Marketing Analysis
For LIS 5602 we did a semester long analysis of a chosen organization; here is mine of New Orleans Public Library.
1. Introduction
The New Orleans Public Library dates back to a single house in the French Quarter in the year 1843 (New Orleans Public Library, n.d.-g). In the 178 years since then, the library has expanded to 15 locations throughout the city, touching nearly every major neighborhood. Beginning in 2019, prior to the pandemic, New Orleans Public Library began their new 10 year strategic plan process, which was partially slowed by Covid-19 (New Orleans Public Library, 2021-a). Their mission statement is “New Orleans Public Library: Transforming Lives, Enriching Neighborhoods, and Preserving History” (New Orleans Public Library, n.d.-h, para. 1), which rings true to their actions. They want to transform lives through early and adult literacy, enrich neighborhoods through many locations, and preserve history with their city of New Orleans archive.
New Orleans Public Library listens to their customers but still has room to grow. They collected the thoughts of 4,000 stakeholders to create the strategic plan to be sure it aligned with what customers expect of their public library (New Orleans Public Library, 2021-a). Customers wanted literacy for children, job readiness for adults, and open doors to reach all. This is not to say they are perfect; their current media outreach does not extend to tweens/teens, seniors, and non-English speakers. They are also not without troubles; the mayor of New Orleans in 2020 decided to try to reallocate 40% of their budget to the Economic Development Fund (Stein, 2020). The library’s hope rests on a renewed millage to be voted on December 11, 2021 (Stein, 2020). Whether the millage goes through or not, the library must prepare themselves for both eventualities. Trouble in the form of Hurricane Ida reduced library hours to no more than 8 hours a day and all libraries closed Sundays. Further, the pandemic caused many staff to leave or retire, leaving a dearth that has yet to be filled due to the potential budget cut.
New Orleans Public Library has many, many stakeholders, some of which may be at odds with each other at times, but there must have been some consensus among them according to the 10 year strategic goals. They are strong in their ability to hear stakeholders, stay relevant to customers, hire diverse staff, require degrees of staff, and serve low-income teen needs. However, they need to hire more staff, reach out to more customer segments, and include non-English speakers in promotions. Some of their services could use upgrades in terms of price, place, and promotion. New Orleans Public Library is focused, professional, and organized, but that is not to say improvements cannot be made. I do not know what their marketing budget is, but they must have one as they do have Jane LeGros, Director of Marketing and Communications (New Orleans Public Library, n.d.-h, right sidebar).
2. Mission, Goals, Objectives
The Mission Statement of the New Orleans Public Library reads, “New Orleans Public Library: Transforming Lives, Enriching Neighborhoods, and Preserving History” (New Orleans Public Library, n.d.-h, para. 1)
It is unclear when this Mission Statement was written, although the strategic plan was written in 2021. It may be presumed the Mission Statement was considered and may have been updated in the same year. I believe this is a very punchy, clear, spot-on Mission Statement for the public library of New Orleans. In being a lower income city, they focus a lot of their energy, money, and time on both early literacy and adult literacy—that is part of their Transforming Lives. Furthermore, New Orleans is not that large of a city yet there are 15 library locations throughout, near one in each major neighborhood—that being the Enriching Neighborhoods part. Finally, they have an archive and special collection focused on the city of New Orleans—Preserving History representing that.
The New Orleans Public Library has their 24 page, professional, detailed 10 year strategic plan on their website available for everyone to see (New Orleans Public Library, 2021-a). They include 3 goals, with each goal having 3 objectives. I will share 2 goals and 2 objectives for each goal here. Goal 1: “S.M.A.R.T. Kids: Developing creative and critical thinking skills” (New Orleans Public Library, 2021-a, p. 8). One objective associated with this goal is to “Create stronger alliances with parents, early childhood centers, schools, and community groups to further make a difference in the lives of young people” (New Orleans Public Library, 2021-a, p. 11). A second objective stated is “NOPL will curate a diverse set of early learning resources to support the efforts of parents, caregivers, and Early Childhood Centers across the city” (New Orleans Public Library, 2021-a, p. 11). These objectives associate with their Mission Statement section stating, “Enriching Lives” (New Orleans Public Library, n.d.-h, para. 1) because bringing literacy to youngsters will enhance and improve their abilities throughout life.
