Outsourcing vs. In-house Marketing: What's Right for Your Business?

In the competitive consumer world, business owners are faced with the ever challenging quest of generating profits and creating new public awareness of their brand or services. However, if the public or new prospects have no idea of the product or service you offer, then it is easy to assume the revenue will not be there. Before brand recognition can take place, creative marketing and strategic implementation of these efforts are essential for any success. In whatever is being created, it is the company or product story and how people relate to your message is what the society clings to and will support. Having a dedicated team of professionals at your fingertips would be ideal to successfully execute the marketing process of your business. This is where the Art Department can be an awarding addition to your business plan, which then can give your brand, product or service the chance to mature and prosper in the future.

Here you will explore the idea of having a dedicated in-house Art Department, how this benefits your company and provides advantages to growing your business. We will address the trend of outsourcing any marketing efforts to a third party agency or freelance designer and how that may not be as beneficial as the monthly profits will show. You may be telling yourself, “Outsourcing is of course more ideal for my limited budget and wanting to give the dollars spent the most value.” Anything that seems like a good plan can also be hiding many negative drawbacks. These hidden obstacles will be discussed further in support, that implementing an internal Art Department for the business enables growth and awareness with a consistent message to the consumer.

With every identity comes substance, with substance comes meaning and with meaning comes the message that a creative team has made for the whole world to see. For well over a century, creative departments have been the one resource that has had a key role in developing marketing materials and maintaining corporate visual communications. It has just been since the 1980’s that design has become a household word and, with the ever changing marketing trends, the designers of various media have been claimed as culture heroes (Heller 8). Design is present in practically all departments of a business, which in itself, gives the internal art department an opportunity to streamline the corporate identity through all employees of the corporation. Brand integrity is everything in marketing your company. Keeping a consistent look, feel, and message across the board is what will make or break your business. When all team members are in understanding with the message of your business there is no limit to what can be accomplished. This is what an internal Art Department will help in achieving.

Internal creative departments and graphic artists have acquired key skills and methods to best support corporate identity, no matter the industry. It’s the in-house designers’ duty to connect his or her corporation to successful growth by executing creative campaigns with originality and flair. In every industry there is a customer base; whether its on the public or private sector, there is always a desired audience for which an organization directs its marketing efforts. The internal Art Department is equipped with individual designers who specialize in the ability to enable an organization to communicate with the desired audience or customer base. This communication is acquired through on demand focused expertise in brand development, sales support, and of course design. The in-house designer is more vested in the organization branding and is eagerly trying to create and build onto what is already established. When building up a brand or service the focus is how it can be translated into sales and supporting the goal of generating profits. Without the must-have requirement of sales support, as we know, an organization will not be around for very long or won’t stand up against the competition very well. Lastly, having a dedicated team of designers, an organization is equipped with a group who can analyze what is needed in sales and best initiate visual communication of products or services to the customers more effectively.

This personalized support of creative professionals at your finger tips can stabilize the company in its message and communication to their customers. As business owners, it can be easy to overlook the benefits of implementing your own creative department, but it has been argued to be a huge advantage for growth. The constant attention provided by an in-house creative designer or team benefits the larger organization by building and maintaining a consistent message (Fishel 12). Tim Hale the creative director of Fossil Inc. has stated:

“There has always been an undercurrent of business who have used creativity and who have had great success­–Target, Starbucks and so on. But it is now just bubbling to the surface for everyone else. Fast Company, Business Week, and other publications are giving a lot more lip service to design as a profession as well as a design catalyst. Now, success is geared around how creative people can be with what is already out there and available to everyone else– information, technology, and such. Companies who have an in-house design group have a real advantage over those who don’t” (Fishel 19).

There is the argument in which outsourcing is a more cost effective method when needing a creative or marketing solution for a particular business project. This all depends on the business model of the company. Money is spent either way and each individual company will have to evaluate what the value of their return will be compared to the expenses when considering each option. It is proven that an internal design team could be more effective in developing a campaign or marketing strategy for the company they work for because of their acquired skills and access to critical resources (Kapsner). In-house designers do have a unique access to information and internal resources such as colleagues’ relationships and sales reports that are made unavailable to a third-party design firm or freelance designer. On the contrary, there are instances that a company will find it necessary to have some outside creative capabilities. This can allow flexibility in skill and capacity of work to meet the demands of a particular client and still remain profitable.

