The Value of Design in Business and how it drives Customer Connection

 What is good design? 

“The value of design and aesthetics is in the pleasure that we derive from perceiving an object or experience through our senses. Design is therefore a powerful dimension to connect with customers.”

• Aesthetics and good design is not about a purely visual/sensory experience but a deeper emotional connection.
• Beauty and great is design is not a thing, but it is an experience.
• The value of design is in creating one clear emotional message that draws the customers in. 

The Value of Design when Combining Aesthetics and Commerce

“beauty is an experience, not an object.” 

• Aesthetics are a visual language and when done correctly convey one strong emotional message. People are emotional and primarily make emotional decisions. How your brand’s image makes them feel is crucial in determining if they buy into your brand.
• A brand that stands for quality, lead by a leader who knows what quality is, differentiates a company from its competitors.
• Empathy is the ability to be able to think about how a customer is going to feel by experiencing your product. This is a great advantage in the market place because customers are people not robots. Great design is the ability to apply aesthetics with a strong emotional message that connects with your customers.
• Great design and aesthetics gives a richer experience and people buy into value. Thus the value is in the experience your product or service provides. Great design can help your business achieve this.

Good aesthetics = Good profits 

 “Empathy is the skill that a great designer uses to know how to apply aesthetics to a product or service. A skilled designer knows that used correctly good design will elicit the desired emotional cues so that customers want to buy.  This is the transformative value of design “  

• High value in business is meaningful in only two ways. Does this product or service increase sales or does it decrease costs. So in order for design to be high value to a business it has to create an impact and a meaningful transformation in these two areas. More sales or less costs.  Let’s look at some facts. 
• Businesses that prioritise design significantly outperform their competition. So a  good designer is sought after in a business that wants an advantage. A great example is Apple as design is fundamental to the Apple brand. The products, the websites, the app’s and the packaging are all incredibly well-designed and aesthetically appealing. Great design and aesthetics defines Apple.  

“a good designer with great aesthetics has the power to shape the world we live in.”  

• Great design is valuable to large corporations but even more so to smaller businesses. A 10% increase in sales is good in a big corporation but it is even more valuable to a small growing business. It can mean the difference between success and failure. Good design does the selling for you.
• Contrary to what some may believe good design is not a luxury only required when the business is already doing well. Instead good design can promote your business,  build your brand image and upscale your business without you having to say a word.  Good design elevates your business.

“Successfully businesses know that people rarely buy products and services for logical reasons. There’s always an emotional impulse behind it, and good design and branding taps into that.”

• Design increases your business turnover – every $1 invested in design increases your turnover 4% increase in net turnover.
• 47% of the UK’s rapidly growing businesses see design as crucial to the increase in their growth.
• Big businesses rank design as crucial to their success.

How to recognise a designer who can bring value to your business

A good designer is someone who possesses an aesthetic intelligence and this trait is recognisable as someone that:

• Has an aesthetic intelligence that involves creating beauty as an artist or creativity in design
• Has developed an appreciation for aesthetics that involves the development of taste.  A designer has the ability to discern was is desirable and how to create it.
• Is a highly empathetic individual  and has the ability to know what it is your brand wishes to convey. Such a skilled designer knows the best way to emotionally connect with your audience through aesthetics.
• Is a skillful designer who brings this aesthetic intelligence to your business and uses design and aesthetics to visually communicate and impart an experience of pleasure to your clients.

“The value of design is in the emotive and visual communication. Valuable design has real meaning and delivers a real experience.”