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Keywords
Botswana, Marketing, Information services, Marketing strategy, Special libraries
Abstract
A study of selected information providing institutions, in particular special libraries, in Gaborone, Botswana, reveals that a majority are in favour of marketing their services to their users. In practice, very few libraries undertake formal marketing planning and prepare marketing plans. Marketing was therefore unplanned. Promotion is the most commonly used element of the marketing mix. However, library marketing can no longer be confined to this one element. The whole range of marketing activities is needed for the effective management of special libraries. It is only through planning, as advocated by the Kotler-Andreasen-Keiser approach, that marketing will cease to be equated with promotion and take on its full potential as a vital management tool.
Introduction
The exploratory study reported here sought to investigate the extent to which special librarians and information officers in Gaborone (Botswana) market their services and whether formal marketing strategies similar to the Kotler-Andreasen-Keiser approach are used to "sell" services. The Kotler-Andreasen-Keiser approach is a systematic process to marketing which involves determining what the target audience ought to be (segmentation), how the organisation should position itself vis--vis competitors, and what the detailed elements of the marketing mix ought to be, in order to reach the target markets with the chosen position strategy.
This systematic approach must guide the organisation for a number of years. Hence it must be forward looking and based not only on today's competitive situation, but also on a careful study of the competitive situation the organisation is likely to face in the future. And since it will be the "spine" upon which the year-to-year detail of specific marketing actions will hang, it should be well articulated, thorough, and valid for relatively long stretches of time, typically three to five years. This approach consists of a set of steps to be taken to decide what to do in any marketing situation.
Kotler and Andreasen's (1991) strategic marketing process is based on the assumption that marketing is a function that operates within two environments. First, it operates within an organisation. Therefore, what marketers do in the future must necessarily fit with what the organisation as a whole wishes to do. However, this does not mean that the marketers...