Another goal they state is “Goal 3: Open Doors: Creating Equitable Access to Library Resources for All New Orleanians” (New Orleans Public Library, 2021-a, p. 8). One objective related to this goal is improving digital resources; “NOPL has made great strides in removing physical barriers that can impede access to library resources by greatly expanding its eResources” (New Orleans Public Library, 2021-a, p. 20). This goal also ties into the Mission Statement’s “Enriching Lives” (New Orleans Public Library, n.d.-h, para. 1) part as access to eResources is of prime concern during a pandemic; lives can still be changed, only through online resources rather than physical spaces and materials. A second objective stated is “Reading Works: NOPL will improve adult literacy and workforce opportunities for low-skilled and low-literate citizens” (New Orleans Public Library, 2021-a, p. 15). Again, this connects with the “Enriching Lives” (New Orleans Public Library, n.d.-h, para. 1) mission statement section because reading as an adult is the key to opportunity.
I have known of New Orleans Public Library’s strategic plan since Spring of 2021 when I found it while digging into the library website. I was blown away by the detail and professional presentation, and I still am. Because New Orleans is known for corruption and official crimes, I’m proud of how transparent and organized New Orleans Public Library is about their mission. I do not believe the mission statement, goals, or objectives need any updating or revising; they are relevant and important. However, I will say that 10 years is a long time not to update or at least revisit the mission statement, goals, and objectives. New Orleans Public Library should reconsider their plan in 5 years time to be sure it still aligns with current needs, and they should revise their objectives yearly as external pressures change and as objectives are met.
3. Environmental Influences
New Orleans Public Library is painfully aware of the political environment in which they reside. Of all the macro environment factors, political is number one for New Orleans Public Library right now. New Orleans Public Library may “see its funding cut by $7.5 million to $8.5 million — roughly 40 percent of the library’s property tax revenue and roughly 36 percent of the library’s total budget” (Stein, 2020, para. 1) in late 2021; the mayor believes the money should be taken from the library and given to the Economic Development Fund (Stein, 2020). As Mon and Koontz write “legal and political issues are critical for a public library in the United States, where local funds on average provide 98 percent of budgets” (2021, p. 31). Although the New Orleans City Counsel claims “that the library services would not be affected by such a substantial loss in revenue” (Stein, 2020, para. 4), I believe anyone with a mind knows that losing 40 percent of a budget will have major impacts. But in a move to buffer this, the library has made a plan! The library and its stakeholders have worked hard to “fully renew a key property tax that provides nearly half the library’s funding” (Stein, 2021, para. 1). If passed in December 2021, this renewal would save New Orleans Public Library; but will it pass? At this point, for their future, New Orleans Public Library will need to make incredibly difficult decisions which may include closing branches, reducing services, and not filling open positions. It would be best if they planned now should the millage not pass to prepare for a dire future.
New Orleans Public Library also has microenvironment troubles. From an internal source, I learned that NOPL already has a staff shortage due to employees leaving or retiring because of the pandemic. With such a gigantic budget cut looming, the reality of staffing those positions soon is unlikely. With not enough staff currently in the libraries and no guarantee of hiring more soon, morale has hit a low. Moreover, internally the library lacks outgoing marketing to tweens, teens, and seniors focusing solely on adults, parents, and children with their social media presence. New Orleans Public Library also is not marketing appropriately to non-English speakers, as all posts on social media are in English and their website can only be haphazardly translated to another language with a Google Translate plug in.
To make the most of their presence, New Orleans Public library needs to scan their external and internal environments thoroughly. When reaching out to the public about the upcoming budget reduction, they should use research to find out what it is about the library that the citizens value the most, then remind them of those factors. To do this, New Orleans Public Library could collect feedback asking, “Why is the library valuable to YOU?” This could be done on social media via posts, through an in-library paper survey, or even a simple bulletin board with markers. Then they would know the services and materials people love and remind the public of those services and materials as they ask for help with the vote in December 2021. For internal environment, they must diversify their social media and web presence to embrace the other two major languages spoken in New Orleans, Spanish and Vietnamese. By including these customers in their messages, New Orleans Public Library will fling open their doors to more citizens. Further, they must pay attention to demographics not currently served by social media: tweens, teens, and seniors. Research shows that tweens and teens love TikTok (Jennings, 2021), while Pew research shows seniors prefer television (Mitchel et al., 2016). To reach these customers, New Orleans Public Library needs to diversify their media outreach to include the in-the-moment tween/teen social media, as well as spots on the local news about relevant topics of concern to seniors.
