Insight

Thoughts on arts marketing from Sumo

Issue 01—Autumn 2010

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 Thoughts on arts marketing from Sumo  Issue 01—Autumn 2010
The Branding Issue

Contents Introduction......................................... 1 Sumo T. 01912619894

Rebranding Wordsworth....................... 2 71 Westgate Road F. 01912612010
Newcastle upon Tyne info@sumodesign.co.uk
10 branding mistakes to avoid............... 7 NE1 1SG
Being brave: flexible identities............... 9 www.sumodesign.co.uk

Despite the pressure on funding for the cultural

sector, the UK is experiencing a boom in
museums and galleries rebranding.
   Last month the Science Museum revealed
its new identity, while the National Maritime
Museum and Horniman Museum have both
announced that they will follow suit with new
brands rolling out in the next twelve months.
   This could be seen as preparation for the
Olympics, with each venue positioning itself to
benefit as much as possible from the expected
rise in tourism, but away from the capital venues
large and small are also taking a fresh look at
their branding.
   These organisations are perhaps
conscious that a venue which has a clear idea
of what it stands for and why it matters to it’s
audiences stands a better chance of attracting
both funding and sponsorship in harder times.
In this issue of Insight we take a closer look at
branding with a behind-the-scenes look at how
the Wordsworth Trust has repositioned itself for
the future with a new brand.
   We also talk about the trend towards
flexible brand identities and what it means to
a marketing manager and give you a word of
warning with ten branding mistakes to avoid.

1
 WRITER
Scott Billings
Rebranding Wordsworth
A good brand development
process typically means
change, or at the very least a
questioning of the place and
purpose of an organisation.
This process inevitably throws
up hurdles to overcome, but in
doing so, can produce some
inspiring results.
This was the case with the Wordsworth
Trust, an organisation founded in 1891 as a
living memorial to William Wordsworth and
his contemporaries in the Romantic cultural
movement. Although willing to embrace the
branding process, there were nevertheless
some in the organisation who questioned its
relevance and value.
‘Historically, the Trust had seen marketing
as a necessary evil and had probably never
really thought about the brand at all: things
like Mars chocolate were brands, but not the
Wordsworth Trust,’ says Paul Kleian, who
joined in 2007 as head of marketing and
communications.
The Trust’s properties include Dove
Cottage in Grasmere, Wordsworth’s home
at the height of his creative output, and the
award-winning Jerwood Centre. Together
they present the Trust’s Museum and Art
Gallery and its extensive collection on
Wordsworth and Romanticism. Its range of
activities reaches academics, tourists and
the local community through an ongoing
outreach programme.
But despite obvious strengths as a
long-established and invaluable cultural
heritage organisation, the Trust lacked a
coherent commercial strategy at a time when
guaranteed funding was becoming scarce.
To reach more people, more effectively, this
needed to be taken seriously, says Kleian.
‘We didn’t have a brand or a clear cut ethos
of what the organisation was for. Staff and
trustee perceptions all differed and in each
case was different from what most visitors
thought. But I knew we would have to
set aside our own feelings in this because
it’s about what our customers think—the
scholars, tourists, schools, artists and poets
who visit us and work with us. The Trust is
actually a very complex organisation that
isn’t aiming at any one of these groups but
all of them, and that has to come across.’
The Trust agreed to engage a branding
and design consultancy and three groups
were shortlisted, including Sumo. ‘Two
companies were just selling logos, even
though they barely knew the organisation,
but Sumo stood out in a class of their own,’
says Kleian. ‘I was insistent that we went
with designers who would engage as many
people as possible within the Trust so that
staff had ownership of the process and
results. This is what Sumo were proposing.’
While the visible outputs of a branding
process are often a new logo and colour
palette, this belies the value and depth
of the process. ‘Anyone who is thinking
The Branding Issue 2
01
The new Wordsworth Trust logo
The daffodil and quill symbol played
to the strengths of the association of
the two main aspects of Wordsworth
in the mind of the general public;
poetry and his poem, I Wandered
Lonely as a Cloud.
3
02
‘Discover’ icons
A series of icons was developed to
deliver short, concise messages
directly to the audience who will
engage with the Trust as a visitor
destination. The icons promote
various aspects of the offer to help
reach a wider audience.
01
02
03
03
Wordsworth Trust pattern
The pattern was designed to be
used across all aspects of the Trust’s
materials, from paper to wrap items
in the gift shop, to endpapers in Trust
publications. The pattern could be
adapted to fabrics and packaging,
potentially opening up other
avenues of income for the Trust.

