Branding and Marketing in Library and Information Centres

Learning Contents Summary

The learning content discusses the importance of branding, marketing, lobbying, advocacy, and fundraising for libraries in today's competitive world. Libraries must build a strong brand and market their services to attract users and demonstrate their relevance in society. Branding involves defining the library's unique offering and communicating it through various elements such as the logo, colors, and tone of voice. Marketing, on the other hand, focuses on understanding the needs of the target audience and developing services that meet those needs. The 7Ps of marketing strategies for libraries include products/services, pricing, place, promotion, participants, physical evidence, and process.

Furthermore, the content delves into the concepts of lobbying and advocacy, which are essential for libraries to influence decision-makers and policymakers to support library development and services. Lobbying involves interacting with decision-makers to achieve specific goals, while advocacy is a sustained effort to raise awareness of library issues and build support over time. The process requires communication and persuasion to gain the support needed for libraries.

Lastly, fundraising is discussed as a necessary approach for libraries to generate funds and maintain basic services. Academic libraries, in particular, face funding challenges and need to explore alternative ways of raising funds, such as marketing their library and services effectively.

Goals

1. Understand the importance of branding and marketing for libraries to attract users and demonstrate their relevance in society.
2. Explore the 7Ps of marketing strategies for libraries, including product/service offerings, pricing, promotion, and other elements.
3. Learn about the concepts of lobbying and advocacy and their role in influencing decision-makers to support library development and services.
4. Recognize the challenges and opportunities in fundraising for libraries and the need for alternative approaches to generate funds.
5. Identify the key steps and strategies to effectively market library services, lobby for support, and raise funds for library development.

Definition of Branding and Marketing in Library Services

Libraries are no longer a silent place where staff sits and waits for users to walk in before providing services. In today's competitive world, libraries must do everything in their power to attract library users and demonstrate their relevance and importance in society. The librarian and the library must build a brand and market their product to potential customers daily due to the decreasing number of visitors to the library, its low statistics of library resource usage and the struggle for survival of libraries and librarians, that is a major concern for librarians, (Sharma, Majumdar, & Uraon, 2017). As a result, library services must be branded and marketed to customers in a unique way to change these narratives.

Branding

Branding is gotten from the word “Brand” which means a “name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.” Although a significant amount of literature on services deals with measuring or delivering customer satisfaction in library and information settings, not much of it addresses the issue of branding services, hence branding is yet to receive its due consideration in Library and Information Services, (Singh, 2006). However, branding in Libraries and Information centres can be seen as the personification of the total offering of a library and information centre, its value and contribution, to both the organization and its patrons.

According to Kenneway (2006), the brand is much more than a logo or a strap-line in libraries and information centres. When it develops to its full potential it helps to define and communicate what a library can do better than anyone else, what distinguishes them from other services, and what is most relevant to the needs of their clientele. This is based on much more than functional strengths; it also encompasses the unique values and personality of the library resources.

Put more simply, the brand is the spirit of the library – sometimes aspirational, but always relevant to customers and staff alike. Really good Library and Information Science brands have been able to capture and effectively express this ‘spirit’. They do this with relentless consistency in the dissemination of quality information service delivery. The expression of this spirit or ‘brand idea’ can be made up of many elements, including the logo, colours, images and ‘tone of voice’ used to communicate them.

Branding play’s special role in information organizations because strong brands increase customers’ trust in the invisible, and enable them to better visualize and understand the intangible benefits of the services which very much depend upon the employees’ actions and attitudes because services brands are particularly different from those of physical good, (Shripad & Chandratre, 2015).

Branding is the process of defining a library's story, condensing it into one short, appealing sentence that tells the entire story, and visually communicating the story through the library's logo and other branding elements. The story is intended to inform anyone considering using the library about what makes it unique and worthwhile to visit. The story can be about the library's details, such as great customers, a great collection, or a beautiful building, or it can be about the needs that the library can fill in the lives of its patrons. The story could be that the library is a place where the community gathers and connects (Sharma, Majumdar, & Uraon, 2017).

Branding the library entails more than just coming up with a catchy name and putting it on library shelves; it also entails building a reputation and providing quality services to customers. Academic libraries do not typically have direct sales functions, but they have a history of developing long-term relationships with various stakeholders such as university administration, researchers, instructors, and students. Indeed, one of the most important benefits that a good academic library can provide is a long-term relationship with those who use its services.

The following must be established as a starting point for effective branding in a library and information centre (Melville, 1995):

• The customer’s perception of the library;
• The library’s attributes recognized by the customers;
• Your own perception of the library;
• What customer attributes do you feel the library has to offer;
• What attributes does the customer(s) seek; and
• The customer’s image preference.

