Museums and arts organizations are familiar with selling tickets. Selling themselves can be a trickier matter.

With stronger-than-ever competition for audience and donor support, the Columbus Museum of Art and the Columbus Symphony Orchestra are among cultural organizations undergoing "brand audits" and coming up with a fresh new look and feel for how they communicate with the public.

"When I was a kid, there was a sort of hierarchy of how you spent leisure time," said Nannette V. Maciejunes, executive director of the Columbus Museum of Art. "In the current culture, our leisure time is a flat playing field. It's limited, and it's at a high premium. People are considering the whole range of possibilities: A museum is competing with shopping or going to a movie."

Then there is the growing segment of people who aren't familiar with the product in the first place.

"A lot of people don't feel comfortable at a museum," Maciejunes said. "There's an intimidation factor, an elitist factor. We wanted to make it welcoming and fun."

The museum turned to Westerville-based ad firm GSW Worldwide and Ologie, a Downtown marketing firm with a history of working with nonprofit groups. Bill Faust, partner and chief strategy officer for Ologie, said most people don't realize the importance of elements such as color choices, tag lines and "voice" that are used in the way an institution communicates.

Melissa Ferguson, the museum's marketing and communications director, said the branding work represented a "significant investment" for the museum, which this year has a marketing budget of $315,000.

A new logo -- developed by GSW and tweaked by Ologie -- that came out of the process was just a small piece of the puzzle, Faust said.

"I always say the logo is the least important thing," Faust said. "I think the voice is really critical. Brochures don't write themselves; they have to be approachable and friendly."

Ologie helped the museum come up with a range of materials aimed at different audiences. There is a distinct look to communication about programs aimed at children and families, for example, with a logo using primary colors. The company also developed materials aimed at donors for Art Matters, the museum's ongoing fundraising campaign.

Ologie did a similar brand overhaul for the Jazz Arts Group, on whose board Faust sits, several years ago. Bob Breithaupt, executive director of the organization, likens the Jazz Arts Group to Procter & Gamble in the way it must look at marketing.

"We're a house of brands," Breithaupt said. "We need to communicate that we're all of these different groups and series. Part of this is driven by the fact that the business and donor community told us that groups like ours have to look at themselves in a more businesslike manner."

The Columbus Symphony Orchestra has just started to work with Ologie. Faced with challenges similar to those of the museum, the orchestra hopes to create a stronger image for itself.

"It's a jungle out there when there's so much going on in Columbus," said Tony Beadle, executive director of the symphony. "We compete with everything."

Organizations often decide to revamp their brands when other major changes are taking place. In the symphony's case, new music director Junichi Hirokami will be here 10 weeks during the coming season, compared with just five weeks the past season.

"We wanted to make the most of his presence and look for a unanimity in terms of our image," Beadle said. "If a brand has done its work, there's a set of assumptions about what the brand represents. We want to be seen that way and have a brand that communicates what we do and what we're all about."

COSI went through a total overhaul of its communication when the museum moved to its new location in 1999. More recently, it has worked with its agency, Dublin-based Peebles Creative Group, on a new tag line and other tweaks.

"We completely changed the look of our logos, banners and things when we moved. We also started using the tag line 'Fascination Destination,' " said Chris Hurtubise, COSI's marketing director. "More recently, we worked with Peebles to develop the line 'Explore Science. Discover Fun!' We think the new tag line further defines what we're about. It's a constant process of looking at how we're communicating with people."

COSI is now running a contest to design a new mascot. Hurtubise said the museum realizes it can be an important and popular outreach tool.

"We invited all these characters from different organizations to our community open house around the holidays," Hurtubise said. "The Crew Cat from the Columbus Crew, Stinger from the Columbus Blue Jackets …we saw how much people loved them. Having a mascot would be another way to put a friendly face on COSI and be represented in the community at things like parades and festivals."

BalletMet for years has gained lots of mileage out of its Nutcracker character, representing the ballet's cash-cow production of The Nutcracker every holiday season. Working with Peebles Creative Group, officials instituted new branding in 2002 that continues to evolve today.

Sheila Hunt, director of marketing for the ballet, said arts organizations in general are looking to update their image more frequently than in the past.

"Times have changed. The look, the tag line, the messaging of an organization is so important," Hunt said. "Audiences have changed in terms of their age, what they want to see and where they see our message. We need to stay relevant and keep changing things up."

mrose@dispatch.com