Management consultant Tom Peters once said he believes that in a crowded marketplace, design may be the most potent tool for differentiating your product or service. Although many of the world's leading brands understand and embrace the importance of design and experience almost innately, these elements are often overlooked in the race for differentiation and marketplace supremacy.
Much more than graphic imagery and visual cues, design can, and should, encompass every aspect of the consumer's interaction with the brand - from communications to completion of consumption, and even disposal.
One of the areas least explored is experiential design - the design of the consumer's experience with the brand. Equally important, no matter whether the brand is a restaurant or laundry powder.
Some brands get this innately - particularly restaurants. Their brand is the sum of the quality of the customer's entire experience that determines whether they succeed or fail. The retail experience is a key element of Starbucks' equity. And Nike has Niketown. But even then, brand building success is not guaranteed simply by ensuring the consumer is engaged at as many points along the purchase and consumption chain as possible. It starts with a great product (a given) but it's also about engaging them in ways they've never experienced before. Automotive brands understand the importance of design as a means to differentiate, yet here too most remain undifferentiated. The VW Beetle is perhaps the most enduring example of superior automotive design, but there are few others who could claim such iconic status.
Sony is another brand which innately understands the importance of design and consumer experience. Superior design and experience is built into all Sony products from conception. It is in the R&D lab where innovation starts. And Sony has recently announced it is building a brand experience showcase installation in downtown Shanghai. To my knowledge, this will be the first of its kind in Asia.
But there should be many more. Most marketers in Asia still appear content with the traditional TV, print and outdoor formula. Or worse, they think slapping a price on everything gives them differentiation. They fail to see that what all this really does is commoditise their brands. Few look outside the box for new and engaging ways to capture consumers' attention by capturing their imaginations. Celebrate the mavericks, the risk-takers and the out-of-the-box thinkers, for the future belongs to them.