162 todd carpenter

Putting the
Conversation Back in
Marketing

Todd Carpenter
Director of Business Development

BioOne
www.BioOne.org

November 16, 2004 SSP Marketing Seminar - © 2004 BioOne

Communication in an
Interactive World
Ø Communication and marketing is no longer
simply setting your product out, describing
it, and selling it
Ø The old rules still apply
Ø What separates your product from its
competitors? How can you encapsulate that?
Ø But in an interactive world, you cede some
control over the form and the results of
your communication


Back to Basics: Plant Your Flag

Ø Successful communication centers
around a particular idea - a flag
Ø That flag sets your product, organization,
issue, etc. apart from the other things in
the marketplace
Ø Your flag doesn’t need to be
revolutionary, but it does have to be
compelling
Ø One example…


One Planted Flag
Ø Early in the 20th-century a brewery
came to a top advertising firm in New
York
Ø The copywriter went to the brewery to
“get a feel” for the business
Ø He came back a week later with:
“Our bottles are steam cleaned”
Ø The result - Spectacular sales


What is Your Flag?
Ø At BioOne
Ø Focus on our mission - Collaboration
Ø Quality content in the biological sciences
Ø Library-friendly policies
Ø At Project Muse
Ø Humanities and social sciences
Ø Partnership with libraries/librarians
Ø At Elsevier
Ø Breadth of content in all sciences
Ø Technological innovation and leadership


What Color is Your Flag?

While you can set the direction, it is important
to realize that you do not have complete
control over this process…

Your customers will play a role and you
should plan on that.

They might have a different idea about your
flag. USE THEIR FEEDBACK


How to Have a Conversation
Get on the Phone
Ø There this intrinsic fear when someone
suggests calling your customers.

“ISN’T THAT …
<<GASP>> …
TELEMARKETING?”

Fear not, it will be OK…


How to Have a Conversation
Get on the Phone
Ø During political campaigns, pollsters
project the actions of some 120 MILLION
people.
Ø To do this how many people do they call?

Ø Between 700 and 1,200

Ø Now if you have a subscriber list of
1,000, how many people do you need to
call?
Ø Between 15 and 23

How to Have A Conversation:
Get on the Phone
Ø THESE ARE NOT SALES CALLS!!!
Ø You want to gather information…
Ø This also puts both the caller and the
respondent at ease
Ø A direct sale might result, but that is
coincidental


Why Are You Calling Me?
Ø What could you talk to a librarian about?
Ø HOW MANY THINGS CAN YOU THINK OF?
Ø What’s your budget forecast for next year?
Ø Is Open Access changing your buying behavior?
Ø Have you implemented a print cancellation policy?
Ø How are your buying decisions made?
Ø What role do faculty play in purchase/cancellation
decisions?
Ø Are our marketing or renewal efforts effective?
Ø How is usage trending? How does it compare with other
titles?
Ø Is your institution setting up an Institutional Repository?


Things You Might Learn From
Talking to Your Customers

Ø A fair percentage didn’t mean to cancel
Ø 10-15% changed focus in someway
Ø Budget issues were cited ~30-40%
Ø Duplication and preference for electronic
was cited by ~20-30%.
Ø We stopped printing a catalog, which
really bothered some librarians
Ø New titles were not picked up in print at
all - only electronically


How to Have a Conversation II:
The Death of Direct Mail
Ø It is increasingly difficult to break
through the clutter in the mailbox
Ø Response rates are falling
Ø Costs are increasing: postage, lists,
printing.
Ø Where do you turn?


Dreams of Digital Printing

4-Color catalogs can now be digital printed one-off

Images can easily be dropped in based on the
customer’s database profile

One large retailer is doing this offering 20% discount
on couple’s wedding registry items after their
wedding has passed for items they didn’t receive at
the reception

Now how many of us have a $300K budget
for this type of campaign?


(for the rest of us)

Ø How many of you have…
MS Office?

Ø How many of you have…
an inkjet printer?

