From messaging to visual identity
Design is a unifying factor to support marketing and business development efforts. The best way to demonstrate how design drives value for a brand is to point out how creative work touches virtually every aspect of your organization.

In years past, I’ve worked for businesses with inconsistent branding. There were the obvious things –different logos or a wide variation in the look and feel across offices and collateral. However, there was a larger problem: The brand inconsistency confused employees, clients, and prospects.

Employees who don’t understand their brand or value proposition can’t sell it to anyone else. Business development becomes more challenging when your messages are conflicting, you have a different logo on your collateral versus your website, and you’re not even prepared for your elevator pitch on who you are and why anyone should care.

Recruiting
Another area in which your business can fall short from inconsistent branding and loose messaging is recruiting. The top talent will always choose the company that comes across as buttoned-up.

Use examples
When speaking with peers from other departments about marketing and design, I often rely on the Coca-Cola brand as an example. Everything about that brand is consistent: The logo usage, color pallet, and messages are the same so the customer always knows what to expect.

Making an impact
It’s tricky to measure the success of great design. But I can tell you that design professionals can help you brainstorm ways to improve all of the above on top of creating design guidelines to train your staff, so your employees have clarity in how to speak and represent the organization.

Clients value a fresh perspective which is hard to see when your visuals are sloppy, your content isn’t proofread, and your messages are different every time they meet you. Clients gravitate toward modern messaging and branding that speaks to their needs and business objectives.

Design professionals want to make an impact with their work, so collaborate with them on all of your brand touchpoints and you’ll see how employees and business development will flourish.