“What do I need a designer for?”
This is a question uttered by many of those who have at some time invested in a new brochure, website or maybe a logo. “I can do that myself” – and why not, you are entitled to do so, you have Microsoft Word, you know what looks good… right?
It is very easy to dismiss the creative craft as ‘fluffy’ and assume that any individual with a design program and an ounce of creativity merits the title ‘designer’. But perhaps the role of a designer needs to be considered a little deeper. Let’s start with when you need a designer: simply stated this is whenever a corporate asset is audience-facing. In the case of your website or company intranet, not only does design consider the creative elements like colours and logos, but it is also responsible for usability and accessibility. Usability because there is no sense in investing thousands of pounds in integrated state of the art online technologies if the user doesn’t know where to log in. Accessibility; not just about considering the blind using a website, this is also about people who are dyslexic requiring text to be laid out in a logical way, or those accessing your site through a mobile phone. These are all users, all must be considered. A designer is there to think about these people, and knows how to talk to them.
“Can I use anyone who calls themselves a designer?” Well that is entirely up to you. You may know a chap around the corner working from his bedroom who says he can do it for a song, but… if he was any good surely he would be working in a studio? It is important to feel confident that you are getting what is best for you and your business, and that it is being represented in a way that best reflects your service. Good design can enable your business to operate on many levels. Don’t let a poor design be the deciding factor in someone placing their business elsewhere.
Getting a designer with the right attributes to take your business forward is paramount; as I have said it is not just about the ‘fluffy’, although that is a large part of it, but also requires experience and understanding of what has come before. Deciding to include or exclude/avoid certain elements on this basis is critical to the success of a design and its impact with the target audience.
So simply taking a brief and deploying based solely on the requirements without considering historical elements can lead to ineffectual design. On the flip side of this, consideration/incorporation of what has come before can lead to a more successful result. An example of this is the 2008 Obama election campaign, which drew considerable inspiration from the Kennedy Campaign and the iconic imagery of Dr King Jr. This influences the target audience, promoting an emotional response and trust in something /someone they know little about, largely by association. This is no mistake, the designer with his understanding of design and historical knowledge was able to use it to great effect: experience can give you something a little more.
Understanding how to overcome challenges is another thing that comes with experience. These may be challenges faced many times before, but finding a fresh approach to a solution is what adds value. An example of this can be found in the TaylorMade Center of Excellence site; this is a professional fitting service offered to TaylorMade customers, their site needed to be an engaging brand supported flagship for the service and act as a transaction booking facility. The solution to this was developing a flash site that worked as an online brochure and information source, with frequent calls to action to a simple calendar based booking system. The culmination of which has surpassed revenue expectations in the first year.
Getting it right first time. Now this is something every designer strives towards, and the longer you have been a designer the better you become at taking a brief and ensuring you have all the elements you need to produce the goods at the first attempt. Experiencing the feeling of utter rejection when a client throws the best part of two weeks’ work to the floor and tells you, “I don’t like it but I am not sure why” gives you even more incentive to get it right. This is, however, all part of being a good designer; if you don’t fall, you can’t learn how to pick yourself up.
Ultimately, fifteen odd years’ training and learning and a team’s collaborative experience of working with some of the most difficult… sorry… selective clients gives good designers an understanding of what works and what doesn’t. Design is still very much a collaborative effort between the client and the creative; it needs to be based on trust and belief. When this works the results can be… more than you expected.
Bilbo
The Importance of Being Earnest (with Data)
- ‘Rumpole of the Bailey’ DVD box set
- ‘The Beatles’ Rock Band PS3
- ‘Zulu’ on Blu-ray
- Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
- Tomy Octopals Bath Toy
What is this? I’ll tell you, it’s a list of the last five things I bought from Amazon!
- Sirloin steak
- Mixed salad
- Kellogg’s Bran flakes
- The Times
- Nurofen
What is it? The contents of my shopping basket and I’m on my way to the checkout. It’s a simple process, I just hand over my Amex card, my reward card and the job is done. And just before I came in, I used the same cards to pay for my petrol.
So where’s the rub? Well, if we fast forward a month or so, I will get ‘recommendations’ from Amazon – based, not only on what I’ve previously bought, not only what I’ve ‘viewed’ but also based on what other people who bought what I bought, have then gone on to buy!! Clever isn’t it? And then the lovely supermarket sends me some money-off vouchers for – wait for it – Fillet steak, own label Bran Flakes and Australian red wine (well something must have caused the headaches!).
In the data world, there is no emotion, no judgements, simply a set of binary transactions that it needs humans to write business rules and interpretations around. Of course it’s a bit more than just knowing I’m a closet Barrister, how I probably vote or what my likely household income is. In both cases the Retailer has built up a profile of me through the choices I make (and don’t make). My newspaper may hint at who I’m likely to vote for in an election and what kind of social demographic I fall into. My nightly purchases may indicate I’m single and the lack of nappies and baby food means it’s a safe bet I’ve no children under four. But hold on a minute – you bought the ‘Tomy Octopals Bath Toy’?? True – but it was for my nephew (age two) and simply a ‘rogue or unusual’ transaction as far as data trending is concerned.
Great lessons in how to use customer data, gathered through transactions, and then used to generate relevant, compelling offers. It’s an example of data mining and it’s used by more and more companies across the world. I’ll bet your supermarket/garage/High Street retailer does it, and it’s something you’ve probably bought into. But how do I, as a small B2B organisation, apply these strategies to my business?
In marketing, data mining’s used for quite a few purposes. Amongst other things, it can help companies identify their best prospects and segment their markets to personalise communications between themselves and the prospect. It can produce timely, relevant campaigns – reminding you that we’ve got a new version of the product you bought/lease finance you needed/coffee beans you use. It can also increase their cross-selling opportunities among existing customers, and help retain them. And it really is as easy as that – you hold all the data within your organisation – in spreadsheets, in Accounting systems, in CRM platforms, in website databases. So you know what customers have previously bought, what prospects and customers have viewed on your website, you know what they’ve clicked in your emarketing campaigns. You just need to access that information, pull it together, then use the information to create dynamic, relevant communication strategies for all your customers, both existing and potential. Simple in reality and in practice – it just needs an organisation to fully appreciate the value that can be generated by using data to properly profile and communicate with audiences.