Design Sojourn

That’s if your potential buyer makes it to the store before deciding what they are going to buy! But if you are lucky and they haven’t made their decision, then DT’s points will definitely go a long way to helping them choose your product.

I would like to add that now you have the design – start designing the experience the customer is going to have from the moment they purchase it…in fact try and design the experience so that it will have some affect (a positive one of course) on them before they even consider purchasing it, as you might then have a chance to beat the three seconds since the consumer will go straight to your product.

Thanks for such a great article DT.

Hi Raph,

Thanks for your comments and sharing some of your insights.

Actually it has been a proven fact that more than 50% of consumers will change their mind of their purchase intent when they enter a store. This is also when these consumers have already made up their mind what they want to buy!

easier said than done….
the world works in mysterious ways

I thought the BMW, iPod and Coke bottle had a lot more than 3-5 seconds with all the advertising etc.

A great great post!

This is soo timely because we just locked a big rebranding client and it’s so key to understand how to help them sell to their clients through our work.

I posted a couple more steps that round out the process! Would love for your feedback!

[...] work that engages the viewer and captures their attention. The writers over at Design Sojurn made a list of how they think you can successfully capture your market’s attention and I think it’s [...]

love the post. It is true our time span for “eyeing” the products are shorter but most importantly good marketing within the product itself is definitely needed today. I think many industrial designers are neglecting to think marketing when they design.

thanks for the book tip, i shall look in it.

[...] 3 Seconds is all You Got for Your Designs to Sell! [...]

In the land of big box retail your right, but lets not forget that when there is a sales person their personal enthusiasm can make all the difference. Sales people, much maligned by us designers need to be provided with the reasons to sell, give them good information, give them the emotional hooks that will bring your product out of the background noise.

This is an excellent post. Of course, that the quality of the product should be good but I think that the quality of products and services people less worry. Good side of this is that the bed product will lose customers and quality offer will be emphasized.

Good points Brian!

I also believe that we designers should work closely with the marketing, in order to clearly communicate the philosophy and the meaning behind the design in advertising.

And we designers should support the retail design in order to create an appropriate environment with the same design language or to emphasize it when possible.

Sales people in the store should also be well trained in convincing talks that communicates the branding and design.
Not all consumers understand products from the first sight, so in most situations they need to be educated by the sales people by their sale talks which can be the deciding factor whether to buy or not.

Posts that posted before me all hit the nail on head. I also think Marketing, Salesmen, and Designers should all be intertwined ie apple. Great post Brian!

Very interesting post. I think this has become more and more so since the internet. People get so much information to digest every day, it’s a self defense mechanism to make these snap judgements.

In order to create the consistency in your product line and communication it is vital to understand how to translate brand values to product design. This is so for the look and feel of the product, but also on the features a product has, the packaging, the communication, the service, etc. By understanding the bigger picture a brand is about, these decisions can lead to the consistency you are looking for.

Dead on. In this information era we get exposed to so many messages and objects in a day that it becomes harder and harder to distinguish your design. Some nice leads to be differentiated, thanks.

This is a very interesting read…I remember one of my lecturers telling us this one day. It seems liek common sense when you think about it, but I guess we never really thought about it in that way.

I remember we would go along to department stores and take photos of the product lines (without the stores knowing…they didn’t really appreciate us doing so) so we could superimpose images of our product on the shelves to see the impact it would have from the perspectiev of the consumer. Not a bad idea to really see how it manages to stand out (in a good way of course).

I’m just adding to my previous comment…I love the fact about how ingrained the “design language” is in successful brands so much so as the post suggests that a brand or logo isn’t even required for it to have that brand connection. I remember reading something about such brands, somethign like ‘complexity behind elegant simplicty’.I guess thats what you get with massive R&D and marketing budgets!

Apple is such a good example of this…I remember reading an article about Apple and how it has like the next 10-15 years or so of product lines already fleshed out according to marketing trends, expectations and the like. It may have been an interview with Ive’s i’m not sure now. Now THAT is a company I would love to be a part of, or atleast have an insight into the workings and philosophy behind it all…

Hi Michael,

You have highlighted a key point about design today. Design has evolved beyond form giving. It is now form communications!

Also I agree to the post in general I think there are some areas where you rethink your decision making more often and where, although you might fall in love with the design, you will buy a different product because it delivers better in other areas than design. I think it’s especially true in performance related decision where design becomes an accessories, a nice to have thing.
Although, if products are almost equally good, design will make a difference for sure.

This is very good article about using design to sell products.
3 Seconds is just a wink of an eye of the user…