3 Key Ideas on Design Strategy & why it’s critical irrespective of the industry you are in
“The devil is in the details, but so is salvation”
Hyman G. Rickover
We’ve seen it often; companies (start-ups or project teams) build a minimal stripped down product as a pilot and completely ignore design. Hoping that after proving some key metrics they can focus on design later.
In other cases, niche service businesses like specialized law or accounting firms having a low budget for design-based elements like marketing collaterals or even branding. Too often, the design is secondary and is considered just an unnecessary expense.
Basically, emotional connection is placed below usefulness. This may be the old way to operate, but this is a highly risky approach now, one that gives no understanding of later stage growth.
When we started my company 5By7, we were in a un-glamorous sector (well, we still are) of producing customized gifts for companies. We had no knowledge of supply chain, we had no printing machines of our own then and no understanding of the sales process or what customers wanted. Our MVP (minimum viable product) was design.
We only had the strength of understanding better design. And we persevered. After selling more than a million units of products, we built everything around design. There were countless times I was told how other factors like price, supply chain, people and product categories would be more useful, but it was ultimately design differentiation that gave us the growth we wanted.
One of the most significant trends in the last decade in marketing has been the importance of Design in Marketing. The Steve Jobs led design-first approach now is the holy grail in building a successful product and a brand.
Design today isn’t just an element, its an experience. It’s the Emotional Quotient of brands; with the power to make everything more humanizing.
How can companies today make design as a strategic differentiator?
Too often, we think it’s by hiring fancy design agencies or paying heavily for our graphics, while that’s important, it's not just that alone. Here are 3 ideas you can use to make small differences in your overall customer success.
Remember, just like those small investments made every now and then, design too compounds.
1. Figure out your ‘stickiness factor’
Malcolm Gladwell, the stellar New York Times writer turned author who wrote the best-seller ‘The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference’, makes a case for a disproportionate advantage that brands and marketers can have by focussing on few principles. One of those principles is ‘The Stickiness Factor’.
The Stickiness Factor, as explained is how memorable your message is in the minds of the audience. The specific quality that builds ‘stickiness’ is important to understand for anyone trying to grow a brand, sell more products or services; or simply engaging customers.
Be very selective, edit often and trim down the un-necessary like a maniac in everything from copy to graphics that have any customer touchpoint. Measure or observe what kind of messaging is working and refine it repeatedly to build more ‘stickiness’.
2. Humanize your brand
Build design experiences that are solving the user’s problems. Keeping user at the center of the design elements helps us get rid of the distraction-fat. Dale Carnegie, author of one the best-known books on interpersonal communication (ever) says that one should ‘Talk in terms of other people’s interest’, emotionally intelligent brands realize that what applies to interpersonal communication also applies to brands.
Another way to humanize your brand is to stay away from a template approach of design. Too often, we’re using the same gibberish email language or standard response templates that feel like a bot is responding.
Here’s the news, even bots are developing a personality and it wouldn’t hurt for brands to adopt something offbeat too.
3. Use global design benchmarks, but localize execution
Of course, the global brands do it so well; bring in their global design language and experience and localize the little details with a fine balance. Similarly, the local brands need to backward engineer the same.
The local brands that are successful have one thing in common; while staying true to their USP, they have a very high benchmark of design experience. It no surprise then, some of the best known home-grown brands work with global design agencies.
Case in point, Maruti’s premium dealership network, Nexa. It’s a clear case of Maruti having covered the localized product offering but trying to win a premium segment (hence better margins) but elevating its design experience. I would love to see more such examples in the future and encourage more local companies to reach higher design benchmarks.
I started design focussed customised product company 5by7.in a decade ago. With over a 100 global brands as our clients, I now write about the changing paradigm in marketing & design
