Museum next
We’re approaching a new age for museums: not institutions but places of exchange, not cathedrals but bazaars. Museums therefore need to rethink how they work, and how branding can help them.
To develop this thinking, Wolff Olins surveyed just over a hundred senior museum marketers at the Communicating the Museum conference, organised by Agenda in Venice in June 2008.
This research shows that, though branding is still a dirty word in 23% of the museums in our sample, most museums are adopting the idea of branding, and five are recognised as big brands: Tate, MoMA, V&A, Louvre and Guggenheim. But there’s still a huge job for branding to do: 47% of delegates said their museum has ‘huge potential but is largely unknown’.
At the same time, museums are starting to change. They’re becoming platforms for people, not just institutions: 55% ‘want to be a useful resource’, 64% ‘want to do more in partnership’, and 42% ‘aim to be more multi-cultural’. This implies a new kind of museum, needing a new kind of branding. Read the full report here.
Hell Yes by Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone at the New Musuem, New York, until 19 July 2009.
Successful service innovation is brand-driven
Services represent 75% of GDP in western economies, yet service innovation is little understood and poorly done. To find out the secrets of successful service innovation, Oxford Saïd Business School and Wolff Olins examined nine successful service providers: American Express, IBM, Disney, Orange, First Direct, Direct Line, London Underground, Progressive and Zions Bank.
We concluded that outstanding service organisations adopt what we call the Right Services discipline, which has three components. First, and most obviously, function, which means singlemindedly delivering the brand promise – for example, Oyster delivers on smarter, easier, cheaper travel around London. Second, form, which means imaginatively designing a unique brand experience – for example, iTunes as an entertainment service that’s intuitive, personal and collaborative. Third – and this is the critical component – feeds, which means involving customers in the service, so that they can participate in the brand – for example, Disney’s Magical Express tailors the Disney experience to each customer’s needs.
The research shows that these three principles are the key to creating successful new services – and therefore to business growth.
Download key concepts and frameworks
Brand guided companies do better
In this 2005 report Wolff Olins partners with Booz Allen Hamilton to examine the attributes needed to become a successful brand-guided company.
This research, conducted with marketing executives across Europe, shows that over 90% of companies believe their brand is a key element of their success - twice as many as five years ago. Yet less than 20% put the management of their brand at the heart of their strategy and capabilities. The report discusses the importance of placing brand at the centre of a business and identifies ten key areas where brand-guided companies excel.