Design Research

Overview of the material and concepts learned this month

Connecting/Synthesizing/Transforming

Design Research seeks to find the differentiation between the selected brand and its competitors in the market. Brand differentiation involves finding the product’s—or in this case, place’s—unique selling proposition. It is what Marty Neumeier calls “the zag”. He says “Between hitting ‘em where they ain’t (differentiation) and getting in front of the parade (finding the trend), you have the keys to finding your zag” (Neumeier, 2006, p45). The idea is to do or say what everyone else is not doing or saying. 

Research of the Grand Avenue brand revealed something quite unexpected. When asked what they liked about the Grand Avenue area, all the interviewees said they liked their houses. However, more probing revealed neighbors they got to know, neighborhood prayer groups they belonged to, school activities (with other parents) that they participated in. Though two of the interviewees mentioned racist comments or interactions when they first moved in, the overall takeaway about the area is overwhelmingly positive. In walking around the neighborhood, the interviewer discovered a warmth and kindness in interacting with residents that would not necessarily come out in quantitative research. Therefore, the branding should likely focus on a “Nice people, nice place” strategy.

Video created to show some of the attributes of Grand Avenue.

Problem Solving

Differentiation from nearby neighborhoods was the main problem that needed to be solved. The choice that became apparent through interviews was to humanize Grand Avenue and emphasize “nice people, nice place” as the main differentiation. As stated in the Week 2.4 Prep: Innovation through Differentiation: “It’s necessary to find the unique qualities inherent to your brand that are of worth to the target audience—especially those they don’t themselves recognize—then champion those qualities in every aspect of the brand communications.” 

Another option might be to emphasize the good schools as the unique selling proposition (Resident, C., 2019), but Rockville Centre schools are rated even higher than Baldwin (Resident, C., Resident, N., 2019). 

Also, in Martin Bishop’s article “Either a Brand is Different or It is Dead” it states that brands need “An emotional advantage: How your customers feel about your brand that they don’t feel about other brands.” And who doesn’t want friendly neighbors?

One of Grand Avenue’s friendly neighbors with her dog Bella.

Innovative Thinking

The choice to focus on relationship is innovative, particularly in New York, because New Yorkers are not known for their warmth and friendliness. However, Long Island is where people live. It’s where they take down their defenses and form relationships with their neighbors. While Grand Avenue really needs businesses to buy into it and industry to return, repeatedly the research shows that place branding must begin with people. Helena Nordstrom said in her Ted Talk: “All great place branding starts with inviting people around your campfire” (Nordstrom, n.d.). Hajj Flemings said of Detroit: “It’s the people that make up a city” (Flemings, n.d.). As mentioned earlier, behind the nice homes and great schools in Baldwin’s Grand Avenue area, it was the people factor that kept peeking out in the resident interviews.

  • A friendly cashier at a local market on Grand Avenue.
  • A vendor at the Grand Baldwin festival October, 2019
  • A neighbor decorating her yard for Halloween

Acquiring Competencies. What did you learn overall throughout this process? Any new software? Techniques? Skills?

  1. Understand the difference between art and design. Art is a personal venture. Design is finding solutions on behalf of a client. (occupational, conceptual)
  2. Take risks. Creativity requires it. (occupational, conceptual)
  3. Be proactive. Don’t just work for the grade. Work for yourself. (occupational, conceptual)
  4. Be creative about finding differentiation. Discover even nuanced differences that will set your brand apart. (occupational, conceptual)
  5. Make connections. Think about what the primary and secondary research says about the brand and seek to make connections between them. (occupational, conceptual)
  6. Identify concepts. Part of Master’s level writing is to be able to point out key concepts in any teaching. (academic, technical)
  7. Work on the Four Degree Learning Outcomes. Students will be required to put more thought into the four learning outcomes. For example, they must prove how their solutions went beyond the status quo. (academic, technical)
  8. Practice interview techniques. Keep questions open-ended so that interviewees have more input into their answers. Also, choose interviewees who live in the district or have interaction with it. (occupational, conceptual)
  9. Post weekly to mastery journal. Post live session synopses to provide material for the dissertation in month 11. (academic, technical)         
Baldwin’s Schubert School which is now rented in part out by a Uniondale, NY pre-school.

Reflections

Place branding provides rich insight into the entire branding concept. For instance, to a large extent, branding relies on an emotional appeal. Martin Bishop’s article “Either a Brand is Different or It is Dead” points out that: “Brands need 3 things today: 1. An emotional advantage: How your customers feel about your brand that they don’t feel about other brands. 2. A distinctive advantage: How you do things that are uniquely compelling to those most important to your future. 3. A connective advantage: How you create meaningful connections that is different from what others do” (Bishop, 2016).

Brand equity is the public’s valuation of your brand. “Brand equity is more of a concept than anything else and acts as a framework for understanding the power of consumer’s emotions in relationship to your positioning” (Propoint, 2017). Media designers must be able to competently research their brands and synthesize their findings. The research will help them understand what the target presently thinks about the brand and how the designer may like to alter the present thinking. It is the media designer’s job to shape how consumers think and feel about their brand. That is building brand equity. In order to do that, they need to understand the strengths and weaknesses of their brand as well as those of competitors. Often, the right solution doesn’t shout out from the research. Sometimes it whispers quietly from between the lines.

There are two types of research: Primary and secondary. Secondary research (quantitative) is a great method to begin with and is composed of studies done by others and published in books, magazines, academic journals, market reports and documentaries. Primary research (qualitative), on the other hand, is conducted by the branding team and collects information directly from the target audience. Be careful to guard against bias in primary research wherein designers may tend to skew the outcomes or questions to support their pre-conceived ideas. (Schwanbeck, A., & Acayo, P., 2015). Based on the qualitative research, the idea of “good neighbors” may be appealing to residents and business owners, both of whom Grand Avenue needs to attract. Moving forward, this appears to be a strong branding strategy.

  • Silver Lake, where Thomas Baldwin owned a saw mill
  • The location of a previous school on Grand Ave.
brand analysis
empathy map
comparative analysis

References

Bishop, M. (2016, March 11). Either A Brand Is Different Or It Is Dead. Retrieved from https://www.brandingstrategyinsider.com/2016/03/either-a-brand-is-different-or-it-is-dead.html#.XbY-0C-ZMWp.

Flemings, H. (n.d.). Rebrand Detroit Stories – Original Series (Episode #1). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-z6fjPSYrU.

Neumeier, M. (2006, September 20). ZAG: The Number-One Strategy of High-Performance Brands. Retrieved from https://ce.safaribooksonline.com/book/branding/0321426770.

Nordstrom, H. (n.d.). Ted Talks: What a Taxi Driver Can Teach you About Place Branding. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=314&v=kmHloYQpLtg.

Propoint. (2017, July 24). Building Brand Equity. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/propointgraphics/2017/07/08/building-brand-equity/#4e5d5b0b6e8f.

Resident, C. (2019, February 24). Living in Baldwin. Retrieved from https://www.niche.com/places-to-live/baldwin-nassau-ny/.

Resident, C., Resident, N., & Visitor. (2019, August 20). Living in Rockville Centre. Retrieved from https://www.niche.com/places-to-live/rockville-centre-nassau-ny/.

Schwanbeck, A., & Acayo, P. (2015, February 24). Retrieved from https://www.lynda.com/Design-Foundations-tutorials/Foundations-Design-Research/182890-2.html?org=fullsail.edu.

Week 1 Introduction to Place Branding Resources

Week 2 Differentiation Resources

Week 3 Research Resources

Week 4 Audience Interviews Resources