Now that you have considered library ambition within the strategic marketing process it is time to look at engaging with the people who will help the library to achieve that ambition. Marketing planners undertake significant market analysis before making choices of strategy. Textbooks sometimes refer to this as ‘situation analysis’ or ‘environmental analysis’. Essentially, at this stage of marketing planning it is necessary to understand the marketplace within which the library service operates and the characteristics of that marketplace, which will open up or narrow the path to achieving engagement ambitions.

Most library services are competing in a number of different markets and it is appropriate to reflect on the markets served. For the purposes of marketing planning it is important to have quantified and qualitative measures of performance. Engagement activity is time and resource hungry and it is right that library managers should be confident of a good return for this investment.

In addition, to ensure that a library service has an appropriate, engaging offer in the marketplace, there is a need to create a deep understanding of what users and potential users value, require and want. Furthermore, how do they currently meet these needs and can we create a better offer than those of competitors? You should understand what gives competitors their place in the markets that libraries exist to serve.

Sources of funding for all types of library are increasingly uncertain and it is as important to engage with other stakeholders’ values, needs, wants and priorities as it is to engage with those of users. Finally, you should track technological, social and other changes which will either support or constrain engagement with users and other stakeholders. Market research will provide an information base to help you with engaging offer development, communication and promotion.

Without a commitment to collecting, analysing and reporting data and information on library communities it is difficult to devise a realistic plan to meet clear objectives in the ambition as described in the previous chapter. This chapter outlines the key things a library manager must consider to ensure there is appropriate information input to the marketing plan.