Issues and Practices Analysis

The issue I have decided to write about is something I have learnt a lot about this year and feel very strongly about which helps me with my own work. The issue is that good design doesn't have to look pretty. It is the idea and marketing behind the product that makes it sell. Something can look ugly and still sell a lot compared to something that looks pretty and is marketed badly.

Good design does not rely purely on aesthetics, it needs to provide a call to action, which is something that this years placements and engagement with industry has helped me to understand. I am in the business of designing products and brands, which companies want to be sold to the public. If a product purely exists aesthetically it will still fade into the background. In the case of this brand you almost have to literally put the product into the target audiences' hands, as they will not take notice of a design itself in most cases. Good design does not guarantee good sales. Hence the reason why marketing and implementation of design into an already fiercely competitive market are hugely important, if not more important than the design itself. Bad design however can still achieve good sales as is the case with Red Bull and Pro Plus. During research for projects this year I have noticed that these products have poorly designed packaging. However, they are very cleverly marketed, which more than makes up for the lack of creativity within their design. The product has also got to do what it says it does but these products are marketed by overemphasizing their good points and, of course, not mentioning any side effects that may occur. Accentuating the positive is not lying, it is simply telling the truth in a dramatic way for maximum effect. How I’ve been applying this concept to my work is to. Find out what’s right about your product or service and then dramatize it. For example, you know a horse can jump a ditch, therefore you accept that it can jump the Grand Canyon. Providing there is a basic truth in your idea you can dramatize it to infinity.

To exploit products advertising to its maximum potential by going beyond what has gone before in traditional advertising means.
An example of this exaggeration is in an advert I saw which echoes the idea that you “ can exaggerate a bit in advertising. And since a Touareg is capable of pulling a Boeing 747, we also hitched a caravan in our ad.”
To apply this idea to my work I had to think of how the product can make people feel good, and times that by ten. Going that step further is difficult as it is stretching the truth to it’s extreme but once you break that barrier then you are likely to get results.
This is what the previously mentioned products do perfectly even though there are other products on the market that do the same job and in most cases look better. Promoting the products rather than the brand drives sales and from this you will gain exposure to the brand itself. The brand can then be exploited further, in it’s own right, to familiarise it with the public. I have learnt this from discussions with Mccann Erickson’s Creative Director who told us that whatever you do, “Don’t sell the brand. Sell the product.
I am now in a mindset where I am aware of the fact that sales are the prime target and therefore have changed my outlook on design completely. The opposite of accentuating the positive is eliminating any negative connotations with your brand. Something I have adhered to during this project is to “Avoid knocking the competition. It usually serves to publicize them rather than you. It may win attention, it may win awards but the likelihood is that it won’t win sales."
Arrogance like this can lead to the rival company highlighting your own flaws and result in lower sales so it is better to avoid such tactics and focus on removing any negative areas of your own products within the marketing approach.
Trends and financial restrictions have changed the way advertising is perceived in recent times and this has lead to rise of blogging, which in itself is an effective marketing tool. More and more people are reading blogs due to the fact they are easy to access and readily available. Blogger.com, for example, allows people to have their own account which they can upload content to. This along with the rise of Twitter and Facebook means that everyone knows what everyone is doing all of the time. It is an advertisers dream.