An introduction to branding and marketing from Make It Clear

Branding and marketing your idea, where to begin? 

When creating a business or launching a new product, one of the first things to consider is branding and marketing.

–   Branding is who you are and what you look like

–   Marketing is how you increase people’s awareness of who you are and how you sell to your target audience.

Branding and marketing have to work together so your product looks and talks to its audience in the same way and sells well!

What is branding?

To begin creating your brand, you must first ask yourself and your team a few questions to understand what your brand is. The questions below are a great place to begin:

• Why did you create your product?
• What makes your product different?
• What do you want people to think of when they hear your product name?
• What feelings/reactions do you want people to have when they think about your product?

The typical parts of a brand are:

• The brand identity: This includes things like your logo, colours and how you use things like photography or illustrations
• Brand values: The things you really care about, take a look at the Make it Clear brand values on this video we created here
• Brand positioning: This shows why your product is different and better than the others
• The brand tone of voice: How you talk to the people that will buy your product

Your branding will establish what people will expect from your product. Knowing what you want to represent in your brand, can guide your marketing.

What is marketing?

Marketing refers to methods used to increase awareness of your product among your target audience, through messaging and visuals. Marketing can become complicated so start by focusing on the following:

–   What you want to say and how you want to say it

–   How you can reach the people who will want to buy your product

(For example, what social media platforms do your target audience use, or would it be better to just drop a leaflet through a door?)

Chicken or the egg, branding or marketing – which comes first?

Because branding is who you are, it must come first. Before creating your marketing messaging and visuals, you must first decide who your brand is so that you know what you are communicating.

Conclusion

When it comes to building a great brand and marketing plan, it’s all about creating something that works best for your unique product. Sometimes things may not go as planned but the important thing is to try new ideas. So be brave and good luck with branding and marketing your product for the Design Ventura competition!

Industry Insights: Understanding the Pitching Process

We sometimes fall in love with our own ideas. Once we spent a lot of time thinking, prototyping and developing, we can get attached to them, and that’s a good thing. It means we believe in the product we have created and the purpose it has.

However, we should always be able to step away and look at our ideas through a different lens. Because when the pitching process starts, it is not what you or your team think about the product. It’s how the audience you are pitching to will perceive it that counts. Remember, it’s the first time they are going see it.

Be honest to yourself. And also, be aware of the people in the audience. try to understand them if you can. What have they done in the past, how do they approach their work. They need to be engaged, even entertained, while you are pitching. How are you going to engage and entertain them with your pitch?

There’s a question I always ask to myself when I have to present something new: Can I explain this idea in ten words or less? It’s a tough one, but it allows me to focus on communicating the most important things, without getting lost in irrelevant details.

Here is an example of my own work, where I was challenged to find ways to help raise funds for a charity called “Pathway” that helps homeless people get personalised medical attention when they are treated in a London Hospital.

This is the idea we had, in ten words: Up-cycle former homeless clothes to show transformational impact of healthcare.

So, when pitching your idea, keep that in mind: what ten words describes your product? Your audience might not be aware of all the work you put behind it but if the idea is relevant and catches their attention it will come alive and grow in the real world. Focus on that.

Design Ventura Masterclass and Celebration Event 2017

Last week the Design Ventura team welcomed the top ten schools back in the Design Museum for a special day celebrating design.

The day started with a fun ice-breaker lead by Catherine Ritman-Smith, Director of Learning at the Design Museum, which was followed by two incredible presentations by the guest designers Heather Corcoran from Kickstarter and Herny James from Inventid.

The afternoon started with a career insight speed dating activity which allowed students, teachers, family and friends to have the opportunity to ask experts from the industry about how their creative and enterprise skills have supported their successful transition into the workplace.

After tea and cake and while family and friends were visiting the galleries, the students activities continued. Students had a chance to participate in a fantastic drawing workshop lead by Peter Ayres from Beep Studio; and an exciting Little Bits workshop lead by Carlos Izsak from Makercart.

