I ask you, what if museums were run like successful companies?
Imagine for a moment that you were not an institution dedicated to the public good, but instead dedicated to (shh…) private profit.
If you were, this quote from Peter Drucker would ring very true:
As a business, if you are not marketing and innovating, you will be eliminated from the marketplace. This happens all the time. Nearly 90% of the Fortune 500 companies from 1955 no longer exist. Maybe this sounds like an entirely different world from yours.
I’d suggest that it is not.
True, you do not need profits for shareholders, and you are not in a no-holds-barred, cutthroat competition with others who do the same thing as you, but you ARE in competition. You DO compete for visitors, members, employees, donations, and governmental or institutional funding.
You DO need to market your message so that people know about and avail themselves of your great and valuable work.
So stay with me for a moment. If you—like companies in the for-profit world—are in competition, and, like them, you are reliant on marketing to truly succeed, you would benefit also from something that successful companies spend a lot of time on—branding.
As a business, if you are not marketing and innovating, you will be eliminated from the marketplace.
Let me presume to describe you, and to tell you what you need to do.
Your brand is weak or fuzzy in the minds of both your current and potential brand consumers. There is no commonly held image or phrase that captures exactly what you mean to those who are familiar with you, and among those who are not familiar with you, there are no images at all in their heads, or perhaps the images and ideas about you that they hold are no longer or never were really true.
Put another way, those who have visited your museum do not tell a consistent or predictable story about their experience, and those who have not yet visited hold incomplete, inaccurate or unhelpful images and stories in their minds.
This situation is the result of your inability (thus far) to simply, coherently and consistently communicate a single brand idea to the outside world. You simply have too many important things to say. Although you may not realize it, this lack of clarity puts you at a disadvantage as you work to meet the competitive challenges of attracting new visitors, marketing your exhibits and meeting your fundraising objectives.
You would greatly benefit from having a single, unified, easy-to-understand story and message that is consistently projected outward.
You would greatly benefit from having a single, unified, easy-to-understand story and message that is consistently projected outward—a story that has a central image or icon that gives people something to hold onto when you pass through their minds. This is a brand. It is something that is clearly discernible to any visitor or outsider, and it is also something that is thoroughly internalized by ALL your employees.
If you want what they have, it just might be within your reach, but it starts with a brand.
You are probably not a failing institution by any means, but you probably are a failing brand. If you did have a vibrant and well-articulated brand—like all successful companies must—you would then be able to exercise more influence and control over the thousands of subtle and elusive mental transactions that actually determine whether or not, and how often, someone visits, and whether they become a member or what size donation they make.
If I have not just described your situation, you are very lucky. Keep up the good work!
If what I described cuts and bleeds a bit, well, you are not alone, and I would suggest that you need to do something about it. I would suggest that you need to be more like the Apple of your world than its Dell, more like the Federal Express than its Emery. Who?
Exactly.
They were the largest overnight carrier in the world in 1981. They no longer exist. Why? The short answer is innovation and marketing … on the part of Federal Express.
It was in the early 80’s that Federal Express launched an ad campaign created by Ally & Gargano featuring “Motormouth” John Moschitta and the tag line, “Federal Express: When it absolutely positively has to be there overnight.” to promote its domestic courier business. The rest is, as they say, history.
If you want what they have, it just might be within your reach, but it starts with a brand.
Does your museum need an affordable way to improve its brand today?
Because we know that not everyone needs or can afford our full process, we created a guided tutorial package for our foundational brand strategy tool: the Brand Pyramid. Watch the video for a preview.
For more information on this brand strategy tutorial, visit here where you will find a fuller explanation and link to a free download of the first video.
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Image credit: Feb_02__02___Times_Square_Tr by Mike DelGaudio, used under CC BY 2.0