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The Real Value of Design Part 2
Last month we explored the fact that designers do not value their work and thus the public does not value it either. This does not, of course, apply to all designers or the entire public. However, I think you will find that those designers who do value what they do make considerably more than those who do not.
What is value and, more importantly, what is the public perception of it? There are many definitions of the word value. But to keep it simple, let's say that it is the quality (positive or negative) that renders something desirable or valuable, highly prized or held dear or in high regard. Wickipedia defines the value of the individual as "growing his / her knowledge and skill sets to showcase benefits delivered in a transaction (e.g., getting paid for a job). Thus, the key to delivering high perceived value is making the public believe that what you are offering is beyond their expectation ie: helping them to solve a problem, offering a solution, giving results, and making them happy. The simple truth is that designers deliver this kind of value constantly, but have been unable to make the public believe that they do because they themselves do not see it in that lilght.
To quote Dr. Edward de Bono, "Perception is real even when it is not reality". Some years ago I learned about Edward de Bono through my friend, Liz Howard, and I have become a total convert to his creative thinking process. So, I would like to explain value to you using a de Bono example and I encourage you to read his books and visit his website at http://www.edwarddebono.com/Default.php.
De Bono, author of some 62 books including Lateral Thinking, was hired as a consultant and paid by the idea. Imagine that...getting paid for your ideas. His standard charge was $25,000 per idea. A co-op building in New York City hired him to develop an idea about their elevators. There were 2 of them, and the owners complained about slow-moving elevators. To purchase new elevators and have them installed would cost $1,000,000 for each elevator. And, each elevator would be out of commission for 1 year. So, it was a hugh financial expenditure and enormous inconvenience to the co-op owners. What to do? Enter Dr. De Bono...he rode the elevators, and talked to the owners...and gave his report. Put mirrors in the elevators...people love to look at themselves...no more complaints about slow elevators. (Just think of the last time you rode an elevator with mirrors...pretty clever).
Dr. de Bono could have charged $500,000 and the co-op building would still have saved $1,500,000...so he added value and the co-op perceived that value to be worth what they paid for it. Consider how that might have come down in designers' billing processes and value scale. Charging even $200 per hour, the total fee would only have been about $3200 gross or maybe had you had the mirrors installed, you might have come away with $5000 if you added a good markup. Still the co-op would have perceived that you should not have spent 16 hours to come up with an idea and that you were ripping them off if you added a healthy mark-up. It is all in percpetion of value and how you position yourself within the client's expectations.
But, the heart of this example is to demonstrate that designers need to first believe their ideas do have value, establish their uniqueness and gain the public perception that it is those ideas that hold value and should be paid for, not time or mark ups on what they buy from you. After all, your competition may do it in half the time and charge a lower mark-up. These charges have no value in the public perception and are very easily shot down and scorned in a disagreement. Your ideas, your creativity, yes, your magic is special, yours and yours alone. True, your competition may have better ideas, but now, at least, you are comparing apples to apples and on a higher level of public awareness and appreciation.
To further demonstrate how a designer's value is in the ideas they generate, Let's look at another of Dr. de Bono's books. “”Sur/Petition”. He defines a new word, “Valufacture” as the deliberate process of creating value and identifies 4 value drivers: convenience, quality of life, self-importance and distraction. Let's look at each of these drivers in the context of creating value for interior designers.
Convenience...people will pay more for anything that saves them time and is convenient for them. Look at the numbers of people who buy books online, or anything for that matter, instead of gong down to the bookstore or local mall. They pay large shipping charges but it is simply more convenient than fighting traffic to have them delivered to the front door. They buy catered food for dinner, have their drycleaning picked up and delivered and pay higher prices at the gas pumps rather than pump it themselves. Convenience is a by-product of what designers do. They consider it part of their services. Consider how many receive and store merchandise for clients during the building phase of a project, then unpack it, deliver it, put it in place, dust it off, accessorize it and then send flowers to thank the client for the priviledge. That does not even begin to account for the hundreds of details the designer oversees and sifts through that relieves the client of the hundreds of decisions that take time and energy. This has enormous value for the client. Convenienc shoud be the by-word not a by-product of what you offer.
Quality of Life...is concerned with health, exercise, environment, lifestyle, family and working habits. How does the designer impact quality of life? It is a no brainer. Designers create the lifestyle for their clients. Almost everything they design improves the efficiency and quality of the space the clients inhabit. Surely this is as valuable as the personal trainer who helps them exercise. What designers fail to impress upon their clients is how much they improve their quality of life, which is the true value of their designs...a quality that people will pay more for if they understand it. Think how designers moved to the forefront on Green Building issues, wellness issues in the workplace and accessibility. But we absorbed this into our practices as keeping abreast of the market instead of embracing it as the value added servie that it is. People will pay more for these services.
Self-importance/self-image....It could be argued that this is one of the reasons people hire designers in the first place. There is no doubt that designers create images for clients constantly, in the workplace and at home. The penetration of the luxury market is a clear indication that, not only will people pay more for creature comforts, but they will pay more to have the best and most cutting edge, another value added service designers provide as routine. We could have story after story here of people who purchase exhorbitantly priced articles because someone told them that it is the best and that other people would admire their taste for having it. Why then can't we, as designers, believe, and get our clients to believe, that the services we provide rank way up there on the self image scale. It is a value added service but we often just laugh about the fact that the client hires us to make them look good. What is wrong with the picture here?
Distraction....I once had a client who hired me to completely redesign his house while he spent a year trying a case before the Supreme Court. He wanted to keep his wife happy and occupied during that time. He told me that himself. I was the distraction. It was a very profitable arrangement for both of us. There are many ways in which designers provide distraction and entertainment for clients during and after projects. Yet, it is just part of the job.
My point in all this is that we need to think out of the box on what we provide clients. We are good at thinking out of the box on providing design solutions. We desperately need to learn to think out of the box when discussing our services and value while discussing fees with clients. Edward De Bono's book, Sur/Petition is about “creating value monopolies when everyone else is merely competing”. Designers need to begin thinking in these terms.
Just for an exercise, sit down and list all the values you provide, compare them to other similar services and try to put a dollar amount to them. It is a starting point to get you to believing in your own value. It is the first step in getting your clients to believe it as well.
I welcome your feedback. Just send thoughts to joan@designeresources.com
Joan Gaulden is an Interior Design graduate of Ringling School of Art. After working with her own firm in Greenville, SC for 35 years, she founded Design Online and now is a co-founder of designerEsources.com She also teaches nationwide with education-works. She can be contacted at joan@designeresources.com
