Why You Should Make Design a Part of Your Business Strategy

Whether it’s your website, logo, or any other marketing collateral, design plays a vital role in branding and promoting your business. A well designed collateral in business helps in making a good first impression.

We all know the iconic designs of Google and how Google Doodles keep us engaged. And do you remember the Disneyland experience? Those immersive designs keep kids and adults hooked. Both these are souvenirs of how design becomes the driving force of success in business.

In this blog post, we’ll discuss the importance of design and how making it a part of your business strategy can help it grow. Let’s take a look.

Design Gives Brands a Compelling Visual Identity

Businesses convey powerful messaging through design. For instance, you cannot imagine Nike without the “swoosh”. It rightly expresses the brand’s tagline – Just Do It. Sample another brand that excels with its design – Airbnb. Whether it is their website or social media handles, all of it reflects living an active life. And they do so with people-heavy imagery and their subtly placed creative pink logo. That’s how impactful design can be.

Make Design a Part of Your Business

From social media apps to online shopping, we choose products and services based on aesthetics and utility. Prioritizing design makes strategies more creative and products more compelling. It is a key identifier in driving business success and customer engagement. In fact, as per Adobe, design-led companies report 50%^[i] more loyal customers.

Here’s a quick glimpse into 4 basic ingredients to include design in your business strategy.

• Build a Design System: Create a platform which groups all the elements that will allow the team to design, realize, and develop a product. Include guidelines and a repository of patterns, components, and assets.
• Introduce a Design Process: Design a framework of methodologies and good practices to ensure a high quality standard and consistency in the work done.
• Promote a Design Culture: Make sure the design considerations are featured in every business meeting and asset of your company.
• Understand the Customer: Understanding customer behavior is critical to developing a winning design strategy. We have seen the shift to minimalistic designs and how people fondly engage with minimal branding. Thinking it from a customer perspective helps businesses build a more customer-centred approach while designing.

Why Good Design is Essential for Your Business?

Design-led businesses put design at the core of their brand. They weave design principles into everything. They think beyond the bottom line and focus on providing great experiences that foster long-term consumer relationships.

So, why should businesses invest in quality design? Here are a few factors to explain it.

Builds Strong Impression

An initial impression of a brand can be formed in less than a tenth of a second. And interestingly design plays a huge role in it. Your brand’s attractiveness, likeability, trustworthiness, and prolonged exposure reinforces the initial impression.

Helps Your Business to Stand Out

Every company faces stiff competition regardless of its industry. Often when consumers are given choices, they go with the one that they recognize. Humans are naturally attractiveness-biased and perceive beautiful things as better.

Builds Customer Relationships

Since relationships are based on sentiments, customers are often emotionally connected to a brand. Your designs should support the values of your business and strive to reach your customers’ hearts. Create relationships by building your brand’s visual identity on the foundation of emotional connection. There’s no other better way to secure consumer loyalty. And a great design is the most effective way to illustrate it.

Promotes Brand Consistency

How surprising it would be if Google starts displaying search results in cursive type all of a sudden. Or if McDonald’s decides to change their logo color to purple. Both these are more than just design elements. Rather, they are a part of their brand. Those designs are so unforgettable that it would be hard to imagine them changing. Design promotes brand consistency and consistency is key to creating a cohesive brand.

Design is the Key to Social Media Success

A major part of marketing efforts go to social media platforms. Social media is one of the best mediums to establish better connections with customers and touch base with the targeted audience. However, in the age of aesthetically pleasing content, your social media handles should be full of valuable information packed into appealing designs. So, whichever the medium, design leads from the front.

Conclusion

Good design is not just tied to success, it’s also tied to trust. It captures attention and creates opportunities in the most unexpected ways in the new age of digitization.

Ready to Boost Your Business With Good Design? Talk to Us!

Statistics References:
^[i] Adobe