INLS 237: MARKETING INFORMATION SERVICES

ASSIGNMENT - Short Exercise 4

Spring 2006

Overview. As in the previous short exercises, you have some choices here as to which of two exercises you wish to do. One of them involves pricing of services and the other focuses on marketing communication. Choose whichever one you would like.


Exercise on Pricing of Services (Managing Perceived Costs).

Using an information service involves a number of costs to the customer. Some of them are non-monetary (psychic); others are either directly monetary or can be translated into monetary terms (as in time). For a library or information agency of your choice and a particular customer segment, identify what you think all the costs are to individuals in this group.

Exchange theory suggests that people accept costs in order to derive benefits that they perceive to be equal or greater than the costs. Identify what you think the benefits are. Discuss why the benefits are greater than the costs to the repeat customers in this customer segment.

In marketing terms, the manager can try to minimize the costs or maximize the benefits. For the target segment you have identified, describe some ways you can do either or both.


Exercise on Marketing Communications (Managing Customer Promises)

Effective services communication includes some of the following criteria:

Select three or four websites from similar kinds of libraries (large public libraries, community college libraries, or other information agencies, etc.). Evaluate them according to the criteria listed above as well as your own ideas about good web design and how to promote the organization and its services to the various groups who are potential users. Compare and contrast the websites. For the site that you judge to be the poorest in your evaluation, provide some recommendations that would improve it.

It would be valuable to the class if you were to present some of your websites comparisons in class perhaps using webshots and Power Point. It would be interesting to focus on the website that you want to improve. If you choose to do this, it will earn extra points.


Select either of these exercises. If you choose the pricing exercise, post your response to the Promotion and Customer Costs Discussion forum. If you choose the website exercise and do not present it in class, you can submit it as a report with links and post it to the same forum. Read one or two of your classmates' submissions for a better discussion in class.

This exercise is due April 12.

                   

2/8/2006.