4. Stakeholders/Publics
New Orleans Public Library has no publicly visible list of stakeholders, but they do seem to be in touch with public need. In their 2022-2032 Strategic Plan they say their 3 goals were “developed based on the feedback provided by both internal and external stakeholders” (New Orleans Public Library, 2021-a, p. 5). To start, 3 internal stakeholders are employees, Friends of the New Orleans Public Library, and administration. Employees are interested in fair pay and a congenial work environment. The Friends of New Orleans Public Library are interested in growing literacy in New Orleans. Administration is interested in promoting and improving the library. Though these 3 stakeholders are all internal, there could be potential conflict. Administrators, those who decide how to spend budget money, could conflict with employees who wish for more in their salaries. The Friends too could conflict with the administration if their plans for how to bring literacy to the public of New Orleans does not align. The Friends also supply volunteers to the library, creating a potential conflict with paid employees who might feel threatened. The key here is to be sure to create relationships between the internal stakeholders to foster open dialogue about conflict. For marketing, New Orleans Public Library can listen to each of these 3 stakeholders for valuable information from their group to apply to campaigns.
3 external stakeholders for New Orleans Public Library to consider are non-English speaking citizens of New Orleans, seniors, and teens. It is easy to see that these 3 stakeholders would be at odds with each other. Each stakeholder group will want services, programs, and materials geared toward their own group, but there is only so much budget money to spend. Seniors may prefer a serene library atmosphere, while teens could be interested in a noisier more active library setting. Non-English speaking customers will desire materials in their native language, whereas the English speaking teens and seniors may find those materials useless. The key for New Orleans Public Library is to make separate but equally impactful media outreach for each stakeholder group. Promote appropriate materials, programs, and services to the group for which those items were created. This means having separate channels for the stakeholders. TikTok is suggested for the teens as it is popular with them (Jennings, 2021), though the library must be flexible in keeping up with the current “trending” app and change platforms as necessary. For seniors, they prefer television as their media outlet (Mitchel et al., 2016) so connecting with a local station or news channel would be best to reach them through free, library spotlights. Non-English speakers will need media written in their first language in order to engage them.
5. SWOT
SWOT stands for internal microenvironment Strengths and Weaknesses and external macroenvironment Opportunities and Threats (Mon & Koontz, 2021, p. 49). The primary purpose of conducting a SWOT analysis is to optimize the “understanding of the organization within the current environment” (Mon & Koontz, 2021, p. 49).
New Orleans Public Library’s strengths are:
1. A strong connection to their community visible through listening to their customers. As their 10 year plan states, “more than 4,000 stakeholders offered their vision for the future of the library system” (New Orleans Public Library, 2021-a, p. 5). By collecting feedback from customers, New Orleans Public Library is staying in touch with their stakeholders by allowing them a voice in the library’s future.
2. Staying relevant and essential to citizens visible through their quick response to Hurricane Ida. Hurricane Ida hit New Orleans on Sunday August 29, 2021. By Friday September 3, 2021, New Orleans Public Library opened 2 locations for the public to charge their mobile devices, stream WIFI, and enjoy air conditioning as stated on a post from September 3, 2021 on their Facebook page (New Orleans Public Library, n.d.-b). This critical service at a time of need for their customers proved that the library is an essential resource in New Orleans.
3. Demographic variety in librarians and staff visible in any branch. Through my own observation, I have noted that New Orleans Public Library does well in cultivating a diversified staff. They have a mix of white, Hispanic, and African American staff or librarians as well as older and younger employees. Male, female, and queer staff members are easily found as well, in person or through their social media posts (New Orleans, n.d.-b).
4. Requiring a master’s degree for a librarian title visible through their job postings. Although not necessary, requiring an ALA accredited master’s degree for the title of librarian is desired because it guarantees the employee met a certain amount of rigorous study before serving the public. The New Orleans Public Library requires all staff with a librarian title to have completed an applicable master’s degree, as seen in their job postings (New Orleans Public Library, n.d.-f).
