Problem Solving
Conventional wisdom for consumer businesses would say forget all that marketing jargon and mumbo jumbo when times get tough and get back to basics: focus on sales, sales, sales. Use the most obvious levers you have (price, promotion, cheaper communication channels) to keep the cash coming in and worry about ‘building internal audience brand awareness’ when times get better. All of which may be good advice, particularly in retail and consumer businesses which traditionally operate on the slimmest of margins.
But there are also dangers that lurk in the dash for cash. Adopt too strong a price-led proposition and you risk being unable to change that model when times get better. Switch to unfamiliar channels only and you may find that you get lost in the increasing noise. The proliferation of channels, media and opportunities for experiential marketing mean there has never been greater choice for clients seeking to engage with hard-to-reach audiences.
But just because you can do something doesn’t mean you always should.
The same is just as true for service and professional businesses, whether consumer or business-focussed. And particularly so for all those not at the leading edge of their industry or sector – the niche businesses and non-corporates which make up a significant proportion of our economy.
So part of any company’s ‘back to basics’ approach in recessionary times should be a renewed focus on the reasons people buy your product, service or proposition.
Difficult as it may be to find time, on the KISS principle, everyone needs to focus on what it is they’re really selling and make sure that: number one, your customers still want it; and, number two, it’s fully and well understood by both customers and staff. And this is where investing in good strategic design can really help. In articulating that proposition in words and in pictures. On pack, in print and online. And to customers and customer champions alike.
Because above all, design is a truly medium-neutral discipline. Fundamentally a process of problem-solving, it’s sometimes intuitive, sometimes wholly (and strictly) rational. But it is an activity, not an end in itself. It doesn’t (and can’t) live in a vacuum. And it produces the best results when it is carried out in a collaborative way with client, designer (and, in our case, writer) working together.
Good design is not about style (though some of its results may be very stylish indeed). It’s about approaching problems (of form, function or communication) with a particular mindset which seeks first of all to rigorously interrogate the need (let’s make sure there’s a problem here to be solved) before moving on to propose solutions which meet it.
This may be the reason why many design businesses are not as profitable as their compatriots in other marketing disciplines – because their fundamental interest is in solving the problem rather than maximising their income or pursuing a particular channel. But it’s that very questioning at the start of the process, I believe, which also makes design – and designers – such a good investment at times of economic stress and stretch.
Because for every business, whether in good times or bad, it’s the hole, not the drill, that’s important.