of starting a branding process should be

deeply suspicious of any design group
which immediately starts selling logos,’ says
Kleian. The process is actually a careful
examination of who you think you are, what
your customers think you are and where you
would like to be, as Sumo creative director
Sarah Hanley explains:
‘We held workshops that are designed
to draw out the vision and values of the
organisation and everybody speaks at these.
We used image prompts and analogies with
other things like celebrities or vehicles to
examine the Trust’s attributes.
This is a good exercise to get people to
think about what they are. It turned out
that the perception of the Trust was of a
highbrow organisation for older, middle class
people. But they wanted to offer a journey
and experience that is open to everyone.’
Sumo’s workshop gave staff the
opportunity to discuss what the Trust is all
about, says Kleian. ‘The designers appeared
to have completely open minds and this
in turn opened minds in the workshop. It
was very well done. It became clear that
we all think of the Trust in different ways,
but we also started to look at it as if from
the outside looking in. It was a clever thing
and by the end of it a lot of heads here were
nodding.’
After the workshop, Sumo produced a
document of findings, but no new visual
identity. From these findings Kleian and
the designers identified four fundamental
‘pillars’ for the organisation—accessibility,
knowledge, creativity and heritage—and
distilled these into an expression of the
Trust’s purpose, namely: ‘Sharing inspiration
from the past for the future’.
Once these unifying ideas were in place
they could be reflected in graphic designs,
including the logo. Informal research showed
that the two things people most closely
associate with Wordsworth are writing and
daffodils, the latter being the inspiration for
his celebrated poem I Wandered Lonely as
a Cloud. The designs for the Trust’s main
visual identity captured these associations
with symbolised renderings of a quill and
daffodil. Along with the primary logo, Sumo
produced a set of design guidelines that
are now used by the Trust to create its own
printed material, signage, exhibition graphics
and so on.

The Branding Issue 4

04/05/06/07/08
Photography style
Photography became more
intimate, capturing connections
between visitors, objects and the
surrounding landscape.

04

5
 09
Leaflets
Examples of 1/3 A4 leaflets.
The ‘Discover Wordsworth’ leaflet
is aimed directly at potential
visitors, the other two examples
are promoting its academic
resources and giving information
on how to donate and support
the work of the Trust.

05 ‘We went backwards and forwards with

these graphic ideas, selecting typography
and a colour palette which reflected nature
and the local landscape, for example, and
also developed different visitor brands
under a set of Discover icons,’ says Hanley.
‘It was important that everything is seen as
academically authoritative to scholars, but
the visitor brands need to attract tourists to
the venues too.’
Much more than a new logo, the
branding process gave the Wordsworth Trust
an opportunity to look carefully at itself,
from the outside as well as from within, and
to forge a clearer vision of its identity and
purpose. This identity is now communicated
through bespoke graphic elements that are
flexible enough to speak to its wide range
of audiences and promote all its venues and
activities.
But where the design process stops,
06 the new Wordsworth Trust culture is
only beginning to emerge. ‘It’s not over
internally—it’s an ongoing process,’ says
Kleian. ‘I think we’ve done a lot to make
everyone think about our customers and
people here now ask about the story behind
the things we’re doing. Sumo’s consultative
attitude really helped our own processes to
become more consultative too; it was a really
great way to work.’
07

09
08

The Branding Issue 6

WRITER
Jim Richardson

branding mistakes
to avoid
Branding, a commonly used term throughout the business world,
essentially means to create an identifiable entity that makes a
promise of value. It means that you have created a consciousness,
an image, an awareness of your museum. It is your organisations
personality. Numerous museums try, but many fail at creating
a successful brand.

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 everything
you do will give you a better
foundation for your
new brand.

7
 2 4
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 creative
Not
listening
to your
audiences
Your audiences are a great
source of information about
how your venue is seen by
the public, and getting input
from visitors and non-visitors
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?
What perception
do people have of
your organisation
and how does that
compare to the
way you’d like to
be seen?
Not
knowing
your
strengths
Lots of cultural organisations
try and appeal to everybody,
and this isn’t always possible choose to attend, support or
with limited resources. Think do instead of coming to your marketing plan to support it.
about what your strengths
are, and build your brand
around them.
5 with their branding agencies,
Not having
a good
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 museum and the aims
of the rebrand.
your new branding, you need
it. A great way to manage this
is by having brand guidelines
6 8
Losing Not having
sight a thorough
of your marketing plan
competitors
Your competitors are It’s no good establishing a
anything which audiences great new brand identity
without a well thought out
venue. There can be a lot to You need to think about how
learn from other industries the brand will reach your
and other approaches—in audience, having a focused
terms of how they present marketing plan in place will
themselves, the language they enable a smoother, targeted
use, the communications roll-out of the brand.
channels they use and how
they use them, how they work
how they gather feedback
from their audiences etc.
Put yourself in your 9
audience’s shoes and take a
Ignoring
look around the wider market
to see what your venue can Social
learn about how to reach out Media
to them.
Social Media websites like
7 Facebook and Twitter are
a new battleground for
Not managing the reputation of
your brand. If somebody
being has a bad experience at your
consistent museum, then this is easily
shared online. Monitor social
media websites for mentions
of your venue and learn how
to deal with any negative
Once you have rolled out feedback.
to apply it consistently and
police how others are using
which tell everyone in your 10
organisation how the brand
identity should be applied. 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.
The Branding Issue 8
WRITER
Jemma Bowman

