Essence And Image: How Product And Design Combine For Success In The Marketplace
The Combination of a winning product or service with dynamic, memorable, graphic design and visual communication, can create an unstoppable 1-2 punch for entrepreneurs set on establishing an enterprise and branding that enterprise for relevance and success in the 21st century marketplace.
The marriage of product and design for business success has been a mainstay of contemporary salesmanship for decades, but never more than now! In today’s techno-driven, information saturated, media manipulated world, creating an unforgettable visual identity that hooks the consumer, singles your business out, and helps drive your message home, is more important than ever before.
Whether it be a knock-out logo design, an absorbing website and landing page, an exciting and entertaining advertising campaign, or an eye-catching package design that demands that you pick up the package, any and all of this should be part of your “identity” campaign; a thru-line of communication that merges the essence of your product or service with a powerful and irresistible visual “image.”
With that said, don’t ever forget that at the end of the day, great graphic design with a product or service that is less than great, that is not cutting edge or innovative or, at least, simply the best at doing what it does when the competition is not, will not add up to a drop of paint on Picasso’s palette.
On the other hand, if your business does deliver, you cannot afford anything less than the best visual branding that you and your creative team can muster. And when you combine strong product and stellar design with persuasive writing, aka: your “sales pitch,” you put your business in a strategic position for increased traffic and sales, prospect to customer conversions, and turning existing customers into loyal repeat buyers.
When combining essence and image in brand building, think of your business as a person. In selling ourselves for success in the marketplace, the best of us work hard on establishing a strong self image, which then translates into a powerful outer image based on our essential strengths, skills, and talents. This “public image” is accented by the visual embellishments of style, taste, fashion, etc. The more successful we are in projecting this image and “selling ourselves,” the more successful we are in our careers.
Similarly, the more successful you are in projecting the “strengths, skills, and talents” of your business through dynamic visual design and communication, the more profitable your enterprise is likely to be. So go ahead, brand yourself, because product and design together, forms a formidable 1-2 punch!
