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For What It's Worth, this section of our Web site is intended as an outlet for the partners at EC
Stewart Design and Communications to voice our editorial opinions on topics that we find relevant in the world today. The topics will range from design and business to general observations of the world in which we live and work. If you have questions or comments about the "For What It's Worth" section of the site, please let us know by clicking on the link at the end of the article. ................................................................................................................................................................ |
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The Creative Squeeze on Small Businesses Too often we're hearing stories about small businesses getting screwed by their design partners. Not intentionally, mind you, but screwed none the less. How you ask? Simple, designers are only providing one aspect of the solution the business really needs. Often this is in the form of a beautiful Web site, spectacularly designed brochure or a "knock 'em dead" direct mail piece. Unfortunately, this is all that the designer is delivering, usually with little or no strategic consideration for the client or any kind of analysis as to what the client really needs to attract customers. Take Web sites for example: They tend to be one of the most expensive, yet necessary tools that a new company can deploy to attract and inform customers. For a small company just starting out this is often the only tool available for talking to a broad customer market. The problem they face then is how to drive traffic to that site. This is where the designers, and the hype of the past few years, lets them down. Generally there is no plan for promoting the site and with the fees that many designers charge today, no money left over for any kind of promotion even if that is an option. Yes, designers will tell the client that they have signed up a site with all of the major search engines, included lots of things called "meta tags" and generally done everything possible to get a site listed. Then they hand it over to the client with a site maintenance agreement and wish them luck. Unfortunately, for the client the job is only half done. Even worse, many designers don't realize that there is something missing, or if they do they don't know how to go about providing the marketing expertise that the client really needs. A perfect example of this is a small client of ours who has a very nice Web site created by a local design firm. This was done as part of a barter arrangement in exchange for some very sophisticated work in the design firm's offices. Now, with the new Web Site in hand, our client's not quite sure what to do with it, how to promote it, or even if people are visiting it. In addition, the client was astounded that during the development process, the designer relied on them to write most of the copy, provide all of the positioning input and any additional audience data they could. Mind you the clients are not copywriters, have no marketing experience and while they know their audience pretty well, have no idea how to promote themselves to them other than through face-to-face meetings and word of mouth. I had the opportunity several weeks later to meet with the designer on some unrelated topics. During that meeting I asked about the level and types of marketing services that they provide to their clients. In response, the president of the firm gave me kind of a blank stare and said that those things aren't part of their offerings. If a client asks for them the firm either hires an outside resource or refers them to an independent consultant. Essentially telling me, "we only do design." Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident and the design firm in this case is not an exception. My experience also tells me that the barter nature of this engagement was not a factor in the behavior of the design firm. In talking with a number of small and medium design firms most are willing to admit that they lack any dedicated client marketing resources and usually rely on them, the client, to provide that direction. Frequently, design firms also have a limit as to the minimum size of a job they will accept and often more than a small company can afford. This is the crux of the disservice that design firms are paying to the small business community. The net result is that many small companies are forced to hire untrained or inexperienced designers, try and do the work themselves using standard templates in an off the shelf Web design package, or forego professional design services all together. Too often companies try and cut costs by hiring the teenager next door to design their Web site, or figure they can design their own brochures in MS Word…and it shows. With today's competitive business environment it's very important to make a great first impression and poorly designed marketing materials are one of the best ways to fail the test. Not a very pleasant option if you're trying to get a business off the ground. The question is: why don't more design firms, even small ones provide marketing and communications support as part of their standard offerings. The simple answer would be to blame it on economics and overhead. Design can be a capital-intensive service business requiring computers, software, trained designers and sufficient office space to house all of it. It also tends to be viewed by many design professionals as an isolated discipline requiring unique capabilities, training and focus. In essence saying design is separate from other marketing and communications functions. I have difficulty buying either one of these arguments. Admittedly there is a capital cost to running a design agency, but with the costs of technology continuing to drop and an abundance of well-trained designers available in the market, the cost of adding a competent marketer or two is minimal. Plus the pricing structure for marketing consulting services is much higher than a production designer. As for design being a separate discipline that only takes input from marketing, I find that to be a very narrow minded view of what design is. I ran into the same kind of attitude when I first started managing Public Relations. Purists viewed it as a separate function from marketing with a more highbrow and important role. Coming from a marketing and design background myself, I didn't hold these same views and successfully integrated PR into a number of strategic marketing programs. Handled appropriately, design should be similarly integrated. Finally, the idea of setting a minimum size limit on clients doesn't make a lot of sense to me either. Most designers I know will take a small job from an IBM or other large company just to "get their foot in the door." Often losing money on these jobs and rarely seeing any long-term benefit other than as portfolio fillers. Small companies usually offer designers creative opportunities that larger companies don't. They tend to be more reliable about paying their bills in a timely manner and don't send a team of lawyers who tell you to sign a long, complicated and often highly restrictive contract. Small companies are also dying to find marketing help anywhere they can get it, and will often pay at least a minimal amount for the support. So how can design firms become more of a service to small companies? Two simple things:
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 If you have any comments about this column, or have a question you'd like answered, you can write to Andrew Hayden. |
