1. Thinking your brand is just your logo
Your brand is not your logo. It is the perception that your audiences have of your organisation and is formed through everything that you do.
Your logo is an important part of this, but thinking about the messages that people get from your organisation as a whole will give you a better foundation for your new brand.
2. Creating your brand in a vacuum
For the best results, you should involve people from across your organisation in the development of your new brand. Brand workshops are a great way to bring together a diverse group to talk about what makes your organisation special and what it should stand for.
3. Not listening to your audiences
Your audiences are a great source of information about how your organisation is seen, and getting input from many perspectives is important to the branding process. What perception do people have of your organisation and how does that compare to the way you’d like to be seen.
4. Not knowing your strengths
A lot of organisations try and appeal to everybody, and this isn’t always possible with limited resources. Think about what your strengths are and build your brand around them. Related: Rebranding a charity
5. Not having a good creative brief
When you’re ready to speak to designers about creating a new brand identity, you need to put together a good creative brief which gives them a good overview of your organisation and the aims of the rebrand.
6. Losing sight of your competitors
Your competitors are anything which audiences choose to attend, support or do instead of coming to your venue. There can be a lot to learn from other industries and other approaches – in terms of how they present themselves, the language they use, the communications channels they use and how they use them, how they work with their branding agencies, how they gather feedback from their audiences etc.
Put yourself in your audience’s shoes and take a look around the wider market to see what your venue can learn about how to reach out to them.
7. Not being consistent
Once you have rolled out your new branding, you need to apply it consistently and police how others are using it. A great way to manage this is by having brand guidelines which tell everyone in your organisation how the brand identity should be applied.
8. Not having a thorough marketing plan
It’s no good establishing a great new brand identity without a well thought out marketing plan to support it. You need to think about how the brand will reach your audience, having a focused marketing plan in place will enable a smoother, targeted rollout of the brand.
9. Ignoring Social Media
Social Media websites like Facebook and Twitter are a new battleground for managing the reputation of your brand. If somebody has a bad experience at your museum, then this is easily shared online. Monitor social media websites for mentions of your venue and learn how to deal with any negative feedback.
10. Refusing to change
Don’t stick with your branding if it isn’t working for you. Instead, start to think about how it could work better for you and start planning for a rebrand.