How the right design strategy can enhance your business
Do you have a design strategy at play? To succeed in today’s ever challenging marketplace, businesses need to evolve and create unique and considered strategies. In other words, you need to stand out. To be ahead of your competitors, it is imperative to differentiate yourself from the pack, a task that may seem complex and involved. We believe that integrating a design strategy in your company can contextually innovate your business strategies and instantly bring them to life.
As designers, our role is not just to make things look pretty, but to turn specific business insights into meaningful outcomes that companies can leverage on. For every aspect of design there needs to be a well researched concept that underpins the business strategy in a creative and conceptual way. Most importantly it’s about listening to what your consumers need and understanding how they interact with and perceive your product or service.
We look beyond the creative brief to recommend the best solution for the problem at hand. We ask questions. What do your consumers really need? What are their perceptions? How are they feeling? Who are they and how do they respond to different design solutions? With this greater understanding we can push the design beyond just appealing aesthetics to create a meaningful, conceptual solution. We like to think about bigger longer-term results, the outcomes of each design decision and how it will affect your customers and the growth of your business.
There are various tools available that can integrate design strategy into your business. Specific social research techniques can reveal vital information on how your brand talks to your customers and vice-a-versa. Customer Journey Mapping is one of those tools, which visually identifies the journey of a customer with your brand and their interaction with your service. It can identify positive aspects of your business as well as possible flaws. Another technique is Empathy Mapping which focuses on how your customer feels during the different touchpoints when communicating with your company. By really getting to know your costumer you can have a better understanding of the type of design they will best respond to.
A successful design strategy will:
1. Highlight the benefits of your product/service
By promoting key advantages you will be able to achieve the best possible design solution.
2. Underline existing weaknesses of your product/service
Identifying and admitting there are possible deficiencies within your organisation is a useful exercise to achieve a positive design resolution.
3. Call attention to your consumer demands
What do your customer really want and how do they dictate your business? By anticipating changing attitudes of consumers you can better understand how they interact with your brand.
4. Point out emerging trends within your market
Your market is constantly evolving, creating new technologies and new demands. Preempting these changes before your competitors is paramount to making your company a leader in its field.
5. Differentiate your business by emphasising opportunities
By acting on different possibilities your business can gain latitude and change your consumers perceptions.
In today’s market, you need to be flexible. A design strategy forces you to re-think how you do business. It’s something that evolves almost organically by examining your company, your products and, most importantly, your customers. It should ultimately make your business more productive through successful evaluations and innovative foresight. Exciting brands don’t just grab your attention, they deliver the right products to the right people with the right message and of course are beautifully designed.
If you would like to find out how a design strategy can enhance your business, please call us on 07 3367 0394.