The budget of any project tends to be the primary focus of most business owners, and while this is a common practice, it may block the use of effective design. It’s the difference of meeting the low budget parameters with great design instead of staying on budget but lacking the brand integrity and consistent message. It is often overlooked that the communication barrier with an outside agency or the extra expenses of inaccurate work can bring a project over budget or even bring the company into the red overtime. An organization operating with its own in-house design team can collapse that barrier of misunderstood information and focus on the project at hand. This will then set the team up for success in delivering results in a more timely and efficient manner.

The benefits that your own Art department will have on your company can only come from the type of management and business model that is set. Mr. Tim Hale of Fossil Inc. asks the question, “Why would a company invest in the resource of an in-house design group and not manage the resource better?” (Fishel 16). The creative department has the ability to bring life back into a failing company or contribute growth in a successful organization. If the work being produced from this specialized group of designers is not to the benefit of the business, there are only three reasons to consider. It can simply mean that the company is not challenging the designer, not managing them correctly, or the wrong designers were hired (16). In the situation of needing to pull together to execute a plan for a quick turnaround, can be actually possible with your own Art Department. Your team of designers will have the drive and dedication to a project, that just cant be found from a external source. The growth of your industry identity could be hindered from the the shear lack of dedication the outside firm has compared to the in-house staff member of your own company (Schneider).

The trend of graphic designers coming together to form their own design firm has been increasing in the last few years, along with the number of freelance designers. There are many reasons that a designer may consider to work for themselves, but a few are– possibly some resent others’ taking credit for their designs. They complain about being isolated from clients and from the problem-solving process, and the feeling of being artistically frustrated (Gold 6). Any organization must know that it is a common phrase to hear “Everyone’s A Designer.” This phrase comes from the era when desktop publishing made it into the mix and revolutionary software has drastically shaped the design field. It must be understood what makes a professional designer and what makes an amateur designer. The skilled professional designer is not just able to perform the tasks of image manipulation, layout and the use of typography but able to take a low budget project and transform it into a high quality job.

The current era of personal computers and advanced design software has provided the beginner or amateur designer with the tools to make the technical side of the creative field more affordable but the level of quality may not be to your standards (Heller 12). Business owners trying to effectively market their products or services may be blinded by the aesthetic quality, instead of the level of conceptual quality with a tasteful use of color, type and space.

The importance of understanding how your company can benefit from either outsourcing or implementing your own design team into your business model is the first step to success. It has been discussed how a team working together as a unit can help the completion of an array of company projects more efficiently and under budget. Working with an outside source is desirable in some cases, but can raise more issues in the quality of brand integrity and keeping the consistency in your message. The current trend in marketing and how it has depleted the idea of the internal creative personnel may have an effect of the overall goal and growth for your company. It has been supported, by graphic design professionals and business owners, that implementing your own team of designers will give you a huge advantage in the very competitive world of business. This approach, if executed correctly and depending on the internal support you have, can determine if your company will flop or blast to the stars! Having an Art Department implemented into your business model helps the stability of the company and provides a consistent message to your customers.

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Sources

Fishel, Cathy. In-House Design in Practice. Ohio: HOW Books, 2008. Print.

Gold, Ed. The Business of Graphic Design: a sensible approach to marketing and managing a graphic design firm. New York: Watson – Guptill Publications.1995. Print.

Heller, Steven. Low Budget High Quality Design. New York: Watson – Guptill

Publications.1990. Print.

Kapsner, Kevin. Personal Interview. 16 March 2016

Schneider, Speider. “ The Creative Vs. The Marketing Team: Yin And Yang, Oil And Water.”

Smashing Magazine. Vitality Friedian and Sven Lemartz, 20 July 2010. Web. 3 March

2016. <https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/07/yin-and-yang-oil-and-water

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