Design and Marketing, what came first: the chicken or the egg? What should we first propose in business terms in order to have a coherent message?

As the closing of this cycle of articles presented under the title ‘De-coding the Method’, those of us who have been the interviewers up to now have become the interviewees. More than an interview, you will see that we have carried out a conversation that has allowed us to reflect on our work and that we simply intend to inspire you, as a reader.

With this interview we will learn how these two disciplines fill our daily lives and how they combine to complete ‘The Method’ that we have been decoding throughout the rest of the interviews.

We introduce ourselves:

• Miquel Àngel Julià Hierro: Concept Architect, partner of Grup Idea and Design & Marketing Manager.
• Andrea Garrido Espinosa: Marketing & Communications Manager at Grup Idea.

Both of us are part of the Marketing and Communications Department of Grup Idea and we will explain our functions within the company and our personal way of seeing and applying our expertise.

 

ANDREA: Miquel Àngel, you came to Grup Idea many years before me. Although I’m not the last to arrive, I feel like ‘the new one’. What were your beginnings in the company like?

MAJH: From the very beginning, Grup Idea had its Vision and Mission well defined. The founding partners established themselves in 1996 as a professional architectural and engineering services company, which was a differentiating factor at the time. Their internal organisation was also unique, with technicians acting as Client Project Managers.

When I joined, they had just created the construction line, which today we know as Abessis. Before joining Grup Idea, one of my first designs was built by them, and shortly afterwards I became the company’s non-Customer Project Manager. This allowed me to work in various sectors and across the entire value chain: Design, Implementation and Construction.

For a while, I was responsible for projects that combined both Design and Construction, and so for example, we realised many dental surgeries and medical centres. At that time, Grup Idea and Abessis shared projects and the same desk with a very small team.

The growth and professionalisation of Abessis would come years later under the guidance of Juan Guaita.

One of these dental practices I’m talking about was Periogroup and it helped us to get to know each other and to start working with them. I am talking about the year 2000. Everyone was afraid of the so-called ‘Y2K effect’, but Grup Idea was never afraid of technology and was always ahead of other similar architectural studios.

 

Where did you train and what were your beginnings in the professional world?

ANDREA: I studied Advertising and Public Relations at the University of Girona. When I finished my degree, after having done my university internship in a Digital Marketing agency, I decided to spend some time in Dublin where I ended up working as a Visual in a Zara.

 

MAJH: At Zara and as Visual Merchandising, was it a kind of premonition? What did you learn there that is now useful to you at Grup Idea? Explain to us what Visual Merchandising means and what it consists of.

ANDREA: Visual Merchandising is the discipline of displaying products at a brand’s point of sale to promote sales and attract customers. Its objective is to develop a visual strategy that is coherent with the brand’s identity and message.

The Visual is not only strategic, but also has a creative vision to be able to play with space, colour, lighting, items in the place and the technology available, all to adapt the image of the brand so that the customer recognises where or what he/she is buying.

Although I was initially unsure of my path, my managers saw potential in me for the role and I decided to give it a go. It may sound silly but working in a shop like Visual made me realise that the world of communication is hidden in many sectors. This motivated me to get a marketing position. It reminded me of what I enjoyed most about my studies: strategic planning, objectives and brand personality.

At that time, focused on retail and communicating through space and fashion as I like to say, I never imagined that I would end up in the marketing and communication department of a company dedicated to creating retail spaces, a sector that had captivated me. I don’t think I could have done any better if I had wanted to.

Back home, my career path took me through various experiences in marketing and branding until I finally arrived at Grup Idea at the beginning of March 2024.

 

MAJH: Very interesting! The truth is that something similar happened to me. Although I had a certain idea of what I wanted to do, while I was studying architecture, in reality it was work, clients and colleagues who set my professional path. In my case I was very clear about what I didn’t want to do, neither interior architecture, nor strategy, nor working for brands. Things that are precisely what I do now and in which I am considered an expert. I’m happy and that’s what’s important.

