DESIGN & MARKETING
The designer’s most important task is identifying & solving problems. However, if the problems they solve do not address the common need, it becomes an irrelevant & extraneous mental exercise. This is why an appreciation of marketing concepts & processes is very important to a designer.
Marketing facilitates a beneficial exchange between two parties - in most cases; this involves an exchange of a product or service for currency. As a designer, you are in charge of shaping & nurturing the service/products being bartered. Success as a designer can be measured by many domains – in terms of functionality, aesthetics, awards won, significant exhibitions – but in terms of the commercial world, your success meter is often measured by the amount of profit you make for your company.
This, to me, is the crux of marketing activities – the focus is on developing a strategy to increase long-term profit, & thereby ensuring a company’s thriving survival.
The key thing I have learnt from marketing (& indeed, university in general) is that there is a significant difference between ‘the perfect product’ & ‘the profitable product’. One might address all the aesthetical, performance, manufacture & functionality problems perfectly, but still have the design be commercially unviable. Similarly, I come to understand how some products, though extremely simple & cheap to make, can be sold at a high margin because of the perceived value by consumers. Marketing strategies can make or break the product’s success in the marketplace.
An understanding of the marketing process informs the designer on the choices they are required to make to ensure the end product is profitable.
APPROACHES
The common kitchen scourer is a staple product of almost every kitchen around the world, yet it never crops up in design discussions. This ubiquitous product is an overlooked success story. The product itself is simple, basic & cheap. Though aesthetically lacking, it is a purposeful, easily replaceable product & derives its profits from economies of scale.
By contrast, Jakob Munk’s Dish Soap Foamer which sells for $38 (approx. £26) is a costly art piece which exudes quality, addressing the aesthetic & experience of doing dishes.
Both products have the same basic function, but apply very different design & marketing strategies & target very dissimilar markets.
AUDIENCE
It is vital to consider the market a product is aimed for in the product development phase. Just like a writer considering the reader, or an orator the audience, an evaluation of the consumer’s personality & expectations is necessary to ensure they are fulfilled. History is full of examples of product failures; a good example is the Sinclair C5. A revolutionary design in many ways, the product failed because it did not address key concerns of consumers. The market research process provides guidelines to a more formalized procedure to collect & analyze data regarding perception & needs of the consumers. Whilst helpful, surveys & focus groups have to be structured & analysed properly – or they are inaccurate & redundant.
AWARENESS
On the other hand, there have also been products developed that greatly simplifies the consumer’s life, but failed to catch on due to a lack of marketing strategy.
For 15 years, Otto Rohwedder struggled to find sufficient market for our epitome of great everyday inventions, sliced bread. Yet his design solution was complete – in developing a bread slicing machine, he realised that a method of preserving the bread slices was required to preserve the bread’s freshness & incorporated a bagging mechanism in his patent. He eventually sold the patent to Wonder (a large bakery chain in the US), which marketed & distributed sliced bread to commercial success.
FAILURES
A study by Linton, et. all showed that the failure rate for new product introductions in the retail grocery industry is between 70 to 80%. This is a savvy market with many dedicated marketing consultants to its name & it proves just how competitive the consumer market is.
Perhaps the most important aspect of marketing to designers is branding. A brand is an experience – the compilation and distillation of non-conflicting ideas, messages, and imagery in a singular and clear vision to create a brand identity, so that when any of it’s components stand alone, they immediately associate it with the rest. The end-game is to create instant recognition by impact and uniqueness, & provide value-added assurance of quality. It creates a perceived value, appealing to the consumer’s emotional recesses.
SUMMARY
It is not surprising that many decisions in the product development phase are informed by the overarching marketing strategy of the business entity – many aspects of the design process are intrinsically linked with the marketing process, more so than other core business activities like finance & human resource management. However, design principles are scalable to all aspects of an organisation, & an appreciation of different processes in an organisation helps the designer apply a more holistic approach to his/her work. Jaguar CEO, David Smith understands this, and highlighted the importance of good design to be integrated to all business activities.
In many cases, I feel that it is futile to separate the two activities. You do not design neglecting your market strategy, & you do not market neglecting your design. They work in synergy, informing, communicating & integrating with each other both upstream & downstream to shape a company’s image & direction - even with everyday services like the banking industry. Perhaps more importantly, for it is in the most homogeneous industries where the difference marketing makes can really count.
