Who can benefit from design management?

You often question the rigidity of your visual identity. A change of style comes naturally to you. Or quite the opposite, you are constantly battling against exceptions to your graphic guidelines. Either way, you are confronted with the subtle management of your brand over time.

As soon as a system comes into being, pressure quickly mounts from all directions to change it or make it evolve. Where does your business position itself? Does it improve or affect your company’s image?

Between marketing recommendations, strategic choices, the personal opinions of decision makers and the examples around you, it is often difficult to know which strategy to adopt.

Generis is at your side to walk you through such situations as:

How do I go about optimising or reorganising a visual identity system?
How can I establish rules and priorities for an appropriate use of a design?
How can I manage the never-ending creative dilemma between change and continuity?
How can I create corporate values? How can I share them and establish a corporate culture?
Our approach is based on our knowledge of the issues at stake in communication as well as key marketing principles. Our mission is to connect business objectives with design strength.

Studies have demonstrated that companies who make design a priority are better positioned to develop innovative products and services and successfully stand out above the rest. Yet simply opting for a new design doesn’t necessarily make a company perform better. A leverage effect can only be obtained when investment in the brand is part of a definitive policy on quality, accompanied by the structured management of a company’s market positioning.

In practice there is no golden rule for management. Companies manage their image in any number of ways. The different degrees of design maturity in a business can be analysed and summarised as follows:

• LEVEL 1 – NO DESIGN MANAGEMENT

  Few visual applications, no management method or model.
  A company acts randomly and without real objective, due to a lack of interest or because the company is doubtful of the benefits of Design Management.

• LEVEL 2 – DESIGN MANAGEMENT FOR PROJECTS

  Ad hoc applications, frequent style changes. No long term management method.
  Design is used to respond to isolated needs, without a global vision or policy on the company’s market positioning.

• LEVEL 3 – DESIGN MANAGEMENT AS A FUNCTION

  Developed applications. Management of the company’s market positioning. Integration into a management process. Design is given a precised role.
  Brand management is a factor in strategic choices. The company has an internal team which acts as an interface between its different departments.

• LEVEL 4 – DESIGN MANAGEMENT AS A CULTURE

  Strategic management, a leader in terms of branding.
  This approach to Design Management can be found among companies who wish to establish themselves as market leaders through brand image innovation, alternative communications channels as well as new marketing techniques. This ‘first-to-market’ approach can be distinguished from the usual ‘me-too’ approach by those who simply follow the trend. The top management of these companies is inspired by design and their commitment to it is shared by all employees as ‘a way of life’. Design becomes the driving force behind innovation.

Level 4 might well be thought of as the necessary target in order to obtain the best performance in marketing. Yet depending on the type of activity, market positioning or strategic area, level 3 can be most appropriate for many businesses. Those who place themselves at levels 1 or 2 should not ignore the importance of Design Management as a leverage for performance.

Generis can help you install the framework with which to grow your brand; a framework that reflects strategic change as much as it does operational change. Design Mangement can be a decisive asset against frequent temptations to act in haste, putting the coherence of your business strategy at risk.