Discover the crucial role design plays in your business's performance and success. This white paper explores the distinctions between good and poor design and delves into the intricacies of achieving exceptional design. We examine its influence on product, package, website, and direct-mail design, accompanied by insightful case studies that illustrate real-world applications. Learn how quality design can attract customers and boost sales, while poor design can have adverse effects on your business.

1. A WHITE PAPER
HOW DESIGN
AFFECTS YOUR BUSINESS
(FOR BETTER OR WORSE)

2. Contents
1 Executive Summary
2 Introduction
3 Product Design Affects Your Business
4 How to Create a Well-Designed Product
6 Package Design Affects Your Business
9 Website Design Affects Your Business
12 Direct-Mail Design Affects Your Business
14 Conclusion
15 About Your Sponsor

3. 9 1
6
6
3
-
4
9
8
-
9
1 b m
o
c
.
t
n
i
r
p
n
o
t
n
e
Executive Summary
1
Design is an integral part of a company’s performance…and success. However, recognizing
what separates good design from poor design is often challenging. Furthermore, it’s not always
straightforward how you arrive at a good design.
In this white paper, we’ll look at how design affects your business in the following areas: product
design, package design, website design, and direct-mail design.
Product Design
Product design enables your
business to conveniently meet
your target audience’s pain points.
The best product design is user-
centered, simple, focused, and
durable. Design thinking can help
your business arrive at product
designs made for the user.
Website Design
Website design is becoming
increasingly important as
competitors offer more and more
user-friendly and interactive
websites. A website should be easy
to navigate by having a familiar
structure and using font size to
organize the website.
Package Design
Package design influences
customers’ final buying decisions,
and can make or break the
sale. A well-designed package
should protect products, provide
information, stand out, and reflect
the quality of the product.
Direct-Mail Design
Direct-mail design is a powerful
marketing tool because it naturally
stands out. One study provides
empirical data to show which
design elements increase opening
and keeping rates. Personalization
is still paramount.
Case studies are interwoven throughout the paper to provide real-world examples of how to
incorporate quality design into your business.
Quality design throughout your business attracts customers and yields more sales, while
low-quality design can have the opposite effect.

4. 9 1
6
6
3
-
4
9
8
-
9
1 b m
o
c
.
t
n
i
r
p
n
o
t
n
e
Design is intertwined throughout every aspect of your
business. Everything your company does—what you make and
the services you offer, how they’re packaged, and the way you
sell them—requires design. Well-designed products, packages,
websites, and direct mail get people to notice your company.
People want to interact with functional products that are also
aesthetically appealing. And poor design creates consumer
disinterest and even makes customers question a company’s
value.
Over the span of 10 years, companies with strong design
perform 219% better than companies with poor design on the
S&P Index, according to Adobe. There are many driving factors
for why strong design brings in more profit.
Good design…
 stands out by differentiating your company from competitors;
 develops customer relations by emotionally connecting your company to consumers;
 is recognizable by adhering to your brand;
 increases a customer’s trust in your company;
 motivates recipients to take action; and enhances the overall customer experience.
Ultimately, good design increases revenue.
Introduction
2
Over the span
of 10 years,
companies with
strong design
perform 219%
better than
companies with
poor design.

5. 9 1
6
6
3
-
4
9
8
-
9
1 b m
o
c
.
t
n
i
r
p
n
o
t
n
e
Product design is when someone notices a need and then develops a functional solution.
A well-designed product will perform better. The trick is deciphering a well-designed product from
a poorly designed one.
Attributes of a well-designed product
 User-centered. Every feature of the design should point back to the user.
 Simple. Every part of the product design must have a purpose. Impractical features detract
from the consumer experience, making it less user-friendly.
 Focused. A niche product will have a competitive advantage over something that is a jack
of all trades but a master of none.
 Solutions-oriented. The product should solve a real-world problem. Otherwise, you’ll
need to convince your target audience they are experiencing a pain point they don’t yet
know exists. It’s easier to solve an existing problem than to create a problem that your
product solves.
 Aesthetically pleasing. People are attracted to beauty along with functionality, and they’re
more likely to interact with aesthetically pleasing designs.
 Durable. Although some companies design their products to be quickly replaced (planned
obsolescence), this is often a questionable strategy that many customers distrust .
Designing long-lasting products makes your company more valuable to consumers.
 Timeless. If your product is durable, then the design itself should be timeless, fitting in with
changing design trends.
Being able to identify poorly designed products will save your company money.
3
Product Design Affects Your Business

