Conventional marketing wisdom says a brand must engage, an average of 8-11 times, with their target market before they will make a purchasing decision.
That is a lot of ‘reach out and touch someone’ (thank you Ma Bell) moments of creativity that agencies and marketing experts need to foster. Even for the BEST of them, this is not a simple task. Content development, creativity, and an ability to see a product differently are just a few examples, of many challenges faced when developing an effective message for your brand. People experience the world differently. The ability to appeal to everyone on a consistent basis is no simple feat.
The advertising industry has defined marketing as the process by which goods and services are moved from concept to customer. Additionally, your brand must be expressed through the experience a product or service provides, rather than simply through creative ads.
So, not only must your business be capable of conceptualizing and subsequently launching a product or service, but it must also be able to ensure the EXPERIENCE your product or service provides is exceptional.
Marketing assumptions:
- Consumers need to hear about a brand at least 8-11 times before making a purchase decision.
- The brand must be authentic.
- The brand must appeal to different experiences.
Questions raised by these assumptions.
- How does one navigate from point (A) concept to point (Z) consumer?
- Through the journey of getting from point A-Z, how does a brand’s authenticity resonate with consumers of varying experiences?
- How do we then offer a favorable experience to a targeted market segment that may share similar interests, but are unique?
Enter Design Thinking!
Design thinking is a proven and repeatable problem-solving protocol that any business or profession can employ to achieve extraordinary results. It is a user-centered way of solving problems. It involves extensive collaboration, using strategies such as surveying, mapping customer journeys, concept creation, prototyping, and beta-testing. It’s actually not a new application for problem solving – but a long-standing practice that dates as far back as 1969 (see Wikipedia definition below). Only now – we have reached a time where marketers are now using scientific methodologies to assist in developing an effective branding strategy.
Design thinking starts at the top.
Design thinking is a mindset that teams take towards problem-solving. It requires a company’s leadership to make a bold commitment and set up the right conditions for creativity to thrive. It must become your corporate culture.
Design thinking is a multi-tiered strategy.
It is understood that a collaborative multidisciplinary approach is essential for design thinking and that multiple perspectives and teamwork are critical factors for success. When all departments and all personnel are brought into the collaborative process, the ability to consider all end-user experiences is greatly increased. Better answers happen when five people work on a problem for one day than one person for five days.
Design thinking starts with a “conceptualized” end user experience.
For most businesses, their products or services are about providing a solution to a problem. The end goal is to catapult their brand by creating products, and services that enhance and offer meaningful human experience.
Design thinking is an opportunity to create a better solution.
Good design is a critical factor when breaking into new markets. A traditional value proposition is a promise of utility: If you buy a BMW, the automaker promises that you will receive safe and comfortable transportation in a well-designed high-performance vehicle. An emotional value proposition is a promise of feeling: If you buy a BMW, the automaker promises that you will feel pampered, luxurious, and affluent. In design-centric organizations, The focus on great experiences isn’t limited to product designers, marketers, and strategists—it infuses every customer-facing function. In design-centric proposition blends the traditional and emotional promise: of a safe, comfortable, and luxurious ride, with the enhanced customer experience from financing to roadside maintenance to door to door delivery of a dealer car while yours is being serviced.
At Invoke Media our goal is to help businesses get innovative by empowering the people who drive them. Contact us now to learn more about making your brand successful through design thinking.
From Wikipedia: Herbert Simon, in the “Sciences of the Artificial” (MIT Press, 1969) has defined “design” as the “transformation of existing conditions into preferred ones” (p.55). Design thinking is, then, always linked to an improved future. Unlike critical thinking, which is a process of analysis and is associated with the ‘breaking down’ of ideas, design thinking is a creative process based around the ‘building up’ of ideas. There are no judgments in design thinking. This eliminates the fear of failure and encourages maximum input and participation. Wild ideas are welcome, since these often lead to the most creative solutions. Everyone is a designer, and design thinking is a way to apply design methodologies to any of life’s situations.
