A new book explains how companies such as Apple, BMW, Ikea, and Target use design to establish lasting (and lucrative) relationships with consumers.
By: Matt VellaDo you matter? That question—asked so often, by so many, in such varied contexts—is bluntly posed by industrial designer Robert Brunner and corporate consultant Stewart Emery in a new book of the same title published this month (FT Press).
The question, with the subtitle "How great design will make people love your company", amounts to more than designer navel-gazing. For the book's authors, it heralds a broader manifesto on the importance of design in creating products and services that not only sell well but also endear brands to consumers. Brunner and Emery aim to explain how companies such as Apple (AAPL), BMW (BMW), Ikea, and Target (TGT) use design to establish lasting (and lucrative) relationships with consumers.
Their theory is simple: Successful executives should treat design as more than a finishing discipline that simply improves products' aesthetics. Instead, design should influence every aspect of customers' experiences. For Brunner and Emery, design is an infrastructural element that helps define every aspect of a company, including Web site, stores, customer support, packaging, and messaging as well as products. "Design…can't be a veneer," they explain.
news.bbc.co.uk
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