Know the Difference Between Styling, Branding, and Design

Protect your brand, product or invention from the hazards of consumer product launching and go from idea to product to big brand. With guidance from retail product design and development experts Tracy and Tom Hazzard. Get the insider secrets to put the right things in the right order with the right resources so you can out design outsource and out profit your way to retail success.

Welcome back to Product Launch Hazards, and we're really working on some refining the definitions of things that we're going to be talking about over the course of this podcast and we talk about in our membership groups and in our Q and A sessions and terms that we use all the time. And one of those terms that's really, really overused is good design.

Oh. Or just design period is an incredibly overused term, and it means different things to different people. And that's really what we talk about in the video that this audio we're going to cut to in a minute was recorded for a few years ago. And it makes a lot of sense. This podcast is going to be. We're going to also set up another clip. So in this one episode, you're going to get our definition of good design, and then we're going to come back and do a little introduction to the next segment, which is about style versus design, which is sort of a deeper dive subject.

Yeah. So I just want to set this up as to why this is so important to you and to what we do here. And that is because design is very intentional with everything that we talk about and we do here. And design is a broader definition for us than just like drawing a pretty picture. And so we really want to be clear with you about what that means and what it encompasses, because very often people say they're designing something and really they're just putting a slightly different shape on it or a pattern on it or something like that. And that is not designed by our definition. So we really want to be clear here about what we're talking about.

All right, well, let's cut to that definition, and then we'll be back right after that to talk about style versus design.

Can you define design for retail?

So many people define design in different ways.

Yeah, there's the definition of order out of chaos, but I think that we sort of think of it as that art is personal. So if you're an artist, you're creating an object. Even if you're creating art, furniture or art objects, sculpture, you're creating an expression of yourself, an individualist expression, a message that you want to send. So it's not about who's going to use it or who's going to buy it, who's gonna make it. It's about expression. And then of course, then there's the other side of just making something an artisan. It's about craft, how you make it. And design is somewhere in the middle, I think.

Well, there's also style. I mean, style is the other aspect, I think, to craft. And style is only one component of design, but it's purely about how something looks without consideration to how it's made, where it's retailing, how it functions. Yes, exactly. So design is really the perfect balance of the needs of the user, the needs of the factory manufacturing, the needs.

Of the client or the way that it's sold. So the needs of the retailer or the sales venue.

Yeah, Design really has to consider all those aspects and put it together in the right balance.

America is such a commerce driven country. There's a lot of design that needs to be going on right now if we're going to keep our GDP up.

How did you end up designing for companies like Target, Costco and Staples?

I don't think we set out to design products for mass market retail. In fact, we probably initially set out to do maybe a little higher end.

Product, but we set out in contract first contract furniture.

Yeah. So working for companies like Herman Miller and Steelcase, definitely mass market retail is not where we started, but it did sort of find us. And as we got into it, not only did we find the challenge exciting, but we became, I think, more interested in bringing good design to a larger group of people.

Design for the masses. Yeah. I mean, I think that we really did evolve into that because we believe that design should be accessible to everyone. There's no reason why you can't have a great chair at $99 and you should have to spend $600 if you don't have that kind of money. So there's no reason that those products can't be designed. Those products don't just need to be engineered because the design part isn't the expensive part. The expensive part are the materials and the processing and shipping. All of those things add up. And so it's just working on a design within a tighter constraint.

And I think as we earlier in our career learned more about the realities of material and manufacturing costs, we say to ourselves, gosh, why does something have to be that expensive? Looking at a higher end product, realizing that it doesn't, then it's actually more exciting to bring good design to the masses.

Right, exactly.

So as you can Hear from what we talked about there is that design has a bigger encompassment. It covers functions and it covers use. And so that's why it's become such an overused term, because people are using it for UX design, which is user interface. Right. And so you have these definitions that become much more technical about design. And we are using design to have a broader style, look, feel, function, like all of those things together. And with that, we really want to also make a clarity between style versus design. So if you are only styling versus adding design components to it. So in other words, altering the functions, the features, the what's driving people to do it, or you're just making it prettier.

Yeah, styling. Are you just really scratching the surface in an oversimplification, slapping a color on something so that it has a certain style appeal, or are you really designing something that it has a lot more integrity on the whole?

Right.

And there's a complication of product launching through that. That's why we really want to make sure that you understand it, is that when you are doing styling things, you have a point of reference. And so this is where the majority of mass market retail buyers, that's all that they ever do is style. Nowadays they have no designers on staff. They have it in at least decades.

Maybe a lot of them don't even really understand design.

Like they've not gone to design school. They have purchasing degrees, you know, like that kind of thing. So they don't understand it any better. But a lot of also of you guys out there who are e commerce sellers out there, you've come from this practice where the digital marketing courses and programs have taught you how to style. And I really want you to be careful and listen to the definition and understand the differences. Because as you start to do more serious, more comprehensive, more original product, you must do more design and must abandon that. You can stop at styling, which is what you've done going to Alibaba, then contacting a factory and then asking them to change the color, add a feature.

Put your logo on it.

Put your logo on it. Right. All of those things are only styling. So we want you to hear that and hear this sort of the value difference between styling and design that it can have.

Can you explain the differences between style and design?

Styling is one aspect of design. It's just one small component.

