Marketing of Information Products and Services
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MARKETING OF INFORMATION PRODUCTS AND SERVICES Course Material LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE By Dr. K. Elavazhagan Librarian & Chief Knowledge Officer Department of Library and Information Science BHARATHIDASAN UNIVERSITY TIRUCHIRAPALLI – 620024 TAMIL NADU | 1 | P a g e Table of Contents Unit-I ......................................................................................................................................................... Information as a Resource .................................................................................................................. 2 Economics of Information ............................................................................................................... 3 Marketing Concepts……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….9 Corporate Mission ........................................................................................................................ 15 Marketing Strategies……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….18 Unit-II ........................................................................................................................................................ Portfolio Management ...................................................................................................................... 21 BCG Matrix Model ......................................................................................................................... 21 Product Life Cycle……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….... 23 Pricing Information………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...32 Unit-III Marketing Mix…….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..45 Unit-IV Marketing Plan & Research………………………………………………………………………………………………………58 Corporate Identity…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………62 Market Segmentation and Targeting……………………………………………………………………………………..65 Geographic and Demographic Segmentation………………………………………………………………………..67 Behavioural and Psychographics Segmentation…………………………………………………………………….68 User Behavior and Adoption…………………………………………………………………………………………………69 Unit-V Information Industry Marketing Information Products & Services…………………………………………………………………………75 Social Media………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..82 2 | P a g e 3 | P a g e Unit-I Information as a Resource Information Information is an indispensable factor for promoting the development of society. Kemp (1976:101) observes, that information has been called, the fifth need of man, ranking after air, water, food, and shelter. Luck, et al., adds that information is the life blood of planning, directing, and controlling any enterprise (Luck et al, 1981:20). It makes the satisfaction of the demands of the population possible in an efficient way. The present age is rightly characterized as the age of information, where it success in any activityis based on the amount and accuracy of information available. The fact that information is a key resource for the progress and development of a nation (Raina, 1998:3) is nothing but the socio-economic, cultural, and political development of its citizenry. Information is a commodity or economic good of worldwide significance, which contributes to the national economy. Information has become a commodity that people buy. The criteria that determine power have shifted from industry ownership to the information ownership, as the global economy has shifted from industry-based to information-based. The quality and quantity of the information resources of the country are two of the parameters for development. Countries with adequate information infrastructure and information technology can create artificial demand for superfluous products and use it as a weapon against the economy of other countries. Information is an indispensable input for technological and economic development. It is a negotiable product that moves about in international markets. In today's international developing economies, a country that is incapable of providing information to its citizens will lose autonomy and be at the mercy of developed countries for information. IM is managing the processes of selection, collection building, processing, controlling, and dissemination of information in an organization. IM can help an organization recognize and use the potentials of the resources of information and information technology. (Brenner) Librarians have a significant role to play in IM. Considering the IM cycle, one can find that librarians have a role to play in almost every step in the information-user matching process. Information is essential in education, serving the process of learning, supplementing interaction with teachers, and providing (in books, media, and databases) much of the substance. Information may be an educational objective in itself, since among things to be learned are the tools for access to and use of information. Information is the substance of cultural enrichment, entertainment, and amusement . Information can be a product, a commodity — something produced as a package. Information can be a service. Indeed, the majority of ‗business services‘ (the national economic account that includes consulting) are information based. 4 | P a g e . Information is easily and cheaply transported. The first copy represents most of the costs in creation, and reproduction costs are relatively small. As a result, it that can be produced and distributed with minimal depletion of physical resources. There is a complex relationship between the time of acquiring information and the value of it. For some, the value lies in immediacy—yesterday's stock information may be worthless tomorrow. For others, the value is likely to be received in the future rather than the present. There are immense economies of scale. Combined with the value in accumulation, this provides strong incentives for sharing information, especially since, once available, it can be distributed cheaply, which makes sharing easy. Information is not consumed by being used or transmitted to others. It can be resold or given away with no diminution of its content. Many persons may possess and use the same information, even at the same time, without diminishing its value to others. All these imply that information is a public good. General Economic Policies 1. Encourage entrepreneurship 2. Shift from low technology to high technology 3. Shift from production of physical goods to information goods . Develop the ―Information Economy‖ 1. Encourage effective use of information in business 2. Provide incentives for information industries 3. Develop information skills . Management of Information Enterprises Establish technical information skills Develop information support staff skills There is the need to invest in the creation, production, and distribution of information and that implies a wish to recover the investment. Furthermore, there may be value associated with exclusivity in knowledge, so there must be an incentive to make it available to others. This implies that information is a private good. Economics of Information A fundamental shift in the economics of information is under way—a shift that is less about any specific new technology than about the fact that a new behavior is reaching critical mass. Millions of people at home and at work are communicating electronically using universal, open standards. This explosion in connectivity is the latest—and, for business strategists, the most important—wave in the information revolution. Over the past decade, managers have focused on adapting their operating processes to new information technologies. Dramatic as those operating changes have been, a more profound 5 | P a g e transformation of the business landscape lies ahead. Executives—and not just those in high- tech or information companies—will be forced to rethink the strategic fundamentals of their businesses. Over the next decade, the new economics of information will precipitate changes in the structure of entire industries and in the ways companies compete. Just as the free flow of information is essential to well-functioning democracies, it is essential to well-functioning consumer marketplaces. Consumers need accurate, complete, and timely information to learn about alternatives and make good choices. Marketers need information about consumers to learn what they want (when and where and how much) and how much they value alternatives. Such information equips firms to offer the right product at the right place at the right time and at the right price. Democracies and the consumer marketplace operate by persuasion and not coercion. Marketers and politicians need to make their cases through information and rhetoric. Typically they appeal to the emotions as well as to the intellect. But marketers (and politicians) are engaged in an advertising arms race, and the marketplace overflows with commercial message, many of them irrelevant and irritating. A question is whether all this signifies marketer power or consumer power. Marketers‘ use of information about consumers must be balanced against consumer‘s privacy. Traditionally, the marketing research profession has agreed on codes of ethics to protect consumer information, such as walling off research from sales and ensuring respondent anonymity. However, now that digital technologies enable marketers to gather, store, and connect multiple pieces of behavioral data about individuals and tailor products accordingly, consumer privacy increasingly is traded for the benefits that marketers can provide by using such information. Reputable marketers need to