What is marketing?

Before I take this class, marketing to me is PR and outreach. You want to get your message to as many people as you can, so it will increase purchase of product or use of services. However, after I take this class, I have a different view on marketing. Marketing is about providing users a tool, which will help to resolve their problem. Just like other areas in business, marketing plan needs to be aligning with the company’s vision and mission. Utilizing SWOT analysis to perform environmental scanning helps the company to understand the market they are in. By understanding consumer behavior and needs, a company will be in a better position to offer tools which aim to solve customer’s problem. Marketing should be focus on fulfilling customer’s needs and wants, not just selling the product. Effective marketing strategies should be targeted to specific segments, and different communication tools and channels should be use accordingly. One of the communication channels which company should pay attention to is social media. Social media can reach a large group of audience within a short period of time, it can also build communities across physical boundary. Another important thing I learned in this class is positioning, positioning conveys value that the brand provides, and it sets the brand apart from competitors in a sustainable way. Often time, positioning strategy based on lower or discount price may not be sustainable, and it should be consider very carefully before implementation. In term of building long-term relationship with customers, customer loyalty doesn't directly transfer into saving. On the other hand, loyal customer may actually cost more to the company. As a result, company should implement customer lifetime value analysis as part of the marketing plan. To many people, brand is intangible. However, brand equity does have a measurable and tangible value associated with it. Hence, brand value should be listed as asset in financial reports like balance sheet.

Social media

The Franklin D. Schurz Library does utilize social media, in order to reach the faculty, staff and students at IU South Bend. When the social media first getting attention a few years ago, the Library created a presence in MySpace and Facebook. Couple years ago, the Library also establish presence in Twitter. Periodically, the Library post announcement of resources, services and events offer by the Schurz Library. The Library also tries to utilize the pooling feature offered by Facebook to conduct quick pools; however, the response rate is low. The number of people in the Library’s Facebook group is pretty steadily, there are not many new group members or loss of current group members. Even with the PR via social media, the use of library resources and services is going down. Hence, it seems to me that the communication effort is in effective.

After reading the Community Relations 2.0 article, it is clear to me that social media plays an important role in maintaining relationships with the communities. To effectively utilize social media to build relationship with the communities, a dedicated social media team is needed. The social media team will develop a formal social media policy, monitor external and internal online communities, engage online communities, and act as first responders. In term of what types of messages that will work best in social media, I will suggest messages that target to the communities’ interest. The messages should not be just an announcement, but one that will initiative discussions and participations among community members. While social media are popular, there are still people who are neither participating nor inactive in social media. As a result, I don’t foresee social media making other marketing communication forms obsolete in the near future.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

In the organization I work at, an academic library, we do not have knowledge of value of our customers. While we collect different statistics related to resources and services we provide, we rarely look into the statistics in term of cost, we didn’t perform customer break-even analysis either. In the past year, we started to look at cost per use for electronic resources and journals. However, most of the decision for whether to continue a resources or services is based on overall usage. If there is very low usage, we cancel the resources or services. As for whether utilizing CLV could be beneficial to my organization, I’m not too sure as some of the actions need to be taken to implement CLV may not be flexible for us. For example, the mission of our organization is to serve everyone on our campus, it will be difficult for us to identify a segment of users who rarely use our resources and services and firing them. Besides, since we don’t charge for our services explicitly, rewarding customers with discount vouchers or preferential services may not be possible.

Practical issues of implementing CLV includes gathering of data related to customer activities. As mentioned by Ofek, response rate may not be available directly. Also, the firm may not have knowledge of the exact size of each segment they serve. Besides, setting a reasonable expectation at the prospects stage can be challenging. If the firm creates expectations that are exceedingly high, customers may be easily acquired but will not be satisfied or retained. This results in a negative impact on both per-period revenues and survival rates.

Rosewood case

After reviewing the Rosewood Case, I discovered the following issues:

1. Very low awareness of Rosewood brand.
2. Competition in the luxury hotel segment is intense; Rosewood is targeted at sophisticated customers who value the distinctive, exclusive ‘collection’ hotel, while majority of the luxury market seems to value the corporate-branded version of luxury.
3. Low cross-property usage.

