"Price" in the Mix

The cost of services

Nothing is free!

Price is another part of the marketing mix to assess during the planning process. Free services at the library have a price -- the tax dollars to supply them. In addition, think of price as the worth of a product/service to users in terms of the time they spend. What does the library have to offer customers that's worth the inconvenience of one more stop on a busy day?

Although some libraries offer fee-based services, price in library marketing can also refer to the cost to establish and maintain a service -- ultimately passed along to users as taxes. For a product, look at the funding required, staffing needed, materials to be purchased, and the amount of the marketing budget to promote it. If you have fee-based services, such as database searching, document delivery, photocopying, interlibrary loan, printer paper, etc., consider the competition and compare your prices  with local copy shops, document delivery services, and office supply stores.

Time is money

The "cost" of a service may be too high in terms of time and convenience. Our systems, for example, are sometimes, and for some users, difficult to learn and use. Waiting for computer terminals or learning to use microform machines may not be "worth it."  If reference areas are crowded and understaffed, users may not want to "spend time" waiting. If circulation has long lines, or waiting lists for new books are long, it may be easier to buy a book.

Other factors also drive up "costs" for a user. If users are not close, they might think twice about a quick trip to town to pick up a book -- at today's gasoline prices! If your market research shows many families with school-age children, a heavy schedule of extra-curricular activities may limit possibilities for library trips. If your users are commuters, will they want to spend even more time away from home when the Internet is so easily available? Provide and market services that offer users savings in time as well as actual costs.

In addition to fee-based services, price in library marketing refers to the cost of establishing and maintaining a service -- ultimately passed along to users as taxes. Also consider what a trip to the library is worth to users in terms of time to get to the library, time to learn the systems, or time to use the services.

In your library marketing plan from Module 2, consideration should be given to Price.

• If there are actual costs associated with the product/service you chose for your plan, include information about funding in the budget section of your plan.
• Costs are also reflected in staff time. Your plan should reflect an estimate of the staff hours involved.
• What is a promotion strategy that you could include to illustrate to users that the service is worthy of their tax dollars?
• Will the product save the user time?

Promotion