Three Minds On Digital Marketing @ Organic

After a great weekend in Chicago attending this year’s IIT Institute of Design: Design Research Conference, one of the big ideas that emerged was shifting the conversation away from consumer research methods towards promoting the value design research (or design thinking) offers to business and the C-level suite.

Research & Design departments are becoming increasingly influential in affecting how products are designed and marketed to consumers. Motorola’s Steve Herbst presented an interesting case study in which the insight that the density of a cell phone, rather than its weight, better predicted how consumers would perceive the overall quality of a device. In doing so, the research team helped Motorola’s engineering team refocus their design efforts on a narrower set of features that directly mattered to consumers.

We’re definitely in the midst of some tumultuous, yet exciting times. In the next few years it will be interesting to see how design thinking approaches to problem solving will progress into leadership competencies by evoking empathy and storytelling to shape the way organizations think about their interactions with consumers. As brands struggle to become more “open” and embrace the idea that consumers are equal partners in shaping and evolving a brand’s identity, we’ll need to develop a new set of skills and toolkits to foster the co-creation of deeper meaning and value together with consumers.

In the words of Google’s Tim Armstrong, “the internet is the world’s best platform for connecting people.” What, as brand stewards and design thinkers are you doing to foster conversations with your customers and transform the role of consumer insights in your organization?

Audrey Carr