6. 9 1
6
6
3
-
4
9
8
-
9
1 b m
o
c
.
t
n
i
r
p
n
o
t
n
e
4
Every design process is unique to a project, but design thinking will aid most processes.
Design thinking is a nonlinear approach to problem solving. The goal is to find a practical solution
to problems using human-centered design. It aims to identify the pain point, who experiences this
pain point, and what the company hopes to achieve by finding a solution to the pain point.
Design thinking has five steps:
How to Create a Well-Designed Product
These steps are nonlinear. It is common to work on multiple steps at once and to work backward.
1
Empathize.
Research
the people
experiencing
the pain
point. Create a
story around
these people
and design
multiple
possible
customer
journeys.
3
Ideate.
Brainstorm
through
sketching.
Avoid adding
more features
than required.
More features
create an
inherently
harder-to-use
product.
4
Prototype.
Build a
prototype,
review,
and refine.
Minimize
work and
maximize
learning.
5
Test.
Try it yourself
and ask users
for feedback.
Up to 85% of
major problems
with a product
can be found
by observing
just five people
interacting with
it, according to
Jakob Nielsen’s
research.
2
Define.
Clearly
define the
problem
and your
target
destination.

7. 9 1
6
6
3
-
4
9
8
-
9
1 b m
o
c
.
t
n
i
r
p
n
o
t
n
e
5
Case Study: Slack
Slack was struggling to onboard Fortune 500 customers that had thousands of employees. It
was also struggling to retain customers.
The enterprise team, which designed Slack for large companies, wanted to interview
customers so they could identify where Slack was not adequately meeting consumers’
needs. Initially, the sales team did not want the enterprise team to contact customers.
However, after developing a good relationship with the sales team, the enterprise team was
allowed to interview four customers. One of the interviewees was Capital One.
The interviews uncovered three main problems:
1. A product education gap showed that Slack was not easy to use.
2. People were in the wrong workspace. Employees didn’t know which workspace to
join, resulting in them joining the largest one.
3. Once people realized they were in the wrong workspace, it was challenging to get
them into the correct one.
Slack’s enterprise team was unable to address all three problems at once so they decided to
focus on problem number two. They redesigned the onboarding process. The employee was
now able to input a coworker’s name to see what workspaces their coworker was in. This
helped employees choose the correct workspace to join.
This redesign improved retention by 8%. Although initially this number may seem lower
than ideal, Slack’s redesign received praise from Fortune 500 executives. It also strengthened
Slack’s relationship with Capital One, which felt heard after providing Slack with input.
This example demonstrates the importance of asking users for feedback when improving
your product’s design.

8. 9 1
6
6
3
-
4
9
8
-
9
1 b m
o
c
.
t
n
i
r
p
n
o
t
n
e
6
Package design influences customers’ buying decisions.
The packaging is like a silent salesman. The more your product can stand out and appeal to your
target audience, the more effective the silent salesman will be.
According to a study conducted by Westrock, 81% of consumers tried something new because
the packaging caught their eye, 59% compared packaging between products to make a purchase
decision, and 63% of consumers purchased a product again because of packaging functionality.
Packaging should…
 protect products during transportation;
 help customers identify the product;
 be easy to open;
 stand out as a positive first impression;
 provide sufficient information about the product; and
 be high quality.
Luckily there exist many real-world examples to help better understand how packaging design
can affect your company for better or worse. These case studies provide lessons that can be
incorporated into your own package-design strategy.
Package Design Affects Your Business

9. 9 1
6
6
3
-
4
9
8
-
9
1 b m
o
c
.
t
n
i
r
p
n
o
t
n
e
7
Case Study: RXBAR
RXBAR was founded in 2013. Two years later the cofounders said they realized the current
package design was ugly. They then consulted with branding experts and hired a design
firm to redesign the product.
The new design put the bar’s ingredients front and center: 3 egg whites, 2 dates, 6 almonds,
and no B.S. The design opted to not include “vegan, gluten-free, and no GMOs” to provide
room for negative space, creating a cleaner design. They also incorporated bright colors
with an illustration to show the bar’s flavor. Some industry experts were not in favor of the
new design because it did not follow the then-established rules of design and made some
bold choices. But RXBAR thought it was important to update the design to fit in with their
changing customers.
The new design performed quite well. It stood out from other protein bars, increasing sales.
RXBAR made $36 million in sales in 2016, up from $2 million in 2014. After the packaging
redesign, RXBAR appeared in large supermarkets such as Trader Joe's and Whole Foods
Market. In 2017, Kellogg bought RXBAR for $600 million.
RXBAR shows how a package redesign can pay off, especially if it’s by a smaller brand hoping
to expand its customer base. It also shows how design risks can pay, if the end product
stands out from the competition and effectively conveys its selling points.
But not all product packaging redesigns become success stories, and there are lessons there
to be learned as well.

