So often we see great design that aesthetically pleases in our industry. It looks great, uses the latest fonts that are cool and current, along with the latest ways to manipulate programmes for the latest cutting edge imagery. But is this style over substance? Having been in the graphic design midlands industry for 15yrs I have seen the Design ‘latest’ become the ‘late’ many times now and I ask myself is this marketing? Marketing that sells? Marketing that is focused on results and objectives or design focused on… well, design.

Design that sells

We believe that design has an important role to play within the delivery of a project, but for us design comes into play much later in the process after we have created the substance needed to ’sell’.

Above is what we regard as the perfect blend of style with substance. Design has been engaged heavily in this campaign we did for Vodafone, but not without the whole strategic process and USP directing us to do so. Therefore the design is more purposeful and directly relevant to the end consumer and sales were significantly higher.

Packaging

From brand to packaging, web to direct mail, point of sale to online marketing, advertising to sales promotion, our primary focus is of selling our clients products and services with clear strategic thinking and creative work focused on our end consumers needs. Design is then used to unite all of the marketing objectives but with clear direction born from our process. Using this direction, over use of design and ’style’ over ’substance’ is avoided, as we create highly effective marketing with the correct balance of design.

Packaging point of sale campaigns need to be impactful as the length of media exposure is 1-2 seconds. This is where we also use design heavily to engage the consumer but not at the expense of the simple benefit and proposition of the marketing that gives us our results. All three campaigns above had a substantial customer response and interaction with the promotion.

Point of Sale

Static ‘point of sale’ can be more discreet with design and stay within the brand values of the product, as the exposure time to consumers is longer.

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T-Mobile and Malibu instore and event POS – Truth Marketing

Subtle use of brand but with semi heavy use of design gave us two award winning POS and event campaigns. Customers felt inspired to interact in high numbers allowing both brands to display their products and services with great results.

Web and Digital

The net has brought to the creative industries a whole new book of rules. Whether its brand awareness microsites like the one below we did for Nike, or E-commerce sites aimed at purely sales, design choices on the internet could mean the difference between sales peaks and troughs. The net is the first true medium that enables us to analyse our customer and traffic habits 100% of the time and weekly, even daily design changes on brand direction are common.

Competition on the net has empowered the customer. A customer can see all the brands they require from the Google first page giving them the edge on price and product information. Design on the internet is paramount in fighting this battle of home shopping. A ‘cheap’ site could start alarm bells and an expensive looking site could alienate customers too.

Have a look at our heavy use of design above on the ‘Nike OS’ microsite. A youth brand with immense competition needs the latest of design techniques to compete and stay ahead of the game. The site was instrumental online, taking data and driving sales for the OS football boot.

Brand

Brand is the foundation of design direction and research is the direction of the foundation. It is essential to use research when taking a brand into a fresh market. A niche must be found along with a significant unique sales point before any design identity should take place.

Our recent brand development research for Simpson & Teale helped direct the interior design as well as the brand identity. The client was able to see everything of his boutique experience before investing millions in contracts and shop fittings across the UK and the Middle East. Simpson & Teale have now gone global in China opening in over 50 new malls. A simple yet accessible brand development using design sparingly.

Direct Marketing

Response driven marketing needs to have instant triggers along with highly targeted traffic. Whether B2B or B2C design plays it part in direct marketing by engaging with a proposition and ending in a benefit. Information is king with direct marketing as we only have a small window of opportunity. Design needs to be used to carry the customer through the journey seamlessly to a call to action.

A strong identity using a glourious flame was created for our calor gas campaign. Striking a balance between impact and information, design was used to engage and inform the customer of a particular benefit personal to their lifestyle. Incentivisation was used for B2B, but the brand campaign was unified in both markets by way of design and strategy working as one.

The response rate for Calor was significant throughout the campaign along with a strong message to the competition that Calor had rebranded and re-loaded.

Whether campaigning in multi media or point of sale and direct mail for B2B markets, design is the tool that should be used to sharpen clients marketing, not to drive it.

At Truth we have won some awards for design, but in truth we have won more for marketing. We enjoy looking at great design, but we enjoy looking at great results even more. Nothing gives us a better feeling of satisfaction than analysing our campaigns and seeing clear return on investments for our clients.

From SME’s to blue chip clients, all of our projects go through the same process of development giving our campaigns well-crafted design with purpose to the brief. If your design and marketing needs a fresh strategy and branding, call the team today to discuss your needs and in return we will give you a face to face marketing consultation for free.

To your success. Cory Siddall, CD/MD