Problems of implementing marketing technology in the publishing process (a case-study of Tomsk regional publishing)

Statistics presented by the Book Chamber and the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications shows a sharp decrease of books on the domestic market from 2009, the sharpest decrease in 2012. The negative trend still exists. The regional book publishing seems to be in the greatest danger. Modern information society requires, in the first place, greater information integrity in publishing. In the second place, channels of mass communication have to switch to the digital form. Third, marketing communications should be actively used. Since modern domestic publishing does not meet these requirements, other media channels capture the book market share; also, international publishing corporations aim at it. It allows us to formulate the hypothesis of the research: there are main factors of ineffective organisation in marketing communications of the domestic book publishing. They include: lack of available and positive information about all the partners of the book market of the domestic publishing; publishers know about marketing techniques in publishing, yet use them very rarely. The methods of the research are: analysis of scientific literature and statistic data, questionnaire, rating by experts and users. The marketing research of the publishing system faced some problems related with search and analysis of information on this subject: lack, inexactness and inaccessibility of statistic and bibliographic information on the region book-publishing system; lack of marketing researches on book-selling in Tomsk, on its efficiency and on the target; few research works about publishing marketing, and those existing do not cover the editorial-publishing process specificity; lack of marketers and marketing knowledge among Tomsk publishers. The mentioned problems made it necessary to expand the research. It also became necessary to examine Tomsk book market because of the lack of information required for marketing analysis, to create an educational book and a practical guide to marketing for editors and publishers, to present the complex integrated marketing communications model in the form of a web-document to facilitate its use by publishing house employees. When practical research of Tomsk book market was made, the major book publishers were identified; the key marketing information sources in the publishing system were determined; the types of book publications were analyzed. Interviews on marketing with publishers made it possible to identify the principal marketing communication technologies. The most important marketing research directions are (descending): target readership research (17 %), competitor research (15 %). The most objective criterion on demand is (descending): sales analysis (25 %); expert assessment of wholesalers and dealers (14 %); information of shops on demand for publications (13 %); observation at exhibitions, fairs (11 %). The most effective marketing communications are (descending): advertising in the media (16 %), PR-events (15 %), promotion at points of sale (14 %), outdoor advertising (12 %). As a conclusion, we can say that all the problems of marketing research, defined in the study, are interconnected by the need of a centralized data base of the book-publishing system. It causes a lack of system links, obscurity and chaos in the structure of the editorial activity. Then the efficiency of control over and operation with the editorial system and its elements decreases. It complicates the development of marketing strategies by editors and causes problems of adaptation of intercity marketing communications in the regional book-publishing system.

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