Marketing information services is a challenge southern Africa should overcome to
consolidate its development efforts and with-stand the tide of globalisation. This was the
challenge that faced SADC docu-mentalists who attended a workshop at Malawi’s
lakeside resort town of Mangochi.
In his opening remarks, Orton Kachinjika, Deputy Director
of the Malawi based SADC Fisheries Sector, challenged participants to “perceive
information as a national resource of great value in the same manner that land, capital
and other resources that are essential to the social-economic and techno-logical
development of our region are perceived.”
He urged institutions to “become key in today’s
information-driven society whereby activity is in one way or anoth-er driven by
availability and access to information.”
The workshop, held on 18-20 October, is part of a series of
meetings which commenced in 1997. The need for such workshops arose from a growing
appreciation that information is crucial to the integration process in southern Africa and
therefore the need to organise regular consultations between librarians from official SADC
institutions and partner organisations.
The major objective of theworkshops is to rationalise and
coordinate systems and
programmes to improve information flow and exchange among SADC |
to
enable documentalists to sharpen skills in areas of need.
Under the theme “Marketing Information in SADC
Institutions” the aim of this year’s work-shop was to develop successful
marketing strategies that aggressively
reach out to customers. This was seen as the only way libraries could succeed in the new
infor-mation world, where increased competi-tion exists and the emphasis is on consumer
convenience.
Professor Kingo Mchombu, facilitator of the workshop and
Head of the In-formation and Communication Faculty at the University of Namibia, noted
that there are gaps in skills needed for mar-keting of information services among library
professionals.
“Many people within and outside the profession think
they know what mar-keting is when they do not, hence the workshop could not be more
timely to fill in this gap,” said Mchombu.
The workshop explored the marketing concept, which seeks to
identify cus-tomer requirements, coming up with products and services designed to
answer the needs, give information and provide a service. Kachinjika said that
“information should be regarded as a valuable commodity that has to be properly
processed, packaged and marketed to potential consumers”
It is the role of information managers to use marketing to
reach the target market operating within the mandate |
of
the parent organization, noted the workshop.
Recommendations by Mchombu centred on the use of strategic
planning to guide documentalists to come up with good marketing strategies. Emphasis
was placed on the need to develop a comprehensive marketing plan outlining the current
marketing situation, identi-fying key performance areas, analysing opportunities and
challenges both internallyand externally. It was also noted that there is need to, decide
on the marketing strategy and action plan to be put in place considering the cost factor.
Obstacles identified include an observation that some
institutions exist without mission statements or in the case where they are available,
they do not clearly state the mandate, the mission and the values of the organisation.
There was consensus among participants that information centres or institutions have some
aspects of the marketing plan in place but the challenge is for information managers to
develop a comprehensive marketing plan.
The workshop enabled participants to reflect on the
marketing strategies currently in place in their institutions, come up with designs to
improve on them and also put new strategies in place.
Twenty-one information managers from six SADC countries
— Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe – attended the
workshop.
By Chipo Muvenzwa |
