Positioning SLA for the Future:
Principles & Process for the Alignment Initiative
January 21-25, 2008
Louisville, KY
Principles of Alignment
“Companies that enjoy enduring success have core values and a
core purpose that remain fixed while their business strategies and
practices endlessly adapt to a changing world.” – Collins & Porras
Principles of Alignment
Alignment is a discipline for thinking, communicating and
behaving as one enterprise connected by a unified mission
• Focus and cohesion to drive organizational outcomes
• Who you are, what you stand for, what you deliver
• Clarity, Credibility, Consistency
Alignment from the inside-out: mission, vision, values
• The essential truth of the organization and profession
• The fundamental idea – core purpose, ethos and values; essential
truth of being
• A promise of value that builds a relationship with stakeholders,
securing preference, loyalty and trust
• A position that is relevant, differentiated and credible
Principles of Alignment
Elements of Organizational Identity
• Identity: The unique characteristics of an organization that defines its
value-creating potential
• Personality: The attributes of the organization that inform how it
communicates and behaves
• Positioning: The promise that an organization makes that shapes its
relationship with all stakeholders, based upon its identity and personality
Identity + Personality = Positioning
Principles of Alignment
Positioning Statement:
AARP is the leading membership organization that champions positive
social change through information, advocacy, philanthropy, products
and community service to enrich people’s lives as they age – today
and for generations to come.
Principles of Alignment
Visual identity & materials integrating key messages
Principles of Alignment
How communication of core identity works
The Landscape: Membership
Membership growth is a priority
• Decline of boomers in the global workforce has impacted
membership numbers
• Perception exists that librarians and information professionals
are no longer needed
• Gen-Xers, Gen-Yers and Millennials are exhibiting a declining
rate of membership affiliation
• Increased focus on recruiting and retaining younger members
and members outside of North America
• Increased opportunities among individuals in second careers
and adjacent career tracks (e.g. competitive intelligence
and knowledge management)
The Landscape: Technology
Sweeping technological changes are challenging the role
and perceived value of information professionals
• Value-added intelligence is not a widely known or appreciated
concept
• Many business leaders think that consumer search engines like Google
are all they need
• Speed, convenience and self-service are gaining momentum
The Landscape: Opportunity
SLA has an opportunity to position itself as the premier association
for a broad range of information professionals
• Opportunities to highlight the value of librarians and information
professionals to senior executives
• As the roles and responsibilities of information professionals continue to
evolve, SLA has the opportunity to be at the forefront and foundation
of the field
• Opportunities to expand membership beyond traditional library workers
and information professionals
• Opportunities to reach new audiences through graduate and
undergraduate library and information management programs
The Landscape: Key Milestone
The SLA Centennial in 2009 and its prelude provide unique
opportunities
• Opportunity to establish a shared vision of the future and the role of
information professionals in it
• Opportunity to establish clarity and unity around SLA’s and the
profession’s core purpose, ethos and value, including defining an
institutional positioning that is relevant, differentiated and deliverable
Key Objectives
• Examine: Conduct thorough examination of the future roles of
librarians and information professionals in a new and evolving
information landscape
• Explore: Explore current position in the marketplace and define
a platform –based on sound scientific research – that is relevant,
differentiated and deliverable and will stand the test of time
• Develop: Develop a strategic framework that underscores SLA’s
value for existing members and enables outreach to a broad
spectrum of information professionals
Key Objectives
• Align: Bring alignment to SLA’s diverse activities through a
relevant and compelling platform that expresses core values of
the Association and the profession as a whole
• Identify: Identify the programs, tools, language and materials
that uniquely express and amplify SLA’s positioning to members,
employers, partners, regulators and the public, and highlight the
value of information professionals in today’s information
economy
The Process
Define: Audit Existing Resources
Fleishman Hillard conducted a review of existing information,
research and supplemental resources provided by SLA, including:
• Interviews with SLA leadership and membership
• Task Force reports
• Member and board profiles
• Existing surveys (i.e. Exhibitor Surveys, Attendee Surveys, Information
Outlook surveys, Peer-Reviewed Journal Survey, Board Survey and
Member Surveys, etc.)
Define: Audit Existing Resources
Fleishman Hillard conducted supplemental research including:
• Review of SLA’s current communication framework
• Scan of media coverage in mainstream outlets and trade
publications over the last 18 months
• Audit of blog and online editorial coverage
• Audit of competitor communications, messages, positioning and
member offerings
• Inventory of key terms and descriptors for the information profession
• Analysis of target audience perceptions using existing research from
Outsell and Social Technologies
Define: Strategic Issues
Information and research audit indicates several key strategic
issues to be addressed, including:
• Core values of information profession—detail, depth, thoroughness—are
not aligned with customers who seek speed and convenience, often at
the expense of accuracy
• Instead of functional descriptors, librarians and information professionals
need to be defined in terms of the value, benefit and impact provided
to their organizations (e.g. advancing business development, facilitating
good decision-making, managing crises, etc.)
• Messages that validate strategic ROI of library and information
management professionals need to be more actively promoted
Define: Strategic Issues
Key Findings (cont.):
• SLA’s positioning must cut across multiple dimensions within the broader
librarian-and-information professional category
• SLA’s diverse membership base and membership targets will require
tailored communication strategies as well as overarching positioning
• SLA’s competition for membership, services and market leadership has
intensified and diversified
• SLA’s current communication framework and visual identity need greater
alignment, structure and consistency
Define: Strategic Issues
Key Findings (cont.):
• Formal mechanisms are needed to ensure all extensions of SLA
are thinking, communicating and behaving as one enterprise
Define: Strategic Issues
Feedback from board members and key influencers suggests a
framework that focuses on five key areas:
1. Growth opportunities for SLA and the profession as a whole
2. Priority activities to drive and sustain membership
3. Role and growth of SLA outside North America
4. Key value drivers for the profession and the Association
5. Consistent and compelling language to describe the
profession and the Association
Define: Knowledge Gaps
Where are the gaps?
