Design Comment

DESIGN

COMMENT

Michael Paloian, Integrated Design Systems, Inc.

Integrating Product Design and Marketing - Building Brand Identity

How do you climb to the top of your market and maintain a leadership position? Answer.. Build a strong product brand. This goal sounds great and may also appear to be simple, but it’s not. Every company wants to maintain a leadership position in their market, which allows them to sell products at a higher profit and greater sales volume than their competitors. However, attaining the number one position is difficult. It requires a consistent pursuit of excellence in quality, service, marketing, sales, distribution, and product performance. It also requires welldesigned and crafted products that have been promoted consistently based on a simple message that generates a desire to purchase one or more. This strategy is referred to as product branding.

Successful companies begin the product branding strategy during the early stages of product development. Industrial designers develop concepts consistent with the product branding strategy. The overall product image, color selection, and prominent product features are skillfully designed to reinforce the brand’s visual impact. Creative designers explore numerous concepts which are intended to capture a look and feel that directly communicates the intended brand to the end-user. This process requires a combination of creativity, excellent communication, and design craftsmanship. For example, designers must understand the market, competition, and end-user. This information is combined with the desired corporate product brand message and creatively expressed within a visual context. Design concepts are typically reviewed internally and eventually tested within focus groups. Feedback from focus groups is analyzed and applied to the ideas, which are further refined. This cycle may be repeated a few times until a suitable design is attained.

After the desired product look has been achieved, the design is further refined and developed into a manufacturable product. Although this development phase is primarily technical, it requires the engineering design team to collaborate closely with the industrial design group so the design intent is not lost. The engineering group must also apply creativity and imagination throughout this process. Their objectives are to transform the concept design into a fully functional product that can be costeffectively manufactured, is highly reliable, highly functional, and produced with the highest quality. This critical stage in the design process is even more important than the first. If the product fails to meet any of the previously mentioned goals, it faces a high risk of failure in the marketplace.

Assuming the final production design has successfully complied with all its specifications, the files are released for tooling and eventual full-scale manufacturing. All the advertising and promotions are carefully designed and worded during product introduction to convey a simple message that reinforces the product brand. Photographs, videos, and text are meshed with the product’s appearance forming a cohesive message.

I hope this brief overview of product branding and product design has enlightened you about the planning and investment required to launch a successful branding program. If you have any comments, criticisms, or questions, please feel free to contact me at paloian@idsys.com.