This document summarizes an article from The Bottom Line: Managing Library Finances journal. The article discusses using narrative-based marketing to promote libraries, especially during economic downturns. It recommends that libraries develop a "service story" - a strategic document telling the narrative of how the library meets user needs through its services. This service story can then be used to effectively market the library to users and highlight value in a way that resonates with them.

1. The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0888-045X.htm
Narrative-based
Narrative-based library library
marketing marketing
Selling your library’s value during tough
economic times 5
Michael A. Germano Received May 2009
John F. Kennedy Memorial Library, California State University, Revised July 2009
Accepted August 2009
Los Angeles, California, USA
Abstract
Purpose – Managing through crises, especially economic ones, represents both peril and
opportunity. Libraries of all types, whether academic, special or public, would benefit from an
infusion of marketing activity in the current economic climate. Such marketing need not be
resource-intensive but must be relevant to specific user populations. In order to reap the greatest
rewards while expending the least effort or resources, adopting a narrative or story-based marketing
message that develops and reinforces a consistent value proposition can improve patron experience by
speaking in a language that resonates with them regarding services and resources that may be unclear
or altogether unknown. This paper aims to discuss current trends in developing narrative or
story-based marketing that focuses on customer needs and applies it to library marketing specifically.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper discusses of current trends informed by current
marketing scholarship and draws upon the author’s prior experience in sales and marketing as a
vendor for LexisNexis.
Findings – Adopting a narrative-based marketing plan for libraries of all kinds, one that is based
upon a specific user population’s needs and expectations, can promote a notion of increased value as
well as an overall sense of being indispensable and critical to those patrons. The ultimate goal is a
demonstrable strengthening of support from user populations that will translate into avoidance of
deeper or ongoing cuts during the current economic climate. Further benefits also include the ability to
identify and target users and groups for fundraising opportunities while improving library personnel
morale based upon the increased, generalized perception of the library’s value within the broader
organization or community.
Practical implications – Based upon years of sales and marketing experience, the author takes a
practical and seasoned approach to creating a marketing plan that draws upon little to no resources
but is compelling in its tailored and targeted approach that uses identifiable language to reinforce and
describe specific user-driven needs.
Originality/value – The paper provides recommendations for developing, creating and executing a
narrative or story-based marketing plan that speaks to users in the language and needs most critical to
them while highlighting resources and services that may not be currently valued or even known.
Keywords Public libraries, Special libraries, Academic libraries, Strategic marketing,
Services marketing
Paper type Viewpoint
The Bottom Line: Managing Library
Introduction Finances
Vol. 23 No. 1, 2010
The role of marketing, in most library organizations in the USA, is generally pp. 5-17
something of an afterthought. At best, it is approached with enthusiasm but lacking q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0888-045X
coherence or strategy. At worse, marketing is deemed wholly irrelevant to DOI 10.1108/08880451011049641

2. BL organizational goals. While there are few studies directly on point, there seems to be
23,1 sufficient colloquial evidence that supports these two dichotomous representations of
library marketing. For example, at the overwhelming majority of libraries there is no
job function that is exclusively or even predominantly centered on marketing the
library. Library budgets rarely, if ever, have a specific line-item for marketing or
promotional campaigns. Library school curricula at virtually all ALA-accredited
6 programs have no required marketing course and have limited opportunities for
studying marketing (Winston and Hazlin, 2003). Studies that detail the role, impact or
outcome of sophisticated marketing programs on library effectiveness are altogether
limited.
For libraries of all types, the role of marketing is most commonly satisfied in an ad
hoc way highlighted by a process of trial and error with limited time, resources or
expertise. As a result, little effort is expended to understand or achieve specific,
measurable objectives or market-driven metrics delivered by library marketing
programs. It would seem to logically follow that the current economic downturn should
represent a significant obstacle to the enterprise of library marketing in its arguably
incipient state. With resources so limited and budgets so stretched, libraries seem
justified in the choice to pull back on their fledgling marketing efforts, abandon them
altogether or worse, disengage from the process of even considering the role that
effective marketing could play in the success of a library organization.
