Museum Marketing

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?

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 collegues (At Sumo we would do brand workshops with up to 100 staff at the start of a branding project).

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 you’re 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 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.

I read a piece recently in The Art Newspaper about how the economic crisis is affecting museums in the United States, with Directors of institutions big and small cutting budgets by between 5% – 20%, and preparing to make deeper cuts in 2010.

In the UK, we have the buffer of public funding (according to Arts and Business, private funding is currently at 13% of the total income of the cultural sector) which has meant that falling corporate sponsorship doesn’t result in such dramatic cuts. Nevertheless, with local authorities dealing with budget deficits and many DCMS funding agreements due to run out next March, museums in the UK are going to be fighting budget cuts in the coming year.

At first glance, branding might seem like an unlikely ally when making the case against any reduction in your operating budget [‘Surely now is the worst time to be spending more money on a flashy new logo’] but branding (when done properly) is a lot more than something new to put on your letterhead; it is the development and the communication of your vision for your organisation.

Developing this vision is the most important part of the branding process and it is most valuable when making your case for funding.

In my last piece, I talked about cultural organisations who I feel have lost their way in the current economic climate: clinging to a message of ‘cheapness’ rather than concentrating on their established USP and supporting this with a statement of value for money. Such an organisation can waste money changing their positioning and direction, or just simply ‘misfiring’ with their marketing. Conversely, an organisation which has a clear idea of what it stands for, which knows why it matters to its diverse audiences and which can communicate this clearly and effectively to funders is an efficient organisation going in a straight, upward line towards its future. This is what will appeal to funders wanting to be prudent with their money.

How this vision is formed is significant. We always encourage museums to involve people from across their organisation – this will give you as much information as possible on which to base your vision and make those in your organisation feel included and valued. If your organisation is facing tough times, having everyone behind one vision that they have ownership of is a powerful thing.

You may feel that you already have a vision for your organisation and you don’t feel that you need staff workshops to develop a new one, but consider who created this vision and when, if it differentiates you from other organisations and if it inspires people. Does your vision really represent what you aspire to do? We find that most museums we work with have an existing vision or mission statement, but these are seldom in the minds of, or meaningful to, people in the organisation, nor acknowledged by the audience.

Once you have developed your vision you need to communicate this effectively to all your audiences. This may require a development of your logo and brand style to bring them in line with this positioning, or an adjustment to your tone of voice in your communications; perhaps just the addition of a strapline to your marketing materials. This isn’t a just a task for your marketing team; everyone for within your organisation needs to play their part (which is another reason why it is wise to involve as many people in your organisation as possible in building that vision). This is because your brand is not your logo, website or advertising campaign – it is a perception formed in the minds of your audiences by everything that you do. This is also a chance to set out your aspirations for the future and to launch a fundraising campaign alongside the new brand to help make your new vision a reality.

We have a specific process for helping organisations define their positioning and a matrix to help you turn this into a communications plan. With the right approach, an with the relevant personnel involved from the start, this can be an efficient and very rewarding process.

The next couple of years will be an interesting time for the sector. We need to make a strong case for the important role that museums and galleries play in enriching peoples lives, and I believe that positioning and branding have an important role to play in beating the coming funding crunch. Arts and Business recently published a substantial report on the current financial state of the cultural sector and concluded: ‘recognising and maximising the leverage power of cultural organisations’ non-financial values cannot do any harm at a time when businesses are restructuring, re-assessing their prioritites and reconnecting with their core values.’