Do You Matter? How Great Design Will Make People Love Your Company
by Robert Brunner, Stewart Emery and Russ Hall

Hardcover, 256pp
Publisher: Financial Times/Prentice Hall Books
Pub. Date: September 2008
ISBN-13: 9780137142446

Barnes & Noble online price: $19.99
Buy at B&N now.

FROM THE PUBLISHER
More and more companies are coming to understand the competitive advantage offered by outstanding design. With this, you can create products, services, and experiences that truly matter to your customers' lives and thereby drive powerful, sustainable improvements in business performance. But delivering great designs is not easy. Many companies accomplish it once, or twice; few do it consistently.

The secret: building a truly design-driven business, in which design is central to everything you do. Do You Matter? shows how to do precisely that.

Legendary industrial designer Robert Brunner (who laid the groundwork for Apple's brilliant design language) and Stewart Emery (Success Built to Last) begin by making an incontrovertible case for the power of design in making emotional connections, deepening relationships, and strengthening brands. You'll learn what it really means to be "design-driven" and how that translates into action at Nike, Apple, BMW and IKEA. You'll learn design-driven techniques for managing your entire experience chain; define effective design strategies and languages; and learn how to manage design from the top, encouraging "risky" design innovations that lead to entirely new markets.

The authors show how (and how not) to use research; how to extend design values into marketing, manufacturing, and beyond; and how to keep building on your progress, truly "baking" design into all your processes and culture.

Publishers Weekly
In this mostly well-argued book, industrial design expert Brunner and corporate consultant Emery (Success Built to Last) put forth a design manifesto: building a successful company is not just about the shiny end product but about designing every aspect of the customer's experience.

By paying just as much attention to store design, Web sites and customer support as to the product or service being sold, a company can build an emotional relationship with its customers and so secure market share for life. They contend that design should influence every single business decision and-if done right-will lead consumers to become truly invested, and willing to pay extra.

The authors return again and again to several well-known brand names as exemplars of their theory. Ikea, Samsung and Whole Foods are all given props, though highest praise is reserved for Brunner's old employer, Apple, so much so that at times this book reads like an Apple promotional product. Combining their knowledge of design, organizational structure, branding and product placement, the authors have essentially repackaged a simple idea: the customer's feelings matter. (Sept.) Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

"Definitely a game changer! Design experience is the power shift to our era what mass marketing was to the last century." -John Sculley, former CEO, Pepsi and Apple

"Great design is about creating a deep relationship with your customers. If you don't, you're roadkill. This book shows you how and much, much more. Be prepared to have your mind blown." -Bill Burnett, Executive Director, Design Program, Stanford University

"Design is the last great differentiator, and yet so few really understand it. Do You Matter? offers a marvelous series of direct, in-your-face observations and drives home the means to an absolutely integrated design strategy." -Ray Riley, Design GM, Entertainment and Devices, Microsoft

"This book will challenge you to ask and answer what arguably are the most important questions an executive can ponder today. So open up." -Noah Kerner, CEO, Noise and coauthor, Chasing Cool