Business | General
Corporate museums herald the future of brand-building
a place where firms can display their history to those interested
- Financial Times
- Published: 01:04 March 1, 2008
Levi's has one; Zippo has one; Dr Pepper has one; Intel has one; BT used to have one; Harley-Davidson hopes to have one soon. We are, of course, talking about the company museum - a place where organisations can show off their history to anyone who is interested.
Intel's museum is based at the company's Santa Clara headquarters and showcases the history of the company and silicon chip technology. It was set up in 1992 after Jean Jones, the company's first executive administrative assistant read an erroneous newspaper story. She approached the founders, Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce, and told them that an accurate record was needed. They agreed and the museum was born.
"Apparently she raided Moore and Noyce's desk drawers for exhibits," says the museum's curator, Tracey Mazur. "Initially, it was housed in a closet." Since then it has grown to 10,000 square feet and last year attracted more than 100,000 visitors. This splits roughly into 50 per cent school-children, teachers and parents, 25 per cent tourists, and 25 per cent customers and employees. "I think it's about recognising that there's a tremendous interest in the company," says Tracey.
Good sales tool
Tim Leunig, a lecturer in economic history at the London School of Economics, identifies several reasons why an organisation might wish to set up its own museum. "A company like Intel might want to say 'Look, we were there at the beginning, we were a pioneer.' They're saying that they define the industry."
In other cases, he adds, it may be because there's a great story to tell or because the brand is well loved. "It can also be a very good sales tool."
Certainly, it helps if you have a well-known brand. At the Zippo Visitors Centre, street lamps masquerade as lighters and a 40-foot lighter towers above the entrance. Inside, among other attractions, there's 15,000 square feet of lighter and knife history.
Others, quite literally, ham it up. Austin, Texas, boasts the 16,500 square foot Spam Museum. It describes itself as "the centre of the Spam Universe" and "a necessary journey for anyone who loves canned meat".
Stacey Schiesl, director of Harley-Davidson's forthcoming museum, says it "will give newcomers a feel for the freedom, camaraderie and pride that Harley-Davidson riders experience every time they fire up their motorcycles".
If a company museum, free to visitors, seems like a US phenom-enon, that is because it is. British and European companies are less keen on the concept. BT's museum closed in 1997. Rolls-Royce's collections are only viewable by appointment. The UK shines when it comes to showcasing breweries and distilleries, but these tend to be paying attractions.
Continental Europe has a few examples. BMW is building an impressive museum in Munich. And Stora Enso, Europe's largest paper company, has a museum at its original site at Falun in Sweden.
Generally, it seems that while European firms are happy to sponsor museums they are, by and large, not that interested in opening their own.
The finest one
Perhaps the finest corporate museum service belongs to a financial institution. Wells Fargo, the San Francisco-based bank, has nine corporate museums ranging from Arizona to Alaska.
Although this may seem a little like overkill for a bank, part of Wells Fargo's commitment to documenting the past arises because a sense of history is a key component of the brand. Beverly Smith, head of its historical services, points out that the bank led the development of financial services for the California gold rush.
However, she says the museums are not just about the gold rush - the bank's financial-crime exhibits run the whole gamut from train and stagecoach robberies to cyber-crime.
As for those who work in company museums, there are a few important differences. Many of the concerns are the same, says Tracey, who previously worked for the Smithsonian Institution, but: "One very nice thing though is that you don't really have to worry about fund raising."
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