Feedback is required from the following target audiences for
future growth:
• CEOs and senior executives of global IP employer organizations
• Younger audiences already in the profession
• Professionals in adjacent career tracks where information
management plays a key role (i.e. medical research, analysts,
mergers and acquisitions)
• Students and faculty in library science programs
Define: Knowledge Gaps
What do we need to know?
Input that will inform a positioning framework for SLA, including:
• Benefits and essential value that cut across all dimensions of special
librarianship (ROI research)
• Perceptions around information technology, either as a tool or a
competitor
• Outsourcing trends and the impact on the profession
• New, emerging career tracks
• Emerging business models and functional domains
• Skill sets/core competencies today and tomorrow
• Labels, terms, and language to describe the information management
profession, information professionals and their value
Define: Knowledge Gaps
What do we need to know?
Input that facilitates membership recruitment, including:
• Key psychological factors that create an emotional connection with SLA
• Key products, services, programs, and areas of advocacy
• Key factors that best meet the needs of the varied segments of the
profession (i.e. multiple chapters, alliances, geographic breakdown, etc.)
• Key factors that best meet the needs and support the aspirations of
students or entry-level professionals
Define: Knowledge Gaps
What do we need to know?
Trend research (Social Technologies and Outsell) that can inform
the alignment and positioning process, including:
• Cultural flows
• Gen Y information behaviors and preferences and impact on
the profession
• General work trends
• General outsourcing trends
• General technology trends
Define: Knowledge Gaps
How do we close the gap?
Analyze best data available from multiple sources, including:
• SLA membership studies
• Outsell studies on the Information Profession
• Social Technologies studies on future trends
Outcomes of analysis will yield essential ingredients for
primary research and positioning exercises, including:
• Segmentation, sample plan, survey design for primary
research
• Draft language that effectively positions the information
profession based on relevant research and analysis
Define: Knowledge Gaps
Outsell Data Assets
• Surveys of information users & decision makers in enterprises since
1998: 15,000 per year
• Annual benchmark surveys of information managers since 1999: 600+
per year
• Hundreds of custom needs assessments/surveys and interviews with
users and stakeholders
• 7,000+ information companies’ market size, share, forecasts
Define: Primary Research
Input from SLA and Outsell research will inform the development
of a Web-based survey that:
• Obtains information from target audiences specific to SLA
membership recruitment and retention
• Obtains quantitative and qualitative feedback (using Interactive
Editor) to develop a framework that positions SLA and the
industry for future growth
Define: Primary Research
Interactive Editor
• Respondents can rate the
appeal of key words and
phrases
• Provides a truly interactive
concept testing experience
• Quantifies how compelling
your language is before you
go to market
Define: Primary Research
Interactive Editor
Most
Appealing
• Identifies concept
strengths and
weaknesses
• Benefit 1
• Support 1
Intensity of Appeal
• Rates products/services
along intensity of
appeal and frequency
of mention
• Logo
• Support 2
• Brand Tagline
Least
Appealing
Frequency of Mention
• Claim
Translate: Message Exploration
Step 1: Aggregate data from Outsell, Social Technologies,
and primary research to develop language around:
• Positioning statements
• Taglines
• Organizational mission, vision, values
Step 2: Taped Q&A sessions of key influencers and new
messages to:
• Identify common points of positioning among different
explanations of profession and SLA
• Demonstrate how target audiences react to key influencers
• Measure current language against new language
Translate: Message Testing
Step 3: Conduct two Instant Response Dial Sessions to:
• Identify immediately which messages are promising and which
should never be used again.
• Provide accurate measure to determine exactly what works,
what doesn’t and why.
Translate: Message Testing
What is Instant Response?
•Combines the most
important components of
quantitative, qualitative and
in-depth public opinion
research to test message
delivery, understanding,
believability and impact.
•A computer-based system,
the IR dial displays secondto-second measurement of
participant reaction to any
verbal communication.
Translate: Message Testing
Instant Response Sessions
• Data from the Instant
Response dial sessions are
displayed as computer
generated, continuous
lines superimposed on the
screen.
• The video will illustrate the
messages that work – and
those that do not.
Translate: Message Testing
Instant Response vs. Focus Group
Instant Response
Focus Group
• Allows for testing of long-form
• Tests limited amounts of pre-
• Provides detailed feedback on
• Provides general impressions of
• Allows for testing of multiple
• Uses written presentations of
messaging
• Allows for refinement and crafting
of new language to address target
market reactions
exactly which words and phrases
resonate, which don’t, and why.
approaches from actual
information professionals
determined language.
words and concepts
language
Translate: Platform & Positioning
Outcomes of research, analysis and positioning exercises will
provide the optimal language to:
• Build a platform that unites key programs, resources, products
and services, and cultivates and promotes relationships with
key audiences
• Build a platform that stands the test of time and remains
relevant to librarians, information professionals, their
employees and industry partners
• Articulate a common vision, identity and core purpose—
mission and vision statements, a formal definition of the
profession and SLA, and tailored positioning statements
• Create a framework for the development of communication
materials that enables consistent application of key messages
through all SLA programs and services
Positioning SLA for the Future:
Principles & Process for the Alignment Initiative
January 21-25, 2008
Louisville, KY