Implementation of Social Marketing in Birmingham Library - Essay Example

?Executive Summary Birmingham library expects to cater for the interest of about 27,000 this is fairly a large number to expect to be efficiently served by the library, the university then introduced the program that saw all the materials in the library digitalized and available in soft copy through which the students can conveniently access from their comforts. This was aimed at avoiding the high traffic and loss of textbooks that is currently experienced by the university. In this regard, the university wants to access the effectiveness of this program and to know the number of students that are aware of the services in order to devise effective social marketing for the students to use the library in the alternative given. Research was done that indicated the student’s use of the online digital library and the data collected showed that many students are not actually using the services of the library and this impairs reaching the objectives of the plan. This report thus gives an in-depth account of social marketing theory and the related secondary materials that were used to understand the situation of the Birmingham library. With reference to this, appropriate objective and recommendation are given in this report to ensure that the students adopt the new provision as expected by the university; it is to be achieved using social marketing for behaviour change (Weinreich 2011, p.45). Action plan for the implementation of the recommendation is also given as well as the controls of the same program in Birmingham library. Introduction The tradition and role of social marketing is to ensure that marketing is applied together with other concepts and techniques that will culminate into the social good of the targeted group of people (Alder 2010, p.24). The difference between social marketing and commercial marketing should thus be palpable, in social marketing; the driving agenda is not finances as the case with commercial marketing, they tend skew their interest to pursue social good (Pintado, 2007: p. 32). Birmingham Library is a university library that houses all genres of academic materials from sciences to humanities, with the population of the student’s numbers increasing every academic intake (Krol 2010, p.38). There is urgent need then to ensure that some of the services that are currently offered physically in the library are decentralized so that students can have access to the information even without visiting the library premises (Lazer, William, and Eugene 2006, p.20). This proposed idea is supposed to use online library services to enable students to access online books using their tablets, lap top computers, and phone while they are outside that university library (Kotler and Nancy 2008, p.16). This development will not only help in decongesting the library that is currently receiving high level of traffic movement of students but will also be useful in serving the student’s convenience of using library services in various places including within the hostel without having to move into the library (Burcher 2012, p.19). The university thus wants to use social marketing as a way of advising the students on the available options of accessing the library services without having to borrow physical books (Penford, 2011: p. 37). This is deemed to be of social good to the student as they will have the books in soft copy and can use them anytime without having to visit the library every time. On the other hand, the university will also benefit in the sense that they will be able to accommodate the needs of all the students because only those students who want to engage in those issues that cannot be done outside the library will be in at any particular time. The university will also mitigate on the losses that are realized when textbooks are borrowed by the students from the library (Sarki, 2006: p. 12). This move will be highly beneficial to the student’s body and they should be advised to explore this option through social marketing as a way of promoting merit services (Kotler and Ned 2009, p.71). Situation Analysis University of Birmingham remains one of the most populated university in UK with the students number standing about 27, 000. This the summation of 19,000 undergraduate students and about 8,000 postgraduate students, it will be appreciated that this is an enormous number to be given library services given that all the students have peculiar needs to do in the library (Bagozzi, Zeynep and Joseph 2007, p.43). The university then thought of having a system that will solve the problem that the students are currently facing in accessing library services. Given the overwhelming number of the students in the university, it became apparent that there might be problems in serving all the students with the limited library services (Zarrella 2009, p.74). Found in this situation, the university then thought of going through to the digital library that will avail all the books that are physically stoked in the library and then creating the students portal through which they could access the library online, this technology is envisage to serve the students equally and allow them to access the library services online. In reference to this, the university has tried to digitalize most of their book and they are actually available online, there are only few items in the library, which includes PhD and Masters Student’s theses that have not been digitalized. Some of the items that have also not been digitalized in the library also include certain encyclopaedias and they are some of the services that may make the students to physically access the library. Away from the digital library, some changes have also taken place in the Central library that the students need to understand so that they can effectively explore them (Evans 2008, p.22). Without their knowledge or encouragement to use the services, there are chances that the services will remain underutilized thus bringing no solution to the current problem experienced in the library. In order to advise the students in the university over the available services, a research was done to establish the awareness of the students over the improvement done on the digital library. The main interest of the research was to establish the level of the student’s awareness on the provisions of the digital library and then use the information achieved to plan for the social marketing that is aimed to encourage the students to opt for the online library services for all those services that are availed online. In this regard, students who opted to borrow books from the library were asked about their courses, their knowledge was also sought on the availability of the online library, and the data collected recorded (Hastings 2011, p.44). They were also asked about the availability of the facilities that would enable them to access online library at the comfort of