In the evening, the Design Museum opened its doors to the shortlisted school teams, their teachers, family and friends, Deutsche Bank employees, Design Industry Experts, the Design Museum team and special VIP guests to celebrate the success of Design Ventura 2017.

The event gave the students a chance to explain their innovative products to guests, network with people from the industry and be an advocates for their schools. Guest were really impressed with the confidence and communication skills that the students demonstrated.

Last year’s winners Harrogate Grammar School presented a cheque of £1080 from the proceeds of their product (Hook2O) to a representative of their chosen charity, The Sir Robert Ogden Macmillan Centre.

The anticipated announcement of the Design Ventura 2017 awards was presented by the judges: Alice Black, Naomi Cleaver, Sebastian Conran, Christoph Woermann and Anna Bullus. The prizes were awarded as follows: Graveney School, Simon Balle All-through School and Woolwich Polytechnic School for Boys were awarded as Outstanding Finalists; The King John School was awarded Commendation for Good Design; Beechen Cliff School was awarded Commendation for Sustainable Design; Chadwell Heath School was awarded Commendation for Good Communication; and South Dartmoor Academy was awarded Commendation for the Most Market Ready Product. The third place was awarded to Hans Price Academy; second place was awarded to Fairmead School and finally the Design Ventura Winner 2017 was Weatherhead High School.

The Design Ventura display with prototypes from all the ten shortlisted schools on the first floor of the Design Museum was also unveiled. This year, the Design Ventura project had 328 schools and over 14,500 students participating. The display is going to be up until the end of March and it is free to visit.

The Celebration Event was really about celebrating design and congratulating all those involved in the Design Ventura. Thank you to everyone who participated in the Design Ventura project making it such a successful project!

All photos ©Richard Heald Photography/Design Museum

DV Summit: Kickstarter – The role of the designer is changing

The Design Ventura summit “Design: the problem and the solution” was held on 29 March 2017. Its purpose was to bring together educators, designers, cultural providers and policy makers to discuss how they can ensure that young people are developing creativity, design thinking and employability skills to prepare them for future success.

The following extract is by Heather Corcoran, Design & Technology Outreach at Kickstarter, on her take on the issues discussed.

There is a shift happening in the way that products are coming to life. The role of the designer (and design) is changing. Whereas in traditional design practice, a designer worked with a manufacturer who dealt with production, sales and marketing, now designers are becoming their own manufacturers, distributors and marketers – creating something analogous to the independent record label in the music industry. It’s the long tail of design: empowered by the new technologies, designers can build a business by selling small quantities of rare items to many customers, as opposed to the traditional model that requires selling large quantities of a small variety of best-sellers.

What this means for design education and for young people is that ‘design entrepreneurship’ — building a new type of design studio and business — becomes a more accessible route, and another career option. But it also requires expanding what we think are ‘design skills’ to include things like clear communications and storytelling ability, to talk directly to audiences and customers; or project management of logistics like shipping or product certification. The shifting role of design requires a shift in design education, helping to open up exciting new possibilities for young people and their careers.

DV Summit: Kickstarter – 21st century Design and Technology teaching

The Design Ventura summit “Design: the problem and the solution” was held on 29 March 2017. Its purpose was to bring together educators, designers, cultural providers and policy makers to discuss how they can ensure that young people are developing creativity, design thinking and employability skills to prepare them for future success.

The following extract is by Jonny Edge, Subject Advisor for Design, Technology and Engineering at OCR, on his take on the issues discussed.

The Design Ventura Summit was a wonderful day with professionals from a variety of design, educational and industry interests all engaged with improving the perceptions of Design and Technology. This was not only for the greater good of design education, but also for the broader values, principles and life skills that it has to offer all learners with wide ranging aspirations not directly aligned to a future in design or manufacturing related industries. It was reassuring to hear a clear and consistent message from a variety of key note speakers about the potential and importance of the subject, from the perspective of research, opportunity and the reality of what good designing can contribute to a rapidly evolving future. As someone involved in developing qualifications, I have confidence that we have qualifications that are aligned to the real world and that offer real opportunity to support what 21st century Design and Technology teaching can and should be.