Based on the above issues, I recommend management of Rosewood consider the following measures:

1. Increase awareness of Rosewood brand via different channels, see below:

• Advertise in high-end travel magazines like Luxury Travel Magazine
• Promote Rosewood brand and it’s properties via its own TV channel in the guest room
• Advertise in magazines targeted high income households or groups. For example, magazines frequently read by executive.
• Create an online portal which listed all Rosewood properties
• Implement referral program as a way to acquire new customers.

2. Implement Rosewood corporate brand in phrases. The first phrase will be to add Rosewood corporate brand to properties with weak brand; once Rosewood is gaining awareness, ad Rosewood corporate brand to properties with medium brand. Lastly, properties with strong brand will be added to Rosewood corporate brand.
3. Examine customers characteristic and need, as collected by CRS, and refine segmentation strategies.
4. In addition to promoting all Rosewood properties via its own TV channel in the guest room, create a Rosewood quarterly magazine, which highlighted all Rosewood properties and events throughout the year, and have it available in all guest rooms.

I would like to stay at Rosewood Jumby Bay, as I like ocean. I would love to see the sea turtles.

Pricing strategies for Libraries

In Breakthrough Branding: Positioning Your Library to Survive and Thrive, the authors discussed price strategies for libraries. As pointed out by the authors, pricing strategies are perhaps the most critical and most misunderstood and underutilized when it comes to libraries. The common positioning and pricing premise utilized by most libraries is "free" for all. While free may bring customers in the door or to the website,  but it does not mean that they will leave with more than they came for, nor actually use what they take. Also, the precedent of offering something for free sets up barriers to the introduction of more strategic approaches. One example the authors provide is the Columbus Metropolitan Library, their pricing strategies enabled program expansion beyond the library's individual capability. They target a specific market and develop programs in-depth, which leads to partnerships with outside funding agencies. While an example that demonstrate how pricing strategy works in library is great, I would like to learn more on other pricing techniques use by libraries. At the end of the section, the authors also added the 5th "P" - People Strategies. The people strategies call for building relationships with customers as strategic partners, this will enables the library to realize its potential.

Customer loyalty

Before reading The Mismanagement of Customer Loyalty, I shared the viewpoint of many others that the best customers are the loyal ones. Loyal customers should be less price sensitive, and their continuing purchasing behavior will generate profit. But as pointed out in the article, the association between loyalty and profitability was weak to moderate at best. As it can be costly to keep loyal customers, we need to understand the patterns of buying behavior for our customers. By doing so, we can identify which loyal customer to keep, and which one to let go. Two models, RFM and event-history modeling, were discussed. Event-history modeling is based on three simple pieces of information: (1) When did the customer buy for the last time? (2) When did she purchase last? (3) When did she purchase in between? This model is particularly good at predicting how quickly a customer’s purchasing activity will drop off. According to the Choosing a Loyalty Strategy matrix, there are four different segments of customers, they are strangers, butterflies, true friends and barnacles. It is important for marketers to understand the needs of each and treat them accordingly.

In an academic library setting, we view our customers as either strangers or true friends. Customers who never use our resources and/or services are strangers and customers that use our resources and/or services are true friends. As a result, marketing efforts is solely targeted to strangers in order to get them to utilize our resources or services. I think we need to rethink our loyalty strategy.

Brand valuation

After reading Brand Valuation, I think the one thing that makes a brand valuable is its capability to provide long-term competitive advantage. Brands influence the choices of customers, employees, investors, and government authorities, they have an economic impact. According to a study by Interbrand in association with JP Morgan, brands create significant value either as consumer or corporate brands or as a combination of both. On average, one-third of shareholder value. Besides, companies with strong brands outperform the market in respect of several indices. Other than the economic value, brands also create substantial social value by increase competition, improve product performance and the pressure on brand owners to behave in socially responsible ways.

Out of all my favorite brands, I would like to focus on my favorite brands related to food. Below are my favor brands and the reason for each of them:

McDonald’s
I like McDonald’s for several reasons. First, the kids playground. In Hong Kong, none of the MCD have kid playing area, I’m surprised when I come to the US that most MCD have playground. This allow the parent to eat and socialize when their kids play around. Second, they offer collectables with menu from time to time, at least it is the case in Hong Kong. There always a long line waiting for the collectables. Third, Ronald McDonald House Charities is a great cause.

