Museum Branding

What is a brand?

Your brand is not your logo.

Your brand the perception that people have of your organisation. It is formed through everything you do, from how you present your collection through to how easy to use your website is. We call these points of contact, touchpoints.

Touchpoints are every way in which people come in to contact with your organisation.

All of these points of contact create a gut feeling people have when they think of your organisation, even those who haven’t walked through your doors think they know what they can expect because of a story a friend told them or an advert they saw in the paper. And because your brand is the perception that other people have of you, then some people are bound to have the wrong idea.

If you don’t effectively communicate your brand, the external world will do it for you — probably inaccurately.

This will impede your ability to build or sustain audiences, and will subsequently garner financial support from public and private sources.

What should our brand say?

To decide what style is appropriate for your brand, you first need to establish some key principles:What is your mission statement or your key message?
What makes your museum different (your Unique Selling Point)?
Who are you aiming your message(s) at?
What are the key values which guide your museum?
What kind of ‘personality’ does your museum have?

What is brand identity?

Brand identity is your visual image, created to project your brand the way you want it to be seen to the world. This is also called your brand style, visual identity or corporate identity. Brand identity normally starts with a logo, but it is also a style that is used in everything you produce from leaflets to signage.A good brand identity will project a positive image of your venue, but a poor brand identity can seriously damage your reputation.

So what makes a good brand identity?

All the elements of your brand identity from the logo through to the style of your photography should truly reflect the personality of your brand, and appeal to you target audience.It is often best to keep your logo simple and let the elements around it explain what your Museum is all about.