Situation
The Plainfield-Guilford Township Public Library serves the nearly 23,000 people of Guilford Township, Hendricks County, Indiana. More than half of these hold a library card. Although the county, as well as the city of Plainfield where the library is located, have been growing, over the last three years the library’s budget has been falling due to property reassessment and a shrinking assessed valuation for the township.

Even with the increase in population, the customer database has remained consistent for the last few years, indicating that the library is actually falling behind the national average regarding community utilization. Many of the customers have lived in the area all of their lives, but for the influx of new residents, it has been difficult to find out about the library and its services.

The library offers a wide array of services and programs to the community, including information services in all formats for library use or to take home, computer access, recreational reading, early literacy training for parents and life-long learning opportunities for all ages. Statistics show that customers check out books and use the Internet in large numbers. However, they do not attend library programs in large numbers.

One reason for this may be that today, community libraries in general, and the Plainfield-Guilford Township Library in particular, find themselves competing with many other entertainment and information outlets for the attention of their customers. The Internet has made a profound change in the way people obtain information, and the proliferation of available television channels and movies on DVD tend to keep people busy and away from the library. To compensate for this, libraries have added computer capabilities and video departments with tapes and DVDs to check out. Hendricks County families have numerous activities competing for their time such as organized sports, dance classes, shopping, eating out, and many more. Library programming is hard pressed to compete with these popular activities. In addition, bookstores, many with conversation areas and coffee bars, have become a competitor for libraries, too.

Problem
In light of these challenges, libraries have found it necessary to reinvent themselves in order to compete for the attention of customers and continue to be of benefit to the community. They are redesigning their programs and services and finding better ways to get the word out to potential customers, with the ultimate goal of increasing library use so constituents will get more for the tax dollars they provide to maintain the library system.

Assessing the library’s position in the community, the Plainfield-Guilford Township Public Library board understood the need not only to expand its programs and services but also to find creative ways to let the public know about them.

Solution
To assist in the library’s efforts, MillerWhite recommended development of a pledge and positioning statement, and used its proprietary protected formula, Unlocking the Power of Your Pledge® to accomplish this. In evaluating the discovery from the MW Fusion® report completed for the library, research performed by MillerWhite and the library’s business goals, several key factors were evident: 1) the library needed to become more marketing oriented; 2) the library needed to expand its products and programs; and 3) the library needed to have more of an active culture (as opposed to passively waiting for customers to come to them).

Based on this, the pledge recommended for the library was: “The Plainfield-Guilford Township Public Library is your convenient, physical and mental destination point for discovery, education and entertainment.” The pledge is an active statement that is meant to be used within the organization to help tie all marketing actions with a common thread and to help the staff focus on making the library experience one of discovery, education and entertainment every time they come in contact with a customer.

The tagline developed from this pledge – the statement meant for external marketing purposes – was “Where the journey begins!” This tagline suggests that coming into contact with the library is the beginning of a journey, a journey that begins whether you are at the
library or are accessing it on the Internet; that like education, it is the first step to adventures
in your life; and that the journey will continue every time you contact the library for programs
and services.

Results
The library’s new brand won staff support because it put into a simple statement the purpose of what they do every day. They can reaffirm the pledge by asking customers: “Did you discover what you were looking for?” “ Did you learn something new?” “Did you have an enjoyable experience?”

This new organization culture forms the basis for public relations efforts that tell the library’s story. The pledge and tagline provide the foundation for the creative aspect of the library’s new advertising and interactive media programs.

As the new brand is communicated through these efforts, and as the integrated marketing plan is implemented with new programs, products and services, the results can be measured in increased use of the library by its customers.