Branding and Marketing Your Library

James A. Keller, Queens Public Library

You can't serve everybody without unlimited resources, so you have to set some priorities.

In NYC are 3rd among public services/city agencies

Identifying Stakeholders

• "Without customers, there's no point."
• Identify the problems
• "Everything we do is for our customers."
• Where do we get our money from?
• Libraries are like the Oliver when they should be like Jerry Maguire
• Should be a year-round process
• Other significant organizations on campus to the Library
• Ask long-term card holders if they'd like to donate
• Media -- human-interest stories

Understanding Your Target Audience

• What can you reasonably do successfully?
• What gets cut last?
• How can you apply your expertise in the BEST way possible?
• Surveying and quantitative research is better than focus groups

Create a positioning statement - the personality of your library.

• Importance: Everyone agrees on the focus of the library
• Questions to determine positioning statement
  • Describe the library today in one sentence/phrase
  • What would you like the library to be in one sentence/phrase
  • If there was only one thing you could keep about the library what would it be?
• Queens library is the best community resource for all of your informational, educational, cultural, and recreational needs.
  • Tagline: Enrich your life

Develop a Marketing Plan (>10 pages)

• Look at what you have, use your statistics

1. Executive Summary
   • Brief overview of the marketing plan
   • Reviews fiscal year and highlights any important initiatives or events
   • Prepares for upcoming fiscal year
   • Outlines key objectives for the next year
   • 3-4 pages at most
2. Statistical Review
   • Narrative of what happened last year
3. Strategic Brand Positioning
4. Fiscal Year Objectives
   • Blueprint, or design, of everything you hope to accomplish
5. Fiscal Year Initiatives
6. Fiscal Year Initiatives Budget
   • Assume that things will cost more thank you think
   • Have a buffer left over and bring your initiatives under budget
   • Make it so that cutting your budget hurts
     • Cut the popular things first
7. Appendixes

Marketing Strategies

• Make sure all stakeholders are part of the email blast
• Invite politicians, stakeholders to public events
• Indirect communication is sometimes preferred
• UR librarians have trading cards

Utilizing Available Resources

• Use Marketing/Communications department - pro bono work
• Ask companies that are related to the library (eg Trustee's company)
• Use University students
  • Art classes for Logo Contest
  • Business classes for marketing contest
  • Market it as designing for "your" library

Promotion

• Inexpensive apparel, canvas bags, umbrellas, plastic bags
  • Spend good money
• Everything is negotiable
• Bus posters / billboards
• Use postcards instead of flyers - bifold if necessary
• Flashy marketed one-page (2 sides) annual report

Evaluation