You may have seen our web development and design revamps — or our innovative TurnStyle® implementations for sports or arts and culture organizations — but that’s just the tip of the iceberg of the work we do through our brand partnerships.
Through our recent launch with the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum and its Hatch Show Print brand, we showcased the importance of portraying brand identity, crafted a digital strategy, set site architecture with messaging and design, and built an e-commerce shop that echoed the historic brand.
We don’t just dabble in brand strategy; we dive right in.
A Historic Brand Meets A New Medium
Hatch Show Print has been around since 1879, and but it wasn’t acquired by CMHF until 1990, when the museum was undergoing an expansion. As it turns out, Hatch Show Print proved to be the perfect accompaniment to the historic Nashville complex.
The previous online shop for CMHF consisted of not only Hatch Show Print products but also covered a mix of brands, including its museum gift shop and Historic RCA Studio B products. When the pandemic hit, those primary streams of revenue — in-person tickets and purchases — were placed on hold while CMHF looked for new opportunities to generate income.
This created the perfect moment for Hatch Show Print to take advantage of the opportunity and create its own brand shop to sell products separately from the CMHF.
A Moment to Shine
Stakeholders within this project advocated that Hatch Show Print needed to stand alone as a brand (it already had its own colors and logo). Many of the Hatch Show Print products also didn’t align with the brand feel of the CMHF. Those customers who knew the print shop had a tie to CMHF had limited expectations of what they had to offer — after all, Hatch Show creates its one-of-a-kind posters for rock and rap artists, too!
Hatch Show Print also hoped to engage an online audience without being mistaken as a “side project” of CMHF — it had existed as an independent entity for over 100 years; it made sense for it to have its own domain in the digital space as well.
In partnering with CMHF, we were able to encourage a digital separation of the two brands that led to success. Ultimately, we wanted to provide a seamless experience to clearly communicate the custom nature of the prints to the audience. The hero video on the homepage (below) highlights how these prints aren’t merely computer-generated graphics printed on a basic printer but rather hand-rolled, laid out and painted specifically for each individual customer. The CMHF creative team was instrumental in helping bring our strategic vision to life with beautiful creative assets.
Product photography was also enhanced to showcase posters, mugs and other products in common environments, allowing the customer to see themselves engaging with the brand. We also made recommendations around how to organize Hatch products and information to make the purchase path more approachable.
Some other optimizations included enhancing their Shopify experience and creating some buzz for their brand through promotions and hashtags.
A Partnership That Endures
While their online personas may have changed, Hatch Show Print isn’t completely disconnected from the CMHF brand. The physical print shop is located within the confines of the CMHF in Nashville, providing a solid revenue driver for the museum.
But the spirits of the two brands live separately and complement each other at the same time; sometimes, a brand needs its own moment to stand in the spotlight.
