OWP liVe REPORT

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S T R AT E G Y Distinctive design will make your products stand out from the crowd

Focus on design to ease the pressure of commoditization. Digital makes it do-able and your customers will thank you. Commoditization has a lot to answer for. The ubiquity of bland products often leaves consumers baffled in the aisles and producers hard-pressed to make their products either exceptional or profitable. “In the white goods industry, for example, it’s really hard to distinguish between products and this puts price pressure on manufacturers. That’s a tough situation to be in. It is a familiar sight in many industries,” said Patrick Reinmoeller, Professor of Strategy and Innovation at IMD. However, a design focus can re-energize a product by improving any of its three essential values of functionality, emotional appeal and symbolic worth. Whether we’re talking a Dyson vacuum cleaner, a candy-colored mobile phone or a Ferrari sportscar, the value we perceive is immediate and coherent with each of those three values.

In the digital era, firms can make use of data to aid the process of enhancing their designs in order to increase their appeal. Furthermore, they can do so continually by engaging with their customers via streams of data. Data enables companies to understand the way the consumer uses their product and use that information to refine design. Such feedback loops increasingly govern the way products are made and re-made to better meet customer needs. "In the white goods industry, for example, it’s really hard to distinguish between products and this puts price pressure on manufacturers. That’s a tough situation to be in. It is a familiar sight in many industries."

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Power up your product

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Allow data to lead design

PATRICK REINMOELLER IMD Professor of Strategy and Innovation

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Red pill, blue pill