How important is Design?

Dear Readers, lately I've been reading 'The pursuit of WOW!" by Tom Peters and I want to share some of the interesting insights from the book in few of my next posts.

The one about Design goes this way:

"Vital.For products, sure. But, paradoxically, design is more important for services."

And then Tom goes about quoting Harvard marketing guru Ted Levitt: "If your product is tangible(plane,boat,car,penknife), distinguish yourself from the herd by emphasizing intangibles(e.g.,service). If your product is intangible (banking services, travel services), distinguish yourself from the masses by emphasizing the tangible- to wit, design. "

The example of FedEx comes next.

"Fedex which offers timely delivery service also stands out on the tangibles.

Tangibles, such as spiffy-and clean-trucks.(why, for God's sake, don't companies realize that trucks are a fabulous/awful form of advertising?) And easy-to-use forms.

(Why, once again, don't most businesses understand that forms are part of their signature and therefore great/awful advertisements for their businesses?)

So if you're in a service business, worry a lot if you're not working on the tangibles." says Peters.

I found this to be interesting and I am not sure whether our marketing fellows already learn about it, its definitely worth sharing.

Please post your valuable comments to make this blog post worth.