Yoplait
They offer a lot of different choices for their yogurt, you won’t be bore eating yogurt all the time. Besides, their Save Lids to Save Lives program helps people with breast cancer.

Campbell
Campbell soup test good and also offered a lot of variety. I also like their participation in Labels for Education.

Cheetos
While I’m not a cheese lover, I lover Cheetos! I just can’t stop eating them.

Just like all other assets, brands are one of the assets for the company, even though they are intangible. As mentioned above, brands create not only to the company, but also customer and shareholder etc. Companies also find brand valuation helpful in the following ways:

• Making decisions on business investments
• Measuring t he return on brand investments
• Making decisions on brand investments
• Making decision on licensing the brand to subsidiary companies
• Turning the marketing department from a cost center into a profit center by connecting brand investment and brand returns
• Allocating marketing expenditures
• Organizing and optimizing the use of different brands in the business
• Assessing co-branding initiatives
• Deciding the appropriate branding after a merger
• Managing brand migration more successfully
• Establishing brand value scorecards
• Managing a portfolio of brands across a variety of markets
• Communicating where appropriate the economics value creation of the brand to the capital markets in order to support share prices and obtain funding
• Assessing fair transfer prices for the use of brands in subsidiary companies
• Determining brand royalty rates
• Determining the contribution of brands to joint ventures
• Using brands for securitization of debt facilities

Due to the wide range of applications for brand valuation, I think Brands should be on the balance sheet.

Campbell Soup Company (CPB)

Campbell's is a well-known producer of canned soups, and it is the company which I believe is highly effective in bringing in all the elements of the marketing mix together for their consumers. The target audience for the company's market offerings is soup lovers who lack time to prepare soup themselves. In North America, Campbell offers a variety of soups, which includes condensed soups, microwavable soups, chunky soups, select harvest soups, healthy request soups, low sodium soups and 25% less sodium soups. The different types of soup listed about are based on the need of different consumers. Low sodium soups and 25% less sodium soups targets at senior, who may have higher concern with sodium intake. Microwavable soup targets consumers which put great emphasis on convenience. Due to the different perceived value by consumers from different segment, Campbell set up different price range for different type of soups. For example, people with healthy diet life style will be willing to pay a higher price for healthy request soups due to healthy ingredients contains in the soups. In term of distribution, Campbell soup is widely distributed in different venue. While supermarkets and grocery stores carried a variety of canned soup, Campbell's soup on the go is available in gas stations and vending machines. While TV ad is one of the main channel which Campbell communicate with their target audience, Campbell also deliver their messages to their target audience through the Campbell Soup Foundation, their participation in Labels for Education, their commitment to social responsibility to consumers, neighbors, employees and the planet. Campbell’s participation in Labels for Education is a win-win promotional strategy to both Campbell’s and the schools/organizations. Consumers who have a tie and want to help the school/organization will have a higher incentive to purchase Campbell than other named brands or private brands. On the other hand, schools/organizations will encourage consumers to purchase Campbell, which will increase the sales of Campbell soup. Chapter 8 of The Marketing Plan Handbook discussed channel members and different type of distribution. In the case of Campbell, I think they utilize the intensive distribution.

In an academic library, price may be irrelevant as we don’t charge patrons for services, except for fine. However, distribution channel do play a role in how we deliver our services. Unlike a few decades ago, which books were housed in a physical building; technologies enable the library to deliver ebook electronically through web browsers and mobile devices. The distribution model changed from exclusive distribution to intensive distribution; as access is no longer restricted to a specific group of patrons, who is able to visit the library physically, but to patrons anywhere around the world (assuming they are affiliated with the university). 

Product development and product life cycle

Shorter product life cycle will force companies to speed up their product development process. As stated in The Marketing Plan Handbook, technology advancement enables competitors to leapfrogged each other with new models every few months. Hence, it is important for companies to speed up their product development, so they can launch their new product before their competitors grab their sales and customer relationships. While speeding up every stage of product development may not be possible, it is best to speed up as much processes as possible. For example, use of the latest prototype software will enable companies to produce design prototype in a shorter amount of time. By employing sophisticated analytic software, the companies will be able to analyze data to create more accurate segmentation plan. Technologies play a positive role in product development.

