Marketing intangibles: the case of library services in higher education institutions

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate the adoption of marketing techniques in academic libraries in Ghana, and how they are applied in the promotion of their services to patrons.

Design/methodology/approach

Adopting the qualitative research approach, a total of 21 professional and para-professional library staff from three private universities participated in the study. The main data collection instrument was the use of semi-structured interviews. Data gathered was analysed, discussed and presented thematically.

Findings

The findings revealed that the study's participants are fully aware of the benefits of inculcating marketing activities into their daily routines and were making efforts at making their users aware of their products and services with the use of various strategies including the deployment of social media tools. Some of the challenges that were discovered to hinder the success of marketing in the libraries were lack of funds, lack of knowledge of marketing techniques by staff and a lack of marketing policy to guide marketing in the libraries.

Research limitations/implications

The findings of this study imply that, even though carried on a few academic libraries, the same can apply to most academic libraries as the characteristics are generally the same.

Practical implications

To boost marketing initiatives in the selected university libraries, the following recommendations informed by the findings of the study are made: creation of marketing policies, increase use of social networking sites for marketing, organization of seminars and workshops on marketing, diversifying sources of funding for libraries and conducting user surveys.

Social implications

The implementation of the recommendations has the potential to increase the level of interactions between academic libraries and their patrons as well as impact positively on the information-seeking behaviour of library patrons.

Originality/value

Apart from the application of works of other scholars, which have been duly cited and acknowledged, the entirety of this study or research output is the result of the handiworks of the researchers. Again, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this work has not been a production of existing research nor is earlier published in any journal.

Citation

Ofori, W.O., Markwei, E. and Quagraine, N.T. (2020), "Marketing intangibles: the case of library services in higher education institutions", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 37 No. 3, pp. 15-20. https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-11-2019-0085