I was lucky enough to start working as an architect long before I graduated and to be able to combine studies and work in parallel. I worked in one of the best architecture studios in Barcelona, TAC arquitectes, and I started doing projects on my own, such as an Internet Gallery Café in Ciutat Vella or a Dental Clinic in Paseo de Gracia. This allowed me to see that many architectural projects are born from defining a good Business Model and a good Branding Strategy.

 

By the way, we have introduced two closely related concepts, but they are not the same: Marketing and Branding. What differentiates one from the other for you?

ANDREA: Marketing encompasses all the decisions that a company makes with the aim of selling its service or product so that the customer is satisfied and wants to repeat.

Branding, on the other hand, is what comes once the philosophy of the business model has been outlined and, sometimes, once the strategy has been thought out. In the end, it is how we present ourselves to others once we have done our analysis and defined our objectives.

 

How do you differentiate between branding and marketing, and do you see them as the same thing?

MAJH: No, they are not the same, even though they are related. As Apple’s marketing guru Regis McKenna would say, ‘Marketing is everything and everything is Marketing’. This is the phrase I usually say as ‘Retail is everything and everything is Retail’.

Marketing is closer to the activities you do to sell. Branding is naming, corporate identity, visual identity and much more. It is how we convey our essence as a brand. Branding is discovering and enhancing the essence of the brand and its principles.

At Grup Idea we do not offer Marketing or Branding as a service, but we work on projects together with specialised agencies and the marketing departments of our clients. We know how to interpret their work, and that is why we implement branding as we know how to apply it to the spaces we design and execute. Studios and agencies we have collaborated with include Mario Eskenazi, SUMA, CLA-SE, Morillas and CÈL·LULA.

 

ANDREA: You also often talk about Marketing and Sales as two independent but complementary concepts and actions. What is the difference between Marketing and Sales?

MAJH: As we have said, Marketing is a tool that helps to sell. And therefore it is at the service of commercial work. But at Grup Idea, we all sell, the partners, the directors… That’s why I like to say that you and I are not a department of two, because each and every one of us at Grup Idea is Marketing. In the same way that we all can and must carry out commercial actions. We all sell. We are always better than me. Because nobody knows as much as all of us together.

ANDREA: I agree that it’s important to be nuanced. Marketing represents the company’s management philosophy and focuses on building and communicating the value proposition. Whereas Sales focuses on the direct relationship with the customer and on negotiation. That is why as a department we work closely with the company’s management.

 

ANDREA: And why work on Marketing and Design from the same department?

MAJH: You know I don’t like the word department at all. It seems that we are talking about a watertight place, disconnected from the rest of the company’s activities, and at Grup Idea we are very transversal in all processes. Both creative and productive. We know how to design and we know how to understand and manage the design of others.

Communication, both internal and external, does not occur only at the end of a project, but from the beginning, because when a good project is finished, this is not the end of it, but the beginning of the next one. That’s why we say that ‘our best project is always the next one’. How do you see it?

ANDREA: For me, in a company like Grup Idea, it goes hand in hand. Understanding the previous marketing strategy is essential to effectively design or implement an action plan. Thanks to the strategy you can understand the objectives and what actions and tactics are carried out. Then comes the design.

Understanding this, it makes sense for the design team to work alongside the marketing team as it allows us to draw on each other’s experiences to better understand the client’s needs.

 

But what does the Design phase consist of at Grup Idea? What does it mean for you to have this Strategy prior to the Design?

MAJH: It is important to know the strategy that has been defined in the Business Plan prior to the Design that the client provides us with and on the basis of which he commissions us to carry out and/or implement a project.

Identifying the client and understanding their context is key to carrying out segmented and personalised actions. This gives meaning to the design and prevents it from being empty. It is not a matter of offering the same design service to everyone, but of proposing what is really appropriate, which allows us to grow in experience and build a diverse portfolio of clients.

