Ikea’s former design chief Marcus Engman believes that companies should invest more in design rather than on marketing.
Engman’s contribution to Ikea’s growth is unforgettable. With collaborations on tropical furniture and LA-inspired skateboards, Engman made Ikea to bring out the Swedish furniture giant out of its comfort zone. And now Engman has started his own firm by the name of Skewed Production in partnership with Doberman. Engman said that the goal of Skewed Productions is to prepare such product design that it will itself create the marketing moments.
“I want to show there’s an alternative to marketing, which is actual design,”
said Engman.
“And if you work with design and communications in the right way, that would be the best kind of marketing, without buying media.”
Source: Fortune
And his idea makes sense. As a consumer, we are interested in how things are made. If the company is completely transparent about how are they designing and manufacturing their products, it will automatically intrigue us into buying their product.
Going into the depths of Marcus Engman, you will realize that that man has always been a one-man army. Before entering Ikea, Marcus led his own agency with around 30 employees. In the Skewed Productions, Marcus is making sure to share profits with his collaborators rather than just paying them their stock salaries. This will encourage his collaborators to work harder on his project and will even push himself to take on the projects more flexible.
Source-Fast Company
