Ep. 10 — Brand Messaging for Your Museum
On this episode, Amy talks about the importance of a brand, especially brand messaging. The words you choose to represent your museum will tell the world what they can expect from your museum.
Show Links
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More FREE resources:
Download the People First Framework Guide for Museums: https://bit.ly/4PSguide_lovemymuseum
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You can also join Amy’s email list here: https://bit.ly/LMMpodcast_signup
Episode Transcript
[00:00:00]
Your museum's brand tells the world what they can expect from your museum and what sets you apart from other museums. Your brand is more than just a logo. Did you know that? That's what we're talking about today. Let's get started.
Hello, and welcome to the "Love my Museum" podcast. I'm your host, Amy Kehs, and I love museums. I also happen to be a communications expert and brand strategist. Today we are talking about one of my most favorite things— brand messaging. When most people think of the word "brand", they think of an organization's logo, but a brand is so much more than that. Building your museum's brand takes thought, collaboration and research. It is, after all, a representation of your museum's values and mission and maybe even a bit of a personality.
[00:01:00]
You can convey so much through your chosen design elements and the words that you use. You want people to feel like there's a relationship there. Think of it like meeting someone new and then deciding if you would like to be friends with that person. First, you want to get to know them. Your brain is probably unconsciously taking notes to see how alike or unalike you are. Depending on what you prefer in a friendship, you are making these mental notes, even if you don't realize it. After a few interactions, you may think, I really like her.
At this point, you've gotten to know her.
[00:02:00]
Now you might want to try to spend more time with the person to test the theory and see if you actually like them. Time and experiences pass and your new friend has a bit of a track record and you decide, yes, I can trust her with more than just small talk. I can tell her how I'm feeling or share stories that I don't just tell anyone. This also happens with brands. In marketing we call this the "know, like, and trust" factor. Your brand communicates to your potential visitors who you are and what they can expect from you. The psychology involved in how people decide if they want to invest more time or money into something works similarly to how a new friendship develops.
[00:03:00]
One thing our brain is looking for is consistency and if things aren't consistent that, usually subconsciously, leads to mistrust. And so it's important to create a consistent look and feel across all of your branding materials, and this will create something that is strong and recognizable to the people who are deciding if they know, like, and trust you. There are two aspects to a brand; the visual assets and brand messaging. People often think of your brand as just being the logo, but it's so much more than that.
So for your visual assets, the visual part of your brand, it does include your logo, but it also should include a chosen font, brand colors, design elements, maybe a set of brand images.
[00:04:00]
The job of your visual brand is to grab the attention of your potential visitor. People who are noticing your brand are subconsciously looking for that consistency. Can you imagine if McDonald's one day had pink arches instead of golden arches? And then the following week, they switched again to blue. Would you trust that they were still the famous golden arches? We'll talk a lot more about this on a future episode and I'll probably invite one of my brand designer friends on the podcast to chat. But here's one really important thing to keep in mind. There is a psychology to it. Your museum director or a board member can't just say "I like the color yellow so our logo is going to be yellow." My own brand is a great example. My favorite color is purple. I love purple.
[00:05:00]
I'm sitting here at my desk, looking at my purple phone and my purple iPad case and my purple cup. And my favorite purple backpack is sitting under my desk. But there is no purple in my brand colors. Your brand, the visual aspects and the brand messaging, is for your audience, not for you or anyone else on your staff.
Once your visual brand has grabbed the attention of your potential visitors, then the words you use need to hold their attention. Again, you want to create that know, like, and trust factor with them so that they feel like you are an old friend. The "Marketing Rule of Seven" says that someone has to see the same message seven times before they will act on it. This is why brand messaging is so important.
I'm going to share a behind the scenes story.
[00:06:00]
I was in a really frustrating meeting . I was trying to get the people in the meeting to focus on brand messaging. It was supposed to be a brainstorming meeting about brand messaging. As a consultant, there's only so much that I can do when it comes to my client's content. I insist on authentic messaging and being an outsider, I need buy-in from the inside and the perspective from inside the organization. I can guide you to creating that authentic brand messaging, but you are the hero in this endeavor . This is your organization's story and you are living it day to day. So I need information from you to be able to pull together resources that are authentic. Your audience will see right through it if you aren't. Anyway, I was in the meeting.
