Dear Dreamers and Doers,

​It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.

Streaming apps are in full Holiday movie mode. And so are we.

We’ve all got our favorites. A Christmas Story, The Family Stone, Die Hard, The Holiday, and of course, Home Alone. Little Kevin with his hands framing bright pink lips and an iconic open-mouthed scream of after-shave agony.

What does this have to do with bold branding, you ask? It has to do with Home, and if your family is siloed off in separate rooms, hanging out together in the game room, or heaven forbid, left you all alone.

An alarming number of cultural organizations are feeling alone in their own “homes” because of the fractured culture their complex programming is creating. Recent calls on the DRMTM line are asking how to bring this complexity home under one meaningful brand experience.

It all comes down to your brand and building the right sub-brands. 

Think of your brand as Home. If the foundation is strong, you can build many rooms (programs) with their own décor and ambiance, inviting guests to enjoy diverse offerings and opening doors to connect on deeper levels. These rooms are distinct but well-designed sub-brands, which all support and uplift the roof on your Home.

If the foundation is weak, meaning your home brand is lacking in purpose, cohesion or cultural identity, then mis-aligned programs and sub-brands can create cracks in the walls and quickly erode your house. Guests feel no real connection under your roof and are left without a place to belong or reason to come back, no matter what door they entered through.

Ahead in 2024, DRMTM is building more research and strategy into sub-branding to help your cultural organization firm up the foundation and build loyalty through everything you do. We’ll bring you a lot of thought and tools on this topic so stay tuned.

Feeling Alone at Home? Reach out to us at hello@thedrmtm.com or LinkedIn for a free half hour to talk sub-brand basics.

Here’s to Forced Fun,

Surale + Laura + Cheryl