Not so long ago, if I went to the market to purchase a refrigerator, I would get one with a crooked door, a loose handle and a missing manual (remember those 165 litre direct cool boxes?). Yet, those refrigerators sold – there was just no choice. The concept of fit, feel and finish was alien to most marketers in a non-competitive environment.

Today, the companies and brands that have left competition behind are the ones that are beating them on one magic ingredient – DESIGN. To take the refrigerator example in India, when LG and Samsung entered the market with their sleek, beautifully designed frost-free refrigerators, they just took the market by storm despite their much higher prices.

In 1997, when Steve Jobs returned to Apple (which was in the doldrums), Michael Dell, the founder of Dell Computers, was asked about how he would fix the financially troubled Apple. ‘What would I do? I’d shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders.” Famous last words!

Companies like Apple, Ikea, Nike, Samsung and BMW are at the top of the heap because they understand design. And they just don’t do lip service to it – design is ingrained in these organisations, in the entire supply chain, and that is why they consistently come out with products that the consumers just lap up.

Great design should be treated as a top strategic element in any business. That is because great design is the best way of building an indirect, emotional relationship with consumers.

Apple has always been a design savvy company. But its second birth owes a lot to the English designer, Jonathan Ive. Ive is the Senior Vice President of Design at Apple Inc. and is the principal designer of the iMac, titanium and aluminium PowerBook G4, G4 Cube, MacBook, unibody MacBook Pro, iPod, iPhone and iPad. Ive himself has been inspired by the work and principles of Dieter Rams, the Chief of Design at Braun from 1961 until 1995. Rams, the legendary designer, stated that Apple is the only company designing products according to his ‘ten principles to good design.’

As competition grows, brilliance in design would become a critical differentiating factor. The questions all marketers need to ask are: 1) Do we give design the importance it deserves? And 2) Do we have an Ive to lead the revolution?

Visual courtesy : https://www.flickr.com/photos/kansirnet/