Rory Sutherland's TED Talk

Just watched the TED Talk, Rory Sutherland: Life Lessons from an Ad Man. Below are a few things I get out from the video:

• all value is subjective
• persuasion is often better than compulsion
• value of good depends on: being expensive, rare, ubiquitous, classless, minimalistic
• so much communication now is contextual that the capacity for actually nudging people, for giving them better info
• mobile phone is persuasive technologies -> location-specific, contextual, timely & immediate

The Shreddies example is a good one and it also demonstrate the value of marketing research.

Working in a heavily service oriented organization, with limited financial resources, I think the concept of intangible value and how it can impact perception will be a very important area that we look into.

Obsolete products

John posted a question, which asked us to think of cases where products have become obsolete. The first thing it comes up in my mind is different models of cell phones. For example, Apple's iphone 3 is now obsolete and success by new models. Another obsolete product I can think of is cassette tape. There are some other products which I believe they will be obsolete in the near future due to technological advancement, see below:

• Typewriters: replaced by computers
• Floppy disks: replaced by flash drives
• Dial-up internet: replaced by cable
• Landline phones: replaced by cell phones
• CDs: replaced online streaming music

Total Product Concept/Augmented Product/Three Levels of a Product

The three levels of product introduced by Philip Kotler are Core (Simply looks at what people set out to buy and what benefits the producer would like their product to offer buyers), Actual (design a product that will persuade people to purchase your product) and Augmented (additional non-tangible benefit that a product can offer). One of the products, which have products in all three levels, is body wash. The core product is body wash. The actual products are Dove, Old Spice, etc. Dove differentiates itself from others by offering body wash with moisturizer and skin care. One non-tangible benefit of body wash is the customer will feel refreshing after they use body wash at shower. In an effort to get a better understanding of the augmented product, I found an article called Five Product Levels (Kotler). In addition to the core and augmented product, the article also explains generic, expected and potential product.

1. Core product: Basic product and the focus is on the purpose for which the product is intended.
2. Generic product: all the qualities of the product.
3. Expected product: all aspects the consumer expects to get when they purchase a product.
4. Augmented product: all additional factors which sets the product apart from that of the competition.
5. Potential product: augmentations and transformations that the product may undergo in the future.

Positioning

According to The Marketing Plan Handbook, positioning strategy is aimed to differentiate the brand or product on the basis of attributes that customers find meaningful. A firm's position resides with the attributes which customers value and attributes which competitors perceived. For positioning to work, it should align with the company's mission, goals, and resources. In addition, positioning conveys the value that the brand provides, it sets the brand apart from competitors in a sustainable way.

Victoria's Secret and Aerie are two companies which competing in the apparel industry which specialized in lingerie. Victoria's Secret sells lingerie, womenswear and beauty products, and Aerie sells lingerie. While Victoria's Secret targets at adult, Aerie targets at teenagers. The impression given by Victoria's Secret is seductive, which Aerie give an impression of cute and girlish. Not only does Victoria's Secret provides a bigger selection in term of lingerie, but they also offers other products like perfume, bathing suits etc. In term of promoting the product, Victoria's Secret have fashion show, angels and pink spokesmodels. For Aerie, they invite targeted group of customers to the in-store party. The two companies have different products and marketing strategies due to the different needs of their customers.

In research of how academic libraries apply positioning, I found an article titled "Positioning and Marketing Academic Libraries to Students", even though the article was published in 1998, it got some interesting information. Another search leads me to a book titled Breakthrough Branding: Positioning Your Library to Survive and Thrive, which is published in 2013. I would like to read the book and find out how branding and position impact libraries.

Segmentation

According to The Marketing Plan Handbook, market segmentation is the process of grouping customers within a market according to similar needs, habits, or attitudes that can be addressed through marketing. A smaller segments with distinct needs or benefit requirements within a segment is called niches. Segmentation facilitates consumer obsession as marketing campaign is directed to the specific needs/benefits of the consumers, it is not one model for all or one size fit all.

