Inclusive Licensing: The Next Step for Heritage and Museum Brands
Heritage and museum sectors have made great strides in making exhibitions and digital platforms inclusive and accessible. Now, it’s time to bring that same focus into licensing. Licensed products extend the reach of your brand and stories, so they should reflect a commitment to inclusivity and accessibility, too.
Why Inclusive Licensing Matters
Not all heritage brands have characters. Many lean on archival materials, logos, patterns, or historical imagery. This presents unique challenges and opportunities.
Inclusive licensing means thinking carefully about how your brand is expressed through products:
- How can your licensing style guide encourage respectful, diverse representation?
- How do you ensure licensed products are physically and visually accessible?
- How can you embed inclusivity when you don’t have characters to design, but rather heritage assets?
Key Areas to Focus on in Licensing Style Guides
- Representation and diversityEven with archival or heritage images, consider diversity in models, packaging design, and storytelling around products. Show a range of people engaging with your brand to make it relatable for a broad audience.
- Accessibility in product designThink about the usability of licensed products. Are they easy to open? Are labels clear and readable? Can products be used comfortably by people with different abilities?Include clear guidance within your style guides for licensees and manufacturers on accessibility standards and best practices. This ensures your partners design products that meet your inclusivity goals consistently.
- Inclusive colour schemes and palettesColour plays a powerful role in how people experience a brand. When creating licensing guidelines, consider:
- Choosing colour palettes that are legible for people with colour vision deficiencies. Avoid problematic combinations like red/green or blue/purple without sufficient contrast.
- Using high-contrast combinations to help those with low vision distinguish text and important details.
- Considering cultural meanings of colours to avoid unintentional exclusion or misinterpretation.
- Ensuring colour is not the only way information or meaning is conveyed, so it’s accessible for everyone.
- Cultural sensitivity and respectLicensing heritage content means respecting its cultural context. Your style guide should include guidelines for how to handle sensitive or significant archival material with care.
- Clear, inclusive languageUse simple, jargon-free language in all product descriptions, packaging, and marketing materials. Avoid idioms or metaphors that may confuse or exclude some audiences.
Practical steps for brands
- Update your licensing style guides to include inclusivity and accessibility guidance
- Work with licensees who understand and share your values
- Provide examples and training to partners on how to apply these guidelines
- Regularly review licensed products and adjust standards based on feedback
The Impact
Inclusive licensing helps your brand reach wider audiences and builds deeper loyalty. It shows that your heritage is alive, relevant, and welcoming to everyone.
Licensing is more than a revenue stream; it’s a powerful way to bring your heritage story into everyday lives. Making it inclusive and accessible should be a natural next step.
Want to learn more?
Get in touch to book your free 1-1 workshop on accessibility for licensing. We’ll help you build practical, actionable strategies to make your licensing inclusive and effective.