Cruise to Success: How to Steer Your Way Through the Murky Waters of Marketing Your Library

Citation

Sanders, R. (2010), "Cruise to Success: How to Steer Your Way Through the Murky Waters of Marketing Your Library", Library Review, Vol. 59 No. 2, pp. 141-141. https://doi.org/10.1108/00242531011023943

The material for this book has come from the author's experience of a marketing campaign run by the McDermott Library at the University of Texas, Dallas. As Head of Information Literacy at this institution, the author would presumably have been heavily involved in said campaign, although that is not stated. The apparent, also un‐stated, aim of the book is to share the experience of this marketing “campaign” (sometimes referred to as a marketing “project”), to explain the process, and to show what worked.

The organisation of the book leaves a lot to be desired. For example, an early chapter entitled “The library as a corporation” is a puzzle, as it is about how to discover what needs promoting and gives some ideas on where to do so. That it also has a topic “marketing plan” is also misleading – the outline of a marketing plan, provided in a clear diagram, is, in essence, not a marketing plan, but rather a list of promotional ideas. And then, strangely, the next chapter is about how to undertake a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats (SWOT) analysis, which bearing in mind the contents of the previous chapter are rather akin to putting the cart before the horse. There is not much clarity in this work about the process of marketing, and I would have liked to see some evidence of market research and analysis preceding the marketing “campaign”. Statements such as “There is a segment of library users who often prefer to use online resources” need to be supported with reference to the research that confirms this.

The discussion of a SWOT analysis just mentioned exhorts the reader to focus on a particular service or goal, and this is realistic. However, target marketing, which is discussed as a focus of the marketing campaign at this library, is not really investigated or explained in any depth. Even in the early library marketing texts to which the author briefly refers, market segmentation is seen as the foundation of the development of marketing strategies. It is arguably the most important step in a marketing plan if we want to ensure that customer needs are being satisfied. The means to segmentation are not covered, other than to suggest prioritising according to need for change or visibility. This underlines the lack of theory and established practice behind the work.

This is a book full of great ideas, small and large, that anyone might use to promote and raise awareness of their library's services and products. However, it does lack significant links to the theory of marketing, and indeed to the myriad of works on marketing of libraries which have preceded it, and it would be a mistake to believe that this is a scholarly work. If seen in its true light, as a practical hands‐on guide to publicity methods, it is a useful addition to the literature.