Neither UIA nor WCMC itself ‘markets’ its existing information products in any conventional commercial sense. In the case of UIA, its reference products are marketed globally by the Munich-based academic publisher K G Saur, a member of the Reed group. UIA independently publicises its products on the Web, in journals (it’s own and others) and at international meetings. In the case of WCMC, its electronic products are freely accessed, hence ‘marketed’, through user search and access on the Web; books and reports, usually cooperatively produced, are marketed by IUCN and others.

There are many challenges for this marketing this product, which is transiting through the era of authoritative, hardcopy information to dispersed, electronic information. They include opportunities for:

• Marketing the product through its responsiveness (interactivity) to its potential market;
• Employing the product as the marketing tool;
• Employing the medium as a market place.

It will not simple to create a marketing formula because the "multimedia stage" is being reset month by month. The consortium believes it will be required to improvise in response to industry developments over the course of the Implementation Phase, whilst at the same time regularly reviewing the existing need for the product and taking account of feedback from real users.