10. 9 1
6
6
3
-
4
9
8
-
9
1 b m
o
c
.
t
n
i
r
p
n
o
t
n
e
8
Case Study: Tropicana
On January 8, 2009, Tropicana launched its new packaging for Tropicana Pure Premium (its
best-selling North American product). The new design aimed to modernize the packaging
by creating a simpler design that utilized a new logo, typography, slogan, image, and lid.
Two months after the launch, sales had dropped 20% causing a $30 million loss. On
February 23, 2009, Tropicana announced it would return to its original packaging. In total,
Tropicana lost $50 million on the packaging redesign.
So, what went wrong?
Tropicana’s redesign, although meant to incorporate modern design elements, caused the
overall brand to appear cheaper in many consumers’ eyes, prompting some customers to
call it ugly. Furthermore, because many design elements were changed at once, customers
had difficulty recognizing the product. Finally, Tropicana had miscalculated the emotional
bond its customers had to the old packaging.
Tropicana’s drastic design failure provides some feedback for design initiatives.
1. If your company is an established brand, then gradual design changes are better.
Unless there’s a great improvement, most customers will not appreciate extreme
changes, viewing them as unnecessary.
2. It can be difficult to predict customers’ reactions. Therefore, ask your customers for
their opinion before making drastic changes to your designs.
Learning from Tropicana’s story can help prevent your future packaging redesigns from
following suit.

11. 9 1
6
6
3
-
4
9
8
-
9
1 b m
o
c
.
t
n
i
r
p
n
o
t
n
e
9
A well-designed website increases traffic by reducing bounce rates.
Some 42% of people will leave a website because of poor functionality, according to Top Design
Firms. In order to not lose traffic, the website must be easy to use, intuitive, and quick. The
website’s quality design must be apparent from the start because it takes on average only 17 to 50
milliseconds for people to decide how they feel about a website, according to Google.
Even if the website does not immediately turn people away, a poorly designed website will still
have a negative effect on the customer’s overall user experience. This will harm their perception
of your brand, with many shoppers using a website’s aesthetics to determine its credibility.
As more businesses improve their website’s user experience, it becomes imperative to have a well-
designed website to keep up with the competition. A navigable website is a bare minimum.
Website Design Affects Your Business

12. 9 1
6
6
3
-
4
9
8
-
9
1 b m
o
c
.
t
n
i
r
p
n
o
t
n
e
10
Information architecture is the optimization of navigation for
users by intuitively guiding them through the website. It uses
cognitive psychology principles to design structures that make
sense to the user.
Here are some key takeaways:
 Reduce information overload by only including the
necessary information for users and limiting the
choices the user must make. Too much information
and too many choices can result in cognitive overload,
causing difficulties for people to make decisions and
creating brain fog.
 Your website’s navigation should be similar to other
websites. Although differentiation is good for aesthetic
design, the functional design should be similar to what users are familiar with to assist
navigation.
 Include visuals to provide context that words can’t.
 Show the user where they are within the website. Not all website users will start at the
home page. Therefore, make it obvious where the user is and make the home page easily
accessible.
 Provide multiple methods of navigation. For example, include a navigation bar with
subcategories, a search bar, and a footer.
 Use a typography hierarchy. This means using larger, bolder fonts for the website’s main
categories while using smaller fonts for subcategories. The font should correlate with the
word’s importance on the web page.
Improve your customers’ user experience by using architecture principles to improve the
navigational ease of your website.
Website Navigation
Improve your
customers’ user
experience by
using architecture
principles to
improve the
navigational ease
of your website.

13. 9 1
6
6
3
-
4
9
8
-
9
1 b m
o
c
.
t
n
i
r
p
n
o
t
n
e
11
After the website improvements were made, Pinterest gathered data for the next seven
months. There was an overall massive improvement in user experience. The average time
to access content was reduced. Mobile web users went up by 150% and mobile web sign-ups
increased by 700%.
Pinterest shows how important a user-friendly website is for the user experience. It also
provides insights on how to improve a non-user-friendly website.
If you have a user-friendly website, then you can direct potential customers to it
through direct mail.
Case Study: Pinterest
Back in 2017, Pinterest had a mobile web platform that had been untouched since 2012.
It did not provide a good user experience, there were inconsistent design elements, and
it blocked users from seeing the content they wanted to see unless they downloaded
the app. Therefore, the design team made it their priority to improve the website’s user
experience. They formed two teams: one to improve the user experience of people who
didn’t have accounts and the other for existing Pinterest users. Each team had product
managers, designers, and engineers.
The two teams got to work, accomplishing the following tasks:
1. Holding a workshop to identify one specific problem and define the minimum
viable product. The minimum viable product is the most basic version of a program
that meets the necessary requirements but can be improved in the future.
2. Mapping the user journey and identifying pain points.
3. Brainstorming solutions.
4. Defining a measurement for success.
5. Holding cross-functional reviews to gather a variety of feedback.
6. Testing the website and gathering data.

