Design-driven brands will lead the Islamic Economy - Peter Gould

An important new trend is occurring internationally across corporate and design sectors. Corporations like McKinsey, Barclays, and Capital One all have something in common: they have purchased design studios and brought them in-house. This is the merging of design thinking with business strategy.

Despite this clear trend, many businesses have neglected to make design a priority. This may be because, until recently, there has been no objective method of measuring the value that design brings to a company.

MEASURING THE VALUE OF DESIGN

To quantify this value, Motiv built the DMI Design Value Index.

In 2014, they applied this measurement to the only 15 companies in America that met their criteria for being design-led: these were Apple, Coca Cola, Ford, Herman-Miller, IBM, Intuit, Newell-Rubbermaid, Nike, Procter & Gamble, Starbucks, Starwood, Steelcase, Target, Walt Disney and Whirlpool.

DMI found that “over the last 10 years, design-led companies have maintained significant stock market advantage, outperforming the S&P by an extraordinary 228 percent”.  

It is clear that embedding design and strategic design thinking adds immense value to companies.

WHAT IS A DESIGN-DRIVEN BRAND?

Global design and innovation company IDEO says: “Design thinking—inherently optimistic, constructive, and experiential—addresses the needs of the people who will consume a product or service and the infrastructure that enables it”.

Neglecting to think about design is a missed opportunity to engage more consumers. Simple aspects of design that may be overlooked without design thinking in place may isolate target consumer groups.

It is important to consider the customer’s or client’s needs because if the product or service is not easy to use, people won’t use it.

Steve Jobs famously talked about brand experiences that ‘surprise and delight’ customers, and Apple’s design-led business culture is arguably responsible for its success.

ISLAMIC ECONOMY EXAMPLES: 5PILLARS AND HALAL GEMS

Successful brands emerging in the Islamic Economy will need to embrace design thinking.

One example of a pioneering brand is 5Pillars, centered around Islamic education through playful experiences and board games.

The founder of 5Pillars, Ansarullah Ridwan Mohammed, explained that the company’s entire brand experience is completely design-driven and that they have built a loyal following by understanding what, how and why their customers love the products. The company has sold nearly 100,000 board games in three languages in over 25 countries.

Design thinking and strategic branding are closely complemented by Human Centered Design (HCD) which is “a process that starts with the people you’re designing for and ends with new solutions that are tailor made to suit their needs,” according to global design company IDEO.

Human-centered design is central to ensuring that the products and services being developed by a company are in tune with what their consumers are looking for.

It employs the use of empathy to generate ideas, which are then turned into prototypes that are tested by target consumers for feedback before being launched.

Halal Gems has taken an HCD approach to the development of their online portal and magazine for halal food.

“Foodies” were kept in mind from the ground up of development, with design centered around the experience of what this particular group of consumers would expect.

Because of this Halal Gems magazine now has over 40,000 subscribers after only two issues and Issue 2 was downloaded over 1,000 times in the first six hours of being released.

The Islamic market is uniquely positioned to take advantage of design thinking.

When correctly employed, design-driven Islamic brands can communicate their Islamic ethos in a more intuitive way to their target consumers.

Currently, with a few notable exceptions, many SME brands in Islamic economies understand Islamic branding at a superficial level—a dash of Arabic, use of green, and the ubiquitous crescent or geometric tiling.

This minimises the depth of impact that can be created by drawing inspiration from the richness and beauty of the Islamic faith.

With design-thinking and strategic branding at the forefront of business strategy, the Islamic faith can be a guiding illumination around which beautiful brands and user experiences can flourish.

About the author: Peter Gould is an internationally renowned designer, creative entrepreneur, and artist. The BBC describes him as “(leading) the emergence of new Muslim cool.” He aims to illuminate, enrich and inspire people through beauty and positivity. 

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