Accepting that we have lost many battles with Design and Technology education, but that we need to refocus on its unique attributes to offer a clear message to key stakeholders will ensure that we are still able to win the fight. This was a refreshing conclusion! Changing misguided perceptions and obtaining industry, higher education and senior management support within schools to do this is important.  But making sure that we are clear ourselves within the whole Design and Technology community what we stand for as a subject must in my mind be the primary consideration.

DV Summit: Kickstarter – Design: the problem and the solution; and the imperative for C21st design education

The Design Ventura summit “Design: the problem and the solution” was held on 29 March 2017. Its purpose was to bring together educators, designers, cultural providers and policy makers to discuss how they can ensure that young people are developing creativity, design thinking and employability skills to prepare them for future success.

The following extract is by Sorrel Hershberg, Director at The Saturday Club Trust, on her take on the issues discussed.

We don’t know what the jobs of the future will be; that much is abundantly clear from observation of the rapid technological changes of the last century, accelerating dramatically over the last 10 years.

NESTA’s Creativity vs Robots report struck a positive note for design however: creative people are the least likely to be replaced by machines. For me, this is because they don’t just have subject-specific knowledge and skills – such as drawing, modelling, spatial awareness – but also the qualities that make us more future-proof:

• Communications and persuasion
• Visual and verbal dexterity
• Flexibility and adaptability
• Analytical and critical thinking
• Collaborative problem-solving

And, perhaps most importantly, learning to fail.

One of my main fears about the damage being done to mainstream education is not just to do with the marginalisation of creative subjects (even though this is very serious and has long-term consequences) but more crucially the damage done to how we learn.

As the Saturday Club has branched into Science and Engineering and Writing and Talking we have discovered a worrying common thread among all the young people. Firstly, they all feel stressed by exams. And secondly, they don’t like being wrong, or accepting that there is more than one right answer.

So even in subjects that are high status and compulsory up to age 16 – EBacc subjects such as science and maths – even in these subjects you are not taught to think like a scientist.  By this I mean the experimental method where you test a theory, observe what happens and learn from it, especially when the experiment fails, or doesn’t have the expected outcome.

This is how we learn new stuff and move things forward. If we only learn what is known now, without allowing for error or deviation, we can’t progress. We won’t discover things like Post-It notes, which were invented from failure: a glue that wasn’t sticky enough. And we wouldn’t find the Jonny Ives, the Margaret Calverts, the Marie Curies or the Stephen Hawkings.

At the Saturday Club, we hope that by having the opportunity to think like designers and scientists, away from the pressure of exams, young people will learn the qualities that will make them future-proof: resilience, flexibility, persuasion, critical thinking, collaborative problem solving and – how to fail.

DV Summit: Kickstarter – Maker Education: Part of the solution?

The Design Ventura summit “Design: the problem and the solution” was held on 29 March 2017. Its purpose was to bring together educators, designers, cultural providers and policy makers to discuss how they can ensure that young people are developing creativity, design thinking and employability skills to prepare them for future success.

The following extract is by Carlos Izsak, The Maker Cart, on his take on the issues discussed.

During the Design Ventura summit we heard how creative and design industries are more  and more looking at new candidates with art and tech skills. Dr Windsor from Nesta refers to this as Fused skills and in the education world these are more commonly known as STEAM (Science, Tech, Engineering, Arts & Design, Maths). We also heard some interesting discussions on how inadequate our school system is in preparing young people in these skills, most students that do well in STEM don’t take Arts & Design subjects and vice-versa.

Can the Maker Movement and Maker Education provide some answers to address these challenges? and how can we incorporate innovative technology and practices into our schools and other educational institutions?