[00:07:00]
I was walking through the elements of their current brand kit so that we could have a conversation about what needed to change. I can give my expertise and advice based on what I know in terms of psychology, communications, brand strategy, but in order to be authentic and be something that is used, I need input from the client.
So we're going through this brand kit and someone in the meeting says, "we don't really use this." She pretty much said that this meeting is irrelevant. And that could not be farther from the truth.
The fact that they aren't using brand messaging or a brand kit was actually the reason that I was there.
Your core messages and brand story are so important. They are as important to your brand as the logo that you've created.
[00:08:00]
Staying on message is very relevant and having a document like a brand kit where the visual assets and the brand story live together is key to an organization's success, along with training your staff how to use it and why it's important. It will save you so much time if you have brand messages written in a brand kit that can be repurposed and used throughout your content. Your entire staff needs to know these core messages and talking points. What is being said needs to be consistent so that people see the message many times, and then they act on it. Whether this is through your website, your social media posts, your talking points in a presentation, everywhere and anywhere that your museum uses words.
[00:09:00]
The two keys to help your museum stay on brand are creating this brand kit and convincing your museum staff to use it.
A brand kit is a set of guidelines and assets to ensure consistency. There should be two parts to this brand kit, the visual elements and the messaging. And the visual elements. , they include your chosen fonts, colors, several versions of your logo, maybe some imagery. I highly recommend hiring a brand designer to help with this.
In the messaging part of the brand kit should be , your mission, vision, values, brand story, maybe a one-liner, those key messages and an elevator speech. Once you have the complete brand kit, the next step is to use it. If you have a communications team, they may need to be the watchdog, especially at the beginning, for making sure [00:10:00] externally the museum is staying on brand.
[00:10:00]
Everyone on staff needs to be on board so that the brand doesn't get watered down. That means it is less likely to gain traction or make an impact. Encouraging everyone to use the brand kit really is crucial in building a strong brand identity for your museum.
It should be top of mind and used as a resource when creating anything at the museum. Having that consistency ensures that your brand is easily recognizable, building brand awareness and creating a more professional and trustworthy persona to your potential audience. If you're running into resistance, schedule some time to explain to them why using the brand kit and staying on brand is necessary. You could even share this podcast episode.
[00:11:00]
Remember that this might be an entirely new concept for some, so providing training on how to use it will help your colleagues understand and show them how to use it effectively.
If you are in the communications office, make sure that you are there to help and serve as a resource. Have it easily accessible to your colleagues, like in a shared drive, but also put into place an approval process, especially at the beginning to make sure that it's being used correctly. And lead by example, use the logo and maybe the tagline in your email signature. Last summer, my family visited the San Diego zoo. We were there when the park opened and we stayed all day until the park closed. We had a great day. My kids still say that it was one of the best vacation days they had ever had.
[00:12:00]
In addition to walking around and visiting the animals, we also did the zoo's double Decker bus tour and we attended a wildlife presentation in the amphitheater. At the end of the day, we were visiting an exhibit and in the exhibit, there was a big colorful mural that was also kind of like a graphic. I noticed that the messages on this wall were messages that they had been telling us and reinforcing all day. The tour guide on the bus talked about these core themes as we drove around getting our first glimpses of the park in the morning. The wildlife presentation that we watched in the amphitheater focused on the same pillars . And then there was this mural.
[00:13:00]
Which was larger than life so that we couldn't possibly miss the message. At the end of the day, my whole family could tell you about the zoo and say their mission and tagline. The zoo's entire team was consistent in their messaging. And even though we were just visiting for a day, we could repeat their messaging by the time we left, because of that consistency.
Be like the San Diego zoo. Be consistent. Repeat your messaging everywhere your museum uses its words; on your website, on your social media channels, in your email marketing, in your press releases, and to the visitors as they walk through your doors.
Brand messaging is so important. Once you have it figured out and everything in place, I also promise you that it is going to save you so much time.
[00:14:00]
I hope this has been helpful.
This is one of the things that we talk about in the brand new Facebook group, "Love my Museum: the Community." I'll leave the link in the show notes. I'd love to see you there. Thanks so much and I'll see you next time.
