I want to address the idea of mood boards and concepts. For those who do not know what a mood board is, it is basically a visual conception of a feeling or mood.

Consumers are driven by two factors: need and want. If you are lucky enough to be in a field that consumers need your product, then half the battle is won (yes, I know it isn’t that easy, but we are speaking in broad terms here). If you are in a field that depends on consumers wanting your product, then the battle is making the consumer think they *need* your product, especially over all other products similar to yours.

In almost every survey of consumers, they say they don’t mind spending money. What they hate is the shopping experience.
- Alan Bush

If a consumer feels like the experience is bad, they associate that feeling with the product. Therefore, the feeling they get when they view your product is very important, if not the most important factor to the success of that product.

Queue The Mood Boards

This is where mood boards come into play. Usually, the best place for mood boards is at the beginning of the life cycle of a product (or brand). What feelings do you want associated with this product? When people hear the name of your product, what do you want them to think of? Is it a serene tropical island experience? A smell? A color? All these questions and more should be addressed in the mood boards and concepts.

Mood Boards and Designers

As a designer, you have the creative eye to put all the desired feelings into a visual aid. It could be as simple as a color palette and as complex to a short presentation artistically illustrating a colorful background for the product. Keep in mind this is only an aid and not meant to be a literal, exact replica of the representation of the product. Mood boards and concepts should invoke the feeling that was identified as being detrimental to the success of the product, and then after presenting the mood boards and concepts the feelings that were felt during that presentation should be examined and compared to the original desired results.

During this process you may find the moods and concepts were spot on, or you may find the need to adjust according to new information revealed from exploring the moods associated with the product. Since this is not an exact science, and this is not the final representation of the product, change is good and should be adamantly explored at this point in the process.

Just A Gut Feeling

It will be hard, to say the least, to remind the stakeholders that the mood boards are only meant to invoke a feeling, and are not meant to be taken as anything more than that. Even as a designer, you may find yourself falling victim to the same fault. A good practice is to constantly ask yourself, and your stakeholders: how does that make you feel? (Ex. “I’m glad you like the blue. How does it make you feel when you see the blue associated with our product?”)

Words All Marketers Should Live By

To conclude, I am going to leave you with this quote from Stanley Marcus (of Neiman Marcus), to help guide you through the mood board process and get you in the right frame of mind:

Consumers are statistics. Customers are people.
- Stanley Marcus