Let us also remember that we all design, and there is design at all stages of a project, even during the construction management phase. Designing is thinking before doing.

 

Andrea: When I joined Grup Idea, I found it curious that in social networks it only has a presence on Linkedin, but not on Instagram, Facebook or X. I think it was the result of an analysis by all the partners and expert collaborators. I think it was the result of an analysis by all the partners and expert collaborators. Why?

MĀJH: The era of digitalisation has awakened various behaviours that make us have to adapt to different ways of communicating with our clients and team depending on the platform. Many companies try to reach everyone, but they do so without criteria and without common sense. The key is to know who you want to target and to be only where they are. If you don’t do it right, as Alfons Cornella would say, the only thing you generate is ‘infoxication’.

We don’t see the need to be on a social network where our target audience is not going to see or hear us. That’s why we prefer to segment our channels to offer content that drives our strategy and shows results.

ANDREA: Exactly! I think it’s important to be present on the channels where our target customer spends the most time and where they unconsciously look for us, rather than trying to cover all platforms. Perhaps many companies have not been able to identify their target.

 

By the way, Miquel Àngel, can you tell me about the origin of the ‘Idea PikaPika’?

MAJH: The Idea PikaPika was a cycle of conferences created to bring together professionals from the design, architecture and construction sectors around three key factors: meeting, talks and ‘pika pika’.

The aim was to promote synergies between clients and professionals from different disciplines, with a prominent panelist sharing topics of interest.

To culminate the event and to encourage conversation between the audience and the speaker, a snack was offered. Years later, it is interesting to remember many of the contents generated, as many of the topics are still current and thanks to our Vimeo channel we can continue to see them.

 

ANDREA: And why did you stop doing them? What links do they have with ‘ENcuentros de ENtresuelos’?

MAJH: At Grup Idea we devise and execute concepts that we like to give a beginning and an end and therefore draw conclusions and apply them to new projects. The Grup Idea Calendar, IDEALAB, IDEACOWORKING, NUKLEE or IDEAPIKAPKA have always given rise to new concepts, such as the new ‘ENtresuelos meetings’.

Andrea: One of the first things I had to manage when I joined the company were our internal activities such as training courses and team building days. All of them are created and organised by Marketing, always with the support of the other partners.

 

Tell us about the curious origin of your Christmas celebration in Spring.

MAJH: After Covid we saw that we preferred not to have the typical Christmas dinner and we implemented an activity so that the whole team could enjoy 2 days of disconnection and so that we could get to know each other better.

Two years ago we saw that the Ebro Delta was the perfect place to meet our colleagues from Abessis. They were from Valencia and we were from Barcelona and halfway to the Delta. Together with them we enjoyed a day in May or June to enjoy the area, the good weather and the equipment. Now even when we think and do things together we call it ‘making a delta’.

Although we no longer have a company dinner at Christmas, we do celebrate with a get-together and a glass of cava to wish each other happy holidays.

 

 

ANDREA: Changing the subject Miquel Àngel, how would you explain the ‘DESIGN & BUILD’ concept offered as a pack?

MAJH: Increasingly, clients have less time and are looking for a single interlocutor. Although it may seem more economical, cutting up a project can be more expensive because of all the coordination effort involved. With the Design & Build solution, you know that what you design is what ends up being built.

As Judit told us in the interview we did with her, for our clients we are ‘facilitators of peace of mind’. This service, when required by the client, is possible thanks to the joint work between both companies, Grup Idea and Abessis. This requires our own working method, and we have it.

 

ANDREA: Having our own working method means having an adaptable tool to offer our services, what does this mean and what advantages does it have for the client?

MAJH: The advantages for the client are incredible as he can have the three main parts of ‘The Method’ (Imagine, Design & Build) or just the ones he chooses.