The steps to be taken in order to promote the library brand as a library manager are illustrated in the figure given below;

Marketing

According to Shripad and Chandratre (2015), marketing is an essential tool for marketing libraries and information centres. It is a human activity that involves determining what people want and need and then changing to meet those needs as needed. It inquires, "Who you are? What do you want? How can I best deliver it to you? and what price are you willing to pay?" (CAPL, 2011).

Marketing intended for not-for-profit organizations such as libraries is referred to as “societal marketing” (Adeloye, 2003). Marketing in the context of a library is defined as the art and science of attracting and retaining readers and users of a library or information centre. By this definition, marketing requires a two-way dialogue with the target audience. Market research or a needs assessment process is usually used to initiate this dialogue.

Ranganathan's Five laws of Library science and Marketting Theory

Ranganathan's famous Five Laws of Library Science published in 1931, aligns with marketing theory in that the reader (also known as the customer) is king and the focal point of the library; as a result, the entire organisation (resources, services, facilities, rules and regulations, procedures) becomes customer focused (Shripad & Chandratre, 2015).

Marketing activities include the following:

1. Market research and customer analysis: A better understanding of the target users is required prior to any type of branding and marketing. The librarian must first concentrate on “WHO” and determine who is the intended user and who they will be serving. The needs of the patrons are addressed after a thorough understanding of the target audience. Following the identification of the library patrons' needs, the resources, including documentary resources, ICT infrastructure available, and services provided and required, must be reviewed in order to urgently close the gap between demand and supply (Keller, 2008).
   • To determine the best target audience for your library, you must first honestly assess your current library users by asking the following questions:
   • If you are a public library, what percentage of your community has library cards?
   • Who uses your virtual library and for what purpose?
   • If you are an academic library, what percentage of students use the library, either virtually or take books out?
   • Does your community support your library? How do you know? through financial support, the feedback you get from the community surveys or through some other mechanism?
   • Is your community aware of the services offered by your library?
   • Through these questions, you are trying to understand how much support your library receives (Docuett, 2008).

1. Development of new services: After, identifying your user's needs, there is a need to develop and introduce to them, your library services that are tailored to meet their individual needs relating to teaching, learning, research and recreation.
2. Distribution: This activity involves distributing the services rendered by your library to the clientele as individuals or as a collective group. E.g. through selective dissemination of information.
3. Promotion: This activity involves creating awareness using fliers, social media platforms, posters, and so on. Posters provide effective visual communication. When displayed prominently, they can attract attention and provide brief information about an event or service rendered by the library. According to Bhatt (2011), these are excellent marketing tools because they list almost all of a library's activities.
4. Evaluation of services: This involves evaluating the services rendered to know if there’s a need to improve the service rendered by the library.

Marketing Strategies for Library and Information Centres

Many libraries have come to recognise the value and application of marketing concepts. The 7Ps– product, price, place, promotion, participants, physical evidence, and process – have become central to libraries when designing the marketing mix and developing the marketing plan. According to Sharma and Bharadwaj (2009), the 7Ps of Library and Information Centre Marketing Strategies are:

7 Ps of marketing strategies for Library

1. Products or services of the general reference and information service department. This is, of course, the information, reference, and ancillary services that add value such as personal assistance, referral services, online database searches, document delivery, and interlibrary loan.
2. Pricing of use of the library is usually that of the time and effort the user spends traveling to the library, as well as the time and effort spent
3. Place of service, based upon knowledge of the market of J library, is essential in order to identify users and their discrete information needs and wants. To expand the service area, the library may have branches, bookmobiles, or electronic access, etc.
4. Promotion includes utilizing persuasive information about general information services, and communicating this information to target market segments that are potential users. Five kinds of promotion include: publicity, public relations, personal representatives, advertising, and sales promotion.
5. Participants: All human actors who play part in reference and information services delivery, namely the library's personnel.
6. Physical Evidence:The environment in which the reference and information services are delivered that facilitates the performance and communication of the service.
7. Process:The procedures, mechanisms and flow of activities by which the reference and information services are acquired.

Lobbying, Advocacy, and Fund Raising for the Development of Library and Information Centres

Lobbying

Lobbying is the interaction with decision-makers to achieve specific goals at a specific point in the legislative, policy-making, or budgetary process. It also necessitates a thorough understanding of the decision and makers of staff priorities, interests, schedule, and political clout (CAPL, 2011).

Advocacy

Advocacy, on the other hand, is a deliberate, planned, and sustained effort to raise awareness of an issue or issue. Advocacy is thus an ongoing process in which support and understanding are gradually built over time. It employs many marketing and public relations tools, but it is not solely one or the other. Advocacy and lobbying are two winged seeds that are used synonymously for issues that require adjustment and change. While lobbying attempts to influence decisions made by government officials, most often legislators or members of regulating agencies (Association of Genetic Technologists (AGT) (2014), advocacy tends to plead in favour of or publicly support, promote, and defend a course (Gorman, 2005).

