"Genius" branding moves

In case anyone was concerned, I didn't fall off the face of the earth after Midwinter. I'm back and bloggin'. :)

I've been thinking a lot about branding and what it means to have a strong brand. Much of this thinking was prompted by the excerpt from Peter Fisk's book Marketing Genius, called "Finding the big idea that defines you," which I referred to previously as the best piece on branding I've seen. I reviewed Fisk's work more thoroughly and considered how it might relate to libraries, which I'll discuss in this post.

First, let me summarize Fisk's argument about the nature of branding. Fisk contends that powerful brands resonate with customers' aspirations and derive their value from their ability to engage and inspire people. He states, "A great brand is one you want to live your life by, one you trust and hang on to whilst everything around you is changing, one that articulates the type of person you are or want to be, one that enables you to do what you couldn't otherwise achieve." The foundation of these super-brands is what Fisk calls "the big idea." This "big idea" is the thing that the brand helps people achieve. The thing could be a skill or feeling of confidence, for example. As Fisk summarizes, "If brands are about people rather than products, then the big idea around which they are formed is more to do with what it does for people rather than the company." Furthermore, each brand has three components: Rational ("What you do for people"), Comparative ("How do you do it differently?"), and Emotional ("How do people feel about you?"). Once marketers hone in on the big idea that defines the brand and that appeals to people in one or more of these areas, they use every means at their disposal to communicate the idea. These means include everything from language to logos.

This brief synopsis doesn't do the piece justice, but hopefully you get the idea. I think I was so excited by reading this because it strikes a chord with my beliefs about how librarians can reinvigorate the library brand. I believe that libraries are services that provide people the tools and training to grow socially and intellectually. They're vast frontiers ripe for personal exploration. The more we can help people realize their goals, the more successful we become. Generally speaking, libraries' "big idea" could be summed up something like this: "Achieve your best through information and discovery." Of course, under this big theme, each library has its own big idea with roots in its particular community. (To uncover your unique branding big idea, Fisk maps out a Brand Definition strategy).

For too long, the library brand has been linked to stuff instead of people. Patrons are more likely to associate libraries with books, information, and facilities than with community and personal achievement. While there’s nothing wrong with books and information per se, these strong brand associations are limiting, as Fisk points out, "Of course, if you define your brand around your customers, based on a belief or attitude, a benefit or aspiration, rather than it being a descriptor of your existing business or product, then it gives you far more scope and flexibility in the future." Being aligned with objects rather than with aspirations makes our brand static and difficult to adapt to environmental changes, as we're finding.

To those who may argue that these sentiments are nice but a bit too esoteric and impractical, I ask that you think about your favorite brands and consider what it is about them that attracts you. My bet is that the appeal comes from one or more of the sources Fisk mentions, including: reinforcing your self image; helping you become what you hope to be; enabling you to do something, or connecting with others. For libraries to have a great brand, the brand needs to be based on great ideas. The practical decisions we make should stem from those ideas in order for people to care about what it is we can do for them. Without those ideas, we might as well just become information storage units.

To revitalize our brand, we need to take a hard look at ourselves and ask tough questions. For example, do our communications say, "We want a genuine relationship with you," or "We want to retain formality"? Do our spaces say, "Welcome! Come in and explore your potential," or "If you do come in, you must follow our rules"? How much of our branding efforts originate from a desire to support patrons' ambitions, and how much originate from our desire to showcase ourselves and our stuff? By turning the spotlight on patrons' success, we can in turn build more successful library brands.

I’ll be reading Fisk’s book, Marketing Genius, and I’ll report on other thoughts and findings in upcoming posts.