Design to deliver

There are many informative books, papers, blogs and webinars devoted to the role of design in branding. Many of these are directed to large organizations with million or billion dollar budgets devoted to brand development. So how does the small business, or even the one-person direct-sale business utilize this information. Does it even apply?

Yes, it does apply, and happily for the small guys, it works. Since I choose to work with small companies, my focus is always on how design benefits these smaller organizations, as well as the one-person business. So let’s break it down.

Designing your promise.

I have been in many strategic marketing sessions where the topic was “Creating the Promise” of the brand. This has been prevalent in marketing for many years, and it means that the communication a business has with its market is focused on the “What’s in it for me” mentality that is designated to the market. Another way to look at it is focusing on the “benefits” of the product, not just the features; so instead of talking about  how great the newest gadget or service is, they talk about how the gadget or service will make a consumer’s life better.

This has merit; remembering that marketing is about communicating with people-live human beings, not just numbers is good, so yes, benefits are a good thing to talk about. This was most effective when people depended on the company to supply all the information about a product or service through marketing efforts. People had only their own experience and the company’s promise to go by. But today, the market has the Internet. Today a person can investigate the product, get instant feedback from people who have actually used the product or service and share their own experience good or bad. In other words, people don’t have to take your word for it when you tell them about the benefits of using your product or service.

So what does that mean? It means that making promises through your brand is not enough….your product or service must actually keep the promise. It’s pretty old-fashioned actually. Sort of like “Truth in advertising-The Next Generation”.

Will she ever talk about design?

Well yes, in fact, all of this is about design. Merriam-Webster dictionary defines graphic design as:the art or profession of using design elements (as typography and images) to convey information or create an effect. Once the work of defining your business’s promise and how you intend to keep it is determined, designing an effective vehicle to communicate this is imperative. After all, if the market doesn’t understand your message, how can they respond? So the business understanding exactly what needs to be communicated is key. And for small businesses, this can be a challenge, because each person involved in the company usually has several hats to wear and little time to devote to this effort. The best they can do is throw a few ads out when they get offered a special advertising rate somewhere. But since there has been no planning, no big-picture consideration and they rarely have access to a professional designer, they depend upon the graphics department at the publication to provide an ad, which may look good, but has no relevance to the company’s big picture marketing efforts. I am not knocking the ad designer at all! I work with several publications, so I can tell you from years of actual experience, there is often little thought as to how sporadic advertising can effect the big picture…if there even is a big picture.

How Do You Design a Promise?

Good question. According to Chris Rockwell of Lextant, there is actually an equation that can sum up how a brand promise (he refers to brand satisfaction) is formed by the market: BRAND SATISFACTION = BRAND EXPERIENCE – BRAND EXPECTATIONS*. In other words: if a customer has a bad experience with the product after having expectations built up (through marketing) then you lose them. If they have a positive experience with little or no expectation (they see the marketing message but they aren’t just taking your word for it yet-this is why social networks are so relevant),  you win a new customer;  if the customer is familiar with your business, and has a positive experience with your product or service, then you retain a customer AND build his or her loyalty.

So the moral of the story is design can articulate your brand’s promise…set the stage for a positive experience, and help build loyalty. Next week we’ll talk about how to “reach out and touch someone”…..(do you remember the company that slogan was used for?)

*Design Management Review Spring 2008