It’s been fascinating to observe how during the last 10 years the emergence of makerspaces how people are collaborating using new tools and technologies to learn and create amazing projects and products. And how: Creativity, Critical Thinking, Communication and Cooperation (the 4C’s of 21st Century Skills) are strongly encouraged and nurtured in maker education.

As educators, we need to approach Maker Education as learners, showing by example Resilience and a Growth Mindset. That it is ok to find knowledge when we need it (or just in time) as opposed to the just in case model of traditional education. Often Maker projects are riddled with failures which provide the greatest opportunities for learning. The main thing though is to lower the barriers of entry while maintaining a high ceiling.

Now, more than ever, it’s an incredible exciting time for education, with a plethora of tools, toys and machines, cheaper and easier to use than ever! These new technologies together with more progressive pedagogies allow us to better engage (or sometimes re-engage) children and young people in learning useful 21st Century skills. From 3D printers to microbits or even littleBits as we used during our workshop, people can use design thinking, easily prototype electronic projects, mixed them with with arts and crafts and realize great ideas (and iterate).

So the question should not be one of if we should embrace Maker Education in mainstream education but of how can we incorporate Maker Education in everyday teaching? And how can we (as professionals in the field) support teachers in these mighty task?

DV Summit: Kickstarter – Fear & Love

The Design Ventura summit “Design: the problem and the solution” was held on 29 March 2017. Its purpose was to bring together educators, designers, cultural providers and policy makers to discuss how they can ensure that young people are developing creativity, design thinking and employability skills to prepare them for future success.

The following extract is by Anjeli Placzek, from the Concept Lounge, on her take on the issues discussed.

The Concept Lounge hosted sessions for the Design Ventura Summit focusing on the theme of “Design: The Problem and the Solution” in context.

Inspired by the principle of ‘skills fusion’ and the benefits of creativity across all industries we invited delegates to journey through the Design Museum’s immersive Fear & Love exhibition.  Participants reflected upon encounters during the show to consider how seemingly invisible yet vital aspects of design support daily experience and contribute towards a sense of self and habitat.  Together participants considered how innovative thinking and the role of design affect our understanding and navigation of a complex world.

Delegates delved deeper into the notion of humans as story telling animals and design as a tool that guides and reflects our collective narrative.  The benefits of creative thinking and practice were highlighted along with the importance of casting challenges through a fresh lens to achieve unexpected, effective future solutions.

The value of harnessing innovative thinking and problem solving from a young age is something that resonated with all participants.  The workshop feed back concluded that ideally along with an integrated ‘skills fusion’ approach across subject matters at school, support outside the curriculum is invaluable to offer young people an opportunity to experience the potential of their own creativity and to contextualize this skill in the outside world.

DV Summit: Kickstarter – Design to improve the world

The Design Ventura summit “Design: the problem and the solution” was held on 29 March 2017. Its purpose was to bring together educators, designers, cultural providers and policy makers to discuss how they can ensure that young people are developing creativity, design thinking and employability skills to prepare them for future success.

The following extract is by Martin Chandler, an Education Consultant at The Making Project and his take on the issues discussed.

People in the design world are guided by the belief that their products should exist in the world because they improve the lives of others, whether this is safety on bicycles, creating gender equal action figures or building an instrument that aids people to learn to play music. All these contributions improve the world and there are so many inventive people who, given the opportunity, can add more to the diversity, enjoyment, and survivability if only they had the chance.

We have extensive means of passing information, advertising and helping one another. The Sorrell Foundation has enhanced the education of so many, Kickstarter has enabled inventors to follow a design to manufacture.

The United Kingdom is famous for its acceptance of immigrant talent and infusing that into its culture of dynamic, creative entrepreneurial communities, but the education system that has, over many years, developed this wellbeing has been savaged. The findings from the Nesta research indicate that an attack on Design Education not only affects the creative subjects but the development of the whole of the education system!

Is that really a surprise? When you cut one part so drastically it must affect the whole!