Information Services & Use 24 (2004) 9398 IOS Press

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Branding in library and information context: the role of marketing culture

Rajesh Singh
Department of Information Studies, bo Akademi University, Tavastagatan 13, bo-20500, Finland Tel.: +358 2 215 4825; Fax: +358 2 215 4581; E-mail: rajesh.singh@abo.
Abstract. Branding is seen as one of the canons of the marketing doctrine. Although, there is extensive literature on services that deals measuring or delivering customer satisfaction in library and information settings, but not much of it addresses the issue of branding services. Branding culture has yet to be embedded in information service organizations. Internet is so trendy now a days that a growing number of non-industry players, like banks, insurance companies and trade associations, want to become Internet service providers (ISPs)-sort of. And, they have plenty of reasons to get involved. Developing a deeper relationship with customers is one. Then why information service providing organizations should be lagging behind than their other service counter-parts. But, the branding in library and information context involves a lot of challenging issues, as there are important differences between the execution of product and service brands. These differences revolve partly, at least around the fact that within a service profession the staffs relationships and interactions with customers play a pivotal role in inuencing brand quality and brand values. Before going for branding of information products and services, organizations need to know their marketing culture as it assumes a paramount importance in dening consumer satisfaction and developing brand loyalty. This brings in forefront the issue of leadership and the awareness of staff about marketing theories and practices as brands just dont reect the products/services but also creation of images and expectations in the minds of the consumer and most importantly represent the organizations promise to deliver consistently a specic set of benets and services. Hence, information service organizations need to be very careful in designing their web sites and beware of over promising. The paper attempts to address what relevance does branding have in the marketing of library and information services. It further pinpoints the importance of marketing culture in branding. It also narrates briey what Finnish library directors think about the role of their library websites.

1. Introduction Branding is considered as one of the important tools of the marketing discipline. Kotler et al. [5] have suggested that perhaps the most distinctive skill of professional marketers is their ability to create, maintain, protect, reinforce and enhance brands and Doyle [4] argues that brands are at the heart of the marketing and business strategy. It has been one of the hottest business topics over the past few years. Add to that the Internets explosive growth, and we begin to identify new business challenges arising out of the intersection of these two forces. Determining the right role and strategy for Internet brand requires careful consideration. Organizations of all types are recognizing the value and importance of using their brands to improve performance and build deep relationships with their customers. The reason for this rush to branding is straightforward. With the proliferation of competitors and products and services that are easily duplicated or replaceable, brands become an important means of simplifying the decision-making process for buyers. If managed properly, brands create difference, relevance and afnity. Although a signicant amount of literature on services deals with measuring or delivering customer satisfaction in library and information settings, but not much of it addresses the issue of branding services. Branding has yet to receive its due consideration in LIS (library and information services).
0167-5265/04/$17.00 2004 IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved

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2. Branding and its relevance in LIS Within marketing, branding has a more specic meaning and is typically dened as a name, term, sign, symbol, design or a combination of these, which is used to identify the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors [5]. The process of branding is generally seen to offer a range of perceived advantages and benets for both buyers and sellers and including providing images and information on quality; offering recognition, reassurance, security and exclusivity; contributing to brand image and identity; market segmentation; the mutual development and strengthening of trading relationships; and legal protection. While brands have long been close to the heart of marketing the principal focus has traditionally been on product rather than services brands. Until recently work on services brands and the branding of services seems to have attracted relatively less attention in the LIS literature. The evolution of branding and recognition that the brand is a personication of the total offering of an organization or product and its value and contribution, to both the organization and the customer, makes it a key issue for library and information providing sector. The brand requires careful and judicial management. The library is a brand. It carries all the associated issues from service quality and cost, through to positioning and growth; it is a real business issue, which requires senior management attention. Branding the library can be used as a signal to the rest of the organization of a change in attitude, a new philosophy, and a different approach towards business. As more libraries embark on providing their services externally, it is a concern to see weak library strategies, unclear understanding of competitive positioning, personal selling, marketing or even pricing services. At the same time it is also worthwhile for libraries to pay more attention to satisfy their internal customers the core business before focusing too heavily on external customers. The timing behind such a move demands good business judgement, and a ne blend of marketing skill. Branding will be a critical success factor in the equation for success, making it a key issue for senior library management as it is for general management. Branding the library is not just a simple process of thinking up a good name and putting it on all your librarys literature. Effective branding calls for both the science and the art of marketing management. Those organizations, which ignore one aspect do so at their peril; branding demands a degree of creative spirit, underpinned by solid business practice. The effective branding of the library is therefore a complex subject. However, there are some fundamental steps that library directors should consider when both developing a brand for their libraries, managing it and of course positioning the brand or brand(s) within the organization or market place. The rst step is to establish the existing image and perception of the library. Surprisingly, even in this day and age, there may be some libraries, which do not truly understand their image in the market place, and strength or weaknesses of their brand. Without this understanding, libraries will continue to waste money on advertising, direct mail, brochures and many other forms of marketing communication as they arrogantly assume they know more than their customers, and assume they know what they think, but without the facts. Thus, the following require to be established as a starting point [2]: The customers perception of the library; The librarys attributes recognized by the customers; Your own perception of the library; What customer attributes you feel the library has to offer;