Think about it this way. Think about it. You hear about stylists, like celebrity stylists, those that are dressing you for the red carpet. And what do they do is they go out there and they shop. They're really good shoppers. They shop in places that you have no access to. And they put together a combination of clothes and accessories and shoes that no one imagined should go together. That's kind of what a stylist does. Whether they're styling furniture or styling a computer accessory is what they're taking together is a bunch of colors, materials, components and things, combining them together and making a product. But there's no design in that, in the design. There's no invention part of that. So there's nothing that is sort of like user focused in that it's all about creating a certain look, a certain.

Style, a certain message or a certain brand image.

It's not about the user, independent of everything else.

They're not considering the needs of the real needs of the consumer. They're not considering the needs of manufacturing, the limitations of manufacturing. They're not considering any psychology of who's going to buy it, the demographics of who's going to buy it at certain levels.

Yeah, I mean, there's nothing wrong with styling, don't get me wrong. There's a great place for it. There's a lot of stylists out. If you go to these design houses that are doing large communities or helping you style your interior of your home, they're helping you make smart choices with materials and smart choices with flooring and make sure everything coordinates together and looks good. So there is a great service being provided by stylists. But if you've only got a stylist designing a product that you're making, that's a problem.

The best designers really understand how things are manufactured. They understand the limitations of manufacturing and they understand how to get the most out of those manufacturing techniques and limitations.

The most style out of it as well.

So the difference between balancing in a holistic way all the different factors that go into making a product what it.

Is, function, form, aesthetics.

For designer label brands, who's really behind all those designs?

I think that the big thing is that you need the definition between brand and design. So you buy Martha Stewart, Cindy Crawford, Kathy Ireland, Cynthia Rowley, Michael Graves. You buy any of those things and they carry a brand identity with them. Now, some of them have a better design background. Martha Stewart and arguably her organization. And we know that intimately because we've worked with her company before. They have designers in that organization, industrial designers, who care about how the products are made and how it happens.

Martha Stewart is not designing those products. She set up a quality requirement, style requirement, and her people carry that out.

But they have a quality level. And so you're getting something special for that brand. So if you believe in Martha Stewart, and we do, but if you believe in Martha Stewart and her brand, there's a level of expectation of design quality, design style, material quality. You get all of that from that. So they are providing a tremendous service. But there are a lot of brands out there that are just names. So they're just celebrity names that they slap on a brand of a product they were already buying in China anyway. They just figure if they put that known name on there, that celebrity, then what happens is that you'll just buy.

It, you will recognize it, you'll feel more comfortable about it and you will buy it. But in reality you it's costing the consumer more because there is a 3, 4, 5% of the cost of that product that is doing nothing but paying for that licensed brand. So what we do differently is that we actually design and develop all the products that we're associated with, but we're hidden.

So like, you don't see our designer name on it very often. Sometimes you do. But there's a couple of club products where our pictures are on there and our name brand is on there. But it's not as common. And what is more common is for us to be behind the scenes doing the actual real design work to make sure that users love it. Make sure it's got the highest quality possible, make sure you're packing in as much features as possible that the users care about. And then what ends up happening is that that gets sold by under some company brand name.

So the irony is sometimes you'll have a product that doesn't have a well known brand name that's actually a better designed product and a better value for the consumer than the ones that have a well recognized national.

The real tip to the consumer is don't buy the brand unless you absolutely love the product. Just because somebody's picture is on the box doesn't mean that it has anything to do with what they have in their home or what they buy. It's a fee. They're being paid a fee to do that. So it's commercial.

So now that you have this sort of basic understanding of good design, basic understanding of styling versus design and what that means, this is kind of the issue that people see. There's no good design at mass market retail, there's no good design on Amazon. I mean, this is what the consumer perception is out there and I don't think it's unfounded. And it has to do with the fact that there's so much styling going on and so people don't see that as innovation and design. And our mission here is to help you create original products that people really, really want, right?

Absolutely.

And so with that, we have to start looking at what is good design at mass market retail, at the club, where do you find it and what does it look like? And make sure that we're designing into that, that we're product launching into that and using those good practices. So we want to share with you also one more clip, this very short clip on how to find good design at retail or what defines good design at mass market retail.

Can I really find good design at a club or mass retailer?

Sometimes, Rarely answer.

It's for mass market and club retail. I mean, it's all about providing value. And so yes, you can find a good value. And in the club stores, I mean, we shop there all the time, you can definitely find a good value and decent design. But it's rare to find good design because it's not the goal of the process. It's sort of not their overall. No one's being measured on that. So it's not set up to happen.

If you find a product there, you connect with emotionally. If consumers find a product they connect with emotionally, that may very well be good design. But as you said, it's not the primary goal to provide good design. It's to provide the best feature function value for your money.

And it's also just a venue for brand. So you find good brands, you find brands that give you quality or value that you appreciate. And so that's the goal of it. But it's the retail stores and the mass market club, they're all a venue for a brand. So design is not a significant part of that. Sometimes it is. If that brand happens to have good design as a core component of it. Dyson that's inarguably a very good quality, very high design. You can find them at your Target, you can find them at, I don't know if you can find them at Walmart. I know you can find them at Target and you can find them in the club. So that's one of those items where you know you're buying a good design and you know you're buying quality and you know you're probably buying at the best price possible. So all in all you get a great package there. So it can happen. But it's because that brand believes in good design. Just like you buy an Apple product at a Best Buy store, it can.

Also be depending on that retailer what the buyer at that retailer who's actually deciding what products go in the store believes in. I mean, a lot of these buyers don't understand design, don't know anything about design, don't care about design. All they care about is sales performance. So if that's what they care about, design is a really not a consideration. Right. But if they do happen to be someone that appreciates design, yes, good design can get in there.

But again, it's rare.

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