While economic barriers to effective, strategic library marketing may be
considerable, the reality is that most libraries are not at a stage that even requires a
significant expenditure in terms of resources on the functional area of marketing.
Currently, despite the economic downturn, the greater obstacles to meaningful library
marketing are a lack of vision, strategy, expectation and expertise. Currently, most
library marketing seems to confuse the process of marketing with the more
identifiable, somewhat understandable, but more discrete, events that comprise it in
total, such as advertising, public relations, branding, or promotion. It is true that
engaging in such activities can prove beneficial in terms of increasing visibility for an
information center, growing patron counts or increasing circulation statistics. There is,
however, a limited return on the investment when they are executed in a vacuum or
independent of a cohesive marketing strategy. Instead, most libraries need to first
develop a culture of marketing along with a core set of “co-created” messages that can
be delivered during all patron interaction while providing a value-driven framework
for all relevant customer directed communication (Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2004).
The process of developing that culture, as well as the messages that drive it, are
activities that are undoubtedly labor-intensive but not necessarily resource intensive.
Specifically, such organizational endeavors are extremely cost-effective in terms of the
actual financial resources required. Additionally, given the current economic climate,
coupled with the emerging knowledge-based economy, the timing could not be better
for a library to embark on the development and execution of an effective marketing
program based upon the customers’ own articulated desires. A more sophisticated
marketing program that does the following:
.
resonates with patrons and speaks to them in their language in an intimate way
that presents the library as valuable and valued to them as a customer;
.
strategically focuses on the narratives of specific, common patron or customer
needs and ties them to the services available;

3. .
represents a roadmap, or codification for all messaging, including those that Narrative-based
promote, brand or sell library services during all relevant patron interaction; and library
.
provides a readily available and useable compendium of narratives that marketing
effectively ties users’ needs to the benefits of specific services and in doing so,
clearly articulates the library’s value to them.
Marketing, libraries and the recession 7
As most businesses grapple with declining revenues, lost market share and eroding
customer bases, libraries are, in many cases, experiencing a definitive resurgence in
patron interest. The current trough in our economic cycle leads many to readily grasp
the usefulness in information centers and libraries of all types. While corporate
libraries may possibly be the exception, academic and public libraries are seeing
increased levels of visits and patron counts for differing reasons related to the current
recession. Academic libraries are no doubt benefiting from the renewed interest in
education that economic downturns typically bring about. Public libraries, with free
access to a wealth of information and entertainment, are being discovered by
cash-strapped consumers for the first time. The current economic situation represents a
host of challenges for library organizations, but it also has a silver lining in its
propensity to deliver a brand new customer base for many libraries. Will welcoming
these new patrons with effective delivery of traditional library resources and services,
however, instill loyalty and create continued patronage during the future recovery? In
other words, once the trough becomes a wave, will these users disappear? Or will they
stay? With the appropriate effort turned towards developing a planned and sustained
marketing effort, the retention of existing patrons as well as securing new ones is much
more likely.
What exactly does a planned and sustained marketing effort look like and where
does it begin? Any marketing program should have a strategic vision at its core, one
that clearly defines what success looks like. Furthermore, most literature indicates that
benefit-driven marketing that moves the product or service forward by specifying
value in terms of the customer’s perception, represents the highest probability of
success (Schultz et al., 2002). Central to that exercise is the creation or drafting of a
compelling, persuasive, organizational document based upon defensible research that
clearly articulates the various segmented, identifiable customers; their needs, desires
and expectations, as well as their life-cycle with relation to the marketed product or
service. Many companies are currently toying with, and perfecting, the idea of
narrative or story-driven marketing strategies that are clearly articulated by a defined
product story. Libraries can benefit from this emerging trend with one significant
change based upon the fact that they primarily deliver services, not products. As a
result, libraries should embark upon their marketing efforts by first developing and
drafting a service story. The service story, drafted as an internal strategic marketing
document for use by all staff, serves as a road-map for virtually every imaginable
patron interaction as well as efforts aimed at marketing or promoting library services.
