Marketers call on design to play greater strategic role
Design will have a bigger impact on marketing this year, according to exclusive Marketing Week research.
Marketing Week’s Design Attitudes survey revealed that four in five brand owners and three-quarters of agencies think that design is going to have a greater effect on marketing in 2010, as clients use their budgets in smarter ways and design is relatively cheap compared with other marketing disciplines.
The study also found that more than 90% of brand owners want design agencies to take a strategic role in branding, and more than 40% have increased design budgets.
Those companies that have cut back on their design budgets have done so because there is a lack of understanding at senior level of the value of good design, according to survey respondents.
Social media is expected to be a heavy influence on design in the coming 12 months. As brands become more open to allowing consumers in to the marketing process, more community design will emerge.
Agencies and brand owners also believe that design will lean towards simplicity and staying with the basics, and the focus will be on functional design rather than “design for design’s sake”.
The research was conducted by Marketing Week in January 2010.
