Library Revolution

Thank you, Kathy Dempsey, for this excellent post outlining the meaning of the word “marketing” and several other related terms, including advertising, branding, advocacy, and public relations.

I often hear librarians using these word interchangeably, or mixing them up a bit. I especially hear librarians talking about “marketing” when what they really mean is “advertising,” and then getting frustrated and throwing in the towel when it comes to marketing efforts when they are faced with the costs associated with advertising. But advertising is only one small part of a larger marketing strategy.

Before getting bogged down by one particular element, perhaps libraries worried about marketing should spend a little more time developing a more large-scale and tong-term marketing strategy and using that strategy as a basis for a plan to use techniques such as advertising, promotion, branding, etc. to achive your marketing goals.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 31st, 2008 at 7:31 pm and is filed under Library Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.