EUOS Brand Identity of SILS for End Users

Legend: IN PROGRESS STALLED decided

Recommendation

The End User Outreach Subcommittee recommends that our group be charged with determining and defining the brand identity for the end product that comes out of the SILS Project. EUOS recommends that the word “branding” should be used very carefully and deliberately to refer to the creation of brand identity, rather than to user interface or user experience design.

The End User Outreach Subcommittee recommends that, independent of whether the Discovery Tool has a name or logo prominently visible within the search environment (i.e. in a search box or in the results pages), a consistent name be used for the overall product, for the purpose of communications to end users. Failing to do so would result in very local naming conventions, which will hinder end users in understanding that there is a unified system for all UC campuses.

Rationale

What is brand identity, and why is it important?

Brand identity at its core is about storytelling. It includes clearly articulated global objectives, a singular brand purpose, value propositions, brand promises, and product benefits that are relevant, meaningful, and helpful to the end-user (not to the internal / staff audience). A brand identity works at the subconscious level, and taps into the user’s emotions. A brand can communicate things like trust, or excitement, or fun, or care, for example (think of well-known brands and what emotions they elicit: Apple, Harley-Davidson, Charmin toilet paper, Jif peanut butter, etc.). Very successful brands can become more than the initial product itself. For example, Kleenex has become the name for paper tissues. Q-tips has become the word for cotton swabs. In other examples, the brand can be used as a verb to describe what the product can do for an end user: “Let me Google that.” 

What is the brand product?

It is extremely important to distinguish between SILS (the project) and the end product that will be in place for end users. When communicating with end users, we need to begin talking about the end product immediately, as the project (of implementing a shared ILS) is of little importance to the average faculty or student. 

The product we are delivering, through the tool of Alma/Primo, is the collective resources that belong to all 10 UC Libraries, plus the regional facilities and the California Digital Library (CDL). We are promising, through this project, that these collective resources will be more integrated, easier to discover and use, and more harmonized, and that after the project is fully implemented, our collections will become even more diverse, more complete, and better able to support research. 

It is also important to note that while Primo VE is a very important part of how the end user will get to the product, it is not the product itself. The product, the thing of value, is the shared collections and resources of the UC’s. Our current project (SILS) was to find and now implement a tool (Alma/Primo) that gets end users to those resources. 

How is brand identity distinct from UI/UX design of the search tool?

Brand identity works hand-in-hand with user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design, but they are not the same. They are two separate arms belonging to one body that must work together to achieve the project’s end-goals.

EUOS recognizes that the word “branding” tends to be used in common parlance to refer to a set of choices around colors, fonts, logos, etc. However, true “branding” of a project of this scope is a deeper exercise. Many products have a brand manager and a product manager in addition to project managers. 

The centrality of communications to end users

Brand identity is all about communicating the value and promise of the product to end users. Therefore, EUOS believes that this is firmly part of its charge. While the Discovery FG may be involved with UI/UX decisions about one aspect of the product (the look and feel of the discovery tool), as stated in the point above, this is a subset of the overall brand identity. 

In an analogous example, the bottle design of a particular shampoo is very important, and has great implications for the end user’s interface and experience with the product. It impacts how the end user sees the product on a shelf. It impacts how the end user receives the shampoo. But while the bottle design is a (very important) facet of the brand identity of the shampoo, that is not the entirety of the brand identity or how this shampoo will be marketed to a consumer. (And, for that matter, if after the launch of the product, if a company decides that the bottle design is getting in the way of customer satisfaction, then they could redesign the bottle - but they wouldn’t necessarily change the entire brand.)

What would happen if the end product does not have a brand identity?

The end user only has a vague idea of the UC’s collections as an entity. Our current discovery tool, which has a very established branded name of Melvyl, signifies to end users “collections beyond their local institution.” If we retire the name “Melvyl” without giving end users a replacement name, people will likely just call it “the new Melvyl.” Since the very name “Melvyl” was the problem to begin with in retiring the name, it is important to establish a new identity that communicates the actual values and shape of our new product. 

What will the work of developing a brand identity entail?

Developing a brand identity involves the work of articulating the “soul” of the product. This may involve going back over value propositions and promises that have already been articulated in SILS documents. It will likely involve a careful look into UC Branding guidelines. It can involve talking with other consortia about how they developed their own brand names, and evaluating how successful those brands are. It can involve forming limited focus groups with key stakeholders in an iterative process of testing out names and concepts. Throughout, EUOS will work closely with stakeholders within the SILS project, including PMs, the Discovery FG, the Communications Operations leads, and possibly the Fulfillment FG. Once a brand name is established, EUOS will work with Internal Training to start to incorporate this new name into training, so that library personnel can start to integrate the name into their vocabulary.

EUOS plans to embark on this work, and then present a narrowed-down set of options to the Working Group and CoUL for a final decision on both the name as well as the visual identity associated with the brand.

A final note: EUOS does not advocate for a “contest” or any kind of naming-by-popular vote. We also do not advocate for any name that locates the product in a specific geographic area, ties it to a particular campus identity (i.e. a mascot), or risks sounding dated quickly (i.e. the “y” in “Melvyl”). 

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