Markets don’t necessarily end at national borders, so your products and services need to survive in various cultures and environments. Design can help them not just to survive but to thrive in the international arena
UK Trade & Investment estimates there are 80,000 small and medium-sized businesses selling goods and services abroad, although Robin Godfrey of the British Chambers of Commerce says that as many as 80% of small firms are merely responding to internet inquiries from overseas rather than dictating their own export strategy. 'We have too many companies not working to a plan,' he says.
To ensure continued export success, companies need to take a measured research-led approach which will identify key markets and opportunities and understand how its product or service can be specifically targeted at the varied needs of the global consumer.
Designers can develop strategies and technologies that bridge cultures, languages and living environments. In this competitive arena, design is a key factor that can provide business competitiveness in the global economy.
Design is crucial because it allows companies to couple technical possibilities to global market demands and new business opportunities. It can help in the creation of new markets and in framing customer expectations. Designers can be the key to finding means of differentiating a product or service in a way that your competitors will find hard to imitate.
Design is the critical interface between all business disciplines and their customers or end users. Engineering needs design to make products usable, useful and desirable. Marketing needs design to create images and messages that tell the customer why a product or service is different.