These notes come in part from chapter 5, "Marketing," in Thomas Wolf, Managing a Nonprofit Organization, Prentice-Hall, 1990 and in part from the standard text on marketing for nonprofits: Philip Kotler and A.R. Andreason, St rategic Marketing for Nonprofit Organizations. 4^th ed. Prentice-Hall, 1991.

Most nonprofit agencies (libraries are certainly one of these) have multiple constituencies. In order to understand the needs of and to design tailored services for each constituency, market segmentation is necessary.

Three steps in segmenting the market are:

• Identifying the bases for segmentation

• Developing profiles of the resulting segments

• Developing measures of the attractiveness of the segments

Some of the bases for segmentation are:

• General -- Demographic, Geographic, Socio-Economic, Family life cycle

• Value-Based -- Personality, Life Style, Values

• Past Behavior -- Current use, Past Use, Loyalty

• Benefits Sought -- Beliefs and perceptions, Personal influences, Expressed Preferences

• Decision Role -- Decision responsibility, Decision stage, Decision type

Another basic concept from marketing is position. A positioning strategy begins with how the organization is perceived at the present time. Image is a popular term used to define the sum of beliefs, ideas, and impressions that a person has of an object (or organization or another person). Positioning is the act of designing the organization's image so that the organization's customers understand and appreciate what the organization stands for -- often in relation to competitors.

Generic strategies for positioning or competing with other organizations are:

• Quality-Cost Leadership -- Building a reputation for good quality at a low cost. This can be
  
  • Overall or
  • within a Niche.

• Differentiation -- Developing a distinctive service or product, a "brand" name.

• Focus -- Developing a special product or service for a particular segment.

The marketing mix is a term used to describe the four P's of marketing (to make it easy to remember to attend to all of them). They are:

1. Product The set of products/services/programs offered by an organization. Includes the packaging or other aura, physical surroundings, brand recognition, prestige.

2. Promotion The activities to promote the organization and its program. Includes public relations, advertising, direct selling.

3. Price The cost of participating in a program or procuring service or a product. The perceived value for the product/service -- its distinctiveness

4. Place Where the products/services/programs are available. The distribution system or "channels" through which products and services are offered.

Wolf notes that non-profits are not product-driven but mission driven. He says that rather than following a marketing approach (focusing on designing products and services to fit the customer), mission-driven organization often emphasize educating the customer to the values in the products and services on offer and even on the method of delivering them and their cost.

We have addressed promotion possibilities through the dissemination piece of the project. Some promotion methods often used by libraries include:

• Free media coverage
  
• Word of mouth campaigns often by volunteers
  
• Paid advertising
  
• Presentations
  
• Displays
  
• Cultivation of personal relations with media representatives or those with political influence
  
• Award ceremonies, often involving celebrities
  
• Newsletters
  

Market Research involves analyzing emergent and existing trends -- (SWOT analysis, also analysis of perceptions of constituences of image of organization, org. members, activities).

©: Evelyn Daniel, 3/21/98.