Before even clicking over from Twitter, I thought “web designers with a personal stake in what they’re designing are marketers”. Temporary hired hands may be passionate about a project and do some marketing simply by evangelism. But for in-house designers working a product (and the supporting documentation for that product) they are a marketer. It’s not a bonus in addition to their “design work”. It’s a part of the design process—requirement for success.

This is similar to the “should web designers be responsible for SEO/SEM?” discussion. If you are hired just do design something temporarily, that’ll be the only task you care about. If you are brought on as a full-time employee, with benefits and the like, you’re doing more than designing something. You’re providing as much value to the company as possible and that includes getting the product in front of as many eyes as possible.

In other words, marketing.

Russell Davies gave a great talk on just this subject recently, summarized at his blog.

“when designers are tasked with selling their product they make better products.” Love that. And kind of related… when designers and/or engineers are tasked with *tech support* they make better products. Having engineers and designers do end-user training has the same effect.

To answer your question means coming to terms with how much we believe in our product, service, whatever we’re designing, and whether we really want it to be successful. You already know I’d answer your question with a “yes”, although in my opinion, end-user learning plays the most important “marketing” role of all.

Whether it happens through a product so well-designed that learning is a natural process, or because the company provides inspirational, useful learning resources (on-line help, manuals, user groups, etc.), in *theory* a product that lets users do amazing and continuously improving things doesn’t *need* much traditional marketing. The end-users do a far better job.

So, I still say that marketing resources — both marketing talent and budgets (and I include ad budgets here as well) are far better spent on design and end-user “improvements”. Making the user better is a far greater use of funds and energy than making the marketing better.

Cheers and thanks for this post.

Designers can be certainly cast as marketers insofar as they shape products to suit goals, and one of those goals is often to sell, as the great Dreyfuss remarked.

If you think of the shape of a product as a set of symbols in a language (and many do, despite its quasi-mystical connotations), design flaws become dissonance, like an unwelcome flat note in a piano solo.

It’s no secret that better-designed products are conducive to ease of sale. Humans crave fitness. If the product fits, it practically sells itself. If it doesn’t, you’re just creating work for the salesperson, who should really exist in your portfolio of design personae.

Having worked professionally in both web design and marketing I must reply:
Of course designers are marketers! What´s the surprise?

It´s inherent to the design process that part of what you do is create a look and feel that appeals to the customer and entices her to purchase the product.

Completely agree. All designers are marketers. Just look at Apple. Their business is based on design and how it makes us feel.

On the other hand, think about how you react to web sites you visit that are poorly designed. It sets your initial impression of a company which impacts whether you stay around long enough to purchase a product or leave looking for another alternative.

Absolutely. A designer who doesn’t understand the importance of marketing (or business) or how it affects what they do, is no better than the designer who scoffs at technicalities and says that’s “an engineering problem.” It’s completely disrespectful, and an irresponsible way to approach the craft.

I think there’s often a difference between designing to sell and designing to use. Perhaps most of the time what’s desirable at the sale remains desirable after extensive use, but sometimes not. For example, building in lots of features sells well, but often interferes with the user experience. We can design for use and hope customers notice and give us business, but, ethics aside, I’m not convinced that’s the best business strategy for all situations, cluetrain or not.

I absolutely believe that designers are marketers. If a client hires you to create a pretty website for a product you don’t believe in, I say you’re not a designer; you’re a Photoshop (or insert design software here) technician.

Designers solve problems. More often than not, as a service provider, the problem you’re hired to solve is one of promotion. Marketing often gets confused with sales, but marketing’s all about the ability to promote. You build awareness for a product or a service and compel your audience to believe in that product or service.

Sounds pretty close to design to me.

I’ve worked as a designer on marketing teams and never considered my self a “marketer” much the same as I’ve never considered myself an “engineer” because I was doing UI design in an egineering team.

I’m a designer and a good designer will be able to do their jobs well regardless of what group they are a part of.

Would you call yourself an engineer because you are a UI designer on an engineering team?

I think that question undervalues both fields of marketing and design.

I think there’s often a difference between designing to sell and designing to use.

Absolutely. I’m designing a product as well as the marketing site around it. Completely different goals for both. The app = design to use. The site = design to sell.

Marketing, per definition, is the one role account in the enterprise where “the customer’s hat” is worn. Discussing of whether designers would be marketers, too, is like asking if they should really care about the customers’ needs. Obviously, ther is only one valid reply: You bet!

If you have a marketer mind you will design better

Designers who think like marketers will go further in their careers – no question. A designer who doesn’t wrap their mind around marketing is simply a production artist.

It is well know thing that the workers must be included into allocation of profits, so everyone can feel it’s responsibility

Archaic academic and corporate silos still amaze me. (See link to post below)

Art & Design students, Advertising & PR Students, and Marketing Students can make it through college and never have a class together.

Design students need to study marketing and marketing students need to study design.

No wonder there are so many corporate silos and 360 Degree Branding / Integrated Marketing Communications is so difficult. Most professionals are trained in silos and take that thinking with them to their jobs.

http://www.dr4ward.com/dr4ward/2008/07/dr4ward-new-bul.html

Keep Digging for Worms!

Bill (Dr. William J. Ward) a.k.a. DR4WARD

I’ll have to beg to differ with the majority. I do believe that there is a great deal of overlap between the two disciplines and the more a designer understands marketing, the better a designer he or she is.

Designers, by and large, practice their craft in service to or in collaboration with marketers. The tools of each field are quite distinct and require very specific training and education.

But to interpret these differences as ’silos’ or a segregation of skills is an overstatement.

I would have much more confidence in a collaborative team of a highly-skilled designer and a marketing guru who work well together and each have deep experience in their respective fields than a solo designer who also does marketing.

As one bogger put it, designers are just designers till they start incorporating numbers, statistics and strategy, a far cry from color, typography, composition and visual communication.

I agree more with the statement that marketing and usefulness typically set completely different goals (although not always self-excluding ones), but I believe that they seem to share certain aspects and are like two sides of the same coin. In fact, I think a really skilled designer is able to grasp both these aspects at the same time and create a appropriate balance. Being a marketer allows to develop your designer skills if only you direct them properly

I think that in the majority of cases there is an abbyss between marketing and usability of a desingn, as they usually require completely different goals to be achieved. The more your desing keeps the marketing goals the less usable it becomes. And vice versa. It is an important skill to create a designe that is appropriate from the marketing point of view, but is practical in use enough not to discourage potential users. In most cases that seems to be a very difficult task.

Certainly agree on this topic. The key point of graphic design is that it’s all about communicating a message. In book cover design, for instance, the aim is entirely to design a cover that serves a marketing function.