5. Attention to teens’ need for access to high technology visible through the presence of the Best Buy Teen Tech Center. As a low-income city, New Orleans’ teens may not have access to high technology at home. New Orleans Public Library combats this lack at home with an innovative and technologically rich center for teens to gain access to what they need for their futures at the Best Buy Teen Tech Center (New Orleans Public Library, n.d.-a).
New Orleans Public Library’s weaknesses are:
1. Staffing shortage visible through a report from an unnamed staff member. Due to the pandemic, many New Orleans Public Library employees decided to either leave their jobs or retire. This has created a dearth in staff and librarians. This was reported to me by a staff member during a phone call (they wish not to be named). To combat this, New Orleans Public Library needs to appropriately hire and staff each location, though this is unlikely to happen soon due to the budget cuts mentioned in part 3, Environmental Influences.
2. Lack of Spanish language or Vietnamese language outreach visible through social media outlets. Approximately fifty-two thousand people speak English “less than well” in the Greater New Orleans area as reported by the United States Census (American Community Survey, 2021). Despite this high number of customers not speaking English, New Orleans Public Library only offers the haphazard Google Translate plug in on their main webpage (New Orleans Public Library, 2021-b). They also only post in English on their Facebook (New Orleans Public Library, n.d.-b), Instagram (New Orleans Public Library, n.d.-c), and Twitter (New Orleans Public Library, n.d.-d) pages.
3. Shortened hours due to hurricane Ida visible at every branch on their main webpage. As reported on the main page of their website (New Orleans Public Library, 2021-b), no New Orleans Public library location is open Sunday, and they all have a max of 8 open hours per day (10am-6pm) usually with reduced hours Friday and Saturday (10am-5pm). This means that many customers cannot access the library due to work schedules and life obligations.
4. No media outreach to tweens/teens visible through their social media outlets. New Orleans Public Libraries do not include a social media outlet specifically for the tween/teen demographic. They only subscribe to Facebook (New Orleans Public Library, n.d.-b), Twitter (New Orleans Public Library, n.d.-d), Instagram (New Orleans Public Library, n.d.-c), and YouTube (New Orleans Public Library, n.d.-e), and the content of those pages are geared mostly toward adults, parents, and children. The Facebook (New Orleans Public Library, n.d.-b), Twitter (New Orleans Public Library, n.d.-d), and Instagram (New Orleans Public Library, n.d.-c) pages are clones of each other geared toward parents and adults, while the YouTube (New Orleans Public Library, n.d.-e) channel has children’s story times.
5. Lack of media outreach to seniors visible through absence of television spots and social media. New Orleans Public Libraries do not include seniors in their media outreach. They only subscribe to Facebook (New Orleans Public Library, n.d.-b), Twitter (New Orleans Public Library, n.d.-d), Instagram (New Orleans Public Library, n.d.-c), and YouTube (New Orleans Public Library, n.d.-e), and the content of those pages are geared mostly toward adults, parents, and children. The Facebook (New Orleans Public Library, n.d.-b), Twitter (New Orleans Public Library, n.d.-d), and Instagram (New Orleans Public Library, n.d.-c) pages are clones of each other geared toward parents and adults, while the YouTube (New Orleans Public Library, n.d.-e) channel has children’s story times.
New Orleans Public Library’s opportunities are:
1. Growing multi-cultural markets increases opportunity to collaborate with culture centers. By including Spanish and Vietnamese language social media posts to target multi-cultural potential customers, New Orleans Public Library could begin incorporating help from New Orleans cultural centers to enhance library service. “VAYLA incubates AAPI leaders for a more just tomorrow” claims their website (VAYLA, 2021). By partnering with VAYLA, New Orleans Public Library could bring more materials, services, and programs to the Vietnamese community of New Orleans. A Tulane University LibGuide (Stein, 2021) has many suggestions of Hispanic cultural centers to reach out to if New Orleans Public Library wishes to better serve that community as well.
2. Informing the public about the upcoming millage increases opportunity to save the library’s budget. As mentioned in section 3, Environmental Influences, the New Orleans Public Library is up for a renewal of a millage in December 2021 that provides half their budget (Stein, 2020). To make this opportunity a reality, the library must be pro-active about informing citizens of their value to customers.
