I am steeped in the idea that designers have more value that they are often accorded and have more influence on commerce and culture than is often understood.

Think your company’s product or services are boring? Think again. There are only boring advertising, branding and marketing people. All products and services are good for someone.

1.  Simplify - Jobs was a master at eliminating unnecessary components from his day-to-day life, the company focus, and from products they produced and sold. “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”

2.  Focus - When Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, it was close to going bankrupt. He found them making over 30 different computers. He immediately stopped all production and forced them to make just 4 — that’s it. On his annual strategic meeting, he would force his people to come up with the top 10 priorities for the coming year. He then would slash the bottom 7 from the list and state, “We can only work on three.”

3. Take responsibility end to end - Many call it controlling, others called it his passion for perfection. Whichever you call it, Jobs and Apple took end-to-end responsibility for the entire customer experience, from producing the hardware, to the software, and the devices. He didn’t trust, or want to be dependent on, another company ruining the user’s experience.

4.  When behind, leapfrog - Like every company, Apple couldn’t be on the forefront of every product. After they did create a revolutionary product, they then would focus on what they had been neglecting. For example, their focus on creating the Macintosh meant they fell behind when dealing with music. Instead of playing catch-up, they transformed the music industry with the introduction of the iPod.

5.  Put products before profits - Jobs was not driven by profit and money, rather making insanely great products. Focus on making the products great and the profits will follow.

6.  Don’t be a slave to focus groups - Jobs felt customers didn’t know what they wanted until you showed it to them. Caring deeply about what the customer wanted is different from continually asking them.

7.  Bend reality - Jobs was famous for pushing people to do the impossible. This was called his “reality distortion field.” He wouldn’t accept hearing that things couldn’t be done, regardless if they had never been done before. Those who worked with him admitted this trait pushed them to perform extraordinary things.

8.  Impute - Be obsessively detailed about your brand being represented in everything you do from marketing, to product design, to packaging.

9.  Push for perfection - Jobs was fanatical, and in every product or movie his companies ever made, he would hit the pause button and go back to the drawing board until it was perfect.

10.  Tolerate only A players - “I learned over the years that when you have really good people you don’t have to baby sit them,” said Jobs. “By expecting them to do great things, you can get them to do great things.

11.  Engage face-to-face - Jobs was a strong believer in face-to-face meetings. “Creativity comes from spontaneous meetings, from random discussions,” Jobs would say.

12.  Know both the big picture and the details - Typically leaders are either visionaries or detail oriented. Jobs some how was both. While he was developing products that would change the industry and the world, he was also obsessing over the screws and buttons on the product.

13.  Combine the humanities with the sciences - The theme of Jobs’ life was that he stood at the intersection of technology and art.

Stay hungry, stay foolish - Jobs thought of himself as a rebel, building a company that was going to put a dent in the universe. “The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”

Acknowledging Pitfalls Will Help You Avoid Them

Launching a new brand, revitalizing a heritage brand, or jump starting a brand that’s stalled are all exciting projects. Each offers unique challenges requiring important choices. Despite best intentions, bad decisions sometimes happen to good branding. Avoiding those is what this post is all about.

And How It Will Help You Succeed

“What do designers do?” It’s a great question – with an answer that’s surprisingly difficult to put into perspective. Even Einstein’s General Relativity can be parsed down to 10 words… the geometry of spacetime is influenced by the matter present. But design and branding, that’s complicated.

Design touches every aspect of our lives, from the products we use to the spaces we occupy. Everything is designed. Yet, among small business owners, as well as within the C-suite, the role of design and branding in business remains largely misunderstood, or dismissed as a decorative afterthought.

That’s an obsolete way of thinking, but simply saying they don’t get it is a cop out. Designers must better articulate the value they provide. There are too many misinformed and misguided statements about design and branding floating around out there – including here on Biznik – so I thought I’d take a crack at providing an accurate, comprehensive “definition” of…

What Designers Do

Designers deal in ideas. They give shape to ideas that shape our world, enrich everyday experiences, and improve our lives. Where there’s confusion, designers fashion clarity; where there’s chaos, designers construct order; where there’s entropy, designers promote vitality; where there’s indifference, designers swell passion; where there’s mediocrity, designers imbue excellence; and where there’s silence, designers lend voice.

