Minutes for November 5, 2009 Meeting

Present:

H. Glazer, J. Brennan (recorder), G. Sandberg, T. Yang, R. Barbalace, M. Tokar, S. Mikitish, J. Madden, C. Wu, T. Frusciano, D. Levine (guest)

Multi-year Marketing Plan Update

John Brennan updated the team on a meeting John, Harry Glazer and Francoise Puniello had with Marianne Gaunt to discuss the framework for the next three year Marketing Plan. It was agreed there are five major areas of focus for the next plan.

• Work with Cabinet members to increase visibility for the Libraries through various media. (e.g. Daily Targum, Rutgers Today, Rutgers Magazine) Actively promote our unique materials (e.g. IJS, Special Collections). The objective is to create a positive buzz about the Libraries.
• Work closely with Faculty Liaisons and the LRC to promote the Libraries to University faculty and academic departments. Help answer the faculty's question: "What can the Libraries do for me?"
• Market to the entire student population rather than niche student groups. As an example: become more involved in New Student Enrollment activities; consult with Courtney McAnuff, Vice President for Enrollment Management.
• Continue to ensure our Brand and its attributes are true.
• Establish a presence at important University events. Rather than creating library specific promotions, integrate ourselves into activities that are already happening across the campuses.

Among the other topics discussed:

• Rather than trying to figure out what to promote, the marketing team should continuously collaborate with Directors and AULs to make those decisions. Once it is decided what to promote, the marketing team will create and facilitate those promotions.
• We may wish to consider a "Theme of the Year" for each year of the plan. (e.g. - Year of the Student)
• Consult with Tara McDonnell regarding targeting alumni. Consider hosting a table at reunion weekends.
• If the team wishes to conduct any research, it should work directly with Associate University Librarian for Research and Planning Jeanne Boyle.

Marketing comments on Ethnographic Research Project

Steph Mikitish discussed the process Tao Yang, Glenn Sandberg and she used to review the comments on the Ethnographic Research Project. The focus was to discover what survey participants thought could be done to improve the Libraries web site. Steph, Tao and Glen sorted the findings into three distinct categories:

• Instruction Description (static information)
• Notifications (fluid, changing information)
• Communication (two-way real time communication)

In reviewing the results three recommendations emerged. These were fully endorsed by the Marketing/PR Team and will be forwarded to the Ethnographic Research Project team.

• Incorporate RSS feeds into the website
• Create a link on the homepage to the Libraries Facebook page
• Raise visibility of the process of how to recommend resources for the Libraries collection.

Guest speaker: David Levine

David Levine is Director of Marketing at ALLSector Technology Group. Based in NYC, ALLSector Technology Group is a system integrator, Value Added Reseller (VAR), application developer, with experience in delivering a wide range of information technology and application services.

David shared some general marketing insights from his long career in marketing and message creation. Among the highlights:

• It is best to start with well-defined objectives and strategies. Once these are set you can address which tactics to employ to achieve your marketing goals.
• Always stay tuned to WIIFM - "What's In It For Me?" This is what every customer is looking for when evaluating a product or service. If you cannot answer this question, you may want to rethink your approach.
• Know your target audience. Understand what they need to know now. Consider if what you are selling to them is what they actually want.
• When marketing, talk about benefits, not features. Again, figure out what it is your customers want from you.
• David recommended a book, "Raving Fans" by Ken Blanchard. The basic premise of the book is that you do not simply want to satisfy your customer's needs, you want to exceed them thus making them "raving fans" of your organization.

RUL Brand Clinic: Reviewing the "Guide to Students" brochure

As part of the Marketing team's commitment to ensure the libraries brand resonates throughout our various modes of communication, the team is reviewing internally produced publications. The objective is to see if any or all of our brand attributes (Friendly Service, Essential Services, Higher Education Focus, Enriching Knowledge) are explicitly or implicitly (or both) communicated. At the previous meeting the team was tasked with reviewing the libraries "Guide to Students".

It was noted some of the attributes were implicitly communicated either through images or text. Jean Madden suggested a rewrite to part of the brochure to explicitly express our brand attributes.

The talk shifted gears to discussing what is the ultimate purpose of the brochure and if it was a value added publication. The group also discussed the redundancy of information in this guide with other library print materials and, if we continue to produce it, revisiting the layout.

Ultimately, the team recommends we discontinue the "Guide to Students" brochure because it is rarely requested by students and the information it contains is redundant since it is already included in the "Borrowers" brochure.

Harry asked the group to review the RUL 2008/2009 Annual Report for the next meeting, to pinpoint if and where the brand is communicated within it.

Rutgers Day

Rose Barbalace gave an update on planning for Rutgers Day 2010. She said the first deadline for submissions is Friday, November 13, but expected another opportunity will be made for additional ideas. Rose thanked Stephanie Bartz for her proactive role during this planning phase. Among the suggestions received thus far:

• Tom Frusciano mentioned an exhibition about Henry Rutgers' farm which will be shown in New York City at the Abron Arts Center from November 13 - December 13. He said the exhibition will then be coming to New Brunswick and will still be active on Rutgers Day. He suggested we may want to make this exhibition part of our Rutgers Day activities.
• Many of the events we hold are kid and family friendly. A suggestion was received for a more interactive Scavenger Hunt.
• Creating a library maze in the stacks for children.
• Create your own book or bookmark.
• Revisit the video display for the lobby of Alexander Library to ensure it is still relevant.
• Face painting for children.

Rose encouraged everyone to continue to submit ideas.

New Faculty Orientation, Summer/Fall 2010

Harry mentioned a librarian has already volunteered to attend the next new faculty orientation to help acclimate new faculty with our services.

Next Meeting

Thursday, December 10th, 2:30 pm University Librarian's Conf. Room