3. Reaching out to tweens/teens through their own social media outlet increases the opportunity to serve that community and enhance their library experience. By using TikTok, a short form video social media channel, (Jennings, 2021) to connect with teens/tweens the library could learn what it is they need and want from the library. They can then change or create new ideas to enhance teen/tween services.
4. Reaching out to seniors via television spots increases the opportunity to serve that demographic and enhance their library experience. Seniors prefer their media from television (Mitchel et al., 2016). To create the most for seniors, the library needs to reach them where they are through television by partnering with local news stations or channels to do spotlights of library services and information important to seniors.
5. Creating a books by mail program for children increases the opportunity to build a literate New Orleans. Because New Orleans is a low-income city, many customers may have difficulty finding transport to a library that is out of walking distance. To be sure the children of New Orleans still get books and a foot in the door to reading, New Orleans Public Library should begin a books by mail program for children. This could lead to more children learning to read at an early age and increase literacy for everyone in the future.
New Orleans public library’s threats are:
1. Budget cuts threaten to cut staff, reduce materials/services, and close branches. The mayor of New Orleans has proposed moving 40% of the library’s budget to the Economic Development Fund (Stein, 2020). This could cause chaos for the library, with reduced staff, cuts to materials/services, and the eventual closing of branches.
2. Weather threatens to destroy branches and shut down the city. There is not much to do about this threat within library control, but it is real. Climate change can be partially to blame for this uptick in storms (Hersher, 2021). Hurricane Ida severed power to over a million New Orleans area customers on August 29, 2021 (Samenow et al., 2021), including every library branch in the New Orleans system.
3. Entertainment throughout New Orleans threatens to reduce customer visits to libraries. New Orleans is never low on entertainment options, many of which are free, as seen on a monthly calendar at the online Gambit newspaper (Gambit, n.d.). The many options for entertainment outside the library create a fierce competition for customers.
4. Amazon Prime accounts threaten to reduce check outs at the library. Amazon Prime includes reading a selection of books for free through their service (Amazon, n.d.). In the very first sentence of their pitch for Prime Reading, they mention libraries as a competitor to Prime Reading (Amazon, n.d., para. 1). This implies they are in direct competition with libraries, and Amazon is not shy about that.
5. Negative attitudes toward libraries threaten to reduce support for the library. LibFocus, an Irish blog about library concerns, explains that “public perception is still that [librarians] only stamp books and are obsolete as a result of Google” (O Connor, 2016, section Threats). Much of the public believes this, and those potential customers do not understand the importance of the library. These people could call for the defunding of libraries.
6. Customer Market Research
When a customer signs up at a New Orleans Public Library location, basic information is gathered from them, such as name, preferred library location, original date of registration, mailing address, email address, phone number, date of birth, and gender. To collect this data, New Orleans Public Library has two methods—online library card sign up and in person library card sign up. Proof of residence is also necessary, in the form of an ID with address or piece of mail with name and address. They also have reciprocal borrowing privileges with Jefferson Parish Libraries and St. Bernard Parish Libraries. I believe having an online and in person library card sign up is excellent so that the greatest number of potential customers can join the library.
As far as how New Orleans Public Library goes about researching their customers, I cannot say I know how they do that but some suggestions as to where to look for information would be prudent. First for internal data, New Orleans Public Library can use the information they gather from patrons upon sign up and their subsequent activity to track and understand their current customers. To get a larger view of customers and potential customers, data from the US Census could be used to draw profiles of customers at large in the whole city or neighborhood by neighborhood as the Census has that data available for free online. Information about schools and their demographics, scores, and graduation rates can be found at Louisiana Believes for each parish in Louisiana (Louisiana Believes, 2019). New Orleans Public Library could use this research to their advantage by knowing who the children are in their vicinity and how well they are performing in school. For organization specific resources, Louisiana keeps data and statistics about libraries in Louisiana at their website (Louisiana State Library, n.d.). This could help create comparisons and contrasts between how customers are using the New Orleans Public Library versus other parishes.