In other words, we can offer all three services thanks to our multidisciplinary teams that will carry out each part with the utmost care or, if the client prefers, we can adapt to the phase they need. We can implement and have someone else build it or we can do it ourselves. At the same time we can design and have someone else implement or the other way around. We adapt to the needs of each client to make the project a reality.

 

ANDREA: We’ve said before that the DESIGN & BUILD process works like a funnel from more room for imagination to a more concrete process of implementation and construction. Can you give us an example? Can you explain this aspect better? Does the design part always come first?

MAJH: We say that the project process is like a funnel because in the ‘IMAGINE’ phase we allow ourselves to explore and rethink ideas, while in ‘DESIGN’ and the ‘BUILD’ the process becomes more structured and defined, translating the intangible into the tangible. These phases are essential and must be worked on by a strong team.

Let’s take as an example the cases of Banc Sabadell in London and Bank Degroof Petercam in Madrid. We started by understanding the client, conducting interviews and preparing sketches that became layouts, moodboards for inspiration, look and feel and materiality.

During the implementation, layouts are made and, if necessary, we create a White Paper to then make the implementation project concrete by applying the manual in any space.

We talk about Design Thinking, an innovation process focused on finding creative solutions to human needs. Our team adopts this concept in our work methodology, looking for answers to problems that at first sight seem very complex, following its 5 phases: empathise, define, devise, prototype and evaluate, which allows us to innovate and improve continuously.

Also interesting as a design methodology is the concept of the ‘Double Diamond’, a visual representation of the design and innovation process. It is a simple way to describe the steps involved in any design and innovation project. It represents the broad exploration of the problem (divergent thinking) and the adoption of concrete solutions (convergent thinking).

Although we often work with companies’ internal design departments, we facilitate communication between all parties involved, ensuring that regulations and expectations are met.

 

 

 

MAJH: By the way, do you think that in the era of AI and remote work that we are living in, does the marketing that we carry out at Grup Idea make sense?

ANDREA: Yes, if our objectives are clear and every action is aligned with the strategy defined to achieve them.

Right now our objective is to increase awareness, especially at an international level, in order to expand the geographical area of orders. We achieve this by creating quality content that explains who we are, what we do, how we do it and who we do it. It’s not just about sharing on social media, it’s about being consistent and showing who we are.

MAJH: That’s why we adopted Simon Sinek’s ‘Golden Circle’ concept to define how we want to communicate and to help them know our purpose effectively. But within the Why (Purpose), How (process) and What (services and result) we like to add another factor, Who (our team), because the important thing in a company is the people who make it up. This is how we achieve that connection with our audience.

 

ANDREA: And you, where do you think the Marketing and Design we do at Grup Idea is going?

MAJH: The only constant is constant change. The acceleration of Big Data and AI will transform society and, therefore, the consumer. We as Retail Designers must be constantly updating and training ourselves.

But I don’t care, nor do I care about the famous algorithm. I am convinced that Creativity and Innovation are more closely linked than ever to Natural Intelligence, which is more analogue than digital.

 

ANDREA: Why is it important to know the trends in the sectors we work in, such as retail or workplace?

MAJH: In retail, the consumer experience is central to the design of spaces. These experiences are exposed to constant change because of all the new technologies that we are experiencing more and more. That’s why it’s vital to be aware of new developments in order to adapt spaces and share emotions. It is necessary to see the wave before it arrives. If possible, even surf it.

Marketing seeks to identify business opportunities and create products and services that satisfy them, relying on market research to understand needs and trends.

We relate this very much to what I call the ‘Innovation Spiral’ and its seven variables: Customer, Quality, Communication, Project, Technology, Management Style and Knowledge.

 

ANDREA: I still don’t know which came first, the chicken or the egg?

MĀJH: I like to say that ‘Designing is like cooking!’ At this point, the only important thing is to know how to design, i.e. cook the best omelette. And please Andrea, don’t ask me if with or without onions.