Branding in New Zealand public libraries: an evaluation of their brand strategies

Abstract

The New Zealand public libraries have a strong group marketing presence throughout New Zealand. They are strong in experiential marketing which allows customers to have an emotional connection with the brand via live, one to one interaction. However, branding is not their forte. The New Zealand public libraries apparent brand strategies are visual and product branding. Visual and product branding are ad hoc brand strategies and these brand strategies have issues in developing sustainable competitive advantages. The New Zealand public libraries have no overall organisation brand strategy. Advertising and promotions, which are relatively small subsets of marketing, appear to be the current practices of the New Zealand public libraries. The intent of this research is to find out the extent of branding application in New Zealand public libraries, what are their brand strategies in relation to brand equity model which encompasses the areas of brand loyalty, name awareness, perceived quality, brand associations and proprietary brand asset and to assess their senior management and librarians views and attitudes towards branding. The Aaker's Brand Equity model is used in this research as its assets and liabilities are appropriate and applicable to public libraries and therefore, it will be the methodology to explain branding comprehensively within the New Zealand public libraries. The research methodology employed for this project is qualitative. It is a combination of literature review and face to face interview. Data collected are analysed and then recommendations and conclusions will be determined.