how-to list” • Take a leap of faith • Imagination • Our understanding and awareness of user needs and of the library world • Use the vision and mission statements

44. Questions to consider when brainstorming… • What will move us closer to our vision? • What will position the library in a powerful way? • What products and services do we want to provide that we are not currently providing? • What will take us from where we are to where we want to be? • Think broadly, deeply, and strategically

45. Two stages… First stage: • Generate as many ideas as possible through brainstorming activities • No discussion or VOJ • Keep pushing for more ideas/thoughts • Quantity is the goal Second stage: • Sifting and narrowing down • Criteria – vision statement and mission statement • What are the most powerful, compelling, urgent, strategically important actions? • Can the action be measured? How would we know we accomplished it? • Quality is the goal

46. Theme 1 – The Ames Library is indispensable • Adopt diversity as an important principle in building our collections, creating and targeting services, and staff hiring • Interweave information literacy into student learning and faculty development • Cultivate new relationships within the IWU community while continuing to expand and strengthen existing ones.

47. Strategic initiatives… • Strategic goals, action plans, tactics… • Drilling down to the basics • Specific steps required to bring the transformative actions to fruition • Brainstorming in small groups • Select those with the best fit to the TA • Break into small steps to achieve the goals • Road map for how to get where we want to go • Measurable activities • Identify resources needed

48. Putting it all together… • The vision and mission statements and themes are “what” we do - now and in the future • The values are “why” • The transformative actions/strategic initiatives are “how”

49. From Strategic Plan to Marketing Plan Marketing is… …the wide range of activities you do to meet the needs of your customers Marketing activities include: Market research - • who are you serving? • what are their needs? • which of those needs can you meet? • how can you meet them? • Analyzing the competition http://www.mapnp.org/library/ad_prmot/defntion.htm

50. Advertising • Bringing a service to the attention of potential and current users • Signs, brochures, e-mail, personal contact, newspaper ads • Focuses on the product http://www.mapnp.org/library/ad_prmot/defntion.htm