To find out more about psychographic and lifestyle data, New Orleans Public Library needs to keep a special eye on local news and by utilizing part of their budget for reports. Claritas, the leading lifestyle market segmenter, can be as cheap as $89-$179 per single report (Claritas, n.d.). I believe New Orleans Public Library could and should afford this report at least every other year to keep an idea of what the lifestyles of New Orleanians markets are to stay relevant. Moreover, paying attention to local news can also speak volumes about the lifestyles and psychographic attitudes of the citizens and potential customers. Signing up for the website NextDoor for a specific neighborhood could inform librarians of what the hot topics are amongst customers and potential customers on a focused level, as well as reading local newspapers, like Gambit, and even high school, elementary, or college associated newspapers. Keeping up with these hyper focused news outlets will reveal trends and attitudes for customers in the area where a library is located.
7. Identifying and Selecting Markets
New Orleans Public Library has segmented their market some, into adults, children, and parents. This can be seen in their social media posts aimed at these three groups. Any other segments being targeted are not easily seen from outside the library, and this is problematic because the other segments and more specific segments seem to be ignored. Three primary markets for New Orleans Public Library I have chosen are children, teens, and seniors. To further segment children, I will add low-income, living outside library walking distance, and low literacy. To further segment teens, I will add low-income, Hispanic, and Best Buy Teen Center user. To further segment seniors, I will add low-income, Vietnamese, and living alone. Based upon New Orleans Public Library’s 10 year strategic plan, concentrating on children with a low income, living away from a library, struggling to read would be most prudent to prioritize since the first goal of the plan is “S.M.A.R.T. Kids: Developing creative and critical thinking skills” (New Orleans Public Library, 2021-a, p. 8).
8. Marketing Mix Strategy
New Orleans Public Library
Product Mix: books collection
Two Product Lines: children’s book collection; YA novels
Example #1
One Product Line: children’s book collection
Three Product Items: baby board books, children’s picture books, online juvenile ebooks
4Ps
Product: Children’s Picture Books
Primary Customer Market: Young (pre-juvenile chapter books) children who are learning words and how to read.
Price: Travel to library; materials availability; knowledge of how to pick the “right” book
Place: in every library branch
Promotion: word of mouth; Facebook posts of suggested children’s reads; YouTube story times including books from the collection
Recommended Tweaking
Price and place here are intricately combined. Travel to the library (price) has skyrocketed because Hurricane Ida reduced library hours (place). To better serve the children of New Orleans, the library should consider bringing the books to the children. Paid subscription boxes have taken off via the internet, including boxes of snacks, toys, and, most applicable here, books. New Orleans Public Library already has a books by mail program for customers unable to reach the library due to disability, why not also offer that to children who cannot visit due to income and distance? Parents could register for the service with the age/s of their child/ren, and a customized box could be sent to the household for the child/ren to enjoy. When finished, simply return the books in the postage paid box or packet. It is a win win for everyone!
Example #2
One Product Line: YA novels
Three Product Items: YA graphic novels, YA mysteries, YA ebooks
4Ps
Product: YA ebooks
Primary Customer Market: Tweens and teens beyond the juvenile section ready for longer books with weightier content.
Price: Expense of computer/tablet/phone; materials availability; expense of internet connection
Place: online
Promotion: word of mouth
Recommended Tweaking
Price and place here are intricately combined. The ebooks are available online (place) at the expense of owning a device and affording an internet connection (price). To better serve the teens of New Orleans, the library should consider preloading inexpensive tablets with YA novels. Teens love shiny technology and might be more drawn to consider reading a “cool” activity if it came with such a technology. New Orleans Public Library already has an extensive library of ebooks, why not offer them to teens who cannot afford a device and internet connection? It could be run through the Best Buy Teen Tech Center, where teens must register to use the technology (New Orleans Public Library, n.d.-a). Ebooks could be preloaded to the tablet’s hard drive, ready to read wherever the teen goes and not requiring an internet connection. Promotion would also need to be tweaked; creating a TikTok for teens to keep up with the latest ebook releases as well as classics and get them excited about the tablets ready for their reading desires.
9. Productivity/Evaluation
There are a few ways New Orleans Public Library collects feedback from the public, but I cannot identify any program level evaluation methods. First, their Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter often asks questions of the public, such as suggesting titles for other patrons to consider. Second, they have the Ask a Librarian service which could be used for both compliments and complaints anonymously. Third, in their 10 year strategic plan, they explained that “more than 4,000 stakeholders offered their vision for the future of the library system” (New Orleans Public Library, 2021-a, p. 5). So yes, New Orleans Public Library is listening, however at the program level I am unsure how or if they do evaluations.
