Whereas art is often left open to the reader/viewer/listener’s interpretation, it can be difficult to digest. It has, at times, been called selfish, and depending on the artist and the medium, this can certainly be the case. Art is created singularly, often apathetic to the needs or desires of the audience. Its beauty and meaning exist outside of the opinions of those who experience it.
Design, on the other hand, is inherently empathetic. It exists to solve a problem. It can, and really should be, aesthetically beautiful and pleasing to the senses, but it is, at the end of the day, a solution.
Art is driven by emotion, design by need. Whether the industry is web development, engineering, construction, architecture, business, or one of countless others, design helps create innovation and has played a huge role in developing the standard of living many are privileged enough to enjoy today.
So how does great design come about? There are several processes that have been tried and tested over the years, but today, the most widely utilized by a wide margin is a method known as design thinking.
In this short article, we’ll be discussing how the design thinking process and its concepts can be applied to marketing and branding, and how solutions can be found.
What is design thinking?
Design thinking, in a nutshell, is a process by which empathy is used to identify the source of a problem, form strategies to solve that problem and test those strategies for potential shortcomings to reach an even more effective solution. At its core, it’s about understanding the needs of the user of your product or service, and then making adjustments to meet those needs.
The key components of the philosophy have been developed over the years through studies in cognition, human behavior and technology, and its applications cover a plethora of industries, including the aforementioned as well as (though surprisingly infrequently) marketing.
It is generally accepted by those who work in the marketing or advertising fields, however, that many of the core principles that lend themselves to success in design are often replicable for marketing and branding.
The Process
There are several methods of design thinking in use today, though they are all derived from the core principles first established by Nobel Prize laureate Herbert Simon in The Sciences of the Artificial, published in 1996. We’ll be using our preferred method, the five-phase model, proposed by the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford and used by the Interaction Design Foundation (a great open-source resource for UX and human-centered design material) in its curriculum. The five phases in this model are:
Empathize
Define
Ideate
Prototype
Test
The sequence of phases is not necessarily sequential, and these steps can be executed in any order that the scenario dictates. It is because of this that IDF emphasizes that “you should not envision the phases as a hierarchal or step-by-step process. Instead, you should understand it as an overview of the modes or phases that contribute to an innovative project, rather than sequential steps.” This is crucial to note, as many modern marketing campaigns are multifaceted, fluid operations that rely on the swift ability to adapt as necessary. With that being said, let’s break down what each of these phases means for a marketer.
Empathize
This concept should be familiar to anyone in the research sector of the marketing industry. What does your audience want from what you’re marketing to them and the marketing itself? What needs are met by the product or service that you’re selling? What needs are met with their engagement with your content? What problems or issues (pain points) are they having with your product or service or messaging about that product or service? What do they expect from their content? What information about the product will affect their purchasing decision? If it seems like a lot to ask, there’s a chance that you haven’t been empathetic enough with your audience recently.
While the process is, as previously mentioned, nonsequential, empathizing should almost always be the first step in the process.
Define
Once you empathize with your audience, you need to better understand them, their patterns and their needs.
Research is important at this stage, and creating user (or in this case, marketing) personas, is a great habit to get into. A persona is the quantitative and qualitative character traits that define your typical end-user. They provide valuable information about your audience and their needs and habits. The more you understand your audience, the better you can create for and communicate with them.
The define stage also applies to getting granular with the specific pain points clients may have with your product or message. Spending some resources on defining the issues your audience will usually pay dividends in the long run.
Ideate
This is the brainstorming period. Everything that is learned from empathizing, defining, prototyping, and testing, takes you back to the drawing board and working to create ideas. Anyone in the advertising industry or other creative field should be very familiar with this step. Hopefully, though, the ideation phase will utilize the information acquired from the other portions of this process. If the knowledge you’ve gained conflict with previously held assumptions or beliefs about your audience, good. that means you’re on the right track. Challenge yourself and your previously held ideas about your brand.
Prototype
Taking the ideas you’ve developed and the results you’ve seen, develop some prototypes for your next campaign. Does the creative generated maximize the potential of the medium its being presented in? This is the phase wherein you can develop something tangible based on your newfound insights and ideas.
Test
During the first run-though of the process, this may seem like the end, but really, the testing phase provides crucial insights to apply to the other steps in this process. The parameters that will be examined should be carefully considered beforehand, so that maximum ROI can be achieved from the process.
In most instances, the data gained from the testing phase is studied and the process begins again from a previous step. The key is in determining where to go from there. Was the user research sound? Were pain points correctly defined? Careful testing and analysis of the data should reveal the next step in the process.
Marketing professionals will be familiar with the general aspects of this step in the process. A campaign is executed, results are tested, and it’s back to the drawing board. The key difference here, however, is that by carefully studying your audience prior to beginning the execution of any tactics, the process can be sped up rapidly, with more time to make adjustments in strategy, and a better idea of where those tweaks are needed.
If this all sounds familiar to you, that’s because if you’re working in the branding or marketing fields, it likely is. Certainly, a diligent marketer or branding professional will be familiar with the general concepts presented by this process and probably goes through similar steps when creating and executing a campaign. A well-developed SWOT analysis can produce valuable insights on a macro level that are then similar to those found here.
However, there is a reason that design thinking is so widely used by leaders of so many industries. The key differentiator in this process is that of empathy. User empathy has long been a key component of most successful consumer products. The needs of the market as a whole, and individual users on a micro level, have been catalysts for innovation in product design, engineering and other industries. Empathy in marketing, though, is often overlooked.
In a time when marketing is generally viewed to be increasingly invasive, having empathy for the needs of the end-user can be the difference between engagement and annoyance. Understanding how your audience views your brand and its communication methods can have a positive impact not only on brand valence, but also results of campaigns.
Design thinking may or may not be a solution for your team or agency. One thing is for certain, though, and that is that an increase in empathy typically means an increase in success.