"Some of the most important people to your future
don’t understand the value of what you are doing."
--- Richard West, “American’s Museums – Building Community”
Your museum needs validated presence with multiple individuals
and groups to effectively carry out its mission, build and
maintain audience and manage donor development.
* For presence, your museum (or other heritage tourism site)
requires branding—a distinct and compelling identity
impacting everything from image to programs and services—that
allows it to position itself to appeal to prospective visitors
and to differentiate itself from other local and regional
venues.
* For this presence to be validated, your organization must
simultaneously earn and maintain the respect of tourists,
tourist/visitor bureaus and associations, educational
institutions, governmental agencies, foundations, museums,
and historical societies.
You must tell a consistent story through your name, site design,
exhibit interpretation style and focus, events and activities,
visitor guidebooks and brochures, web site, and advertising and
public relations materials. While style and focus will change
somewhat to meet the demands of audiences/formats, this
consistent story must also be maintained in monographs, white
papers, grant applications and other requests, and archival
resources.
Your organization’s ability to create a validated presence with
individual groups and stakeholders impacts its success with
other groups and stakeholders. That is, the advertising done
to attract tourists and local visitors influences foundation
responses to grant requests; web site content focusing on
historical information and restoration goals influences the
collegial approval of professionals at other museums and museum
associations. Everything relating to branding evolves, builds on
itself, and has multiple non-linear effects on all stakeholders.
If you have validated presence, everyone who should know who you
are does know who you are, and they believe you are presenting a
quality museum experience.
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