The Malta Philharmonic Orchestra: Brand Research
About
Malta's premier musical orchestra, the MPO, is a highly active and versatile group that puts on more than one performance per week. Their diverse offerings include symphonic concerts, opera productions in Malta and Gozo, educational and outreach programs, as well as a variety of lighter-hearted concerts. In recent seasons, the MPO has successfully transitioned into the digital realm, drawing in an impressive global audience of over 32 million people through its online program in 2021. The orchestra has also performed at prestigious venues around the world, with tour destinations including the United States, Russia, Dubai, Germany, Austria, China, Italy, and Belgium. Notably, the MPO embarks on at least one international tour each concert season, further solidifying its reputation as a leading orchestra.
MPO's Logo
The Malta Philharmonic Orchestra only has one logo, which it uses on all of its platforms. Their logo's graphical part represents the conductor's gestures, the 4/4 beat. This aspect of the logo is combined with the organisation's 3 words stacked on top of each other written in a sans-serif typeface. The typographical part of the logo uses two font variations. Here the word 'malta' is written in a large font size and a thin thickness while the words 'philharmonic orchestra' are thicker and in a smaller size due to the words being long.
The logo's structural placement as well as its concept works well but it still has some issues. One of the main issues is that it does not stick out enough when it is combined with other elements on a poster. This can be seen in their latest poster promoting their Easter concert in collaboration with APS bank. In this poster, the logo for APS bank stickers out while the orchestra's logo barely sticks out. A solution to this could be changing the graphical part of the logo with something else.
Another major issue with the logo is that it is not mobile-friendly as it is not good on a small scale. This limits its effectiveness on certain platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and Spotify. In fact, this logo set as the profile picture on their social accounts does not show clearly on a post viewed on their feed on both Instagram and Facebook. The logo also looks too bland and blends too much when placed on images of the orchestra. Something else that I noticed is that it is not even being used on Spotify.
MPO's Event Posters
The MPO's event artworks are consistent to some extent but differ slightly in colours, images and sometimes in the hierarchy. These posters use 2 different typefaces, one is a display font used for the event name, which is placed as the Poster's title, then the other typeface is a simple sans-serif which is used for the rest of the information. Occasionally an additional typeface is used in the poster to highlight a section of the poster's title which I think looks nice as it is used minimally. To show the difference in hierarchy variation in font size, font thickness and font case are used. Everything in the posters is usually aligned to the right with the exception of their website and any sponsor logos which are aligned to the left. I personally like this arrangement as it is different and unique but still works well.
Moving on to imagery, when it comes to background image use there is some kind of consistency but I feel like sometimes it is broken. The imagery that is generally used is shots of the orchestra, an instrument of the orchestra, the event's location or an image which is related to the event's title. In some instances, two or more images are edited onto each other. Generally, colour effects and filters are used to unite the whole image together while giving it a bright pop of colour, which is something that I think works well. The colours used in these posters are usually a combination of two of these colours; cyan, magenta, purple and orange.
Due to the use of bright colours in the MPO's posters, the text and logos have to be used in white, which I think looks elegant. The only issue with this is that in some instances like in the 'musicals in concert' and 'the planets' posters the MPO's logo is barely visible as it blends in too well with the background's light colours. To avoid this issue one needs to make sure that the imagery underneath the text is dark enough to contrast the white text and logos on the poster.
I would like to point out how the Beethoven 4 Brahms poster has several inconsistencies. One of these is that it is missing the bottom part of the artwork, leaving it looking unprofessional. This poster is also the only poster in which the text differs as the number '4' in it is not in white breaking consistency. The artwork also features images which are completely white as they are not covered in colour like the background image, once again breaking consistency.
MPO's Social Media
Besides posts about their events on social media, the MPO posts about recent past events like recitals and concerts. It also posts about the event location and the event's special guests. These posts are all quite valid and good as they help keep their guests informed of what is going on and give them some insight into some interesting information.
MPO's Website
The orchestra's website welcomes the viewer with a banner animation of interesting imagery from the MPO's past events. It also gets the viewer familiar with the musicians making up the orchestra. The website's menu looks good but could be a bit shorter. Then its layout looks neat and organised but can be made in a more interesting manner. The hierarchy in which different sections are presented on the site looks good as the first thing one sees beneath the homepage's banner is their recent events. Here their most important events are shown along with a little calendar marking all their current event dates.
The iconography and text used look good and are consistent. The only thing I noticed that breaks consistency is the logo for the Malta Youth Orchestra. This is because it is the only element which is not in the website's colour scheme but is instead in blue, slightly breaking the website's harmony.
Regarding colour, the MPO's website has a good colour scheme but it is inconsistent with the colours shown on their events' posters. This inconsistency might make it hard to identify the connection between the two since the only similarities they have are some imagery used and the logo. Therefore it would be highly beneficial if the orchestra stuck to one colour scheme and used that on both its promotional posters and its website.
MPO Brand Board
MPO Marketing Research
Stakeholders
The MPO's stakeholders are:
Its employees, as the MPO is their source of income
Its customers, as the MPO is part of their leisure activities
Investors, as they are investing money in the organisation
The Maltese music community, as the MPO forms a great chunk of the local music industry, due to it being the only orchestra on the Maltese islands
Competitors
The MPO's main competitors in Malta are The Palace String Orchestra and the Brass House Unit. These are the only other two major musical organisations which perform using orchestral instruments in Malta. With that being said the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra is on a higher level than these other musical organisations which are competing with it.
SWAT Analysis
Strengths:
It is the only orchestra in Malta
It is ahead of its local competitors
It is financially supported by the government through subsidies
Has a good online presence
Weaknesses:
Brand inconsistency (mainly visible through the colours used in the website vs its posters)
The logo is not good for online platforms and is not mobile friendly
The logo is not recognisable and does not stick out enough
The sharp edges on the logo do not deliver the message the orchestra wants
Opportunity:
Opportunity to expand its work to digital streaming platforms like Spotify
Attract new viewers
Start competing in the international market
Getting involved in music production in films
Educating the locals
Opportunity to do more international tours
Create better-recorded music productions
Create an MPO Membership scheme through an app
Threats:
There is a high competition of events in Malta
Being affiliated with the government can bring some negative attention
Long-term goals are difficult to work on as they change along with changes in management
MPO's USP
The Malta Philharmonic Orchestra is quite a unique and important organisation to our islands as it is our only orchestra. This means that it is our main representation of our country's orchestral talent both locally and internationally. The MPO's main objectives are to increase public brand awareness, education and to continue expanding digitally and to start infiltrating the international market.
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