When Companies Go to the Museum

There is growing interest in company museums, due to their wealth of archives, collections, experiences. Pending a systematization of this cultural heritage similar to the one done for more traditional cultural assets - a process that is still ongoing - a few elements that characterize this type of museums catch the eye. The industry where corporate museums is more common is clothing and textile, which hosts 14% of the archival resources surveyed. The state of the art is plain for all to see: for instance, the importance for the fashion industry of participating in initiatives that combine industry, art and culture in the form of museums, archives, and corporate collections.

But what exactly is a corporate museum and how did it become the museum form of choice for companies? Among the many points of view, I believe the position expressed by Victor Danilov, former president of the Chigago Museum of Science and Industry, has more than a grain of truth: corporate museums help build brand equity and enhance a brand's legacy.

The communicative potential of corporate museums are significant, and, as it emerges from various studies, they can be found appealing by an extremely diverse audience, both internal and external to the company. Internally, the museum is a platform for projecting corporate identity, by inspiring employees and management in building brand identity and strengthening identification with the company within the organization. From an external perspective, a corporate museum allows companies to address first of all visitors, by creating a privileged communication environment where objectives of brand image and differentiation can be pursued. In fact, the museum structure, propagating its own content of texts, meta-texts and multi-sensorial codes, verbal or otherwise, organizes the physical environment in a way that predisposes visitors to receive certain communicative messages.

In addition, reduced background noise and the increased state of awareness of visitors are likely to facilitate the emotional and rational involvement of users, thus stimulating favorable cognitive and affective responses toward the company and/or brand. As a result of these prerogatives, the company museum is qualified to be carrier of a corporation's identity and image, by offering visitors a holistic view of the historical origins, cultural roots and fundamental values of a brand, in a synthesis that integrates past and present. Finally, precisely through this kind of customer experience, companies can find the right balance in their museum offerings, in order to establish a functional, emotional and symbolic link between consumers/visitors and the brand. This occurs when the experience offered to visitors is capable of influencing and consolidating directly brand involvement and loyalty.

Still in relation to external actors, the museum also enables the achievement of corporate social goals, by adding credit to a company's image in cultural and social terms, through the acquisition of consensus with a wide audience of stakeholders. In this respect, a recent analysis of the Salvatore Ferragamo Museum observed how it has become a way of providing authentication of the brand both internally, for family ownership and management, and externally, for opinion leaders and visitors alike.