In Part 1 of this post, I explained how an ROI analysis can empower corporate design departments and solidify their role in the brand building process. Today, we’ll talk about why this information is beneficial consultants and how it can change the client/consultant relationship.

Accountability Leads to Partnership: Benefits for Design Consultancies

Now let us assume that consultancies are selected and compensated based on how their work contributes specifically to brand profits. How would that change the client/consultant relationship? What if a firm was selected for an engagement not because it submitted the lowest bid but rather because it made the biggest financial commitment to brand success? What if compensation was not based on an hourly rate or a fee structure but instead the mutual financial success of both the brand and the consultancy? What if design firms billed their costs but only took their share of profits when a pre-determined amount of incremental sales, market share, or profits had been exceeded? What if the design firm shared in 5% of the incremental profits? This is again just a tiny portion of the additional earnings over and above the pre-determined ROI expectation. How would that change the game?

Proceed With Caution, but Proceed!

Here’s where we separate the men and women from the boys and girls. If you firmly believe, as I do, that your process generates more value that any other marketing effort can; and if you believe based on this series of articles, that design can and should be quantified, then the next (big scary) step is to prove it to yourself, your organization, and your clients. Start slow, and proceed with caution, but start!

Begin by selecting a prototypical assignment. Measure the market share and profits before initiating design. Conduct the real-world research discussed in this article. Launch the new design in a half dozen retail locations, and compare sales with identical markets. (more…)

We’ve nearly reached the end of our quest to empirically demonstrate design’s direct impact on bottom line brand success. In my first post, “The Quest for Quantification”, I explained a Northeastern University accredited methodology that proves design’s value and detailed the exact moment in time and the specific process which unequivocally and irrefutably identifies design’s specific contribution to brand sales. I analyzed the relatively small but deep and rich data set that proves design generates more than 50 times the ROI of advertising.

In my last post, “Being Careful Of What We Wish For”, I addressed several real-world concerns about the quantification of design and concluded that proving its value can be a good thing - a very good thing in fact, but if and only if, the information is handled properly.

So what’s left to do? Now that we know we can quantify design and should quantify design, we must determine what should be done with the information. What is the end game? Now that we’ve proved that every dollar invested in design generates an unprecedented return, who is interested? How will management interpret all of this? (more…)

In my last post, I addressed a new and irrefutable ability to quantity design’s ROI. Way cool! Now we can prove design’s specific contribution to bottom line profits! That’s gotta be good. Right?

Well…Before we jump at the prospect of quantifying design, we should strongly consider if we should.What are the ramifications of measuring design? How will this change the process? What are the valid concerns?

In this post I will address some of these concerns and provide my thoughts on why proving design’s value is a still a good thing—in fact, it’s a very good thing if, and only if, the information that results from this process is properly positioned. (more…)

The Golden Age of Design

We lucky few are to be congratulated! Those designers and design strategists among us have, in my opinion, entered the industry exactly at the right time. Never before has design been more valued. Elevated from a “marketing service” to a corporate ethos, design has just recently been rightfully recognized as an unique strategic business building, and uniquely profit-generating tool.

“Show Me the Money”

While we now live in the golden age of design, we also live in the age of accountability. Despite its recent attacks, there’s still a whole lot of “Six Sigma” analysis out there: a large number of executives who live and die by their ability to quantify their every decision based on its direct impact on bottom line profits. So how does design survive under this specter of financial scrutiny? Can design be quantified? (more…)