14. 9 1
6
6
3
-
4
9
8
-
9
1 b m
o
c
.
t
n
i
r
p
n
o
t
n
e
12
Although direct mail has higher opening rates than other mediums, the design of the direct-mail
piece will influence opening rates.
A Study on Direct-Mail Campaign Performance
The authors of the study “The effects of mailing design characteristics on direct mail campaign
performance” claimed that the information about what design characteristics to use in direct mail
campaigns was not grounded in empirical research. Therefore, they analyzed 677 direct-mail
campaigns to find the dos and don’ts of direct-mail campaigns.
Here are the main takeaways:
 Use colored envelopes with caution. Although they are used in the majority of direct-mail
campaigns, they tend to have a negative effect on opening rates.
 Try taking away the sender’s identity on the envelope. If the sender’s name is on the front
side of the envelope, it has a negative effect on opening rates. Perhaps a lack of sender
information stoked the receiver’s curiosity.
 Include your logo on the letterhead.
 Provide sufficient information. The length of the headline and the length of the brochure
were positively related to keeping rates. Therefore, provide the receiver with lots of
information and give them a convenient way to request more information if they want.
 Personalize! But personalize in areas beyond the now commonplace practice of including
the recipient’s name. The greater the personalization, the higher the opening and keeping
rates.
 Don’t be too intrusive. When reaching out to prospective customers, request a low-
commitment, one-time purchase. Do not ask them to join a loyalty program up front.
The above suggestions provide concrete ways to improve direct-mail opening and keeping rates
that are grounded in research.
Direct-Mail Design Affects Your Business

15. 9 1
6
6
3
-
4
9
8
-
9
1 b m
o
c
.
t
n
i
r
p
n
o
t
n
e
13
Case Study: IKEA
In the aftermath of COVID-19, IKEA had record-low store visitations. IKEA created a
marketing campaign to bring in $1.25 million, targeting one million of their loyalty-
program customers through direct mail. The theme centered around play, saying,
“Let play unwind your minds.” The direct-mail design tied into this theme by inviting
the recipients to “play.” The direct mail included a dot-to-dot where customers could
connect the dots to receive a discount. Afterward, the recipient could create an origami
paper airplane out of the mailer.
This unique direct-mail design was IKEA’s most successful mailer of 2022. About
19,000 customers redeemed the in-store discount within three weeks and the overall
ROI was 4.5:1.

16. 9 1
6
6
3
-
4
9
8
-
9
1 b m
o
c
.
t
n
i
r
p
n
o
t
n
e
14
Conclusion
Design unquestionably influences customers’ purchasing decisions. Try to make sure the
customers are moved to purchase by taking a look at four key design areas: product, packaging,
website, and direct mail. Case studies provide excellent insight into how companies were able to
improve in these areas. These examples provide information that can benefit your company.
Increase Retention
Slack was able to increase retention by improving its product. Input from customers helped Slack
identify key problem areas, such as the difficulty in getting started. When trying to improve your
product design, it’s a good idea to follow Slack’s example by asking customers for feedback. It will
help you identify your product’s unique problems while making your customers feel good about
helping design a better product.
Increase Sales
RXBAR was able to increase sales through a significant product redesign. The new design broke
some industry norms but was ultimately successful because it stood out from other protein bars.
This case study showed how a package redesign can pay off, especially for companies with a
smaller customer base.
Ease of Use
Pinterest noticed its mobile website was outdated and difficult to use. It put together two teams
and created a set of steps to fix the problem. After the improvements were made, mobile web users
went up by 150% and mobile web sign-ups increased by 700%. Pinterest’s story demonstrates how
important having a user-friendly website is to overall website use while sharing one strategy to
improve a website.
Every company is unique with many moving variables, but all companies can benefit from
excellent design.

17. 9 1
6
6
3
-
4
9
8
-
9
1 b m
o
c
.
t
n
i
r
p
n
o
t
n
e
15
About Your Sponsor
Improving design throughout your business will enhance the user experience and increase
sales. Design is especially influential for direct mail. In your next direct-mail campaign,
try using the takeaways from this white paper to design a piece that is statistically likely to
perform better than the already high direct-mail opening rates. We've got your back for design
elements that will help your business and marketing efforts rise to the top and enhance the user
experience in an aesthetically pleasing way.
Contact Us
B .
o
C
d
r
a
C
n
o
t
n
e
1 t
S
l
l
a
W
S
5
0
B n
o
s
n
e , NC 2 4
0
5
7
9 1
6
6
3
-
4
9
8
-
9
1
b m
o
c
.
t
n
i
r
p
n
o
t
n
e