the secret of brand chemistry: data and design
We say it an awful lot here at NobiWorks.
‘data-driven design’
But what precisely does that entail?
Welcome to part two of our series on the secrets of brand chemistry. By now, you know that cultivating a brand with chemistry requires a deep knowledge of three things (and if that doesn’t sound familiar, give part one of our series a read).
The first of those three is where a majority of our data comes from: Your Customers.
Let me be the first to tell you, if you’ve started a business, you have customers—
even if they haven’t purchased anything from you yet. To have a business is to be in a relationship with someone—even if you don’t know who those people are. As is the case with any relationship, knowing who you’re with is crucial to its health and longevity.
At the end of the day, you want to learn what makes your ideal buyer tick. Who do they want to be? Why? How have they tried to get there? Why? What messages are they internalizing? Why? Seeing a pattern? Sometimes, getting this information can be as simple as asking—but I’ll be honest, it’s rare.
Understanding your customers isn’t easy and isn’t always straightforward. The brilliant Mo Ismail put it this way, “It’s like you need to find someone and they can only describe what’s around them.”
So brand strategists went ahead and systematized the process.
What kind of customer data helps us understand the inner workings of an ideal buyer?
Demographics
Psychographics- Attitudes and Interests and Heros
Current mindset and Outlook—how they feel right now about their life instead of long held attitudes
An analysis of their Goals + Needs
Let’s make this a little more concrete:
Demographics- 27 year old, single black woman with a bachelors
Psychographics- “To achieve is to excel,” traditional African fabrics and slow fashion, Freddie Harrel, Zara Odu
Mindset- “I could really screw this up,” “Who even helps with this?” “I will not fail.” “I really want them to be proud of me.” “I’m not sure I can pull this off.”
Goals + Needs Analysis- Needs precision and control to put her fear of failure to bed. Needs a partner she doesn’t need to micromanage. Wants to be as hands on or hands off as she’d like. Time is a premium.
Once we have a deep understanding of these elements, we take this ideal buyer through a customer journey—
to find out exactly what they need from the moment they become aware they have a problem to the moment they’re singing your praises.
On it’s own, this data is pretty valuable—marketing specialists LOVE this stuff. But how do we use it in design?
We use it to give context to our design choices.
This data takes care of the first—by acquainting us with the visual language of relevant brands—and gives us parameters to define the second, by guiding us to the sort of differentiation your ideal buyer will likely obsess over.
Of course there’s also color and shape psychology, which can be helpful in certain contexts. Both require demographic and psychographic information in order to be effective at all. But very few who use these tools do so with an understanding of how culture, and demographics can shift the results or expected impact (e.g. most readily available resources say red is passionate, but what about in Chinese culture? Across genders?).
Design and data are inextricably linked—
if you’re doing right! When designers start a project, there’s a vast sea of possibility to choose from (which is equal parts exhilarating and terrifying). Data allows us to eliminate options unlikely to be effective in an objective way. It also helps us elevate options your ideal buyer is likely to feel drawn to.
And if you’re thinking, “cool, but what about me?” that’s totally fair. This is a lot of “them” so far. But worry not, your vision is data as well and helps us further narrow down the field of design options.
Coincidentally, we’ll be discussing that soon
Stay Tuned!
P.S. If you’re having trouble figuring out who your ideal buyers are, download our free resource The Niching Cure Pt.1!