The Business of Design

Design as an industry is unique in that people outside of the industry think they can “design”. Designers, in house and agency side, all struggle to find their unique differentiator to validate their discipline and add value. Here are a few lessons I have learned in my years as a design professional, solving design problems for a wide variety of clients.

Learn the business.

Some internal designers tend to be more focused on what they do rather than who they are doing it for. I always stress to my internal teams that the key differentiator for them being in house is knowledge. And, I’ve always been surprised how many had little desire or interest to really understand the companies and products they worked for. Internal design teams have a leg up on external agencies. We have deep knowledge and insights into customers that should give us an unfair advantage. The more the business sees that design is really connected to the company and the customers, the more they just might let you try some of your crazy ideas.

Remove Subjectivity

• Design can be validated. Design can be tested. There are principles that as designers we must learn, adhere to and evangelize.

• As design professionals, we need to be able to have conversations about ROI. Real impact of design changes. Design can move the needle.

• Design for design sake has no place in business. Design for solving real problems does. Speak about design in a language that the business will understand. Show them how a “thinking like a designer” approach can help get to better solutions to business problems quickly.

Solve Real problems

Only when we are solving real needs do we truly add value. It isn’t enough to find a proxy for the customer. Especially today. The market is crowded in whatever field you are in. The consumer is educated. They’ve been exposed to more and more custom-tailored solutions. Only by going deep. Mining deep insights from real customer can we begin to understand real problems. Real problems = real opportunity. We used to talk in terms of “felt need” let’s return to that.

BASF: How to almost get it right.

Skin that Loves the Sun. Sticky Loves Wet. Noses that Love Paint. BASF has created a masterful ad campaign that demonstrates the true value of the company. Building Chemistry. Chemistry. Not the science of matter, but the science of interactions. Lovers have chemistry. People have chemistry. BASF has finally made you care about what they do, even if you don't understand the what.

BASF has a brand challenge in that they don't make end products, but supply the chemical innovations to allow manufacturers to make better products. Whew. Try marketing that. So, when they rolled out the new branding campaign you see here, and recently started airing on TV, I thought, "they finally got it right." Well. Close. The ads are brilliant. They create a type of chemistry. Chemistry in the sense of a positive interaction between two traditional enemies.  Paint and noses. Skin and sun. BASF and the general public. But, where I think (and I may be the only one) they fall down is in their tag line. The headlines read "We create chemistry" which is a strong position. But the tagline "The Chemical Company" takes them away from the aspirational, to the mundane. Ho Hum. A Chemical company.

Close. Very Close.