< back Advantage by Design – Creating a proposition - South East Business march 2010

Design is more than just how something looks, it’s about how it works, solves the problems and answers the brief. As acreative agency we find more and more that design is going beyond marketing and into the entire business plan.

In the coming months I’ll use this column to illustrate how a change in the culture of your business, to allow design thinking into it, can create an energy, focus and discipline to attract new business and retain existing clients.

The first step for any business is to understand its market. That’s true. But more important is to get your market to understand you and your proposition.

An unclear proposition leads to your market not understanding your business or how working with you will benefi t them. Also your internal audience, the team that runs your business, needs to understand who you are, what you do and how you do it.

If you think you are clear on this then write it down on a piece of paper. Perhaps ask two or three colleagues to do the same.

If you have a good enough relationship with a couple of your clients, ask them as well.

If all the pieces of paper say largely the same thing then you have a clear proposition that is understood by all your audiences and you have a strong platform for developing the design of your business.

If the pieces of paper don’t say the same thing then tune in next month or alternatively email me to discuss how your business can gain advantage by design.