ALL TOGETHER NOW

Collaboration - How Design Works with Marketing

Marketing and Design both have the same goal – creating well designed products, leading to well executed campaigns to ultimately convert viewers into customers. Marketing and Design also have a lot in common, in that a successful marketer will use a creative process to develop new and stimulating ideas, whereas a good designer will have a sound understanding of marketing and also the drive to understand the customer. So how can marketing and design work together and what can they learn from each other?

The Market

Marketing needs to have a thorough understanding of their product market and customer base. They need to know what their customer wants, what their competition is doing, what their overall market position is and where there may be room for improvement. Marketing tends to be grounded in research and will work towards a measurable goal, which is usually based on finance. Therefore Marketing is the bridge between the product and the marketplace. So how can Marketing go about creating the best possible customer experience within that market?

This is where Design gets involved. Design is responsible for creating the link between the product and the customer, but this can only happen if Marketing and Design can work together right from the very beginning of the project to bring their knowledge and ideas to the table. A good example of this might be that they both attend the initial client meetings together rather than one briefing the other where important details can get lost in translation. This will enable questions to be asked from both disciplines to fully understand what the client’s expectations are, giving a clear understanding of the design brief and hopefully simplifying the whole process of bringing a product to market.

The Brand

A brand cannot be created solely by Marketing or Design. A brand exists only in the mind of the customer. Its success is measured by the number of interactions a customer has with the company and its products.

Therefore, Marketing should concentrate on how to build a strong brand. Who are their existing customers? Should the business aspire towards a different customer or market? Who are these new customers? These questions and more importantly the answers need to be discussed with Design to achieve a shared goal for this project.

Similarly, Design may want to try alternative strategies, create a different tone of voice and work with ideas to help build the brand. This is where Design needs to work alongside Marketing to deliver the right campaign to help build a strong brand in the eyes of the customer. A good all-round knowledge of the intended customer by both Marketing and Design is paramount towards the success of the brand.

The Product

If a company does not have a great product, the marketing of that product will not always be successful. What may help here is a process known as Design Thinking.

Design Thinking is a different way of approaching product development, business strategy and marketing issues to help create fresh new ideas. Traditional marketing tends to focus on groups of people to communicate with as efficiently as possible, whereas Design Thinking concentrates on seeing people as individuals and working to appeal to that particular person in such a way that they will then communicate to others about the product, helping to promote the brand and its values.

Design Thinking is based mainly on brainstorming and ideas generation, which is where Marketing and Design can work together to combine all their skillsets to produce a product or campaign that is perfectly suited for the existing customer or that even has the potential of being able to attract new customers.

Marketing and Design therefore need to understand each other’s skill sets. Each will approach a project in a different way, but by working together and sharing each other’s knowledge and objectives, the results will help show a greater understanding of their existing customer, introduce new ideas that are relevant to that consumer and go towards creating a whole new customer base which will ultimately drive increased product sales.

Please note that the views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this article belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to any other group or individual. To ensure you are fully compliant with all current legislation, please take legal/professional advice and do not rely solely on the information provided in these articles.