Brief:
To create a unique experience that engages with different audiences and attracts people to the Kingston libraries, with the aim of introducing reading and libraries to new and diverse audiences, inspire people and increase the universal engagement with reading.
Aims
- To inspire people who are not regular readers to read;
- Increase universal engagement with reading especially during the COVID-19 pandemic;
- To tempt existing readers to try something new;
- Reach a new, diverse audience, particularly in areas of deprivation, BAME communities and rural localities.
Our budget is a £1000 grant to commission a project working with local artists and institutions.
Our end goal is to break the traditional expectations of a library and bring a new and immersive experience.
MY CONTRIBUTION
Research:
To begin research, I looked into effective brands, and compiled a list of strategies they use to be so successful.
Selling Experiences:
Apple: Advertisements are built around selfies, traveling and photos with friends. Apple focus on the feeling and emotions their products can make their audience feel, it’s not just a phone, iPhones can help you connect to the world, have fun and be happy.
How can we apply this to our brief?
Advertising on social media should be around the experience a book can give. It’s not just a book, it’s a story which the reader can use to immerse themselves into another world.
Trust and Reliability
Amazon Prime: Guaranteed next day delivery of most items. We like the security and convenience of ordering things last minute and knowing you will receive your item within 24 hours.
Apple: online live chat service: Contact a professional via live chat for any technical issues or queries. Practical, effective and reliable for the customer
How can we apply this?
Live chats on website where users can speak directly to professionals who know about a certain genre – If someone is looking for a reference book on WW1, they can speak to a historian who will recommend books.
Continuous improvements of products and services
Apple: Frequent updates on current devices and new models being released more regularly than competitors such as Samsung.
Lakeland: 3 year Guarantee on all products – reassuring that your purchase at Lakeland is of high quality and reliable.
How can we apply this?
Zoom chats with authors, turnover of books, online book clubs – ask for feedback and encourage people tpo review books and tag on social media using an exclusive hashtag.
Brand Loyalty
Apple: Apple products are more effective and easier to use with other Apple products. iMessage, The Cloud, pairing devices, Apple has created their own community.
An apple user is very unlikely to switch to Android. Why?
Because of brand loyalty. Apple’s advertising and almost perfect pairing between all Apple devices, makes people realise how much comfort and ease they might lose by switching. The fact that Apple pairs and works best with other Apple products keeps their market engaged and loyal to the brand.
How can we apply this?
Online chat rooms, zoom meetings for book clubs. Also a strong and consistent social media presence.
Organisation:
Before we appointed a Project Manager to deal with organisation, I took the lead in organising group calls, initial ideas, plans and next steps to take.
Scheduling meetings/group calls: At the beginning of this project, there was a lot of uncertainty, miscommunication and a general lack of organisation. I took the lead of scheduling group calls, suggesting a date, time and platform that all team members had access to.
Choosing a Project Manager: Mid project, I felt that we were not moving and progressing as fast as we should have been, and felt it necessary to have a discussion on who should be project manager, and discuss the distribution of job roles. This was a tricky topic as people felt unsure of what exactly was expected of them if they took the responsibility as Project Manager. To solve this, I created a list of the most important characteristics and attributes of a PM and asked each member of the group to highlight their strong points.
The list I came up with was the following:
- Effective communication skills
- Ability to listen to others/open-minded to suggestions, criticism and ideas
- Effective time management skills
- Strong leadership skills
- Works well under pressure
- Delegation of responsibilities
Whilst we didn’t expect our project manager to have all these skills, we felt it important to see who was most comfortable in this position. All team members circled the skills in the list they felt they had, and from there, we, as a group, felt that Mamour was best suited for the role.
Helping other team mates
Our team had a majority of international students, some of which openly explained that they were concerned about their English and expressed concerns of having to write documents. During the course of this project, I tried to help some team members who approached me and asked me to read their documents and give them feedback, suggestions and correct any spelling or grammar. This process made the team comfortable and brought more confidence to some members who were a little worried to begin with.
Updating the group of feedback, taking notes during pitches: During pitches, I took notes of the feedback given by Lecturers and the Client. I would share these with the team to keep everyone updated and highlight our next steps and what we needed to improve and work on.
Evidence of the above points:
Ideas:
Event Idea
My event idea was to bring books to life through a virtual reality experience. My idea was inspired by real events that have managed to bring fairy tails into the real world, such as Harry Potter World.
Although this wasn’t chosen by the group as our final idea, it laid the foundations and gave us a good starting block to develop. From my idea, we worked together to develop it further and create something bigger and better. My idea also brought forward the importance of the 100 Novels Campaign, as most of the group had originally discarded that as unimportant.
The feedback given by Nat and our lecturers gave us further improvements and suggestions, which eventually developed into a new idea, The Nighttime Library.
Drink Along book club
During late February, we began focusing on our individual roles, and during the beginning of the visual identity process, I felt that something was missing from our idea. While I was attempting to create initial ideas for the visual identity, I realised it was more than just making pretty posters and effective marketing. We were creating a visual identity without a physical space, so I asked myself,
How do we create ambiance and bring the aesthetic of the event into the audiences’ personal space?
How can we set the mood and bring our desired visual identity and tone of voice to the audience without a physical space? This is when I came up with a cook-along inspired session. The idea was to choose an iconic food or drink from that week’s chosen book/novel, and host a cook along that the audience can enjoy during the storytelling. The cook-along would take place at the beginning of each storytelling event, which I felt would add some structure and act as an ice breaker between the audience members.
This idea would not only add structure to the events, but would also help set the tone of voice and ambiance for the rest of the event. Initially, my team mates didn’t seem very optimistic about this idea, however once I had pitched the idea in class, the feedback from lecturers and Nat was well received and our group ended up using and building upon this.
Marketing campaign idea:
Further into the project, I thought about marketing plans and how we could promote the event and create a hype and earned media.
Personal Reflection
At the beginning of the project, before we elected a Project Manager, I feel that I took the lead roll. I was organising our team calls, highlighting and updating the group of where we were at in the project, and what needed to be done next. I was the main speaker during our pitches with the client and lecturers, and in some cases, the only speaker as others either didn’t attend or were not responsive.
Towards the end of the project, I became absent for a few weeks due to illness and personal circumstances. I did my best to keep myself up to date on the progress of the project and completed any work the team asked me to complete.
Overall, I feel that I worked effectively and had good communication skills during most of the course of this project. Admittedly, I think I could have been more involved and kept more communication during the end of the project, and this is something I will keep in mind for the future.
Team Reflection
Overall I feel that most people in the group did their fair share of work, and the work was evenly distributed. For most of the project, I feel that the group communicated well, with only a few exceptions. Most of us managed to attend meetings and I feel that the work was distributed evenly.
During the middle of the project, I feel that we began to to have a few disagreements and as a team, didn’t listen to eahother well. One team member in particular, I found to be quite rude to others, disregarding the ideas and thoughts of others, or passing them off as their own, quite happily taking credit for work they did not do. In addition, this person was quite controlling of other team members’ job rolls, and would take over and do it themselves, claiming that others didn’t do their job. After a while, me and another team member decided to take a few steps back and distance ourselves from the project and let things run their course, while continuing to do any work we were specifically asked to do. I feel that this experience will help me in future while working on team projects, as I now have the knowledge to deal with these situations effectively.
Overall, we completed the project to a good standard and on time. I think we are all proud of our final outcome and feel confident with our ideas. I do however, think better communication was needed, and in the future, I intend to call out the behaviour stated above and deal with it effectively, rather than distance myself from the project.
Nadya Cheetham 