Being brave:
flexible identities
01 02 03

The big advantage of a flexible identity

for cultural organisations is that it allows
you to align your logo with multiple
performances, exhibitions, venues or
business streams. The easiest way to do
this is to have colour options. For example,
The Guardian uses their different coloured
Since then, as consumer expectations logos for distinct sections of the publication
have changed, brand identity management and the Southbank Centre apply their
has advanced. We are used to products and colourways and checked patterns in various
services changing rapidly—even launching permutations.
in Beta. We want our products available all The Natural History Museum01 have
the time, ideally delivered to our door. We been able to give real depth to their logo On the spectrum from prescriptive to fluid
like personal attention, recommendations by inserting images of living things into brand management, the identity for TATE03
and chances to interact with companies and the ‘N’. The identity Sumo designed for is slightly more radical, with a series of
impact decisions as a crowd. In business, we Gallery North02 takes its inspiration from versions of the logo itself, and as they become
don’t wear suits and we use first names and an architectural detail on the building which more blurred, they are less legible—breaking
informal speech. As a result of these, and can then be recoloured, textured or cut one of the basic principles of traditional logo
many other social and commercial factors, out as relevant. Allowing the logo to be a management. There don’t seem to be rules
we are more drawn to ‘dynamic, helpful and ‘container for content’ as Wolff Olins put governing which version is used, when, and
fun’ than their previous staid counterparts. it, seems to be a growing trend with the they have various colourways. However, this
As such, the best modern identities have a London 2012 and AOL logos, the logo for all fits perfectly with an organisation which
palette of materials, not just a logo, and a set the Museum of Arts and Design and the is itself groundbreaking and sometimes
of principles, not specific rules. tourism logos for New York and Melbourne. controversial.

9
When I first worked on brand guidelines, in the late 1990s, they were full of absolutes:
‘always’, ‘never’, ‘must’ etc. They asserted that the brand marque is to be treated with
respect and restraint. And that the parameters of the guidelines document were finite;
no other options were permissible. The logic was that precise consistency maximised
brand recognition and said ‘reliable, global and professional’ because
that was what consumers wanted from their brands.

04 05 06

What if your brand values are about

being maverick? How do you apply the
concepts of breaking rules and being free
to logo management? For the surfing
brand O’Neill04, their identity consists of
their name and a wave—applied so loosely
that there are almost infinite variations.
However, this isn’t completely free reign
or mismanagement; they’re not creating a
hotchpotch of logos, they’re keeping enough
recognisable elements—the reminder
levers—that you still know who they are.
And meanwhile they are staying true to
their pioneering founder and their brand
value of the ‘spirit of innovation’ (and giving
their clothing designers plenty of scope for
branded decoration in the process).
A different but also brave approach is that
of the Scandinavian ferry company Viking
Line, who reduce the brand to just four of
the letters when they use it on merchandise,
advertising, communications etc. This gives
them a way of branding without using their
logo. However, perhaps a pattern is a more
expressive and evocative tool for this, such Factory. The V&A05 use their logo as part of that far, being willing to flex your identity
as the one Wordsworth Trust (see p2) use straplines, giving them an ownable, cognitive and apply a bit of charm and expression
in a variety of ways to add branded texture
or colour.
Another significant modern shift in
identity control is the acknowledgement
that logos can be treated playfully and
creatively. Stemming from TV idents such
as MTV, BBC2 and E4, other brands
have followed suit, for example Pixar and
Talk Talk. Tate and Lyle became Tate and
Smile to highlight their Fair Trade efforts, eight in Saatchi & Saatchi’s Lovemarks list.
replacing the logo across their packaging
range. Even Warner Brothers, a corporate
giant, sometimes shows a sense of humour,
such as the chocolate version of their logo
shown before Charlie and The Chocolate
and stylish approach—literally a ‘brand
language’!
The Google06 logo is the behemoth of this
group; they have created countless versions
of their logo and continue to ‘play’ with it.
They edit, recolour, embellish or animate
the logo as they wish, associating themselves
with whatever anniversary or quirk they
choose. They don’t even retain all the letters
since they are, according to Interbrand,
in the top 10 most recognisable brands
in the world. And it’s certainly a popular
approach—they even have fan sites like
www.logoogle.com. and they are number
For a brand manager, I think this can be
unnerving territory but, if done well, it can
‘breathe life’ into the identity, the logo itself
then becoming an ‘animate’ touchpoint for
your brand. Even if you don’t take things
can only say positive things about the
organisation it belongs to.

The Branding Issue 10

 Sumo is a design company specialising
in the arts and cultural sector.
We create great design which turns
heads, grabs hearts and inspires
audiences to attend the arts more often.

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