Marketing in the Public Sector: A Roadmap for Improved Performance

by Nancy Lee, Philip Kotler, Nancy R. Lee

Book Overview

Marketing in the Public Sector is a groundbreaking book written exclusively for governmental agencies. It offers dozens of marketing success stories from agencies of all types-from around the world-so... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0131875159
• ISBN13: 9780131875159
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: Wharton School Publishing
• Length: 332 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

How Governments Sell Themselves to their Citizens

At first glance you might think that this is a book on selling to the government. It isn't. This book is basically a primer, or a series of anecdotes or case studies where a governmental agency is attempting to sell their products or services to the public. While we don't think of the government doing marketing, visit any Post Office and look at the ads plastered all over the place for everything from mailing supplies, to passports, to stamp collecting (where you buy a stamp from them and then don't use it for mailing - a lot of profit in that). In addition to these actual products, there are a lot of stories about how the government wanted to influence behavior on the part of the citizens from litter campaigns (Don't Mess With Texas) to reducing drunk driving. The intended audiance for this book seems to be organizations within the government who now need to communicate what they do, how well they do it, and influence behavior among the population. And that's the world population, not just the US.

Required reading for all public sector managers

The conventional wisdom and joke is that organizations in the public sector have no need to improve their profile. After all, the justification has always been that they provide essential services where there is no alternative. In this book, that conventional wisdom is thoroughly debunked. Citing example after example, the authors show that it is in the best interests of everyone if the public agency carries out some form of logical marketing plan. The advantages are numerous and completely explained: *) Marketing allows the agency to explain to the public exactly how their services are used. It is always more efficient to learn the answers to your questions before you are at the service window of the agency. *) Marketing allows for public feedback, both relieving public pressure and giving the agency an opportunity to improve. *) Employee morale is often improved. Public employees are often the butt of jokes about the inefficiency of government, this gives their agency an opportunity to make their side public. *) To develop a marketing plan, you need to understand your customer base. By studying the market, it is quite likely that inappropriate assumptions will be discovered. *) Marketing plans can help build public support for the agency, and put a human, helpful face on what many people think is bureaucratic indifference. Using a series of case studies, Kotler & Lee demonstrate how classic marketing tools can be modified to reshape public agencies so that they can better serve their constituency. Some of the examples also demonstrate how a successful public awareness campaign can be executed. This book should be mandatory reading for every manager of a public agency.

Well-Intentioned Public Sector Advice

This book leaves me conflicted. Part of me wonders why it is necessary for two distinguished marketing specialists to team up to write a book like this. The other part, a consumer of government services, understands the need, Philip Kotler, a Northwestern University marketing professor and Nancy Lee, an adjunct faculty member in Washington state and president of a social marketing agency, performed in this their third book. Using real-life examples to showcase tried-and-true marketing principles effectively deployed in the public sector the heart of this book, eight chapters, tackles an accepted private marketing tenet and applies it to an agency marketing effort. Using a toolbox, the authors show illustrate how; establishing incentives and motivating prices; optimizing distribution channels; creating a brand identity; communicating effectively; improving service and satisfaction; influencing positive public behaviors through social marketing; and forming partnerships can develop and enhance popular programs and services. The book ends with vital information on how to manage the marketing process primarily through data collection, performance measurement and the creation of a compelling marketing plan. The book offers a step-by step model for government agencies to deliver more value for each penny they spend. In writing this book, the authors have done both well-intentioned public servants and taxpayers a tremendous service.

An Essential Marketing Primer for Public Agencies from a Most Reliable Authority

For dyed-in-the-wool marketers like myself, Philip Kotler, international marketing professor at Northwestern's Kellogg School, has been a distinguished guru for nearly four decades, and his textbook of fundamentals, "Marketing Management", was required reading for me in graduate school. Now teamed with consultant Nancy Lee, a long-time specialist in social marketing, he has finally translated his tried-and-true marketing principles into the public sector, a challenging application given how results from such efforts can be extremely long-term and far less tangible than what can be more easily measured in the private sector. What's more, going head-to-head with private enterprises, public agencies have been at a great disadvantage because they have not proactively sought this discipline in targeting citizen needs. Previously unused initiatives like customer-driven strategies, outsourcing and performance metrics are now bought to life in a new milieu. Kotler and Lee do a fine job discerning the distinctions and commonalities between consumer and citizen value and how a strong marketing platform can really elucidate the latter. The book's first two chapters go to the heart of identifying citizen needs and the marketing mindset required to address them. The next eight chapters each tackle an accepted private marketing tenet and how to apply each toward an agency marketing effort. Organized into a toolbox, these principles include developing and enhancing popular programs and services; establishing incentives and motivating prices; optimizing distribution channels; creating a brand identity; communicating effectively; improving service and satisfaction; influencing positive public behaviors through social marketing; and forming strategic partnerships. The book ends with vital information on how to manage the marketing process primarily through data collection, performance measurement and the creation of a compelling marketing plan. What makes the co-authors' points resonate are the real-life examples they provide at the beginning of each chapter to prove the effectiveness of such tactics in practice. For instance, we read how in Nepal, optimizing distribution channels by selling condoms in convenience stores has dramatically improved access for the groups most vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. Another example is how the Finnish government tackled the country's high levels of heart disease by following the twelve principles of social marketing, which include steps like removing barriers to behavior change, highlighting the costs of competing behaviors and using prompts for sustainability. One of the more fascinating stories is how the city of New York has developed its own marketing plan in the wake of its recovery from 9/11. Rewards from the marketing plan have come in the forms of having a commercial tie-in with the History Channel, relocating of the headquarters for Virgin Airlines to New York, and bringing the Country Music Awards to Radio City Music Hall