It allows library staff to effectively sell, up-sell and cross-sell the relevant library
services to specific sets of customers at the most appropriate time. Such a narrative
would additionally serve as the core strategy document needed to usher in a culture of
marketing that recognizes the personality-driven component of delivering library
services, and how each interaction represents opportunities for developing a

4. BL user-based value notion of the library. In other words, a series or set of stories the
23,1 library can share with its patron that, when told, have the power to retain users, alert
them to additional relevant services, as well as encourage them to act as a supporter or
champion of the library in the future.
Service marketing through narratives
8 Before elaborating upon the process of developing, drafting and establishing the use of
a service story in the context of library marketing, it makes sense to step back and
define some of the ideas that make up the process and role of marketing in
organizations generically. Most marketing theory is dominated by the “marketing mix”
or 4P’s of marketing: Product, price, promotion and place (Constantinides, 2006). The
marketing mix represents a tactical construct for achieving success in a marketplace
with a product. The traditional 4Ps approach, it should be noted, was established
during a time when most companies actually produced something tangible. Marketing,
when the 4Ps approach was envisioned, conceived and established was charged with
developing the messages that conveyed the benefits of a product, developing the
appropriate price, devising promotions and finding the places or outlets for selling and
delivering that product. It was all about the process, including tactics and strategies, of
bringing a tangible to market and ensuring its success there. When originally
conceived, some 40 years ago, this structure was meant to provide a framework for an
activity or functional area that was more art than science and oftentimes not readily
understood by managers, especially in terms of actual or real value to the organization
overall.
Our current economy, however, is much more service-based than the economy that
flourished when the traditional marketing mix was developed. Additionally, over the
years, non-profits have developed a keen interest in promoting their products or
services, not necessarily with an eye towards revenue, but oftentimes with a stated
purpose of fundraising. Marketing theory and the literature, as a result, developed
accordingly. Non-profit or public marketing evolved from the earlier paradigms to
provide a framework for the inclusion of placing and promoting a product in the
absence of true price or monetary exchange (Dann et al., 2007). Service marketing was
further developed as an outgrowth of traditional marketing in order to bridge the gap
between the then current processes and theories in an attempt to provide a cohesive set
of principles for marketing in the absence of a product. Both of these areas, taken
together, can provide fertile idea generation for the development of a more
sophisticated notion of library marketing. Service marketing, by far, provides the best
framework for engaging in the inquiry needed to support a more sophisticated
foundation for library marketing overall. Finally, the current literature provides
valuable insight into, as well as underpinnings with which to support, individual
library market plans in terms of their envisioning, development and execution (Gupta,
2007).
Arguably, most library managers are currently in a similar situation to that of
corporate managers 30 or 40 years ago with regard to their perceptions of, and
relationship to, the process, tactical orientation and strategy of marketing their
organization. In other words, library managers could be described as not necessarily
adverse to marketing, but instead as unaware of the precise or actual value of
marketing as an organizational function. As stated previously, it appears as though

5. most library marketing is ad hoc and focused on specific types of discrete tactical Narrative-based
activities like branding the library as well as promoting a service or resource within the library
library’s overall offering. This is usually carried out with a generalized outcome such
as increasing patron counts or circulation statistics or web site visits. While these marketing
activities are indeed marketing based, they do not necessarily comprise an effective
marketing strategy per se, one that encompasses the entire organization and reflects a
defined vision of its relationship to its customers. A significant portion of the problem 9
is certainly the general lack of organizational clarity or strategy that typifies library
marketing. Exacerbating it, however, is the paucity of evidentiary support in the form
of empirical marketing-related library studies leading information center managers to
determine what is worthwhile in terms of developing and executing marketing plans
for libraries. Simply put, there is little to no empirical evidence showing which types of
marketing events, plans, strategies, tactics or activities produce the best or even
appropriate results for various libraries by size, type, or location. All of this leads one
to the conclusion that marketing, as a library function, is at an early stage, and
therefore is in need of developing a refined set of tools and processes that promotes a
clearer, defined strategic direction while being supported by defensible data (Rowley,
2003).
