Having pitched the level of ambition for the planning period it is now time to look for 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 this stage of marketing planning is about understanding the marketplace within which the library service operates.

A public library service is competing in a number of different markets and it is appropriate to reflect upon the markets served. For the purposes of marketing planning it is important to have a quantified estimate of the number of issues, visits, enquiries and other measures of performance to be won. In addition, to ensure that a library service has an appropriate offer in the marketplace, there is a need to create a deep understanding of what users and potential users value, need and want. Finally, there is a need to track technological, social and other changes which have a significant effect on the products and services which the library delivers or the way in which it delivers them. Market research will provide an information base to help the librarian with offer development, communication and promotion.

Without addressing such issues it is difficult to devise a realistic plan to meet clear objectives in the ambition as described in Chapter 2. With an understanding of the market for public library services (described in this chapter), we can move to segmenting the market (Chapter 4) and prioritizing strategies and actions (Chapter 5). The present chapter outlines the key things a library manager needs to take into account to ensure appropriate information input to the marketing plan. You are advised to consult several textbooks on research methodology before undertaking research into your user base. Research is inevitably time-consuming and potentially misleading unless undertaken to high standards.