Captiv8 were lucky enough to recently be invited to attend a fairly exclusive event held by our latest client partners Space Furniture. The event was called The Business Of Design, part of a series of talks hosted by Space Furniture, featuring Casper Vissers, co-founder and CEO of the maverick Dutch interior design brand Moooi. It was great to get a first hand view of how a new, challenger brand has slowly built itself over time and that their path to success has been mixed with both great achievements and mistakes. Ultimately though, listening to Casper talk it was interesting to discover that on their journey to success the team at Moooi had learned many lessons which are relevant for many companies and brands.

In a rapidly changing society and economy where disruption has become the norm, the challenge for brands is to provide a meaningful connection with people.

Specifically, the challenge for Moooi is the ability to sell something such as a chair, which someone can easily buy for $80, and persuade someone to pay $800 or more for a Moooi chair. The way Moooi do this is to create an emotional connection with their customers, provide an emotional response which is so strong that people are prepared to pay a vast premium as Casper said “…people are triggered by a story…people want something which speaks to them in a special way.”

Moooi create this emotional connection by creating turbulence and meaning; turbulence in their product design, and meaning in the way they market their brand and products.

This is also the case of the world’s biggest brands. Of course, Apple aren’t the world’s most valuable company for nothing, “If everyone is busy making everything, how can anyone perfect anything? We start to confuse convenience with joy. Abundance with choice. Designing something requires focus. The first thing we ask is: What do we want people to feel?”

In Land Rover’s latest Range Rover launch they make the statement that “Great design is the gateway to customer desirability, because it’s design that makes that emotional connection.”

This definitely rings true and something which forms a consideration in everything which Captiv8 undertakes. The challenge of balancing innovation and relevance, the ability to connect through design and storytelling to establish an emotional connection. Whether you are the world’s most valuable brand or a niche brand this is at the heart of any formula for success.