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What attributes the customer(s) seeks; The customers image preference. This information is best captured through traditional market research techniques. Apart from quality and anonymity, a researcher will ensure you ask the right questions at the right time and ensure the results are interpreted correctly. This, the rst phase of a branding strategy, will provide the backbone for all future brand activities. The output will provide the information required regarding the existing positioning of the library versus the various customer groupings it is serving; it presents a candid picture of the real image of the library and compares it to the ideal library/information services; it will highlight the top attributes sought by customers and how these compares with the librarys capabilities and indeed those which the library feels are important. Brand/service mismatches will be highlighted as the customers compare the library image with that of the different services delivered. Indeed, it is perhaps this nal point that presents some of the strongest messages for the library as it nds that individual services are well regarded, yet overall image of the library/brand is weak. The weak brand loyalty clearly signies quality problems of one form or another, satisfaction concerns and of course a propensity for change. All in all, this signals a weak library. From a positive standpoint, however satised customers indicate good quality service processes, which signify you have brand equity, which in turn implies you have brand loyalty, which leads directly to future guaranteed business. Future guaranteed business is a corporate asset with a value and a corporate asset needs to be recognized, managed and positioned for competitive advantage. Developing a brand name is another important part of the branding process. It can be approached from several angles from team brainstorming suitable names through to using external agencies to research and develop suitable names. The brand names can also be tested with customers to establish their understanding of its imagery, prior to any investment or positioning. 3. Marketing culture vis--vis branding Every organization has some features, which makes its culture different from others. Day (1994) mentions in this respect the capabilities of market-driven organizations: market sensing, market relating and strategic thinking as fundamental and very operational issues in dening and implementing market orientation. These capabilities and conditions are linked to the underlying values of the company: its culture. Webster [1] denes marketing culture as that component of a rms overall culture that refers to the pattern of shared values and beliefs that help employees understand and feel the marketing and thereby provide them with norms for behavior in the rm. It refers to the importance the rm as a whole places on marketing and to the way in which marketing activities are executed in the rm. Thus, by taking the lead from the above denitions, it can be said that marketing culture is a thinking that permeates in the whole environment of a library or information service organization which develops and uses its understanding of customer requirements to shape its activities and strategies to fulll the same on continual basis by sensitizing everyone in the system to feel the marketing values from top to bottom. It refers to the key function of library managers for articulating a compelling marketing vision and making it shared throughout the entire activities of library and information services. Moreover, this is a philosophy that places customers and their needs at the heart of everything what the library does. In other words, marketing culture is nothing more than the recognizable core of the modern concept of marketing, whose basic elements are: product (observed through elements of classic marketing,

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and these are product policy, price policy, promotion policy and place policy), people who create the processes, which they manage, supervise and constantly upgrade (progress). This modern approach to marketing implies that marketing culture is something, which can be managed. This is one of the basic values of a company which, just with any other basic value, must be actively managed [6]. Leadership seems to be very important to formulate those values and translate them into daily practices. It is only very recently that leadership issue has come up in research in marketing [3]. The marketing culture of a library or information providing organizations serves as a vehicle for making, nurturing and promoting its brand. Branding is the thing that does not work unless everyone believes in it and to make it happen, a right kind of marketing culture must be prevailed in the library. Customers must be the top priority and responsibility of everyone working in library. Branding can play a special role in information service organizations because strong brands increase customers trust of the invisible, enable them to better visualize and understand the intangible benets of the services which very much depend upon the employees actions and attitudes as services brands are particularly different in that service characteristics are different from those of physical good. These differences revolve partly, at least around the fact that within a service profession the staffs relationships and interactions with customers play a pivotal role in inuencing brand quality and brand values. And, it is in this context that the role of marketing culture assumes paramount importance that further brings in forefront the issue of leadership and the awareness of staff about marketing theories and practices as brands just dont reect the products/services but also creation of images and expectations in the minds of the consumer and most importantly represent the organizations promise to deliver consistently a specic set of benets and services. 4. A look at some online marketing efforts of Finnish libraries At the moment, a doctoral research is being pursued by me that aims to investigate the marketing culture of Finnish libraries and seeks to understand the awareness of the knowledge base of library management about modern marketing theories and practices. The scope of the research is conned to the different thirty-three academic and special libraries of south Finland. The research data has been collected with the help of half-structured interviews (chief librarians) and questionnaires (users). As a part of research, besides other crucial issues, following questions were also asked that concerns with the marketing efforts of libraries websites and therefore comes into the purview of present paper: Do you think Internet is an effective tool for marketing of information products/services? What is the main objective of the website of your library? Which kinds of marketing goals are associated with the website, if any? Do you attempt to build an online relationship with your customers? If yes, how?