In its most direct terms, service marketing allows organizations to model and
develop their business despite the absence of a definable product (Mittal, 2002). More
importantly, and relevant to the process of adaptation to library marketing, it places
the customer relationship in a more centralized position and encourages development
of the business and customer relationship as similar enterprises. Transferring primacy
to the role of the customer and away from the product has broad implications for
marketing as well as the process of developing an effective marketing strategy.
Additionally, since services are, by their very nature, highly personalized and human
resource intensive, it is not surprising that the 4Ps of product, price, place and
promotion are necessarily replaced or subverted by the ongoing interaction of the
people representing and delivering those services. Value creation becomes dependent
upon and intertwined with the customer and its perceptions of the service provided.
Thus, service delivery and the marketing that drives it, becomes a very personalized
experience when executed effectively in response to customer-created narratives
(Padgett and Allen, 1997). This narrative is defined almost exclusively by customer
needs.
Customer expectations and satisfying relationships with the organization are the
drivers that propel a service-oriented business forward (Rust and Chung, 2006).
Harnessing that interaction in a codified way via a service story provides multiple
benefits to a business, most notably customer development, satisfaction and retention.
These are three critical components of any service enterprise, public or private. While
traditional marketing, especially service marketing, espouses a strong element of
benefit-driven messaging that places the customer in a context of understanding the
relationship of the product or service to their needs or desired outcomes, benefit-driven
marketing is by its nature somewhat incomplete. For service marketing to be fully
effective there is a requirement to adopt the language, demeanor, objectives and
concerns of the customer in a narrative that resonates with their perceptions of those
benefits and how the service directly relates to them. For services marketing to achieve
credibility and in turn resonate with listeners, it must be based upon narratives and the

6. BL stories that flow from them (Stern et al., 1998). The service story becomes the narrative
23,1 that informs and drives the marketing message, and is the cornerstone of value
creation and dissemination throughout the organization. The application of the service
story to library marketing, therefore, becomes an almost natural fit.
Placing library marketing firmly within the context of service marketing has
multiple benefits for developing a coherent marketing strategy for libraries.
10 Understanding library marketing as service marketing allows for a clearer focus on
the value that libraries commonly and predominantly represent: access and delivery of
relevant information in a timely way. Service marketing is less concerned with
traditional product-centric, short-term tactical marketing constructs like price and
place and instead presupposes a more strategic, long-term interest in things like value,
relationship loyalty and direct benefit to the user. The propensity to personalize and
customize service marketing messages in turn makes for a good fit with the emerging
trend to narratalogically describe service encounters along with their benefits, desired
outcomes and idealized results by specific customer base. The intangibility of services
demands this approach since services, unlike goods, cannot be quantifiably valued or
easily demonstrated. As a result, effective service marketing sets up an expectation of
direct, relevant, customized story-telling that delivers a clear framework for making
individualized customer choices and eventually deriving satisfaction (Woodside et al.,
2008). Simply put, effective service marketing is compelling because it speaks
specifically to a customer’s self interest, in their own language.
Library marketing narratives
How does this all translate into a more effective model of library marketing and a
resulting marketing strategy for selling a specific library’s value? And, more
specifically, how does one engage in meaningful library marketing during a recession?
As previously suggested, during times of economic uncertainty, for differing reasons,
there is a renewed interest in virtually all library types. Individuals turn to public
libraries as a cost-effective means of securing entertainment, financial information and
job-hunting resources. Academic libraries see an influx in visits due to the generalized
increase in educational activity. Corporate libraries represent a decision-making
resource that has valuable implications for companies forced to rely less on outsourced
solutions and more on bought and paid resources that are already available.