Example #1 Children’s Book Boxes
1. Customer Behavior Measures
a. Criteria:
i. Number of household sign ups
ii. Number of books sent out
iii. Number of boxes sent back due to wrong address/unwanted
b. Objectives:
i. Sign up 100 households in 12 months
ii. Send out 1,000 books in 12 months
iii. Reduce wrong address/unwanted boxes to 3 per year
c. Methods: Use social media, in-library signage, and school visits to promote the program. Keep inhouse statistics of number of books sent out and households signed up. Check and double check addresses and make contact via phone for verification.
2. Customer Satisfaction Measures
a. Criteria:
i. Correct book level for ages of child/ren
ii. Enjoyment of books
b. Objectives:
i. Increase correct age level to 75% correct in 6 months
ii. Increase enjoyment of books to 90% in 6 months
c. Method: With each book box, include a paper survey to be filled in by parents with their children informing the library if the books are age appropriate and enjoyable, along with any suggestions on how to improve the program or what theme of books to be sent next.
Example #1 YA Novel Tablets
1. Customer Behavior Measures
a. Criteria:
i. Number of tablet sign ups
ii. Number of books read
iii. Number of tablets not returned
b. Objectives:
i. Sign up 20 teen customers in 6 months
ii. Have 100 books read in 12 months
iii. Reduce number of tablets not returned to 0
c. Methods: Use social media, in-library signage, and school visits to promote the program. Keep inhouse statistics of number tablets checked out and use on tablet technology to see number of books read. Use phone calls to retrieve missing tablets.
2. Customer Satisfaction Measures
a. Criteria:
i. Correct book level for teens
ii. Enjoyment of books
b. Objectives:
i. Increase correct age level to 90% correct in 6 months
ii. Increase enjoyment of book to 90% in 6 months
c. Method: Create an electronic survey on the front page of the tablet for teen customers to fill out. The data can be kept anonymously on the tablet and collected. Items to answer may be: Were the books enjoyable and age appropriate? Also: What other titles might you enjoy seeing on the tablet?
10. Recommendations
Throughout this analysis suggestions have been made about how to improve the New Orleans Public Library marketing. I will review the most pertinent suggestions here. The mission statement, goals, and objectives are highly applicable to New Orleans, but a 10 year time period to avoid reviewing them is too long—New Orleans Public Library should consider re-evaluating objectives every other year and the goals and mission every 5 years. The library should also be aware of the environment, that includes under-marketed to tweens/teens, seniors, and non-English language speakers. To improve this, they should create venues specific to teens (TikTok) and seniors (free TV spots) while also reaching out to non-English speakers in their native languages on current social media channels. They should also fight back against the external influence of politics by researching what customers love most about the library to promote the millage renewal to customers. To reduce conflict among internal stakeholders, open conversation must be fostered, and to reduce conflict among external stakeholders, media channels need to be targeted at more than just parents, children, and adults to include seniors, tweens/teens, and non-English language speakers.
For the SWOT, my suggestions include seizing on opportunities while avoiding threats. Again, creating media outreach for ignored segmented audiences (tweens/teens, seniors, non-English speakers) is important while also reaching out to current customers about the millage renewal. Some of the threats (weather and politics) can only be planned for appropriately and not avoided. For their strengths, New Orleans Public Library is doing so well, but they could use help in their weaknesses of staffing, outreach to specific segments (non-English speakers, tweens/teens, seniors), and reduced library hours. Staffing and library hours cannot be solved easily due to the looming budget cut, but they should have a plan in place for both success of and failure of the millage. Outreach to the three underserved demographics can be corrected internally by creating outlets targeted at those specific groups. Gathering internal and external data about their customer base (potential and current) can greatly help their situation; to do so, they can use their own LMS, free web sources like the Census, paid lifestyle market reports from Claritas, and hyper-local newspapers. For their marketing plan, New Orleans Public Library is not doing well with paying attention to all segments; they mostly promote to adults, children, and parents, ignoring other vital segments such as seniors, tweens/teens, and non-English speakers. To correct this, avenues targeted at these other groups should be created: TikTok for tweens/teens, free TV spots for seniors, native language social media posts for non-English speakers.