The ndings reveal that all the library directors consider Internet a very effective and potent tool for marketing of their products and services. The opinions vary about the objective of the website of their libraries, but all in all it indicates to make library, its facilities, databases, resources and services more visible in the eyes of their users. Some of the comments are: It is portal of our services and we use it as user education tool. Improve the customer service, [to provide] 24-hour customer service. To give the knowledge [to customers] about the different units of the library, its location, staff, kinds of services offered and contact details.

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Dissemination of information. Deep documentation of services and core functions, but it should be developed more. . . To inform people about databases, services and collections and to tell how to access them. It is an important gateway to libraries.

But, it was interesting to nd out their comments when asked about the marketing goals associated with the website: To inform people who use our library and services and make it easier for them to use. Accessibility of information resources and information about library. Whats new in library? All marketing goals. Making people aware about library to use its website for quick information, new information, old information, contact information, and history, etc. Giving information to the users about our services. Too general [marketing goals]. Just giving information! As it can be noticed from the above statements that they range from those who saw a great relationship of marketing with their websites to those who were not satised with it and wish to improve and develop more their websites so that it could become more visible like other consumer brands. At the same time, among thirty per cent of the library directors, some said that no marketing goals were associated with the website; and some couldnt trace out the marketing goals associated with their websites. All the libraries establish relationship via e-mails; but not all libraries have created a suggestion/complaint box on their websites for getting online customers feedback; only one library was found which has developed My Library concept and attempting to go more beyond it to satisfy customers information needs individually based on the philosophy of customer relationship management; and some other libraries are seriously considering to move into the direction of My Library concept. The following comment of a library director reects the importance of librarys website as a brand: It is [librarys website] is like a visiting card that gives the picture of the library in rst instance. Another library directors remark addresses the need to give more serious consideration to the issue of branding: In general libraries enjoy a good reputation in society but branding of library is quite low. Eighty per cent of the population does not know about librarys all facilities and services. . . it is not very easy task. . . 5. Conclusion The foregoing discussion reveals that there is an urgent need to address the issue of marketing culture in libraries if we want them to turn into the successful brands. Libraries need to put more efforts in making their website more attractive which could capture the customers attention. Branding is tied to relationships and perceptions. We must remember that one of our key successes lies in the interpersonal relationships we form in our libraries; however the name of the organization does not reect that fact. Branding is not a black art, nor is it marketing jargon; it is about capturing and securing customers and, to do this effectively, the quality of the librarys work, its image across the organization or market

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place, and its ability to market its capabilities, are fundamental to success. In pursuing this approach towards business, library directors must develop and nurture an appropriate marketing culture in their libraries to understand the meaning of their brand, how to manage the brand, how to measure their brand and, of course, how to position their brand in the market. The effective management of this process will establish brand equity, and turn the library from a corporate overhead into a corporate asset. It is a high time for libraries to give more serious consideration to branding their business and its services. Acknowledgements I am grateful to my mentor Professor Mariam Ginman for her regular guidance and encouragement, to all library directors and users for their time and discussion. I also wish to give special thanks to Irja Laamanen, Director, Information Service Centre of Finnish Occupational Health, Helsinki, who informed me about this conference. References
[1] C. Webster, Marketing culture and marketing effectiveness in service rms, Journal of Services Marketing 9(2) (1995), 621. [2] G. Melville, From DP department to EDS it is time for IT departments to consider branding, Managing Service Quality 5(6) (1995), 68. [3] H. Kasper, Culture and leadership in market-oriented service organizations, European Journal of Marketing 36(1/2) (2002), 10471057. [4] P. Doyle, Marketing Management and Strategy, Prentice-Hall, London, 1998, p. 165. [5] P. Kotler, G. Armstrong, J. Saunders and V. Wong, Principles of Marketing, Prentice-Hall, Hemel Hempstead, 1999, p. 571. [6] T. Vranesevic, C. Vignali and D. Vignali, Culture in dening consumer satisfaction in marketing, European Business Review 14(5) (2002), 364374.

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