Design Intelligence

Kev and I were chatting about the influence of design in marketing. He has great insights into design intelligence. Like most great insights, it's stuff that is floating in the back ground of our minds but too often we don't let it come to the forefront and really impact our work.
He sees design intelligence for marketing as one of the most critical components for impacting and motivating choice. But too often marketing teams don't use design intelligence. Some designs are totally consumed by layout. That's the technical skill behind great design: white space, typography, use of colour, clean lines, careful attention to grids. While great layout makes the piece pretty -- it's doesn't push the edges towards brand personality, marketing principals and offer insight.
On the other extreme are the marketing teams who sacrifice design intelligence for fine art. Fine art is focused on the visual experience -- not the message. The message is often subtle or determined by the viewer. It belongs on living room walls and museums.
Great marketing motivates and inspires action.
Design intelligence starts with understanding the overall goal, the underlying challenge, the audience, human motivations and, maybe most of all, takes the designer out of the picture.
As we were chatting, we were musing about a piece that we did for a client many years ago. Both of us hated it. While the offer was intact and the design intelligence was strong in understanding the overall brand and the motivations of the direct audience -- our visual minds were really turned off.
It was the second highest performing acquisition piece that year.
That taught us a lesson. Our overall goal was to communicate to the audience. Frankly, neither of us were the audience. While neither Kev or I would be motivated by this piece -- we were not the people the client wanted to motivated. The biggest mistake marketers make is to allow our own preferences to interfere with truly understanding the audience.
One more story.... when my son was about 2 years old my husband and I worked in a kid's program. One of the features of the program was a dorky beanie that had a helicopter blade on the top. On the way home I was nattering about the lack of sophistication of the premium when Chris piped up from his car seat: "I can hardly wait until I can get one of those hats!" The designer of the program was bang on in assessing the level of sophistication of the audience.
Design intelligence refuses to be tainted by personal taste. It is objective, rational and results oriented.
Barefoot Creative is looking for a designer as I write. Without a question we are looking for a designer with design intelligence!

While no one can confirm....

How often have I read that in regards to social marketing?
How many businesses have increased their profit margins significantly by their investment into Facebook? Why is it that Fortune 500 companies are slow to adopt social networking tools?
It's hard to understand the full impact of social networking -- just like it's hard to estimate the impact of the influence of friends on purchase choices.
So let's admit it.
In an age when tracking is the most critical component of choosing marketing media effective advertising still requires guts.
That's why we need to imagine.
Imagine the difference when you use all the tools in the most effective way for your business. The brand leaders are already doing it. They are acknowledging that the world as the Admen of the 60's knew it is changing.
Walmart and P&G is talking about producing a movie as a part of their marketing package. Smart retailers are adding web empowered kiosks within their stores so that customers can shop better right in the store, choosing a digital assistant rather than a teen in a red polo shirt. Others are using digital screens throughout the stores for real time sales information, putting to bed the muffled PA service.
I spoke with a client this morning. They need a web site. When I asked what they wanted their clients to do on their web site the silence bounced off of the padded chairs. No idea.
So we began to prod.
It turns out that their clients have really amazing engagement intersections that we discovered after imaging a web site that was a little more innovative. But we had to stop and ask the question.
They came to us because they need a web site -- everyone needs a web site. You can purchase a web site for $500. BUT if you want an effective, marketing focused, engagement oriented web site you have to stop and think before you enter the copy from your most recent brochure into the appropriate content managed boxes.
We live in exciting times... the world is changing. We get to influence that change.

2 billion emails sent today

I was meeting with a client about their marketing materials. It struck me as unusual that they didn't have a corporate web address -- as essential as stationary in my mind. The thinking behind the lack of a corporate web address was all about efficiency.
Then today, when I looked at a recent report from the Chief Marketing Officer Council, I read that the average individual receives 12 - 15 email messages each day.
Yes, my jaw fell into an open mouth slack position.
I've just now completed my morning jaunt through unanswered email. When I receive 10 - 12 emails at the start of the day I call the IT team to see if our email is down.
Tracking the effectiveness of mail -- digital and traditional -- is at the core of any marketing plan. We are still seeing higher overall results for traditional mail. Somehow it seems a bit easier to delete an email than toss a letter. Traditional mail has more opportunity to tempt me into opening it (I got a compass in the mail this morning!)
Here's are some stats that you might find interesting:
- Traditional junk mail accounts for over 100 billion pieces of mail each year, and 44% of this unsolicited, primarily promotional mail ends up in a landfill...unopened
- Email waste is also staggering. There is more than 200 billion email messages sent each day, yet 97% of all email sent is actually spam, according to an April, 2009 report released by Microsoft
- Cisco reports "customized" spam that is based on personal information stolen from the web has quadrupled over the last 12 months (2009)
- The average email open rate across 16 industries during Q2 of 2009 now stands at 22.2%, and has increased for the fourth quarter in a row
- About 3.3% of opt-in emails for subscribers in the US and Canada were sent to "junk" or "bulk" email bins, while 17.4% did not get delivered at all
- Forrester reports that by 2014, email marketing spend will rise to $2 billion - almost double the projected spend of $1.2 billion for 2009
- The average individual is expected to receive 25 messages a day in five years, double 10 or 12 emails received now
I have to write an e-blast....