Furthermore, since recessionary environments create a whole new user-base for
virtually all kinds of libraries, why take the additional step of marketing its value or
specific services or resources? Because marketing, combined with creating and
developing a culture of value-selling by exceeding expectations, is a library’s best
strategy for retaining that new influx of patrons as well as turning them into
champions of library service once the recession has ended. The best way to achieve this
end is through a narrative driven, patron/customer specific and targeted service story
that includes a well-honed value proposition. The library leader who encourages,
facilitates and manages such strategic focus on the function of marketing can expect to
see an impressive return on the time invested.
Developing the library service story and value proposition requires planning,
research and significant expenditures of time for compiling and drafting data. In terms
of real financial resources, however, very little is needed. By developing a library
service story and value proposition, a library is creating a foundation for all

7. subsequent marketing efforts, including promotions, branding and relationship Narrative-based
management. All of these types of “go to market” activities are more readily library
understood and produce more effective, measurable and expected results when
organized around the central tenets of a service story while being reinforced with a marketing
value proposition. Additionally, with the presence of the service story, staff are
encouraged to engage in sales-like activities that alert users to relevant useful
resources at the appropriate times. It is critical to remember, however, that both the 11
value proposition and service story are meant to reflect and reinterpret the actual needs
of the customer. So they are derived specifically from customer desires as they align
with the library organization’s offerings.
The value proposition
The service story correlates directly to enunciated customer needs. In other words, the
service story should be a reflection of what initially compelled an individual or set of
individuals to seek out or use the library in order to solve a problem or meet a need.
Given the current economic conditions it is not surprising that many library service
stories and value propositions would reflect the perception of economic value.
Identifying the specific value of an individual library can be a thought provoking,
introspective exercise, but one that is necessarily required as a first step towards an
effective marketing strategy (Holt, 2007).
The process of creating and defining these two critical pieces of a narrative-driven
marketing strategy is fairly straightforward. The value proposition comes first
(Scholey, 2002). It should reflect an over-arching, all encompassing notion of what the
library offers its customers regardless of who they are individually or collectively. It
should be general but not vague, broad but not imprecise. A central component of any
successful product story is its ability to demonstrate a keen understanding of
customers’ needs (Anderson et al., 2006). For example, a value proposition for a public
library could be something as general as “It’s your library and it’s here for you”. The
notion conveyed is openness, dependability, and service. An academic library could
choose to project something as simple as “Relevant, authoritative answers are waiting
for you”. The idea highlighted here is credible, trustworthy, and definitive information
that is readily available to those who seek it. A corporate library could highlight the
value of saving time and money in the context of business decision-making: “Save
time, save money, and move the business forward with intelligence”. The value
proposition is the most creative portion of developing a narrative-based marketing
plan and should be the product of brainstorming, customer testing or even a
community-based contest. Once the value proposition has been defined it can be used
in marketing literature, outreach, displays and more. It is more than a slogan, though.
The true value proposition should be something that resonates with customers while
providing a promise, seemingly in their own words, of what the library will offer on a
personal level when engaged in a relationship with the organization. The value
proposition is effectively created by a customer or group of customers and is firmly
rooted in their personality, needs and desires.
As stated previously, the value proposition should be the product of testing and
surveying. Unless there is customer buy-in and agreement, the value proposition, as
well as the service story, which will be discussed later, is really just a collection of
empty promises or an exercise in cheap sloganeering. For it to be a true statement of

8. BL perceived value, it must reflect the customer’s expectations, desires and idealized
23,1 outcome. Using focus groups is the more common way of determining the best from a
field, or the validity of a specific value proposition (Von Seggern and Young, 2003).
Supplementing focus groups with surveys, patron conversations, colloquial evidence
and patron involvement in the form of, perhaps, advisory boards, provides necessary
additional customer input. Finally, using new interactive Web 2.0 technologies that
12 allow for sustained customer interaction and the new trend towards “active listening”,
highlighted by ongoing two-way communication in the service provider-customer
relationship, could prove indispensable for soliciting meaningful customer input
economically and efficiently (Poynter, 2008).
