Seminar 4 - Participative branding for heritage

Training partner ‪@meltingpro3154‬
Participative branding for heritage
Branding is an under-used yet crucial tool for heritage organizations to boost their visibility, relevance and connection with audiences. An organization’s brand is the way people perceive it, a distinctive mental image made of the values, meanings and emotions that people associate to the organization. If this image is strong, relevant and authentic, then it is able to establish deep long-lasting bonds with audiences. This is even more effective when the brand is developed in collaboration with people, both internally and externally; this means involving staff, visitors and local communities in the branding process.
In this seminar, we will firstly counter commonly mistaken notions on the nature of branding, define what “brand” is and the 5 ingredients of a strong brand (identity, personality, relevance, reinvention, provocation), and explore the positive impact of branding on cultural heritage organizations and their audiences. We will then illustrate the process of branding heritage covering the research phase on the organization’s values, the strategy phase, and the design phase, with a particular focus on participative methods.