ARMENIA 
2011
Consultants: Lyndel King • Shelly Regan • Sally Yerkovich
Yerevan
April 12–14, 2011
Museum Seminar - “Branding for Museums”
This seminar was the second Fund sponsored seminar in Armenia. The first, Vision + Visitors = Success, was presented by Dr. Sally Yerkovich and Dr. Lyndel King in 2007.
In spite of the very late hour of our arrival in Yerevan, made even later by the non-arrival of a suitcase containing all our seminar materials, Shelly Regan and Lyndel King were met at the Yerevan airport by three cheerful young museum workers, Marine Mkrtchjan, Gevorg Orbelyan and Davit Poghosyan. They drove us to our hotel and acted as our guides for the next two days. The very rainy and chilly weather did not prevent our seeing wonderful sights near Yerevan, including Garni, the Geghard monastery and, of course, we visited the Yerevan Vernissage. Shelly, who had never been in Armenia before, was introduced to museums and the cultural scene there, and Lyndel renewed her acquaintance with Armenia and its people.
About 20 students gathered at the National Museum of Armenia for the 3-day Fund- sponsored seminar on museum branding, led by Dr. Lyndel King, Director of the Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota and Shelly Regan, President of Yamamoto Moss Mackenzie, a Minneapolis brand agency. The seminar opened with an introduction of The Fund, the Weisman Art Museum, Yamamoto Moss Mackenzie, and each participant.
Seminar Objectives were:
- to demonstrate what having a “brand” means in the museum culture and why it is important to have one and know what it is;
- to show the process of understanding your brand and developing a brand for your museum;
- to understand how your brand should influence all your operations and programs; and
- to provide tools for participants to use to develop a brand awareness in their home museums.
The seminar was a combination of presentations by King and Regan and interactive exercises and presentations by participants. Shelly generally presented concepts of branding and marketing and Lyndel presented how these concepts could be applied to museums. The seminar condensed what normally might be nine months of work into three days, and was intended to give participants basic tools to think about branding in their museums.
Unfortunately, Shelly’s suitcase with seminar materials—posters, printouts, handouts, and other materials—never arrived, but we were able to connect to the server at her company, and at the University, and download some of the materials so they could be projected on the screen.
The first day ended with a series of exercises to introduce the concept of brand personality by envisioning a picnic attended by all the museums and determining what staff from their museum would wear, how they would arrive, and how they would behave at the picnic and other attributes aimed at getting the participants to think about how the “brand personality” might be manifested.
The presenters and participants then discussed the target audiences and stakeholders for Armenian museums, which were defined as Government—National and local officials; visitors, including tourist visitors and local visitors; and school visits, including students and teachers.
The seminar participants were divided into two groups, to be the marketing teams for two museums. Each museum represented at the seminar put their name into a hat, one for small museums, and one for large museums. One museum was drawn from each hat and that museum was used as the case study for the rest of the seminar. The museums that were selected as examples were the Hovhannes Tumanyan Museum and the Center of Armenian Arts and Crafts. Tumanyan is one of Armenia’s greatest poets and writers. Using magazine pictures and texts, each group defined the current and desired relationship of the museum to their constituent groups.
On day two, Shelly introduced the concepts of Brand Fabric, Brand Personality, and Brand Truth. Lyndel talked about how the Weisman Art Museum had worked through those concepts and applied them to their museum.
The two “marketing teams” developed brand fabric and brand personality for the two example museums, working with Lyndel and Shelly as facilitators for each group discussion. Exercises such as choosing chairs, glassware, shoes, and animals that represent your museum’s brand personality were part of the process.
That evening, Shelly and Lyndel worked from the discussions that they had observed, to refine the brand fabric, personality, and brand truth for each of the museums.
The two groups responded to and discussed the refinements Lyndel and Shelly had made and each group agreed that they were exactly right and reflected their discussions. Then, each group discussed and presented ten concrete ideas about how to apply the brand to internal and external decisions at the museum, such as staff recruitment and training, communications, staff uniforms, signs, programs, merchandise, website, and others.
The seminar participants were receptive and excited. The pace of the seminar was lively, and the participatory exercises kept people feeling creative and communicating with each other.
The seminar ended with the presentation of certificates and a graduation celebration with champagne! Shelly and Lyndel agreed that the model for the seminar worked well, and that they would be willing to present the seminar again, with of course, tweaks based on the experience in Armenia.
At the conclusion of the seminar, Shelly also presented a lecture on branding to about 100 people interested in museum studies, and Lyndel toured university museums with Marine Mkrtchjan and met with a group of about 16 university museum workers. Marine reports that this group continue to meet together.
Lyndel and Shelly met with a branding agency in Yerevan, one of very few that exists, to talk with them about the possibility of offering pro bono services to museums and cultural organizations in Yerevan. They were given a tour of the Cafesjian Center for the Arts, a very impressive new museum in Yerevan, directed by Vahagn Marabyan who had studied with Lyndel at the University of Minnesota. That visit is documented at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzTPHIumd9M.
We left feeling very positive about the future for museums in Armenia, based on our interaction with the participants and particularly the young people. Several younger participants from the seminar spent extra time with us. They are intelligent , creative, energetic, and committed. We left feeling that if they are able to maintain this commitment and energy, the future for museums in Armenia will be very positive. Lyndel will work next year, to set up a program that will bring promising young museum workers or students to the Weisman and other museums in Minnesota, for a three-month paid internship. We hope our discussions with branding agencies in Armenia will yield positive results for museums there. The work of the Fund continues to build on new relationships and renewed relationships in Armenia.
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