Reassessing your Museum brand
With the double whammy of funding cuts and stagnant sponsorship, Museums may feel that now would be the worst time to reassess their brands, but having a clear idea about what your organisation stands for and how it relates to your audiences is key to thriving in tough conditions.
Looking at your brand doesn’t have to mean an expensive new logo, it really starts with asking what makes your Museum special and thinking about how you can communicate that to your audiences.
When looking for the special ingredient that makes your Museum stand out, you need to think about this from the perspective of your audience. For example, you might have the best collection of Neolithic post in the country, but does that matter to those who work outside of the Museum?
Above: How do you focus on the strengths of your museum? Four arts venues in Yorkshire worked together to create a joint museum marketing campaign that focused on their sculpture collections.
The chances are that there is plenty to celebrate about your Museum and between you and your colleagues you will have a long list of unique selling propositions, now you need to look at these for a central message or a core value for your institution.
You might find it useful to do this with a group of your colleagues.
Above: University of Cambridge Museums & Collections decided the variety of their collection was a key strength of their museum brand when developing a new museum marketing campaign.
Reconsidering your Museum brand
With a new central message for your Museum in mind, you need to look again at the marketing for your institution. If refreshing your logo is expensive and unlikely to happen while funding is tight, then look at the things that you can change such as tone of voice, photographic style, colour palette and your strapline.
How can each of these elements be used to communicate the brand of your Museum to audiences more effectively?
Refocusing your Museum brand
As well as considering how your brand can be communicated through touchpoints such as tone of voice and photography, you should also think about refocusing your marketing efforts towards low cost social media activities, which can expose your brand to new audiences without breaking the bank.
Rewarding your Museum brand
Having a clear idea about what you museum stands for, and communicating this effectively to your audiences will give your Museum a stronger case for funding and make your institution more appealing to sponsors.
I also think that this kind of proactive attitude will also put the person who implements it in a stronger position within the Museum, which can’t be a bad thing under the current circumstances.
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