There are four factors which firm need to consider when segment a consumer market, they are listed below:

• behavioral and attitudinal variables: this is the best way to identify a consumer group for marketing purposes. Examples include benefits required or expected, usage occasion and status, loyalty status, technological orientation etc.
• demographic variables: these are common and easily identified consumer characteristics. Examples include age, gender, household size, income etc.
• geographic variables: this may cover a single neighborhood or an entire continent. Examples include location, distance, climate etc.
• psychographic variables: helps to gain a deeper understanding of what and why consumers buy. Examples include lifestyle, activities, interests etc.

Three out of the four factors above should be consider when applying segmentation to business markets, they are behavioral and attitudinal variables, demographic variables and geographic variables.

When thinking of an academic library, the following three factors seem to be useful when applying segmentation:

• behavioral and attitudinal variables: graduate students look for a quiet place to study; undergraduate students look for group study rooms for group work. Faculty look for convenient way to get journal articles.
• demographic variables: age, gender
• geographic variables: residential students, commute students, international students

HBR: Market Segmentation, Target Market Selection, and Positioning

I learned a few concepts related to market segmentation, target market selection and positioning in this article. The two types of segmentation are (i) segmentation based on benefits sought by customers; (ii) segmentation based on observable characteristics of customers. Differentiation is the key to target market selection, and the five areas which includes (1) ability to conceive and design; (2) ability to produce (quality and quantity); (3) ability to market; (4) ability to finance; (5) ability to manage/execute is completely new to me. In term of differentiation, horizontal differentiation uses the fact that consumers differ in their tastes. Identifying group(s) whose need(s) are not sufficiently served by a competitor should be a strategy which a firm pursue for horizontal differentiation. In vertical differentiation, it assumes consumers consumer's is willing to pay for quality. As a result, firm pursuing vertical differentiation should position products to customers with a specific level of willingness to pay for quality that is not sufficiently served by a competitor.

In order to find out whether any of the concepts discussed in the HBR article been applied to the field of library and information sciences, I performed an internet search and found a whitepaper by CIVICTechnologies . Part of the paper stated how market segmentation can be useful for libraries:

• To offer their small businesses, entry-level entrepreneurs, and non-profits a tool to find new customers, retain existing customers, improve profitability, find the best location for their business, and develop new products and services appropriate to their market.
• For use by students to support research and class projects and to prepare students to use market segmentation in their chosen profession.
• For use by the public library itself to improve services by better engaging library users and those who don't yet use the library.

While it is beneficial to learn about how the concepts applied to libraries in general, I would like to learn more on it's application to medium size academic libraries.

Data collection for marketing plan

Since the U.S. government is one of biggest data collector and publisher, I will start looking up data and statistics through the usa.gov website. Other than the federal government, I will also look at state and local government website to explore data that is related to a local population. Gapminder.org by Dr. Rosling will be a good place to look for data and statistics around the world, and also see the trend throughout different time period. Besides, some public and academic libraries also offers subscription databases like Simmons, which contain data sets. I will see if I will be able to gain access to those resources through my local public or academic libraries. Depending on the scope of the marketing plan, it is also possible to conduct online survey in order to collect data from the users.

To understand and learn about the types of customers in the market that I have been assigned, I will research on their cultural value and explore related subcultures. Also, I will find out how each type of customers connect with others within their social circles. As opinion leaders can have a powerful influence on consumer's buying decision, I will also identify opinion leaders within the social circles. Besides, I will pay attention to the lifestyle, perception, attitudes and motivation of the customers.

Once data are collected and analyzed, I will convey and provide insights about my findings through a visual presentation. The presentation will includes the followings components, based on the characteristics of the target audience:

• The believe
• The benefit
• The statistics
• The implementation
• The results

As demonstrated by Dr. Rosling, statistics can be presented in a non-boring ways. Charts, graphics, or even interactive graphics helps convey the messages behind the statistics.

