The Value of Design and Creativity

There exists an old adage, “Half of my advertising works and half of it doesn’t. I just don’t know which half.” In today’s marketplace, business professionals place a high value on marketing metrics – the ability to measure performance of various efforts to obtain business goals and objectives. This trend is aiding in solving the problem of the old saying mentioned above. As I am a strong proponent of this trend, there exists an aspect of marketing and communications that is difficult to measure. It is the value of design and creativity.

Through technology, it is getting quicker, easier and more effective to measure the impact of different creative approaches. However, this article will focus on the fundamental question, What is the value of design and creativity?

Before one can begin to measure the effectiveness of different creative, one must understand that an intrinsic value exists within design and creativity. Many arguments can be made for creative design but let’s start with the obvious. Creative design allows one to stand out above the rest - To differentiate a product or service, garnering additional attention from consumers, giving the offering company a competitive advantage. Overall, design and creativity aid in the communication process. Companies employ a wide variety of marketing tools to communicate a specific message to consumers. Imagine if every radio announcement, every tv commercial, every print-ad, every website looked and sounded the same. If they all had black and white images, the same music track, the same monotone voice. It’s a ridiculous thought, but I mention it to prove a point. The world is full of different colors, sounds and images. The infinite application of what exists within our world allows us to communicate in unique, creative ways. The challenge is to produce creative work that makes an impact. Through inventive thinking one can define a conceptual idea that relates to communicating a set of marketing messages. Once the concept is born, a combination of skills, knowledge and experience is applied to execute “breakthrough creative.” Normally this task is best delegated to professionals in the world of advertising and design. Of course, it takes money to invest in a company to produce creative work. So again the question surfaces, How will I make money on applying design and creativity to my business? What is the value of design and creativity?

An interesting research study was released last year by the Design Council, a London-based organization that distributes educational information on design topics. The study tracked the performance of 166 UK publicly traded companies that are effective users of design in their day-to-day operations. The study tracked the performance of these companies for 10 years and compared them to the FTSE 100 and the FTSE All-Share index, two of England’s common stock indexes. The results showed that the companies that effectively utilize design and creativity to achieve business objectives outperformed the comparative indexes by 200%. The main findings of the study state there is conclusive evidence that the effective use of design aids in corporate performance, eventually leading to greater shareholder returns. In my opinion, these are strong findings that support the case for the value of design and creativity. One can make an assumption from this study that employing effective design and creativity will lead to a competitive advantage that could produce results up to 200% better than competitors.

Another trait of design that provides value is the ability to communicate with the marketplace to the extent that a message begins to relate or “resonate” with the intended target. Imagine the following scenario: a company desires to sell a common product to a foreign country because they have a competitive advantage of low manufacturing costs. Let’s say the main method of producing sales is through consumer advertising. Would they create ads that are filled only with text in their native language to describe their product and their offer? Let’s make another ridiculous assumption to prove a point: let’s say that they do not speak the language of the marketplace so they cannot create text-based advertising. How could they sell to the public? Through design! By utilizing conceptual ideas and imagery to create a demand for the product. Humans are a visual species, hence the saying, a picture is worth a thousand words. Of course this example is simple and silly but at a base level, it proves a point. Creative design helps marketers communicate on a level that relates to the target market. Another example: would you speak French when traveling to China? If so, you probably wouldn’t get very far. You would not be able to communicate with others, leaving you lost. This is where the value of design and creativity proves itself – it allows for marketers to effectively communicate to target markets to the point of increasing sales. True value exists with this attribute alone.

Design and creativity are fast becoming an invaluable resource for American companies. Today, Asian manufacturers are flooding the global marketplace with their products. America is moving away from an industrial society and trending towards a service-oriented economy relying on information and technology. In order for the U.S. to compete, we have to become marketing, technology and logistical experts. The mass-market brands of the future will utilize technology to coordinate the manufacturing and distribution of products to the marketplace. In order to fulfill the end goal of placing products into the hands of consumers, these brands will have to employ creative design in their marketing messages that convince consumers to buy. Once China discovers how to effectively build their own brands and communicate high-end positioning of their products to the global marketplace, watchout! American companies are in trouble.

It is debatable as to how much value design and creativity bring to a business, but there is no doubt that value does exist. I recommend paying attention to companies that effectively employ design and creativity such as Apple with their iPod campaigns. Examples are everywhere. Research and begin to recognize good design. Implement creativity into your organizational goals. Seek out experts that can help along the way. Design and creativity are imperative to remain competitive in the developing global marketplace.