their hostels and finally about their general view of digitalized library. Sampling was randomly done with data taken from all the faculties available in the university. According to the findings, it was established that most of the students have laptops, tablets, and phones that could access that library. It was also realized that most of the students would like to use the digital library for most of their academic work than taking time to walk to the library for book borrowing. Unfortunately, when it came to the issues of the accessing the services, most of the students are not accessing the services because of lack of knowledge that the materials could be accessed online (Young 2011, p.39). The other problem was the procedure of accessing the online library and book searching; lastly, there was also the problem with internet availability in the hostels and in some of the places that are within the university’s compound. These factors have made the students not to take active participation in utilizing this technological advancement and when the issues are solved, it is true that the university will realize their expectations of decongesting the university through the provision of the online library services. Most of the universities just like Birmingham have used social marketing to change the perception of their students and there have been remarkable improvements in the areas that they wanted to have change in. In Nottingham, a research was done and it was found that most of the students in the student computer centre were not using the computers appropriately for academic purposes as was the reason why they were introduced. The university then wanted to change the students conduct with the computers in the computer laboratory from playing video games to academic oriented used and they proposed to advise the students on the need to use the computers for academic purposes only. Measures were then taken into place to help mould the expected behaviour change from the students and finally, the students started changing to utilize the computers responsibly. The university has also changed smoking in public places within the university and has introduced smoking zones in various compounds in the University for the Students to use, through the aid of social marketing. The university was able to appeal to the students on the dangers associated with public smoking and gave them the option of using the areas set aside for smoking within the university (Hastings 2007, p.62). The student and the university staff were convinced and there was complete behaviour change in which students were using the set aside places and there was no longer smoking in the lecture halls, libraries and in the university’s cafeteria. Following the successes realized in Nottingham University through social marketing, it is possible that if the same advocacy is made in Birmingham University over the use of the library services, it will be a successful endeavour that should be encouraged. Social marketing theory is hinged on the established marketing techniques as well as the theoretical perspectives; social marketing thus uses design, implementation, and program controls that are determined to increase the acceptability of an idea or a social concept. In achieving the desired objectives, social marketing tend to adopt the use of incentives, consumer research, configuration of ideas, segmentation of the market, communication, and exchange theory for the purpose of maximizing response from the target group. In order to realize the impact o social marketing, there intervention has to be borne on a strong social-psychological theories and communication, the use of the marketing techniques is to supplement the development of the message as well as implementation of the program. Social marketing theory is conceived on marketing philosophy, which provides that the only situation in which people can be convinced to adopt a new idea or behaviour is when they have sufficient conviction that is value exchange between them and the social marketer. It is thus important that in designing the social marketing technique, it should meet the needs and wants of the consumer, these can be either products or ideas. The other assumption is thus when the techniques are well honed and are accurately demonstrable techniques from the commercial sectors cab be used to advance the course of social marketing (Andreasen 2011, p.43). These techniques include the five “P’s”- Product, price, place, promotion, and positioning, in the scenario where we are to change the behaviour, the product becomes the behaviour. The product (behaviour) in this case is the idea to adopt online library services, the price is always the monetary cost of the product, but it should be in mind the monetary cost in this place includes those of convenience, social, and psychological (Andreasen 2006, p.12). Place in this context refer to the physical distribution of the product, the more the product is vastly distributed, the more it is encountered and this translates to it use in various places, it promotes convenience and appropriation (Weinreich 2009, p.58). With reference to promotion, this relate to the various ways through which the information about the product is relayed to the ultimate audience, in the social marketing campaigns, promotion relies most on interpersonal and mass media interaction to facilitates change through increment of awareness. Finally, positioning of the product refers to the psychological image that the product gives, for example using digital library will be most convenience for the students as it reduces chances of missing a book in the library. Recommendations and key objectives Following the situation analysis above demonstrates the urgent need of institution to come up with a system that will enable them to serve all the students in the library efficiently and effectively, the key objectives and recommendations are given below; Key Objectives Based on the need of social marketing that tends to look into the social good of the society and not the financial benefit, the main objectives of the report were; a) To understand the availability the facilities necessary to support digital library by the students in the university, this was to check on the availability of accessories like laptops and tablets with the students b) To understand the student’s knowledge on the use of Digital library that is currently provided by the University and the response of the students to the advancement c) To establish the level of the student use of the library services through manual borrowing of books; in this, it was also establish on the level of textbook loss by the students and other problems that has been brought to the University’s notice through physical borrowing of the textbook. These objectives were designed to help know from the primary research that was conducted in the university to understand the level of knowledge that