Submitted by: Submitted by vsganeshan
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Category: Business and Industry
Date Submitted: 06/05/2011 01:51 AM
How do you refresh a 243-year-old brand? By brewing a modern experience that combines the power of history with the allure of contemporary design. Guinness Storehouse, in Dublin, reimagines how a brand can perform for customers, employees, and the community.
Who: Guinness
Home Base: Dublin, Ireland
Year Founded: 1759
When Guinness set out to replace its outmoded visitors' center in Dublin, Ireland, the celebrated brewer knew that it wanted to build more than just a shrine to stout. Sure, capturing the company's colorful 243-year history and serving the millions of thirsty pilgrims who travel to the holy mecca of Irish beer were important. But it was even more important to set the stage for the future: to use an ultramodern facility to breathe life into an aging brand, to reconnect an old company with young (and skeptical) customers, and to use the past to prepare employees for what comes next.
That was the design brief behind Guinness Storehouse, which opened in late 2000. Storehouse features exhibits that recount the company's history and explain how the black stuff is made. But the facility also has conference rooms and a training center for employees, an art gallery, restaurants, cafés, bars, and event space. Housed in an imposing seven-story brick building that was erected in 1904, Storehouse serves as a giant mixing bowl for tourists, Guinness employees, and thirsty Dubliners. It represents best practice in the experience economy -- and a reimagination of how a company can connect with its core constituencies.
"Guinness as a brand is all about community. It's about bringing people together and sharing stories," says Ralph Ardill, director of marketing and strategic planning at Imagination Ltd., the edgy London design firm that helped create the structure. "And Guinness stout is a great social catalyst." In designing Storehouse, Imagination tried to re-create the magic of a pub full of strangers getting to know one another. "It isn't a corporate...