The value of Design, brand building’s Swiss army knife.

Full disclosure. I have a natural disposition to lean into the value of design, having spent the past six years working with the likes of Mondeléz, Mars Wrigley and Nestlé, where design is a key function of their business. That’s unsurprising given that the majority of decision-making for their consumers is made in the last few steps before encountering their products, and therefore being easy to recognise and providing compelling reasons to act is becoming increasingly important.

Likewise, my partner in crime Alby Furfaro , 303 MullenLowe ’s Head of Design is another advocate, having seen the impact of his work on Australian brands across multiple categories, and with a workflow brimming with new projects.

Those of us in the marketing industry will most likely be familiar with the work of the Ehrenberg Bass Institute. They talk about the importance of investing in the creation and consistent use of visual, verbal and auditory cues to support brand growth, essentially tangible points of distinctiveness. Adding to the industry debate, Kantar has recently shared their own data pointing to the fact that distinctive assets are not enough to create meaningful difference, and brands should invest in the intangible means of creating difference.

Looking at both points of view, design has the ability to influence both the tangible and intangible, yet its importance is not widely understood or readily embraced.

When I asked Alby for his point of view he said “To think of design as just ‘graphics’ underestimates its influence and where its impact can be felt. It can be seen across organisations in retail environments, product innovation, experience design, communication. It brings purpose to life. It creates multi-sensorial connections with a brand. And it acts as a key creative differentiator”. I couldn’t have put it better myself.

Its impact on business performance is reported to be witnessed in a 32% increase in revenue growth and 56% increase in stakeholder returns according to McKinsey, it’s time for brands without design baked into their thinking to reconsider its importance. What’s more, design doesn’t have to come at a huge cost and its long-term impact can be felt in terms of the efficiency it can drive in terms of providing clarity and focus in brand-building efforts.

Theory and evidence aside, it’s not just in the world of FMCG where design has a role to play in helping brands express themselves in a way that connects with consumers through creating new associations, tapping into existing memory structures, or taking category conventions and flipping them on their heads.

Some of the most innovative design can be seen in categories where traditionally function has been the most important thing to communicate and find difference in. FemTech brands like Elvie are bringing an emotive approach to both their Distinctive Look & Feel and the sensory perceptions and experience, as Kantar describes them.

In the Health & Wellness space, vitamin brands like Bloomies have cottoned onto the fact that there’s value in creating products that no longer have to be hidden in bathroom cabinets and are communicating on a whole other semiotic level than just efficacy.

AJ Bell is a case study in how to leverage design in the development of their sub brand DODL. Having identified an audience need (to make investment less scary), they’ve developed an organising thought that stretches from their brand mascot to their tone-of-voice and each and every UX interaction.

And looking more historically, AirBnB made the decision to enhance perceptions of the experience they offer, moving from a transactional property listings website to a lifestyle brand.

What have all of these businesses got in common? Firstly, they’ve got a clear philosophy driving the way that they express themselves. This sense of organisational purpose gives design its very own purpose, be it to create truly innovative products or appeal to higher order human needs.

Secondly, they’re aware of what’s happening in their category and can identify opportunities to either defy existing, or define new conventions and rules. It gives them a critical first-mover advantage and strengthens their point of difference.

And finally, they’ve taken a holistic view of how their brands are experienced – be it at a functional or emotional level. ?If you're a brand owner, ask yourself how often have you taken the opportunity to put your brand on a page and take a qualitative look at how cohesive it is? Have you invested in knowing which of your brand’s assets make the greatest contribution to key brand measures? And what will these assets look like in 5-10 years time?

The great thing about design is its ability to remain completely unbiased when it comes to how it influences how a brand behaves across channels. ?As brands adapt to a more proliferated channel landscape and marketers need to think differently about how to solve business problems, it becomes a vital tool in their brand-building toolkit.

And it that sense, it’s a nice place to wind up. When we think of tools, it’s difficult to argue against the swiss army knife’s bang for buck when it comes to utility.

Design can be thought of in a very similar way. Multi-faceted, highly useful and underrated by those who don’t have to use it.