Abhatoo - Centre Nationale de Documentation

Introduction

Librarians and information specialists have debated the idea of marketing for the information sector. Several things have compelled us to learn about marketing and begin doing it. Librarianship is experiencing rapid change. Information technology has created a new gateway for information services.

Information products and services in a multiplicity of formats have made libraries and information centres more competitive and alert. Libraries are being subjected to significant pressures from the information revolution. The challenges of budget cuts, increased user base, the rapid growth of material, rising costs, networking demands, competition by database vendors, and complexity in information requirements are forcing the professionals to adopt marketing to improve the management of library and information centres.

Marketing aims to identify the client base, and to determine and fill its needs, wants, and demands by designing and delivering appropriate products and services. The main focus of the concept is the client, and the goal is client satisfaction. Rowley (2001) calls marketing, the management process which identifies, anticipates, and supplies customer requirements efficiently and profitably. Kotler (1999) says, that marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of goods, services and ideas to create exchanges with target groups that satisfy customers and organizational objectives. Under the umbrella term marketing, we study concepts like building customer relationships, branding and corporate identity, marketing communications, price and pricing policy, collecting marketing data and marketing strategy and planning. For the purpose of this paper I will restrict the scope of the subject to pricing information products and services.