Finally, I have suggested and analyzed two new programs based on a 4Ps tweak of current offerings. To reach low-income children living too far to walk to a library who are behind on literacy, mail to home book boxes could be added to their current offerings to help those children. Further, teens who are from low-income households with no devices or internet connection could be served by pre-loading inexpensive tablets with YA ebooks. Both programs would require their own research, promotion, and evaluation.
All over, New Orleans Public Library is doing a great job at listening to and serving their customers, but there is always room for improvement.
References
Amazon. (n.d.). What is prime reading? Amazon.com.
https://www.amazon.com/primeinsider/what-is-prime-reading
American Community Survey. (2021, October 8). Census.gov.
https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2013/demo/2009-2013-lang-tables.html
Claritas. (n.d.). Pricing and plans. Claritas.com. https://claritas.com/spotlight-pricingandplans/
Gambit. (n.d.). Calendar. GambitWeekly.com. Retrieved November 30, 2021 from
https://calendar.gambitweekly.com/cal
Hersher, R. (2021, August 30). How climate change is fueling hurricanes like Ida. NPR.org.
https://www.npr.org/2021/08/30/1032442544/how-climate-change-is-fueling-hurricanes-
Jennings, R. (2021, May 11). The real story behind TikTok. Vox.com https://www.vox.com/the-
goods/22424902/tiktok-bytedance-musically-business-bloomberg
Louisiana Believes. (2019). Data center. LouisianaBelieves.com.
https://www.louisianabelieves.com/resources/library/data-center
Louisiana State Library. (n.d.) Statistics. State.Lib.LA.US
https://www.state.lib.la.us/public-libraries/statistics
Mitchel, A., Gottfried, J., Barthel, M., & Shearer, E. (2016). Pathways to news.
PewResearch.org. https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2016/07/07/pathways-to-
news/
Mon, L. & Koontz, C. (2021). Marketing and social media: A guide for libraries, archives, and
museums. (2nd edition). Rowman and Littlefield.
New Orleans Public Library. (2021-a). 10-year strategic plan: Creating a library lifestyle.
NOLAlibrary.org.
https://neworleans.libnet.info/images/pdfs/neworleans/LibraryLifestyleFINAL.pdf
New Orleans Public Library. (2021-b). Home. NOLAlibrary.org. https://nolalibrary.org
New Orleans Public Library. (n.d.-a). Best Buy teen tech center. NOLAlibrary.org.
http://nolalibrary.org/page/268/best-buy-teen-tech-center
New Orleans Public Library. (n.d.-b). Home [Facebook page]. Facebook. Retrieved November
23, 2021 from https://www.facebook.com/nolalibrary
New Orleans Public Library. (n.d.-c). Home [Instagram page]. Instagram. Retrieved November
23, 2021 from https://www.instagram.com/nolalibrary/
New Orleans Public Library. (n.d.-d). Home [Twitter page]. Twitter. Retrieved November 23,
2021 from https://twitter.com/nolalibrary
New Orleans Public Library. (n.d.-e). Home [YouTube page]. YouTube. Retrieved November
23, 2021 from https://www.youtube.com/user/NOLALibrary
New Orleans Public Library. (n.d.-f). Job description. NOLAlibrary.org.
content/uploads/2021/09/AdultEducationProgrammingLibrarian.pdf
New Orleans Public Library. (n.d.-g). Our history. NOLAlibrary.org.
https://nolalibrary.org/about-us/our-history/
New Orleans Public Library. (n.d.-h). Who we are. NOLAlibrary.org.
https://nolalibrary.org/about-us/who-we-are/
O Connor, M. (2016, November 1). SWOT analysis for libraries: A compilation piece.
LibFocus.com. https://www.libfocus.com/2016/11/swot-analysis-for-libraries-
Samenow, J., Cappucci, M., Knowles, H., & Paul, M. L. (2021, August 29). Nearly 1 million
customers without power as hurricane Ida charges inland. WashingtonPost.com.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/08/29/hurricane-ida-live-updates/
Stein, M. I. (2020, August 20). City Council advances proposal to cut library tax funding by 40
percent, claiming that the cut will come ‘without detriment to the library system’.
Stein, R. (2021, November 16). Latin and Spanish New Orleans. Tulane.edu.
https://libguides.tulane.edu/latinos_NOLA/welcome
VAYLA. (2021). Home. VAYLA-no.org. https://vayla-no.org
Comments
Post a Comment