Good Design Sells

There is no doubt that a well designed world is a better world to live in. This applies to many different aspects of our daily lives. Consider your experience walking through the Philadelphia Museum of Art, flipping through a magazine with beautiful imagery and layouts, or shopping at an upscale boutique. These interactions are all made more enjoyable by the appeal of the aesthetic surrounding them. A good looking product is more desirable to the user than one that appears underdone or overlooked. Good design sells. If aesthetic is so alluring, why shouldn’t this be considered a crucial component to the success of a business?

Design consideration should be at the core of business development. A lack of consideration for the design of your company and the products you market is selling yourself short. Design is emerging as a critical strategic component of American management and commerce. Your business’s aesthetic is a contributing factor to the decisions consumers make about your products or services, and whether or not they are interested in what you offer. Visual appeal is your driving force.

When a consumer is presented with numerous options about a particular good or service, you want to be the chosen one. But if you’re offering the same product as 10 other companies, what’s going to make you stand out? Desirability plays an important and often decisive role in product selection. Aesthetics can make your product seem more trustworthy and professional, which are major selling points in any marketplace. Consumers make decisions based on reliability and trust, so you need to make them feel like they are in intelligent and responsible hands. This is where designers and marketers can work hand-in-hand to assess what consumers are responding to and, if necessary, rebrand or redesign your product.

An excellent example of a successful rebrand is Dimaquina’s design update to Aquarius Fresh, a product of Coca Cola Brazil. The old packaging of the product was pretty unremarkable, which made it difficult to stand out to consumers in the marketplace as a choice soda. In 2009, the brand reevaluated itself and considered what really distinguished them from other sodas, its bright colors. Playing up the colorized liquid was key to establishing the soda as a satisfying sensory experience. This was achieved by making the packaging largely transparent and highlighting the vibrancy of each different drink. The updated packaging really distinguished the soda from its competitors. In Coca Cola’s 2010 Annual Report, Aquarius was listed as one of their 14 billion dollar brands, which speaks to the success of the redesign completed in the previous year. The colorful design is still successfully employed today.

Whether you’re in the process of establishing a start up business or thinking of revamping your company’s look, there are a few important points to consider:

What is the message you want to convey? Any design decisions should be made with an end-goal in mind. You want your customers to feel a certain way about your business and this should be reflected in the image you project to them. Without considering your message, you may be confusing your consumers with conflicting ideas or lack of direction.

Who are you marketing your product to? This point is somewhat an extension of the last, but it’s a crucial consideration. Aside from the general message you want to convey, you need to consider who will be receiving it. These considerations should be shown in the decisions you make about the look and feel of your product or business.

If you are redesigning, will the changes be minor or a complete revamp? When updating an existing company’s identity, it’s important not to lose all recognition from your brand’s loyal consumers. Some companies choose to make subtle changes to their look periodically in order to stay fresh and modern, while others may make more drastic changes. In either case, your new design should still speak to the previous look to retain brand awareness.

Redesigning your business involves a number of very important decision making processes. Vandelay Design laid out a number of key things to consider when doing a revamp. This is a great place to start when brainstorming about what direction your company should be moving in. Consideration of your target audience, what message you seek to convey, and a close attention to design details should likely lead to a great redesign and an appealing company look.