The service story
After defining the value proposition, the next step is to begin working on the true
detailed narrative that will inform and direct the library’s future marketing efforts:
the service story. In its simplest terms, the service story, in the context of a library,
serves as a codification of the library’s offerings while defining key customer types and
where they fall on the spectrum from initial user to loyal champion. It becomes a
guidepost for all patron interaction and is meant to reflect an understanding of how the
library’s various services and resources fit in with different customer needs as they
move along a continuum of familiarity with library resources to expertise in using
them and the loyalty implied by that. Stepping back a moment, it is worth considering
the user perspective when encountering a new service. Considering the customer
perspective and the steps by which they move from exploration to loyalty are critical
components of any service story and its resulting marketing message. The process is
not a complex one, but highlighted by three distinct phases: familiarity, confidence in
outcomes and ultimately, expertise. In the library context these phases can be easily
understood in a general sense.
A new patron must first gain some sort of familiarity with the library or information
center. This stage includes learning about resources, personnel, and physical set up.
Once a basic level of familiarity is achieved the next step is to experience moments of
confidence in achieving expected outcomes. This could be as simple as finding a
specific resource, having a question answered by a librarian, or as complicated as
using multiple resources and different personnel to complete a difficult project. For
different customers, establishing confidence in outcomes can mean vastly different
things, and therefore could take longer for one patron to achieve than another. Once
confidence is firmly established the user moves on to expertise. The expertise stage is
highlighted by a user achieving a level of knowledge and comfort using the library.
This level of expertise includes loyalty as well as unintentional or intentional moments
of acting as an advocate for the organization. Frequency of use is not nearly as
important as the twin perceptions of extreme comfort and value in the service or
resources used. The idea is simple, yet profound for library managers: A customer at
the expertise level thinks of the library as the first and foremost place for satisfying
knowledge-based needs in certain situations, and is willing to share that feeling and
expand upon that loyalty with others through word of mouth and their own
personalized narratives (Wong and Tjosvold, 1995). Not all users achieve this level. In
reality most users get stalled or deeply rooted in the stage highlighted by confidence in
outcomes. Additionally, due to moments of truth, or episodes where users have an

9. unexpected and undesirable outcome, many users could regress or fall off the spectrum Narrative-based
altogether. For example, if familiarity is thwarted by confusion over an incomplete or library
confusing orientation session or tour, the user who was subjected to that tour could
hardly be considered ready to achieve the next step, confidence in outcomes. Or, marketing
alternatively, someone at the expertise stage discovers that an oft-used resource has
been eliminated from the collection could revert to the need to establish confidence once
again, since it has been undermined by a significant moment of truth. Moments of truth 13
are not wholly preventable. A good service story, however, should anticipate the most
common or recurring ones and provide for contingent service narratives that minimize
their impact.
The spectrum of user loyalty behaviors from familiarity to confidence to expertise is
an important data point in determining the exact content and delivery modes of the
service story. It becomes important, therefore, for the library to continually assess,
through ongoing surveys and other means, where individuals as well as groups or sets
of users fall on this spectrum. The next step to developing the service story is to
consider the exact nature of the organization’s customer populations and to begin to
understand where they fall upon the user loyalty spectrum. For example, an academic
library might segment their users into students by year, school, or major, and by
function such as faculty or staff. A public library could think in terms of age or life
stage. Examples include children, teen, adult, parents, singles, and seniors. In corporate
libraries viable segments can easily be defined by department or functional areas like
legal, tax, sales marketing, and product development. Once user populations are
defined, the true heavy lifting, in terms of service story creation, begins.