In librarianship, this entails attempting to persuade public officials and decision-makers to support or formulate policies that benefit libraries (Ireri, 2014).In other words, it seeks the support of influential individuals for library development and services. Lobbying and advocacy are not in any way mysterious. They are entirely communication processes, as Mayhew (1997) explained, in which various methods, strategies, and tactics must be developed in order to gain access, inform, influence, and pressure policymakers to make decisions that affect the well-being of their clients. Lobbying is, in essence, an extension of advocacy. As a result, Arroyo et al. (2002, p.82) characterised it as an intentional attempt to influence political choices through various forms of advocacy. Lobbying and advocacy both broaden the scope of influence available to improve policies and achieve structural reforms in critical areas such as agriculture, health, education, and trade (Sloot & Geanderso, 2010). Lobbying is thus a subset of advocacy. As a result, successful lobbying combines advocacy activities with clear public relations.

Individuals can also lobby as a form of volunteerism or as a small part of their regular job, according to Vidotto (2014). For example, a librarian may meet with a representative to discuss an issue concerning librarianship. The capacity building focuses on learning how to interact with major stakeholders, community power holders, and civil society organisations (Justice Development and Peace Commission) (JDPC), 2012; Mlanga, 2014). These are evaluated by identifying specific goals, appropriate targets, methods to employ, and the specific people or persons to take specific actions. It all comes down to persuasion, knowledge of the system, and familiarity with the people involved in the process (AGT, 2014). Training embraces the principles of effective lobbying, which include accuracy, brevity, clarity, knowing your viewpoint, seeing it their way, following up, sending a thank you note, recognising and appreciating any effort made, and so on (Ireri 2014).

According to research, many professionals, business owners, constituent groups, individuals, commercial organisations, civil organisations, and so on use various methods of lobbying and advocacy to influence the opinions of legislators. An example is the report of a well-known school librarian, Laura Bush, ex-First Lady of the United States, who has a Master's degree in Library science and worked as a public school teacher and librarian in Houston. She organised a White House Conference on School Libraries to advocate for the importance of supporting various library systems (The Laura Bush Foundation for America's Libraries, 2002).

Lobbying and advocacy require extensive research, planning, and strategy. Ireri (2014) stated that letters can be written to inform legislators about the support needed from them for libraries, as well as emails, phone calls, and sending delegates/face-to-face contacts with government officials (WLA, 2014).

Fundraising

Fundraising is the process of seeking and receiving contributions in the form of money or other resources by requesting donations from individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies. Although fundraising typically refers to efforts to raise funds for non-profit organisations, and the library is one of those non-profit organisations. Usually, fundraising consists of mostly asking for donations on the street or at people's doors, and this is experiencing very strong growth in the form of face-to-face fundraising, but net forms of fundraising, such as online fundraising, have emerged in recent years (Olurayi, 2013).

In the face of inadequate government funding and rising academic library expectations, fundraising in libraries has become a necessity. This system is not geographically limited, but rather universal, and it is exacerbated by the global economic downturn. As a result, library administration must start looking for other ways to generate funds in order to maintain libraries and library services. To maintain basic services and a steady supply of stationary, the library has commercialised photocopying, video coverage, lamination, publishing, user registration, binding, and other services. Fines, charges, gifts, grants, endowments, and bequests are all sources of income.

Academic libraries raise funds to ensure that their primary objectives are met because the library serves as the university's engine. Just as a car engine, when it develops a fault or dirt clogs it, it stops functioning and becomes inefficient, and so does the library to its parent organisation. Hence, in order to avoid this, academic libraries must seek funding elsewhere in order to meet these goals. Some challenges may arise when raising funds for the library, such as the fact that library development and fundraising are virtually unknown, librarians face difficulties in raising funds for their libraries because it is not what they are used to doing, and they sometimes meet difficult people who are difficult to persuade, and they compete for funds with other academic departments. In addition, library directors lack a defined constituency, fundraising experience, and institutional power. Academic libraries have been dealing with the issue of funding shortages for several years, which has hindered the efficient and effective provision of library resources and services. In order to combat this while also providing quality service, libraries can seek alternative ways of raising funds by marketing the library, its products, and services.

Questions for practice

1. How can libraries use branding to distinguish themselves from other services and communicate their unique value to users effectively?
2. Explain the 7Ps of marketing strategies for libraries, and provide examples of how each element can be applied to promote library services.
3. Compare and contrast lobbying and advocacy in the context of libraries. How can librarians effectively engage in both activities to influence decision-makers?
4. What are some challenges academic libraries face in raising funds, and what alternative approaches can they explore to generate funds for maintaining library resources and services?
5. Develop a marketing and fundraising plan for a library of your choice, outlining specific strategies and steps to attract users, gain support from decision-makers, and raise funds for library development.