The SPAM Museum in Austin, Minnesota, is the Guggenheim of pork products. The Kohler Design Centre in Kohler, Wisconsin, is the Frick of bathroom fixtures. The Cumberland Pencil Company’s museum in Keswick, England, is the British Museum of old pencils. But now company museums are going mainstream.
A corporate museum is a shrewd way to bolster a brand. If it’s good, people
will actually pay to hear your story. So companies have been transforming stodgy
old-fashioned museums—collections of company artefacts and documents—into
corporate theme parks. And they have started using their histories to enrich
their brands and deepen their relationships with customers.