Identifying the phases by which customers approach a new service, and potentially
become loyal to it, requires an overlay of the specific organization’s customer
segments. Once these segments are identified, as described above, the service story
developer or author must define each group in a meaningful way, especially with
regard to the most common desires, needs and stress points of each group. Again, focus
groups and surveys are ideal. The goal is to determine the priorities and shared stress
inducers of the individual segments and where the resources of the library can help
meet those needs or minimize that stress (Von Seggern and Young, 2003). Needs, of
course, can be varied. In a corporate context they might all be job performance related
such as meeting deadlines more quickly or producing a higher level of work product.
They could also be related to saving the corporation money. In an academic
environment, articulated needs are most likely connected to academic success and
eventual employment. Public libraries present a more complex array of possibilities
but the goal is the same: to determine shared desires, areas of collective concern or
shared anxieties and connect them to library resources or services. The eventual goal is
a coherent set of messages that can be created for each specific stage, from familiarity
to expertise, and the best times to deliver those messages to specific segmented or
targeted users. The vagueness here is intentional, since each library organization will
have to identify and target users by groups that represent needs that are most related
to their collection or strategic mission. The identified or targeted users must then be
tied to stages of user comfort (familiarity, confidence in outcomes or expertise) and the
resulting messaging must speak to them in the language of their specific needs.
Consequently, the individual narratives that make up the service story should reflect

10. BL an appreciation or understanding of such needs, as well as their direct relationship to
23,1 the specific user, while recognizing where they fall on the user loyalty spectrum.
For example, an academic library might decide that achieving familiarity is the goal
for freshmen or new student users. The need for most freshmen students would be to
understand the layout of the library, what successful university level research looks
like, as well as how to achieve good grades. The service story should therefore have
14 specific messaging as well as uniform service descriptions for the tools or resources
that have been determined relevant to these needs. Specifically, meeting those needs
could be as simple as learning a few critical locations in the library, like reference and
circulation, how to find a book and how to use one or two databases. The messaging of
the service story would encourage library personnel to stay on task with regard to
these specific needs by providing explanations in clear, user-defined language that was
benefit-driven and resonates with the customer group, in this case first year college
students. The language of the service story could, in this example, highlight specific
kinds of assignments or research tasks and describe the processes to achieve desired
outcomes. The needs (understand university research and locate critical services in the
library) are tied to real, relevant examples that highlight outcomes that are desired.
The resulting story that describes library services that are meaningful becomes an
effective marketing message that promotes the stated goal of achieving familiarity
with basic library resources.
The process is, admittedly, a bit labor-intensive in terms of precisely identifying,
listing and drafting suggested, but not scripted, interaction. When completed, however,
the library has a document that virtually codifies which resources are most relevant to
which user segments at the most critical times they are needed. The result is clearer
messaging in all customer interaction, including passive forms like signage and flyers,
as well as active ones like classes, tours, research consultations and service interactions
such as reference and circulation. Ultimately, customers constantly receive relevant
messages that, when delivered consistently, will facilitate their move along the user
loyalty spectrum with the eventual goal of achieving expertise and the loyalty implied.
The service story, therefore, becomes a defined blueprint for patron or customer
interaction. As a result, there is less likelihood of delivering too much, or incorrect,
information too soon or at the wrong time. While many libraries tend to overwhelm
users or make the library seem out of touch with their individual needs, those actively
following a well-crafted service story are much less likely to engage in this type of
self-destructive behavior. Furthermore, active, widespread use of a service story allows
library staff to actually predict user needs when appropriate. For example, if part of the
service story above included a specific notation that all freshmen need to write a
research paper with citations and bibliography in a particular style, there could also be
an added message encouraging attendance at a citation workshop. The service story
would ideally include a short description of the benefits of the class, and allow staff
members to effectively cross-sell it during events such as circulation service encounters
or reference consultations. The service story, in short, becomes the idealized customer
experience over a length of time with the appropriate messaging at relevant moments
that creates an ongoing narrative between the library and user which can be the basis
for all relevant library marketing activity. The end result is a defined, clearly
enunciated marketing narrative that is compelling in its ability to relate and connect
targeted users’ needs to required services and an over-arching strategic roadmap for

11. related library marketing activities that speaks to customers in their language based Narrative-based
upon their needs. library
Once completed, the service story becomes a living document that requires ongoing
maintenance and fine tuning in the form of subsequent research and ongoing revision marketing
in order to incorporate new resources, customer needs and potential research events.
