When it comes to business growth, connection, and more, the design and brand strategy of a business play a crucial role in your success. However, many businesses often confuse the two. Some seasoned professionals also make mistakes between the two by using the term interchangeably.
This is largely because design and strategy are also used together. As two components that yield the highest results when used effectively, most people have confusion differentiating between them. However, understanding the difference between both is necessary.
To help you out, we’ve highlighted the biggest difference between design and strategy.
Strategy – Thinking deliberately and critically
Applied in almost every area of life, strategy taps into a deliberate thought process. It’s used by business leaders, politicians and, probably not coming as a surprise, it has been the key success factor in armies for thousands of years. It’s a largely intellectual process that involves a detailed analysis of the possible outcomes, helping you create clear and well-defined objectives for achieving an end goal. The main aim here is to consider all rational and critical options available to get the primary result you want.
Developing a successful brand strategy is strongly rooted in this factor. Your strategy should be able to give tangible answers and highlight the most feasible way to utilise available resources. Based on this factor, you can then proceed to apply your brand strategy methodically and rationally to get the results you aspire for.
Design – Thinking intuitively and out of the box
Design is the polar opposite. Rooted in imaginative modes and a methodology that is based on thinking out of the box, design tends to focus more on intuition. While intelligence is applied here, it has a more flexible approach. The design also answers questions for a business but not always in the manner that strategy does. Instead of asking why, design asks, why not?
Additionally, while strategy is rooted in thought processes and predictions, the design is more tangible. It’s a process of trial and error to streamline, smooth out, and discover a product that works. Instead of just assuming that A+B will produce C and lead to D, a good design will highlight just how this occurs and the process involved in it. Poor design is one that fails to do this and ends up leaving one stranded on the path of knowledge, no wiser, no clearer.
Using them together
While they might look like two different components, design and strategy go hand-in-hand because they complement each other. With the right design and a solid strategy, a business can yield bigger results.
Additionally, if one area is lacking, such as having a poor design or a bad strategy, a business can end up ruining the progress they are making. Often, one will start well, but over time will start to fall as it is not supported by the other.
To get the best results, one has to make sure that they are using both elements symbiotically. Whilst it can confuse you, once you understand the difference between them, you will be able to use them with ease.