How a Kitchen Remodel Inspired Me To Ask More Questions
Over the past several months, we’ve been remodeling the kitchen in our home. It’s a long-planned, much talked-about project that has now solidified something I’ve long believed about marketing and branding:
Asking the right questions is the most important part of the branding process.
Let me explain.
Early on in the remodeling process, we met with a designer to get some ideas and inspiration. She didn’t ask us many questions about our style or tastes. She looked at photos of our old kitchen, asked about our budget and then jumped into possibilities.
And she still came in way, way over budget (by more than a third). All for a design that didn’t really fit our style at all.
By focusing too much on tactics – countertop materials, backsplashes, flooring and lighting – this designer ignored the most important part of the equation: the people who were going to use the kitchen (that’s us) and what we wanted to get out of the redesign.
Sure, if we had gone ahead with her approach, it would’ve been “just fine.” It would’ve been a much-needed (but unfortunately very expensive) new look for our small kitchen.
Sooner rather than later, though, we probably would’ve realized that no matter how hard she sold it, we still wouldn’t like that glossy subway tile. That we really did want wood floors. And that maybe there were some other tweaks that could’ve made a huge impact.
In the end, we did find someone who helped us pull together a cool design that’s much more suited to our style and taste – and solves some problems we didn’t even realize we were having in our kitchen.
So how does this relate to marketing, branding and websites?
It all comes down to questions.
Anyone can make you a new website. Anyone can give you a fresh look, write a few clever headlines and throw together some code.
But none of these things actually solve any problems. None get to the very reason you embark on a project like this in the first place.
Even on the simplest of projects – and especially on long, complex branding programs – asking questions is the most important part of what we do here at Atomicdust. Because while design may be seen as a commodity today, smart, informed design and messaging are not.