Developing the service story, as previously mentioned, is not a resource-intensive
event. It is, however, one that requires a serious investment in time in order to meet 15
with customers, listen to their needs while empathetically understanding those needs
and correlating them to the library’s services and offerings. The ongoing benefits are
enormous, but they mostly revolve around the notion of providing direction and
efficiency for subsequent library marketing efforts. Specifically, with a service story,
special events, collection additions, service promotions, outreach and
relationship-building activities can be timed appropriately and directed with
targeted focus, aimed at the users that will most benefit from them. The marketing
message and strategic approach become more refined and sophisticated as a result.
The service story, when fully executed and rolled out across the entire organization,
can ultimately provide economic benefits as well. The service story represents a much
more targeted approach to marketing the library that, when executed properly,
promotes a more effective use of marketing resources than the more ad hoc, unrefined
approach of marketing in the absence of a well-defined strategy. Another added benefit
is that the service story encourages customer loyalty and ongoing patron support. It
should be readily understood that customer loyalty is the library’s best defense against
upcoming cutbacks and provides a basis for future fund raising activities. Creating a
service story is a first step towards managing customer relationships in the context of
service delivery. In short, it provides a basis for understanding what drives customer
loyalty of those services. Identifying the process of developing that loyalty promotes a
more strategic deployment of marketing resources. When the process of loyalty
creation is understood, marketing resources can be utilized to create a long-term and
lasting benefit by creating loyal users that champion the library. For library
organizations this is a critical new step, and a vital reason, for which to engage in the
act of marketing. It is reflective of a more strategic view of the purpose and value of
marketing since it reflects a willingness to deploy the marketing function to achieve the
institutional goal of fundraising and increased financial support. In short, by using
targeted marketing communication tools like a value proposition and service story in
order to establish and highlight a user’s internalized and personalized perception of the
value of the library, marketing is utilized both tactically and strategically to cultivate
loyalty and ideally, financial support. Not surprisingly, those who perceive a library’s
value more strongly are the ones most likely to support the library financially (OCLC,
2008). The development of a service story including a value proposition becomes a
hedge against future erosion of library resources. Such tools provide the basis for
effective marketing narratives that promote the library’s value, which in turn creates
an environment most conducive to cultivating library fundraising and support.
Conclusion
While libraries are currently feeling the effects, both negative and positive, of an
extended recession, it is clear from even a rudimentary knowledge of economic history
and business cycles that this current one shall end. The library that uses the downturn

12. BL as an opportunity to create a service story is indeed investing in that organization’s
23,1 future. Having a succinct value proposition, along with a coherent segmented service
story that allows for developing customer/patron loyalty through a more focused view
of library marketing, is a forward thinking strategy. The development of a service
story with a value proposition, and its implementation organization-wide, creates a
basis for all subsequent marketing activities that speaks to patrons in their own stories
16 while reflecting their specific needs at the appropriate times. In turn, the library that
markets itself this way establishes and develops a strong sense of value among its
users that creates loyalty and the willingness to champion the library. In doing so, the
library cultivates a cohort of loyal service champions that will defend the library in
future times of need as well as provide a potential source of fundraising revenue.
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About the author
Michael A. Germano, after 15 years with LexisNexis, decided to put corporate life behind him to
pursue a career in academic librarianship and was recently appointed to the California State
University, Los Angeles faculty, as the Business, Law and Economics Librarian. He holds a law
degree from Temple University, the Master of Science in Information Science and Technology
from Simmons College, and the Master and Bachelor of Arts in English from New York
University and St Joseph’s University, respectively. Michael A. Germano can be contacted at:
mgerman@calstatela.edu
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