Do you feel that designers are the creative types who don’t have to know anything about the science of selling? Well, you are missing out. Designers with marketing skills and aptitude can be the strongest soldiers in your army. And they can help you beat competitors to a pulp.
Check out why your designers should be good marketers right here.
Marketing and design are not just two different professions, but entirely different mindsets. That being said, marketers and designers are like peas in a pod. They ultimately need to work hand in hand. Only then will they fulfill the organization’s branding and revenue generation needs.
“Marketing and design work towards the accomplishment of the same business goals. The difference lies in the approach that is taken.”
Let’s take an example to see how marketing and design function in the real world.
Imagine a room full of people shouting promotional messages. Suddenly you see a banner that captures your attention. That’s the goal of design. Attracting people. But what if the banner is about a product/service that’s irrelevant to you? You’d just shift your gaze elsewhere, right? That’s where marketing comes in. With data-backed marketing, the right banner would have been shown to the target audience. That would have eventually led to you walking towards the banner and making a purchase.
Thus, design without marketing insights in mind is nothing more than pretty pictures.
This also stands true for website design, UI/UX design, and even product design. Whatever your designers create needs to be both relevant and visually appealing. Only then would it be able to make a difference. If it is not both, it is not worth it.
Now let’s break it down to 4 strong reasons why you need designers with marketing know-how.
Understanding the Brand Focus and Ensuring That the Design Syncs With Brand Messaging
That’s a cool image, right? It is designed beautifully. It conveys a strong message of strength and royalty. A cool icon overall, isn’t it?
But would you want it on your iPhone? The lion looks way better than the half-eaten apple.
But for your iPhone and Mac, you want the latter only.
Now imagine Apple’s team of designers trying to convince the CMO to change the logo.
“Why?”, the CMO would ask.
“Simply because we have a better design to offer.”, the designers would argue,
That’s the kind of conflict you can avoid by having designers with fair marketing acumen.
And it is not just about the logo. It can be the design of your product. The UI/UX of your website or app. Your social media graphics. Or any other visual. Before being pretty, it has to be in sync with the brand focus and brand messaging.
Remember: Design marvels go only as far unless they are marketing marvels too.
Customizing Designs to Meet the Needs/Wants of Specific Audiences
A majority of marketing activities revolve around crunching data and understanding audiences. And the insights you receive from this activity are golden.
When you know who your audience is, where they are from, their demography, and what they like, it can become a breeze to design experiences and solutions that meet their specific needs and wants. Designers who understand marketing insights will be able to structure and customize their designs for your target audience.
Let’s take color choices, for example. Various types of research and studies have shown that demographic differences lead to a difference in how colors are perceived by different people.
Now while selecting a color palette for your brand, you need designers to take into consideration not just color theory but also this demography-based color psychology. And this consideration would come naturally to a designer who understands the core concepts of marketing and user-centric designs.
Generating Valid Returns on Investment
Your ultimate motivation behind getting design services is profits, right? Now you don’t expect people to fish out their wallets just by seeing a good website design. But you do want the website design to be intuitive such that it pushes people to make a purchase.
For that, you need designers who understand how they can work to generate valid returns on investment.
Let’s take an example.
You are set to launch a footwear line. Your target customer is a 30+ business professional who needs classy, yet comfortable footwear for daily wear.
Here are two design options:
The first design – the funky-colored cool sneakers – is designed by someone who is creatively inclined. Of course, the sneakers will go viral on social media and people will flock to your website.
You’ll get social media buzz as well as website traffic. But when the visitors will see that you don’t actually sell shows like that, but formal footwear, they’d leave empty-handed. This will negatively affect your brand image. And of course, yield no tangible return on investment.
The second design might not go viral and won’t even become the talk of the town tomorrow. But at least the right audience will feel confident in visiting your website and making a purchase. This will strengthen your brand and result in actual purchases.
This design, of course, is made by designers who understand what kind of returns you are looking for.
Working In Sync With the Phases of the Business Life Cycles
There are 5 stages of a business life cycle are –
- Launch
- Growth
- Shake-out
- Maturity
- Decline
In each of these stages, business decision-making varies. And so do design requirements.
- In the first stage, launch, for example, businesses need designs that help them create a positive buzz in the market and help them stand out.
- In the next phase, growth, however, businesses want consistency in design which will help build a strong and stable brand.
- Later on, in the shakeout phase when the profits start to decline due to market saturation, the designs have to be fresh and revitalizing.
- During maturity, the focus is on redesigning and reinventing the brand. If that doesn’t work well for the business…
- In the decline phase, designers will be the first ones who’ll be let go as business profits consistently decline.
A designer, who has market and business understanding will be able to identify the phases of a business life cycle. And that will reflect in their designs. Subsequently, with suitable designs, the business will always be able to stay fresh, without leaving the brand focus. This will be suitable for both businesses and the designers they employ.
Bridging the Design-Marketing Gap
The market is becoming more competitive with each passing day. Laser sharp focus on the market and goal-oriented designs are the need of the hour. And as a business, if you want to achieve the synergies of design and marketing, you need your designers to be good marketers too.
While you don’t want them to spearhead your marketing campaigns, you definitely need them to at least consider the marketing perspective before designing. This would not just avoid the design vs. marketing battle but also help generate harmony in the organization.
At SeekThem, you’ll find multidisciplinary experts and cross-functional teams. And these are the people who bring together the best of both – the marketing and design – worlds. With SeekThem’s team of UI UX designers, you can simply sit back and relax. And the experts will create aesthetically-pleasing, market-relevant designs.
Designs, which will yield both buzz ad business.
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