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Designing Demand - Interior Surfaces
Introduction
Designing Demand helped Interior Surfaces to develop a more professional image, double its turnover and better understand its market potential.
- Sales increased from £1.3m to £2.4 million in just over 2 years
- The company now targets those clients which will be more profitable in the long term
Summary
Following several turbulent few years, Sheffield-based Interior Surfaces (which manufactures interior work surfaces) decided to go for growth and double its £1.3m turnover within 5 years.
That meant attracting more business from blue-chip contractors, but they didn’t know how to persuade high-calibre clients to take Interior Surfaces more seriously. With limited experience of design, they had relatively little confidence in their own sales collateral.
However, they joined Designing Demand’s Generate service and began working with design associate Ellis Pitt. (Designing Demand helps SMEs to understand how design can add value to their business through increased profits, better productivity and sustained competitiveness.)
Pitt’s first step was to run a session with the management team to analyse the business. He found that the image the company presented failed to convey its strong track record, high-quality workmanship and great service.
Together, they looked at the customer base and target market, identifying the highest value and less profitable clients. Pitt developed a design brief crystallising the business’s strengths, which was used to brief a design company to create a new identity and website.
Within just over 2 years, turnover hit £2.4m—dramatically exceeding Interior Surfaces’ ambitious plans. Chairman Arthur Mackenzie said, ‘When I first met the design associate, I expected questions about colours and fonts. Instead they asked me about financial and business-related matters. The project has totally transformed my view of marketing and branding.’
What is Yorkshire Forward’s connection with this initiative?
Designing Demand is a national programme developed by the Design Council and administered regionally by the regional development agencies, such as Yorkshire Forward (which trialled the first national pilot in South Yorkshire from 2005-2008). Now available across the region, Designing Demand is run in Yorkshire by Business Link Yorkshire.
