Can design help businesses survive today's tough economic climate?

Design Council

When markets slow down it can be tempting to cut marketing budgets, to delay new product development and to reduce research in an effort to save money. But is this the best thing to do? 

The Design Council argues that quality design can help your business during tough times. But then we would say that, wouldn't we? However, there's lots of evidence to support our argument.

Our Design Index report shows that businesses which invest in design out-perform their peers during bull and bear markets. We tracked the share prices of design-led companies and found that they out-performed the FTSE 100 by more than 200% over 10 years to 2004.

Anglepoise: Design for tough times

In the face of growing competition from cheaper, and arguably as effective, imports, the 1920s engineering classic, the Anglepoise lamp, was stuck on the shelves of office equipment retailers. Under pressure from low-cost operations like IKEA, the company saw its market share shrink and its margins squeezed. So Anglepoise used design to reinvent its business.

By focusing on the strong name, the flawless product design and engineering credentials, Anglepoise capitalised on its assets and overhauled the entire business to become a premium priced, international, consumer product. It moved its manufacturing base from the Midlands, where its suppliers were competing on price not providing the quality Anglepoise demanded, to Portsmouth. It employed an industrial designer who loved the products and appreciated their heritage but could see how to move the company brand forward.

Now new Anglepoise designs sell for five times as much as the older models and the company sells to premium priced design-oriented retailers rather than office catalogues.

Find out more about design at Anglepoise

Virgin Atlantic: Making a market out of a melt down

Joe Ferry, Head of Design and Service Design at Virgin Atlantic Airways says: 'At the lowest ebb of recession, just after 2001, for the airline industry, cutbacks were being made very frequently.  The majority of other airlines were stopping all investment in design. That’s exactly when we started ramping up our investment in design. We knew the market was going to come back, when it did we wanted to have the best product on the market, everything slotted into place. In 2003 we came back to the market with our new upper class suite, took the market by storm – it was a massive market share shift for us and we’ve never looked back.'

Find out more about how Virigin Atlantic Airways manages design

Listen to a lesson on strategy

Jonathan Sands, Chairman of Elmwood brand design consultancy says: 'Only one brand can be the cheapest. That is a fundamental truth and therefore design is about how for all the other brands in business you create an emotional reason to buy, so a purpose beyond price, a purpose beyond a rational performance.'

Listen to a podcast, or read a transcript, on what design can bring to business strategy