What should all businesses do at least once, and do properly, and (like the title of this blog post suggests) designers need to do repeatedly?
The answer is: Understanding the target market they’re catering to.
Sure, that makes sense—but why are graphic designers any different? Why do this repeatedly?
When you’re in business, you’re in the business of understanding who your customers are, what they need and what they feel: how does your product or service make them feel?
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”—Maya Angelou
What’s different for designers is that they (and some other B2B industries) need to go through customer/client profiling on two levels:
We need to understand our clients and their needs, and how our services make them feel (just like your business needs to for your customers or clients);
And to do our job right we need to know the same for each of our client’s customers. How does what you offer make YOUR customers feel? We’re in the business of translating this into logos, websites, catalogues, posters, newsletters—all kinds of branding and marketing collateral.
The job of a graphic designer is to propel your business forward, and to do that designers need to understand your customers and clients as well as we know our own.
Have you ever briefed a designer and wondered why they asked so many questions? Now, maybe you have the answer.
Want to know more? I’m putting together a collection of important things you should know about your customers or audience (that you may not have thought of). It will appear on the site very soon: follow me on Twitter to find out when.