Ø At JHUP, we used this technology to
prepare semi-annual customer
reacquisition marketing campaigns

(for the rest of us)
Dear Dr. XXXX,
In reviewing our files, we found your subscription to YYYYY JRL
expired some time ago. You’ve been missing a lot of
important scholarship in the past ## OF ISSUES. Since you
had been a subscriber to YYYY JRL for ## years, you know
that THE FOCUS WAS…
Here are some of the important articles you missed since your
subscription lapsed…
Here are some highlights from upcoming issues…
Why don’t you re-subscribe and we’ll send you one of the issues
you missed. Pick one.
Sincerely, THE EDITOR
PS - If you have some suggestions about YYYY Jrl, email me.


Success with Digital Printing

Ø We started out with “stuffing parties” a couple
hundred letters at a time.
Ø With success, we grew to 12-15,000 pieces
Ø Response rates of 7-12%
Ø Some individual letters brought back as many as
35% of lapsed customers
Ø Outsourced to a mail shop that specialized in this
type of printing
Ø More expensive and more time consuming, but
significantly better response.


DM Fostering Communication

Ø These letters did increase sales and each
mailing was among the best performing
campaigns we mailed.
Ø But because they were signed by the editors,

they elicited communication from the readers
Ø This increased submissions and feedback

Ø Most editors were receptive to the advice

Ø Several letters asked for feedback to the Press,

which pointed to some problems in our own
customer service and communications


Developing Strategy Through Communication

Ø Libraries are canceling print subscriptions in
favor of electronic access.
Ø BioOne is helping societies manage this
transition from print- to electronic-based
business model
Ø This situation forced us to consider a
potentially significant price increase
Ø However, how do you balance that with
BioOne’s stated mission of being library-
friendly and moderate in pricing?


Developing a Plan

Ø Understanding of where we needed to go
Ø Come up with a range of options
Ø Present scenarios to participants
Ø Gather feedback
Ø Determine the best fit strategy – one that spreads
the ‘pain’ among all participants
Ø Communicate back with the participants
Ø Return to community with results and be forthright
about what we chose and why
Ø Continue feedback loop with next decision


Pricing Strategy
Ø Developing pricing with input from community
Ø Focus groups at ALA, SLA, CanLA
Ø Online survey
Ø Library Advisory Board
Ø Informal meetings with librarians at conferences
Ø Publication of research in portal
Ø Publicity push
Ø Press releases
Ø Publication of articles
Ø Meetings and speaking engagements


How to Approach Communicating a
Price Increase
Ø Stress BioOne’s publishing partners are committed
to working collaboratively to determine
mechanisms for managing this process
Ø Buy-in on from all members of the community -
publishers, consortia, librarians, internal
administration
Ø Solicitation and inclusion of input that formed the
basis of decisions.
Ø Customers are more likely to accept a strategy that
they played a role in forming


The Feedback Loop
Ø As we developed our business model one
comment we received repeatedly:
Librarians support BioOne on our mission
but that support has a “Best Before” date

Ø BioOne needs to move from a “Nice to
have” product to a “Must have”
Ø The process begins anew with the
formation of a Content Review Committee


Highlights of This Process

Ø Communication began BEFORE the
decisions were made
Community knew the reasons what we were doing and why

Ø Most acceptable solution
We learned specifically where the borders of support lie

Ø No surprises
The process telegraphed to our subscribers months in
advance our planning

Ø Buy-in
To date we’ve not received any significant push back, even in a
challenging environment


Briefly: Costs

Ø What is cost effective? Of course it will
depend.
Ø However, it can cost 7-10 times more to get
a new customer than it costs to retain a
current customer
Ø Investments in communication can return
significantly in increased retention, brand
development, and potentially easier sales


Success Through Communication

Ø Old rules still exist:
Meaningful differentiation
Ø But interactivity is subtly changing
communications
Ø You will lose some control
Ø But you will gain strength in the power of
your message


Thank you!

Todd Carpenter
Todd@arl.org

BioOne
www.BioOne.org


162 todd carpenter

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