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by Andrew Lam-Po-Tang
In my presentation, "Working Smarter, Not Harder" I mention 'getting to know your clients' as a key resource to improving your design quality. I though it might be useful to explore that concept in some detail.
What 'knowing your client' means is:
- understanding their marketing mix and marketing process
- being able to summarise their marketing strategy: customer segments, major objectives, major initiatives supporting each objective
- understanding their planning cycle and how the marketing budget is set
- being able seeing the problem from their perspective
- knowing how to make them look good...
It's a lot, huh? You might as well be studying for their job, right? Right - that's exactly what 'knowing' your client means. And it sounds like hard work because it is, but then 'to the victor go the spoils.'
A few things to get you started though...
When talking about 'marketing mix', a simple framework to start with is the four 'P's':
- PRODUCT: variety, quality, design, features, brand name, packaging, sizes, services, warranties, returns
- PRICE: list price, discounts, allowances, rebates, payment period, credit terms
- PLACE (distribution): channels, coverage, assortments, locations, inventory, transport
- PROMOTION: sales promotion, advertising, salesforce, public relations, direct marketing
What the four 'Ps' list covers is many of the variables that a marketing manager may need to make decisions about for a single product or service! It obviously gets more complicated when you have to worry about an entire portfolio of products and services, or an entire company or group of companies.
As a graphic designer, you could have an impact on:
- PRODUCT: variety, design, quality (perceived), features (perceived), brand name, packaging
- PLACE: transport (cost, via packaging space effectiveness)
- PROMOTION: sales promotion, advertising, salesforce (via selling kits), public relations (non-specific marketing brochures), direct marketing
If you let your client know that you are aware of how your design can have an impact on their marketing mix, they will not only pick up on your direct advice, but also that you are aware of the factors in a marketing mix in the first place. This is commonly referred to 'strategic design' (I loath the overuse of the word 'strategy' but that's my problem I guess).
Being able to discuss these issues with your client clearly positions you as a 'thinking and high service' designer, even if you don't spend that much face-to-face time with them. When is the time to talk about the stuff? Always! They have to worry about this stuff all the time, so consistently sneaking it into your conversations is a way to demonstrate that they are always a priority client for you.
Don't forget that as an external consultant, you are in the enviable position of being able to analyse objectively the entire range of products/services within a competitive market instead of having to obsess about just one. Ted Wright, a speaker at the recent Design for Business conference in Sydney, made this very point. Use that position to give your client insight into what their competition is doing (in design terms).
A side (but important) benefit of having these types of discussions is that your client will be much more inclined to trust your judgement on the design approach required, simply because you have already demonstrated a profound understanding of their problem.
In the article Marketing 102, I talk about the marketing process.
| Feedback by Irwin | Tuesday, 19 October 2004 |
"Designers need to be more big picture forcus rahter than just design. Good article...."
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The views expressed this article are not necessarily those of AGDA. Please note that the information in this article is the opinion of the author only. I can therefore accept no responsibility for actions taken on the basis of this information. Copyright Andrew Lam-Po-Tang (andrew@lam-po-tang com), 1998-2008. Permission is granted to freely copy this document in electronic form, or to print, for personal use. Reprinting for non-personal use will require the express permission of the author (which I will generally be very happy to give).
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