Rosling and Gladwell

There are a few things I got out from Dr. Rosling’s video. First, social changes occur before economic changes. Second, there are differences between different areas even though all the areas belong to the same country. Third, it is dangerous to use average database and made generalization conclusion, because there are a lot of differences within a country. The Gapminder software that Dr. Rosling works on is an eye opener. You would think that such interactive tool to view statistical data will be super expensive and there will be limited number of people who will be able to afford it. It’s good that tools like that are available to everyone. Besides, visual presentation of data helps me a lot to see the relationship and trends, especially over a certain time period. I think having the visual representation helps to bring up the importance of the data.

In the video by Gladwell, he talked about horizontal segmentation, idea of universal, and variability. He also used a few examples to demonstrated that people don’t know what they want, and people can’t always explain what and why they want something. I think his speech tied well with the reading for this week, segmentation and neuromarketing. Instead of focusing on finding the prefect product to produce in order to make the customers happy, we may want to segment the customer, find out what they want, and provide the product accordingly in order to make them happy. Studying the mind of the people will be one way of doing it.

In order to find out the impact of neuromakreting on non-profit organization, I did some research. In the article Is it right for charities to use neuromarketing?, the author listed some pros and cons of using neuromarketing by charities.

Pros

- a new way to increase funding and resources

- the best charities aren’t rewarded or given funding as it is

Cons

- charities should win donors based on their mission, evidence of outcomes, etc., not ‘tricks’

- neuromarketing could create a battle among charities, ability to get funding and resources may depends on budget and psychology expertise of a charity

Another thing I found out is the history of neuromarketing. While neuromarketing is a concept that is new to me, the term neuromarketing was actually coined in 2002 by Ale Smidts. Hence the concept have been around for over a decade! :-O

Understand customers through research

In chapter 3 of The Marketing Plan Handbook, primary and secondary research is discussed. Secondary research is defined by research that use data already collected for another purpose. As for primary research, it is conducted to address a specific marketing question or situation. The three primary research methods that getting increasing attention is ethnographic research, online research and neuromarketing. At the end of the chapter, one concern that brought up by the author related to marketing research is privacy.

At the academic library I work at, we conduct a lot of secondary research. We utilized websites (that provide statistics) and journal databases (that provide trends) in order to understand the research and learning needs of our faculty and students. Primary research is conducted when a need arise.  For example, the Web Services department conducted ethnographic research in order to find out how users use the library website. Another example is the Public Relations department post question as Facebook status in order to seek feedback of users about library services.

Even though the Library does not conducted primary research frequently, the Office of Communications and Marketing for the campus do conduct primary research on both potential and current students. Several years ago, the Office of Communications and Marketing hired a consulting firm to find out student's needs in all areas, which includes but not limited to, campus resources, student life, food services etc.

While I aware of ethnographic and online research, neuromarketing is new to me. I would like to learn more about how nonprofit utilized neuromarketing and its findings.

Needs of customers

There are several needs that an academic library try to satisfy for our patrons, they are listed below:

• Information needs: we provide books, periodicals, and subscription databases to fulfill information and/or research needs of faculty and students.
• Computing needs: we provide computers, printers and scanners for students so that they can complete their course work.
• Study space needs: we provide individual study area and group study rooms for students, so that they can have a space to study.
• Research needs: we provide instruction to students on how to perform research.
• Employment opportunities: we hire student workers, which provide an opportunity to fulfill their needs of getting work experience.

Reflection on macro & micro environment

Below are macro and micro environment examples for the organization that I am working now.

Micro
A supplier - Ebscohost, a database vendor which provides a broad range of full text and bibliographic databases designed for research.
A channel partner - Faculty. Faculty is a channel partner of the library, as they help us to introduce the resources that the library have to their students.
A competitor - Google. Google provide user-friendly interface and indexed a lot of information available on the Internet.

Macro
Technology 
- mobile device. As increasing number of patrons have smartphone, the Library need to investigate development of mobile friendly website or app.
- social media. This will impact how we can reach out to the students.
- e-readers. The change in reading behavior of patrons will impact how the Library build it's future collection. What kind of services we provide and how we market our materials and services.

Politics
- law and legislation related to higher education.
- funding from state to higher education will have direct impact of campus funding, which also impact material budget of the Library.