LINKS
Jakob Munk's Dish Soap Brush System
Seth Godin on Sliced Bread
TED.com
David Smith on Investing in Our Future
MacLaren Memorial Lecture, Aston University
The designer’s most important task is identifying & solving problems. However, if the problems they solve do not address the common need, it becomes an irrelevant & extraneous mental exercise. This is why an appreciation of marketing concepts & processes is very important to a designer.
Marketing facilitates a beneficial exchange between two parties - in most cases; this involves an exchange of a product or service for currency. As a designer, you are in charge of shaping & nurturing the service/products being bartered. Success as a designer can be measured by many domains – in terms of functionality, aesthetics, awards won, significant exhibitions – but in terms of the commercial world, your success meter is often measured by the amount of profit you make for your company.
This, to me, is the crux of marketing activities – the focus is on developing a strategy to increase long-term profit, & thereby ensuring a company’s thriving survival.
The key thing I have learnt from marketing (& indeed, university in general) is that there is a significant difference between ‘the perfect product’ & ‘the profitable product’. One might address all the aesthetical, performance, manufacture & functionality problems perfectly, but still have the design be commercially unviable. Similarly, I come to understand how some products, though extremely simple & cheap to make, can be sold at a high margin because of the perceived value by consumers. Marketing strategies can make or break the product’s success in the marketplace.
An understanding of the marketing process informs the designer on the choices they are required to make to ensure the end product is profitable.
APPROACHES
The common kitchen scourer is a staple product of almost every kitchen around the world, yet it never crops up in design discussions. This ubiquitous product is an overlooked success story. The product itself is simple, basic & cheap. Though aesthetically lacking, it is a purposeful, easily replaceable product & derives its profits from economies of scale.
By contrast, Jakob Munk’s Dish Soap Foamer which sells for $38 (approx. £26) is a costly art piece which exudes quality, addressing the aesthetic & experience of doing dishes.
Both products have the same basic function, but apply very different design & marketing strategies & target very dissimilar markets.
AUDIENCE
It is vital to consider the market a product is aimed for in the product development phase. Just like a writer considering the reader, or an orator the audience, an evaluation of the consumer’s personality & expectations is necessary to ensure they are fulfilled. History is full of examples of product failures; a good example is the Sinclair C5. A revolutionary design in many ways, the product failed because it did not address key concerns of consumers. The market research process provides guidelines to a more formalized procedure to collect & analyze data regarding perception & needs of the consumers. Whilst helpful, surveys & focus groups have to be structured & analysed properly – or they are inaccurate & redundant.
AWARENESS
On the other hand, there have also been products developed that greatly simplifies the consumer’s life, but failed to catch on due to a lack of marketing strategy.
For 15 years, Otto Rohwedder struggled to find sufficient market for our epitome of great everyday inventions, sliced bread. Yet his design solution was complete – in developing a bread slicing machine, he realised that a method of preserving the bread slices was required to preserve the bread’s freshness & incorporated a bagging mechanism in his patent. He eventually sold the patent to Wonder (a large bakery chain in the US), which marketed & distributed sliced bread to commercial success.
FAILURES
A study by Linton, et. all showed that the failure rate for new product introductions in the retail grocery industry is between 70 to 80%. This is a savvy market with many dedicated marketing consultants to its name & it proves just how competitive the consumer market is.
Perhaps the most important aspect of marketing to designers is branding. A brand is an experience – the compilation and distillation of non-conflicting ideas, messages, and imagery in a singular and clear vision to create a brand identity, so that when any of it’s components stand alone, they immediately associate it with the rest. The end-game is to create instant recognition by impact and uniqueness, & provide value-added assurance of quality. It creates a perceived value, appealing to the consumer’s emotional recesses.
SUMMARY
It is not surprising that many decisions in the product development phase are informed by the overarching marketing strategy of the business entity – many aspects of the design process are intrinsically linked with the marketing process, more so than other core business activities like finance & human resource management. However, design principles are scalable to all aspects of an organisation, & an appreciation of different processes in an organisation helps the designer apply a more holistic approach to his/her work. Jaguar CEO, David Smith understands this, and highlighted the importance of good design to be integrated to all business activities.
In many cases, I feel that it is futile to separate the two activities. You do not design neglecting your market strategy, & you do not market neglecting your design. They work in synergy, informing, communicating & integrating with each other both upstream & downstream to shape a company’s image & direction - even with everyday services like the banking industry. Perhaps more importantly, for it is in the most homogeneous industries where the difference marketing makes can really count.
LINKS
Jakob Munk's Dish Soap Brush System
Seth Godin on Sliced Bread
TED.com
David Smith on Investing in Our Future
MacLaren Memorial Lecture, Aston University