Client: Medway Council
Project: The Rochester Corn Exchange
In 2020 we were commissioned to devise a marketing strategy for the newly refurbished Rochester Corn Exchange, a building dating back to 1706. Our strategy laid down a road map for the Venue Team to promote the venue to three core markets - Weddings, Conferences & Business Events, Parties & Celebrations.
While devising our marketing strategy we assessed the venue’s brand identity, from the perspective of its competitors and its distinctiveness, and identified a need to refresh it. We determined that the existing identity lacked character and memorability and, given the venue’s history and architectural features, it could better represent the beautiful and characterful building. The identity also only existed as a wordmarque, with no supporting visual identity standards like typeface family, colour palette, image strategy and pattern language.
Our new wordmarque uses the venue’s full title - The Rochester Corn Exchange - to give it stature and to differentiate it from the four other corn exchanges in Kent. We lengthened the right-hand leg of the ‘R’ and curved it to bisect the ‘o’ of Rochester in a nod to the couples marrying and becoming one. We also created a more playful layout for the landscape version of the branding, running ‘THE’ vertically in a reference to historic type treatments.
The project culminated in the production of a complete suite of master assets, the writing and design of digital brand identity implementation guidelines, and the design of brochures to target the three core markets, support materials for the venue staff, and signage.
We recommended that the brand identity be redesigned in its totality and our resulting branding is derived from a number of elements, all intrinsic to the building. It includes elements of the coat of arms of the charmingly named Sir Admiral Cloudsley Shovell, who initiated the building of the Corn Exchange, over 300 years ago.
The centerpiece of the brandmarque is the clock itself. Its hands have been set at three minutes to seven, in reference to an ordinance that forbade butchers from trading on the high street after seven in the evening or face a fine of 10 shillings. This ruling led to them taking up residence in the Corn Exchange in the 18th century. The left-hand element of the brandmarque is based on the decorative plasterwork in The Queen’s Hall while the right-hand element is based on a detail in the ironwork of the balustrade of the two main staircases.
