True Value: How Good Design Can Impact Your Business

"In the end, what customers really see is what designers design. That is the ultimate tool that a company has in order to be competitive in the marketplace."
    - George Fisher, CEO, Kodak

As a professional design firm, we're often faced with questions regarding the value of the designs we provide, particularly in relation to the costs involved. Is good design quantifiable? Can its effects be measured? Is it feasible to run an effective cost-benefit analysis on a design project? What should be the expected ROI?

Basically, is good design worth it?

These are all reasonable questions. The easy answer is that most every type of marketing or advertising campaign these days can be quantified and measured. In addition to tried and true methods, there are tools and metrics readily available that would have been unheard of only a decade or two ago, particularly in terms of electronic marketing. From measuring page views on redesigned websites to open rates for e-mails to cost-per-clicks for search engine advertising, you can draw some pretty valuable conclusions about the effectiveness of your project.

Measuring the value of good design, however, is not so easy. Certainly, we all know there are many elements to a successful ad or marketing campaign that have to work together. For instance, you may have the ideal, break-through-the-clutter design for a direct-response mailer, but if the offer isn't very compelling, or the mail list has the wrong targets, or the goals of the campaign itself were never clearly defined, then no design in the world is going to deliver the results you need.

Similarly, the adverse effects of a poorly-designed website or print ad will likely carry the same (negative) weight. Every element of a campaign must work at its highest level to achieve its optimal outcome – including the design. Successful business people know this to be true. Those who reduce design to merely an "add-on" component in the creative process or an effort to "prettify" a concept do so at their own peril. Effective design is often the glue that pulls it all together.

"In a world loaded with stuff that looks like all the other stuff and performs like all the other stuff, design is a way to stand out."
    - Tom Peters, corporate management guru

When embarking on a project that requires design — be it a mailer, a brochure, a print ad, a website, etc. — you need to decide how the design will impact the objective of the project. It shouldn't take much thought work to realize that if the design fails to engage, so will the project.

So while the questions posed above bear ample scrutiny, they may not be the right ones to ask. When it comes to design, you should ask yourself how you want to leverage design to help shape the brand experience of your audience while also effectively communicating your business objectives. You may also want to ask how design can build credibility among your customers and prospects, while also differentiating your product or service from your competitors. Finally, you should ask how much value you place on the professional and consistent image you've worked long and hard to sustain in a crowded marketplace.

As Sir John Egan, CEO of British Airports Authority sums up, "Design helps to shape experience, and the quality of experience that people have of any company is the most influencing factor in shaping their attitude toward it. It affects loyalty, repeat purchase and the way people talk about the company to colleagues and friends."

For more information on how Bending Design can help with your upcoming design needs, contact us at 847.304.8640 or via email at info@bendingdesign.com.

©2007 Bending Design, Inc. All rights reserved. www.bendingdesign.com

Cherylyn has over twelve years of experience designing for print and web, and is already proving to be a valued member of the Bending Design team. We are excited to have her with us!

Sheila Glazov realized her website needed a facelift, so she came to Bending Design. We not only redesigned her site but suggested a new site structure based on research and content categorization.