Design in the North West
The headline
The North West has a more positive attitude to design than businesses elsewhere in the UK.
Most importantly, one in four of the region’s business think design is crucial to their success. That’s well above average.
The details
What role does design play in business?
Businesses in the North West are positive about design. Half (49%) feel it plays either an integral or significant role in their business. That’s considerably more than the average.
UK average 37%
Only one in five think design has no role to play, compared to one in four elsewhere.
How important is design to success, compared to other factors?
A quarter (25%) of North West businesses think design is crucial to their success. They’re more positive than others.
UK average 15%
As elsewhere, traditional factors remain more important to success.
For example, 67% of the region’s businesses rate financial management as crucial. And 62% point to operational management.
How do businesses use design to compete?
Almost half (46%) the businesses in the North West believe that, over the past decade, design has become more important in helping them compete.
UK average 46%
While this view matches the UK average, other regions such as the East Midlands (68%) and South West (65%) are some way ahead.
Businesses in the North West are slightly more likely than others to have increased their investment in design. Over the past three years, 39% have increased their investment. However, 44% don’t invest at all.
Like many other regions, North West businesses mostly compete on the added value of their product or service (78%). 12% rely on innovation.
How many businesses have developed new products or services?
Nearly half (48%) of North West businesses have developed new products or services in the past three years.
UK average 40%
As well as being slightly above the national average, this is almost double the rate in the North East and Northern Ireland (25%).
What types of design do businesses use?
North West businesses follow the rest of the UK when it comes to their use of different design disciplines. 46% use communications design, the most frequently used type of design.
UK average 52%
Communications design, digital and multimedia, and product and industrial design are the most widely used services.
Conversely, interior and exhibition design is half as popular. Just 6% of the region’s businesses use it, compared to 13% across the UK.
Do businesses use designers?
Businesses in the North West are among the most likely to have a dedicated design department. More than a third (37%) do.
UK average 25%
Where do businesses apply design?
North West businesses are most likely to apply design to marketing – 61% do so. Their activity exceeds the national average.
UK average 48%
In contrast they’re far less likely to apply design to externally facing functions, such as branding and corporate communication. They do this half as much as businesses elsewhere.
Regional portrait
The North West’s economy has been improving steadily since 2000. According to the North West Regional Intelligence Unit, it grew by 5% in 2004. This compares to a UK average of 4.6%.
The North West represents 10% of the UK’s total gross valued added (GVA). In 2004 it contributed £102billion. Only London and the South East contributed more.
The region’s major players are:
- Renting, real estate and business activities
- Manufacturing (which in 2003 represented 18.6% of the economy)
- Wholesale and retail
- Transport, storage and communication
- Financial intermediation
- Construction.
The region is currently home to more than 350,000 businesses. Three quarters of the UK’s top 100 companies have operations here.
The Northwest Regional Development Agency has five key priorities: business development; regeneration; skills & employment; infrastructure and image.
For more information on the North West, please visit these websites:
How can I use this information?
If you’re a business intermediary
While the region’s businesses are more convinced than most that design is crucial to success, they’re behind some in seeing design as a way of competing.
Although almost half appreciate design in this way, that’s behind regions such as the East Midlands and the South West, where two in three do so.
Addressing this gap could be a worthwhile regional initiative. A relatively high proportion of businesses have dedicated design departments. There may be a ready-made audience for a message around ‘competing through design’. Our report The link between design and better business performance could help you with this.
If you’re a design business
With many of the region’s businesses increasing their investment in design, it’s important for designers that their profile rises to match that of internal design departments.
Currently, these get more of the region’s design work than is the case in most other regions.
In such a design-aware region, there’s no reason why external and in-house can’t thrive alongside each other.
Businesses in the North West use mostly communications design, and more digital and multimedia and product and industrial design than elsewhere. These could all be areas of interest to designers.
Interior and exhibition design, and service design, are relatively under-used disciplines and, as such, present a potential opportunity. Likewise, design is applied far less to externally facing functions, such as branding and corporate communications, than elsewhere. Businesses in this region are half as likely as those elsewhere to apply design to these areas.
And, as well as looking at what your clients are doing, we’ve also looked at what your peers are doing. The business of design is the first comprehensive survey of the design industry.
Among other things, the research compares the supply of design services in your region to that in others. This complements the demand for services discussed above, and should further help you discuss these issues with your clients.
If you’re a design educator or student
For those working in research, the link between the region’s growth and its appreciation of design’s role in success could be worth studying.
For students interested in a career in design, it’s worth noting that businesses in this region often prefer hiring their own designers or having a dedicated design department to using external agencies.