the students have in using the option of online library as required by university. This was particularly important in helping to design a proper social marketing that should be employed by the university to encourage the students to use the online services for their convenience; the university has made these services available to their students so that they can reduce the kind of traffic that is experienced in the library. The new system is to help students avoid using library services for those things that they could do without physically going to the library. The online digital library contains all the books, articles and journals that are found in the library in hard copy in a soft copy form, even the most recent journals and articles are found in the library thus making the activity of assessing the library be as convenient and as simple as going online in the social media. Based on the results that were realized following the primary research that was done, it remains necessary that the students be advised through social marketing to know and understand the advantages that comes with using the digital library that the university has put in place (Branson 2007, p.39). It was realized that most of the students are not using the digital library not because it is not available, but because they are not fully aware of its availability, besides that, those who are aware still show significant complacency and needs to be encouraged through social marketing in the university. Social marketing is envisaged to be the best strategy to be used in encouraging students to utilize the digital option of exploring the new technology adopted by the university. Recommendations Based on the information that was accrued from the primary research, it is necessary that certain things have to be implemented so that the proposed program can be adopted and effectively used to decongest the library as required by the university management. Firstly, the university needs to incorporate the aspect of social marketing to the first years in every admission orientation and matriculation as done by the university in their intakes. In the university admission booklet that is being circulated to the students who are due to join the university, there should contain the provisions of the digital library that is provided by the university. This strategy of social marketing will be effective in informing the students in the earliest opportunity available of the services that are currently offered by the university (Weinberg 2009, p.54). During the process of orientation and matriculation, the students should be advised to opt for the digital library services that are supported by the university during their stay for academic reasons. In this process, the university should also create the student’s portal that provides students with a unique login and password that will enable them to access the university digital library in accordance with the faculty they are admitted in. This move will enable the student to have the idea of the online provision from the start of their stay in the university and through this; the university will achieve their expectation of encouraging social marketing of the digital library use within the university (Kerin, Steven and William 2009, p.37). For the continuing students that may not be conversant with the move during matriculation and orientation, the university should endeavour to organize public lectures that will inform the students of the online library services as provided by the university. The university should also organize through their tutors to advise the students before the beginning of the lectures the need to use the online library that is currently available within the university. Issuance of circular notices in the university will also be essential in this case; these should be put in the strategic positions within the university informing the students of the online library services. Away from this, the university should also ensure that the university provides all the necessitating requirements and the infrastructural improvements that will ensure that students are able to use the services with ease and without hindrance (Watt 2010, p.46). One of the inhibiting factors that was realized in this regard included inability to access internet services in some parts of the university. This will impair students not to use the library services that is only internet enabled, the university should thus ensure that there are sufficient hotspots in the most strategic places in the university including areas like hostels, student centres and other areas as will be deemed necessary (Sharma 2007, p.29). The implementation of these recommendations will not only make the university to create awareness in the whole student body of the digitized library but will also ensure that the said services can be accessed by students with the required ease. Action Plan The whole plan should be spread over a period of six months, within the six months; the activities to accomplish the plan will be spread in three categories each projected to take a maximum of two months. In the first phase of two months, the university should have in place all the students conversant with the availability of the online library services that is the promotional part of the five “P’s (French and Lucy 2012, p.41).” This is the most important part of the plan given that the availability of the message in the student body will ensure the actual use of the provision. The second phase of the process that will also take two months will be to ensure that that structural facilities that will enable the student to access the digital library is put into place, this includes internet hotspots that are also essential for the process to run. Finally, there should be a structured plant of evaluating the process after it is put into place to see if the students have adopted the new program as par the expectation. Controls While the university is intending to make the lives of the students easier with the new technology, they should have certain controls over accessing the university sites. In this regard, the university should endeavour to have the controls of the system in the sense that only the registered students should have access to it. The university will be using the registration numbers of all the students to create a portal to them, this portal can only be used by the students because of the peculiarity of the registration number. Outside the university, the system should also not allow access to the university; this control will only allow the database to be specifically accessed by only those within the university compound. References Alder, A. 2010. Pattern making, pattern breaking using past experience and new behaviour in training, education and change management. Farnham, Surrey, England: Ashgate. Andreasen, A.R. 2011. Ethics in social marketing. 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