Design is imperative to differentiating and distinguishing a product for something other than quality or value. It is a key link between recognition and desirability, and acts as a direct link to brand recognition.
Some of the most successful companies in the world – Nike, Apple, IKEA, just to name a few – are the companies that are rooted in innovation and design. They have carved their company’s values into their consumers’ minds, establishing high brand recognition and loyalty. These companies have marketed their product culturally and allowed the consumer to identify to their products. More so, by making themselves a design company, they have made their products extremely desirable.
Design has an extremely powerful impact on brand. Think of when you visit a website that is poorly designed, and you become flustered or angry at the lack of organization and poor navigation. We translate those negative feelings into the product, tarnishing that company’s brand for the consumer. By investing in thoughtful and innovative design, company’s can better attract consumers, make themselves known as consumer-oriented, and give themselves a competitive advantage. In return, consumers are happy to advocate these brands and push out support via social media and word-of-mouth, further establishing this brand and paving a path to higher revenues.
Inspiration from five of the greatest names in design:
Gianfranco Zaccai, CEO of global design and innovation consultancy Continuum, in an interview with CNN on his views on what constitutes good design:
“I think these three principles apply to not just product design, but good design in general:
Empathy: empathy is a realization that you are not designing for yourself but for others. You have to get into the lives of the people who will use it.
Pragmatism: realize there are some things you have to deal with to fulfill this type of product or service. It has to fulfill the performance requirement, it has to be cost effective and it has to be producible — all things you can quantify.
Passion: if you just stop at what you can quantify and measure you haven’t gone far enough. Think about a great meal you have had. It’s not just the ingredients that make it great, but the creativity and sensitivity of cook that makes it special.”
Steve Jobs, Founder and CEO of Apple.
“It’s not about pop culture, and it’s not about fooling people, and it’s not about convincing people that they want something they don’t. We figure out what we want. And I think we’re pretty good at having the right discipline to think through whether a lot of other people are going to want it, too. That’s what we get paid to do.”
Michael Eisner, former CEO of Disney
“A brand is a living entity—and it is enriched or undermined cumulatively over time, the product of a thousand small gestures.”
Geoff Suvalko, Director of Thoughtful Design
“Design is the bridge that brings the business strategy to life. It can build intangible brand value for a business, so the business is worth more. We all know that the intangible brand value of Coke far outweighs the value of its tangible assets.”
Monika Conway, Director of ChalkDesignStudio
“Design is that competitive advantage that sets a company apart in the global market. Within the global economy, the highest performing companies see design as a strategic asset. It becomes the core to their businesses. For those companies, design is more than aesthetics—it’s competitive intellectual property.”