Every organization has something to say, designers help them say it to the world. Design can start murmurs that become roars, which spark debates that open eyes and ignite passions, which inspire ideas that reveal possibilities to the hearts and minds of all who see them. You don’t do that by barking, “better, faster, cheaper.” You do it by expressing the soul of the organization through branding.

Businesses sell products and services, but people buy brands. Brands they believe in. Brands with conviction, that stand for something, and embody a belief and a purpose. Brands that are equal parts inspirational and aspirational. Brands that make the ordinary extraordinary. Brands that make them feel awesome. Brands that offer connections to something greater.

Making those connections means starting with the human experience – understanding how design impacts people – and designing outward. It involves painstakingly researching the target audience, meticulously analyzing the data, diligently studying the details, thoughtfully considering the facts, thoroughly weighing the options, and very often ignoring it all to design what your gut tells you will work best. What will best connect, inspire, elicit, excite, provoke and ultimately, persuade.

After all, it’s not rocket science, it’s persuasion, and persuasion is an art. Skill and craft must be learned, but they’ll only take you so far without constant curiosity, boundless imagination and uncommon creativity. None of that comes bundled with the latest design software. Imagination begins in the mind, not in a computer – technology doesn’t make up for lack of talent or tenacity.

Creativity is the new corporate currency, and imagination is the price of admission. Not everybody knows a good idea when they see it though, and sometimes, bad decisions happen to good design. Avoiding those means designers must do double duty as business coaches, cheerleaders, confidantes, or psychotherapists… whatever it takes. Sure, it’s challenging, but it’s not hard work. Hard work is what the Marines do. Keep it in perspective.

A good portion of that challenging work involves designing tangible things like logos, collateral, publications, packaging, products, advertising, environments, signage, digital interfaces, web sites, and a great many other things across every kind of media. They serve as touchpoints and beacons within a broader brand narrative.

Scripting that narrative requires a mix of method and madness, icons and symbols, colors and materials, photography and illustration, typography and messaging, sounds and scents, processes and experiences, form and function. These brand vocabularies are designed to engage people, inspire dialogue and serve as compasses, guiding consumers through a crowded market.

Consumers aren’t the only audience. Designers invigorate organizations with strategic thinking, creative collaboration and imaginative design that provide a competitive advantage and stretch the possibilities of what a business can be. That’s how design helps great businesses become successful brands. Brands that foster innovation, stimulate commerce, create jobs and wealth, and fuel the engine that drives society forward.

Design luminary Paul Rand once proclaimed, “Design is more of a calling than a career.” He was right. Bringing ideas to life in ways that touch and can be touched is challenging and rewarding. Each project offers exciting new possibilities and avenues of discovery. Those possibilities are only as limited as your imagination and creativity. That’s why in the end, there’s no boring design, only boring designers.

We’re fortunate to live in times where success is increasingly determined by the quality and value of our ideas – and our ability to implement them. After all, the value of any idea is only realized if implemented. That’s why designers are invaluable. As Twain touted, “You’ve got to admire [people] that deal in ideas.”

Thanks to Ken Peters for this post.

• 1) Businesses whose Founder, CEO, President, or top management want to be involved in the marketing process.
• 2) Good businesses that can deliver, but need help getting their appearance on the same level of excellence.
• 3) Companies that need help explaining their value to others.
• 4) Businesses who want a more responsible and measurable approach to marketing.
• 5) Companies in a sales slump or launching new initiatives.
• 6) Companies looking for an outsourced Chief Marketing Officer.
• 7) Start-up companies with great upside potential and a lot at stake.

In today’s world, your potential customers make extremely fast decisions about your company. They form perceptions based on how your company’s design and content appear to them. If you don’t care the way your company looks or how it sounds, it shows.

Your potential customers may give you 1-3 seconds to judge your company’s design and how well it’s visually branded.

Your potential customers may give you 1-3 minutes to judge your company’s content and how well it communicates your story.

Think about it. Almost instantly, people will make judgments if they care about you and more importantly if they will buy from you. Now you know why.