If there are characteristics which define the performance of any design company,
they are the ability to decipher what clients want and map the journey to what they need.
In the client’s world, knowing their environment and culture, their request may appear simple and completely in tune with their identity and brand.
To an experienced designer this story could be anything but clear.
By nature, design is about making sense of things and organizing communications, so they are well received and ingested, not to mention unravelling the ball of string to do so and translating thought to practical action.
At PresentImage® we look to clarity and function first.
We want to know how things work and how well they perform for customers. Then we want to find the true, fundamental value of the item; why someone would want it, how useful it would be, for how long and a great reason to return.
Take the scenario of a new livery for an existing product. It has also gained a new mode of packaging. The item, repackaged from its original state, is cumbersome and the unwrapping process is the only wow factor about an otherwise ordinary product. The only other benefit is that you would now be able to transport it more easily, in a market used to delivery. Sadly, you cannot repackage it, if necessary. The price point is not a saving in its new state and in all, it appears to be a one shot wonder.
At this point one has to be clear about the intent. Has the packaging concept become more important than the product and where is the sustainability? Where is the value and is the product just trying to be clever in a marketplace, which may not entertain such a quizzical item.
The short fall in this case, is enthusiasm for an item that depends largely on a non existent culture in its target market. The culture is too remote and obtuse to be able to start a viral response. In other words, it’s a firework; a one time, big colourful explosion, which dies away quickly.
Just because you like it and for that matter, it sold in other markets, does not guarantee that it will perform in another territory. Customs and culture and price point are the controlling elements.
There is always clever, but it’s hard to find clever that endures; that somehow re-lives the first experience, each time you return to it. Logos, bylines, consumer packaging, utility furniture, multipurpose clothing, or ‘once-in-a-blue-moon’ advertising can, on occasion give that same unexpected experience. We have to truly connect with the intended market, to find out if what we sell or how we sell it, is understood.
So saying, these are not the easiest of positions to take, or, in some cases, bubbles to burst, but there is a difference between believing something will be the next success and knowing it will be. Knowing takes analysis and asking the hard questions, so that when time, resources, energy and finances are applied to ‘the next success’, it has more than a fighting chance.
It’s always about the quality of work and a successful outcome and future.
We are glad to say that at PresentImage®, we give that honesty to our clients, in the knowledge that at all points of our strategic relationship, we act not only on their behalf, but we say it like it is.