The world of marketing is interesting yet ferocious. Over the years several marketing techniques have been introduced to lure the customers towards different offerings. This has not only created competition in the market, but has also been the sole source of survival for many brands. There are different departments in an organization, inter-related to one another, that look after the marketing activities of a brand, either directly or indirectly. Amongst these is the design department that holds the utmost linkage with the department of marketing. Design allows for a lot of creativity as required by marketing and hence, the two tend to go hand in hand.
The relationship between design and marketing is like that of bread and butter, you can have bread without butter but when it has to be with butter it needs to be spread well. Likewise, marketing without design is possible, however; if a company plans on incorporating design to their marketing activities, the assimilation has to be done right. Consider walking down a trail, while viewing a plain white billboard saying, “Buy our newly launched television”. Will this statement prove to be intimidating enough to get you to make the purchase? If your answer’s No, then try pondering over the reasons ‘why’. Till then we will take a leap into the idea of how design can play a major role in the marketing of a brand.
SEE ALSO: Important Factors in Building Brand Identity
• It helps ensure consistency
When promoting a brand, a flashy ad on the television is not enough. There has to be more communication and interaction with the customers that could drive them towards the brand. This communication can be made possible via social media, bill boards, or any other form of print advertisement. Now imagine for a second, a toothbrush brand that is to be marketed through a television ad and poster. Further envision the television ad to follow a blue and white color theme, whereas; the poster design to adhere to a purple color theme. Will the customers be able to build a connection between the two forms of the advertisements? Absolutely not, because the brand isn’t being consistent in its communication.
A brand needs to give off a uniform message to its customers in terms of the conversation it initiates, the colors it uses, and the image it portrays, since the easiest and most effective way to ensure consistency is through designs. Inconsistency can result in the creation of confusion amongst customers that can ultimately make the brand lose its image. Hence, clever are those who focus on the nitty gritties of their brand while keeping the core elements, in their designs, homogenous for the sake of enhanced understanding of the message being delivered.
• Makes the idea clear
A thousand words may be insufficient to explain something that a single picture can, in seconds. Hence, designs help explain the purpose of the brand to the customers in a better and more effective manner. This makes a five minutes television advertisement equivalent to a glance at a post published on facebook, and that too at a much cheaper cost than the one paid for making the former ad live. Also, the colors and fonts used in a design grab the attention of the customers better than an unwanted television ad airing between clutters of other ads. This explanation here does not mean to lower the importance of television ads but to highlight the significance of design in the world of marketing.
It is not unusual for companies to put up long videos on social media sites for the sake of explaining the purpose of their existence. However; consider yourself in the place of their customers, would you prefer listening to a 10-minute long video just to find out that a particular company has been founded to sell dresses that you may or may not wish to purchase, or that the company has been founded for the sake of providing cheap transport facilities to the residents of the society? How about transferring the same information to a poster design while saving the 10 minutes of the customers whereas; 90 minutes, of the management, served in shooting and making the video live?
We are living in a fast paced world where customers are short of time. Hence, short and concise remains their mantra during all times. Therefore; marketing that does not waste the customer’s time is appreciated and loved by all.
• Guarantees high reach
Today’s world has observed a high rate of social media usage. People are crazy after checking their newsfeed from the time they wake up to the time they go back to sleep. During the course of their routine, they encounter several posts on these social media platforms, some of which appear interesting while others remain uninteresting and dreary. These people are also habitual of sharing the posts that align with their utter interest while making others in their network view and re-share the same. This glimpse of the routine activities that customers perform on social media platforms gives enough idea of the reach that a post is capable of attaining if published on a renowned platform. Though, posting is not the only requirement for a design to attain reach; there are other factors that come in to action as well that ensure the frequency with which a post is shared, nevertheless, a post being posted on a social media site is likely to gain double the reach then if marketed through other traditional modes of marketing.
• Helps break through the clutter
The world of marketing is extremely cluttered with little space for a brand to shine amongst the rest. This clutter results in the diversion of a brand’s potential clients to other similar brands of their interest. The diversion hence, proves to be disastrous for a brand which is trying to make new customers while retaining the existing ones. Now, there are several things that can help a brand break through this clutter while making the brand standout. These may include a distinct offering, a unique style of conversation, or an exclusively designed poster. The former two may require the brand’s management team to change the core elements of its business, however; the design option is often the most feasible and easy-to-opt-for choice. A design, that is unique and different from the designs of the rest of the brand competitors, is likely to capture the attention of the target while subsiding the rest. Hence, a design has the power to break through the clutter and can do so if given due attention to details and particulars.
• Helps create the first impression
Taking in to account its reach, it is possible for a design to be the first thing that a customer views with respect to a brand. Hence, this calls for the design to be making a first impression on its customers. Now that’s a big responsibility to deal with for which a proper strategy is required to be created. Making a good first impression is not an easy task and needs to be handled with care for the sake of achieving the goal. Failing in this phase, would sway away all the potential customers of the brand since a brand that is unable to influence its target in the first go will be unable to do it in the later attempts as well; at least this would be the perception that the customers would make of the brand.
Though it is not a hard and fast rule that the first impression would stay forever, nevertheless; the chances of it happening are pretty high. Therefore; a brand should better be careful then sorry. An appealing design for a new brand will never harm anyone and so the activity should be performed in order to gain the appreciation and favor of the customers.
Conclusion
After reading through the details of how design helps play a role in a brand’s marketing you must have realized why the plain television billboard won’t help much in promoting the brand. Our eyes look for distinction; they are attracted to things that appear to be different from the rest and so an appealing design that is colorful and flashy could be of true help to a brand. Grabbing the attention of the target audience, these designs can bring in new people to try the product while also retaining the existing one’s for its credibility. Hence, if your marketing team is new and requires time to come in to action, let your design team look after the promotions. They won’t disappoint you.