Marketing and the political environment - Marketing of Library and Information Services

Although this view of why political processes function as they do may seem depressing, an objective understanding of what is actually going on is the first real step toward success. Remember that almost all the programs and requests for resources which are in competition with library programs and requests must undergo these same political processes, and most will ultimately fail for many of the reasons discussed earlier. Careful study of the political process which pertains to your operation, careful verification of your conclusions with whatever "resident experts" you can locate, and continuous monitoring of the inevitable "midstream course changes" in your process will often yield a definite competitive advantage over other programs or requests even though many of these may initially be much better understood or more generally popular than those emanating from the library community.

The Second Step: Understanding and

Marketing your product

It should go without saying that good programs are the result of good planning. Since a discussion of how to conduct a planning process is somewhat beyond the scope of this article, let it suffice to note here that before any service product (or the request for the resources to carry it out) is ready to be marketed through the political process, it must at least meet certain general criteria.

First, a product or request must be expressed in plain language and must include accurate cost information. Second, specific requests or products must support the overall long-range goals of the parent organization, and a comprehensive long-range plan must be readily available as evidence of this connection. Third, except in very rare circumstances, both the specific product and the long-range plan must have been approved by the individual or body which immediately governs the requesting agency. Finally, the long-range plan must have undergone processes leading to the endorsement of its primary provisions by the people or groups its services are intended to benefit, and it must be possible to demonstrate how a specific product or request is intended to achieve these benefits. These "environmental" criteria should ensure that a product can be understood and discussed, both alone and in context, and that a presentation has verifiably been "legitimized" both by a basic authority structure and by the public the agency serves. Unfortunately for anyone preparing to rest on his or her laurels, meeting these basic planning and legitimizing criteria is simply the beginning of the marketing process.

The single most important factor in marketing in the political environment is not product but perception. Consider the fairly common offer from automobile companies to pay a "manufacturer's cash rebate," often amounting to several thousand dollars, if the prospective customer will only purchase the particular vehicle being advertised. It is doubtful that this incentive alone causes many individuals to rush out and buy new automobiles, largely because many already have cars and most lack both the means and the desire to purchase new ones with any great frequency. Conversely, such an offer is very effective in cases where the listener has a real or perceived need for a product. Then the only questions that remain to be decided are those of which offer and which product are most advantageous. The decision to purchase has already been made.