Why design is the most powerful force to grow your business – PART 2

Welcome back to Part 2 of our quest to discover “why design is the most powerful force to grow a business”. If you haven’t already read the previous article, you should definitely go here and read Article #1 now. In that article, I explained the first benefit that design can give a business: how can achive great product design to predictably win the prospect’s buying decision in the big moment.

Today I want to continue this conversation and explore the next set of design tools that definitely will bootstrap your business!

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Predictable and constant income is often the difference between owning a growing, thriving business or having one that is constant struggling to maintain.

Therefore in fact the most important sales that you make is not the first, but the second one – in other words when your prospects come back and buy again your product.

It is much harder and more expensive to win completely virgin prospects’ trust and convince them to buy your product, than selling to customers who has bought from you before and they not only already have trust in you but keen on buying your next product.

Imagen how much lower can be your marketing and sales costs and how more predictable your income if there is a magic that provides that your customers will buy from you for the second, third and fourth time.

Well, design is exactly that magic. It helps to win that magical second buying descision.

Design helps to evolve product and brand loyalty through user experience no matter how small your business or what kind of product is it about.

When your prospects buy from you for the second time, they don’t do it because of being persuaded by the first impression but because of having a convincingly positive experience during using the product.

There is a common misbelief between business owners that only big companies can evolve brand loyalty and build a fan base for a product and it needs a marketing campaign with huge budget.

The truth is that yes, a huge marketing campaign do helps to make the public aware of your product on a wide level, BUT does not guarantee that people will be willing to pay for it!

So how can design build product and brand loyalty? How can design achieve that people go crazy for Your Products whoever is your target market: young/old people, bankers, factory managers, suppliers etc.

Why design is the most powerful force to grow your business? – PART1

Why it occurs even with the most professional products that they don’t bring the expected sales numbers even they get an intense advertising campaign?

In the last 8 years of design praxis I experienced that most often those companies who needs design most for their business growth are the ones who don’t see the value in design.

The main reason behind is that the CEOs and Business Developement Managers of these companies usually can’t see what design can add to their business exactly and why it worth to invest in a serious product design development project.

This might be because most designers usually gives too abstract or too mystic answers to this question.

From an Entreprenurial Perspective the first key benefit that design gives:

Design can win the prospect’s Buying Decision precisely at the decision making moment! Why?

Humans are quasi-rational beings. This means that whatever product is it about whatever smart and conciuos consumers are we, at that very moment of buying decision making we allways have a little irrationality. Design is the one thing that is infulencing on that tiny irrational part of our mind like a mystical magnetic power.

If a company wants to survive in these days’ crazy and intense competition, it’s way not enough to develope a better solution than the competitors but the product also has to give the impression of being the Best on Earth. It has to be perceived as the most professional solution on the market. It has to be enough breathtaking for the prospects to make them talking about it.

This is also true in such industries where due to common belief only technical requirements and capacity matter – such as at industrial machinery and equipment or medical devices. However, at these products whoever is deciding about the acquisition, it will be a Human. A quasi-rational human…

If it isn’t sellable it isn’t even good design?

A design of a product can be evaluated from several perspective. So varied that a whole industry is based on judging it: design magazines, design contests, design festivals of big cities etc. Thousands of exhibitons, critics and jurnalists are specialized on judging wether that certain design is enough innovative, modernistic, exciting, valiant, aesthetic or enthralling. Most of the times they devote all the priotity to these kind of aspects.

NewYork design week 2013 – via Core77

We belive at IgenDesign, if a design – or any kind of artwork – is ’good’, the proof is that people pay for it, and not the „wow, how amazing is this” reaction. I understand if it seems prety unromantic from a design studio, but wach how much people are willing to pay for a Picasso and how much for a portrait drawer on the street. Or how much have been payed to Michelangello for painting the Sistine Chapel.

People proove with their money how much value does it mean for them. So it means that everything that is sellable is valuable for the society!

Why „Aesthetic-Usability Effect” can raise your sales?

Why does it raise your sales when your product’s aesthetics compensate the difficulties and frustrations of using and handling it?

Last time, when I was in an Apple store I’ve noticed a strange phenomenon. Two customers were talking about their recently updated operating system, that seemed to them unstable and freezed sometimes. It was very interesting how they talked about it. They talked with empathy and patience like it would be a completly natural phenomenon. However I experienced that the PC users usually talk incredibly frustrated about similar issues.

This phenomenon is caused by the „Aesthetic-Usability Effect”: Aesthetic products are percieved as easier to use than less-aesthetic products.

The effect has been observed in several experiments, and has significant implications regarding acceptance, use, and performance of a product in the eyes of the customer.

Aesthetics has a highly important role how people use a product. Aesthetic products are more effective at fostering positive attitudes than unaesthetic products and make people more tolerant of usability problems.

One of my favorite example for lack of tolerance is the “pay-off” sceene in the Office Space film.

Ecological thinking isn’t necessary?

Before making eco-consciousness the basic principle of our approach to designing, it is important to analyze an almost cliché tending question: do we have to design objects to be eco-conscious at all? Of what extent does our need to “eco” originate from our resistance to change, passing and to our replacement? It is commonly known that if we don’t change the present structure of industry and economy in reasonable time we will disappear from Earth dragging lots of other species with ourselves. However, the question arises: why do we judge this to be absolutely negative?

IgenDesign is sponsoring young footballers!

Delfines del Sur is a small Colombian amateur football team in SUB 20 Category with the purpose of preparing and helping kids to enter the professional football clubs. For many kids in Colombia, to become a professional football player is their biggest dream and, in some cases the only possibility to break out of poverty and change their life. We wanted to support Delfines del Sur team to help these kids achieving their dreams by designing and making for them the so called ‘Petos’ (uniforms during the training).

Most small teams in this category don’t have Petos and the players just take off their shirts during the training to differentiate each other. Although it seems a small thing to have and use Petos, this piece of cloth has a strong effect on the kids. It gives a feeling of seriousity of the trainings and a feeling of importance for the team members. It bears motivation. It can educate kids at early stage to be engaged of their dreams.

fogo – removable handles for people with arthritis

A handle of a frying pan is not just a stick. It’s an elongation of our hand which makes us possible to grab and control an extremely hot object. Actually I consider it as a plier that is an integral part of our hands during cooking and only should connect to the pan when we want to move it or shake it. You can cook more comfortable and safe as there are no protruding sticks while the pans are sizzling on the stove.

Our client has launched his own football team!

Two years ago I designed the corporate identity of Akiyai – the colombian social network. They have founded their own football team for children in Colombia. Here are some photos of their first days and with their first soccer jersey:)

flow lamp has been published in Design by Nature

My project called flow lamp has been published as a case study in Maggie Macnab’s new book: Design by Nature.

BE OPEN – anouncing the winners: my design has won the second prize

My lamp design called Flow has won the second prize of BE OPEN design award in Milan! The second prize was that you can choose a course at one of the leading Universities in design around the world and participate on the organizator expenses. I’m very proud of winning this award, it’s a great honor for me!