Creative Matters: The Two Pillars of Effective Branding
Why creativity alone can’t solve problems
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You probably know us as a brand consultancy and design firm. After all, we’ve created over 300 branding and marketing concepts for emerging tech and manufacturing companies: Logos, websites, campaigns, even shiny objects.
What you may not know is that when we begin working on a project, design isn’t the first priority (even thought its often the outcome). Our job follows a clearly defined path that starts with a discovery phase and analysis to obtain a complete understanding of a client’s back story. A story that usually begins with a problem such as: fierce competition, a struggle to meet benchmarks, a product out of sync with consumer perception, or more.
And, this is where empathy enters the conversation. Empathy is essential to understanding the problem, the situation, and most of all — the intended audience. In short, the bigger picture. Without empathy, design is just window dressing. Pretty but not very useful.
“We spend a lot time designing the bridge, but not enough time thinking about the people who are crossing it.”– Dr. Prabhjot Singh, Earth Institute
The foundation of empathic design is observation and the goal to identify latent customer needs in order to create products that the customers don’t even know they desire, or, in some cases, solutions that customers have difficulty envisioning due to lack of familiarity with the possibilities offered by new technologies or because they are locked in an old mindset. Empathic design relies on observation of consumers as opposed to traditional market research which relies on consumer inquiry with the intention to avoid possible biases in surveys and questions, and minimizes the chance that consumers will provide false information. (Mattelmäki, T. and Battarbee, K., “Empathy Probes”)
Observation vs data
Data from market research and analysis can provide valuable insight into markets and demographics; how many people in a certain age bracket with a certain income and education live in a certain area. It allows to create a somewhat vague image about consumer behavior. But it can also prove completely wrong, as the recent US election has demonstrated. While all polls and all the data had projected a landslide win for Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump ended up being the big winner as we know. It turned out that many polls didn’t accurately track what the voters really wanted and had to rely on false or biased information. Classifying consumers just on the basis of their education and income is only a weak indicator about their needs and wants. And it says almost nothing about what they like or dislike. Empathy is what creates a better understanding, it helps to paint a better picture about what consumers really want.
The empathic story
If you are like me and you enjoy watching the Sunday morning political roundtables on CBS or NBC, you might have noticed an interesting phenomenon: The commercials shown between the discussions and the reporting present a very different content than what you typically expect from a TV ad. Not only are the companies that are featured in there all large corporations such as Boeing, Koch Industries or BP, they also show a very soft, human centered message: safety, job creation, protection of the environment, etc. Why is that? Why aren’t they talking about products or services, how bold they are, and what cool features they offer? It’s because they want to influence our perception about them, and they know that empathy (as a short cut to our Lizard Brain, the subconscious mind) is what opens the door here. We may (and we should) have bad feelings about BP because of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and because we care about the environment. When BP takes our concerns serious — and believe me they do — the only way to change our negative mindset is to play into our subconscious mind and deliver a message about clean energy, safe environments and good paying jobs. The idea behind is that over time the new narrative will overwrite the pollution story. It’s the empathic story that can provide a powerful message.
Creativity delivers solutions
Creativity, on the other hand, offers solutions by not just asking “why?”, but rather “why not?”. In tandem, Empathy and Creativity are the winning combination, the yin and the yang for solving problems. They represent the key building blocks in our approach to branding and something we apply every time we commence a new client project.
Asking “Why?” can lead to understanding. Asking “Why not?” can lead to breakthroughs. — Daniel Pink
After all, consumers today want to know who the company is they are dealing with, about its standing in our society, about its culture and what its vision is. And they want to be comfortable identifying with that vision, before they buy its products or services. The era of faceless mega-corporations is fading away. The new challengers bound for success are the ones with an authentic, compelling and empathic brand story — and an innovative product.
Are you ready to tell your story?
MPD/LA (Marc Posch Design, Los Angeles) Brand Consulting and Design, made in downtown Los Angeles. As a team of creatives, thinkers and developers we are known for helping emerging tech and manufacturing companies to disrupt, stand out and grow. With our experience, deep industry expertise and all the collaborators to make it happen, we inspire success.
To find out more about what we can do for your business call 213.341.1642. And make sure to visit marcposchdesign.com. Thank you.
