experience
The Richmond Symphony
Situation:
The Richmond Symphony had been displaced from its longtime downtown home, which was undergoing extensive renovations and expansion, and had been playing at alternative venues such as churches throughout the Greater Richmond area. After receiving a grant from the Mellon Foundation, the symphony decided to work with Martin Branding in order to conduct extensive research to understand their audience’s preferences and position their brand for success when they were able to make their return to their home venue and downtown Richmond.
Focus:
Martin Branding conducted in-depth interviews with key staff, board members and musicians within the organization to determine the Richmond Symphony’s core values. After the initial phase was concluded, core values propositions were recommended and tested along with questions about audience preferences with symphony subscribers and the general Richmond public. The core value proposition of “Community and Personal Impact” emerged at the conclusion of the brand discovery process.
Alignment & Awareness:
Once a focused value proposition had been established and audience preferences determined, the Richmond Symphony was able to focus its marketing efforts around a clear, concise and compelling message. Martin Branding worked with the organization to ensure the brand was understood internally and provided key messages and marketing direction on implementing the brand.
Conclusion:
The Richmond Symphony by undertaking Martin Branding’s thorough branding process now understood that it was about more than about just providing great classical music; they’re music was having a deeper, more personal and emotional impact with their audiences and radiating throughout the entire community. The organization was well positioned to move into its newly renovated home and assured their existing audience and a new audience would follow them back home.
