Importance Of Product Design
If you look at a traditional desktop and a laptop, you’ll likely notice that they are both personal computers. However, product design is rapidly changing the market and more and more people are buying laptops because of it. This emphasizes how important product design is.
Product design has become so essential in business. Whether for an organization or a brand, it’s what differentiates you from the rest of the competition. You will always look at one brand of jeans and differentiate it from another. This has to do with the differences in their product design.
The way your features are situated in your product and the way it’s presented to the customer is what product design is all about. The design of the product can be the differentiating factor. You had people going out to purchase and carry around Boom box’s a few decades ago. Once a brand like Sony came through and introduced a portable version of it with the Walkman, people gravitated towards it immediately.
This was a simple product design change that introduced more portability and different technology. Apple then took what was popular with compact discs and introduced the iPod to the marketplace. This is a product that completely flipped the market upside down and stole a lot of market share. Nowadays, you’ll find very few people still using an iPod as smartphones have completely replaced them for the most part.
The Importance Of Product Design For Marketing
There are a lot of different reasons why product design is so important when it comes to marketing a brand or business.
One of the main is your positioning. When you have a better overall product design, it will increase your chances of making a sale. A worse product design will put you at a disadvantage when competing with the rest of the marketplace.
Product design itself can make or break one’s buying decision. This is especially true in product design-dominated categories like personal electronics. Things like smartphones and even laptops rely more and more on product design. A lot of people make their buying decisions based on what product design resonates with them the most.
This is true even with heavy machinery. The product design can dictate how effective, efficient, and organised a machine is. Without a good product design, things can get chaotic.
Product design can come in different forms. The more a product design gets accepted, the better the brand does in the marketplace.
Nokia is a brand that took product design and make it the centrepiece for their marketing efforts. They designed a brand and a phone-based on accessibility and usability. They positioned themselves as a brand that designed the most “user-friendly phones.” This was a product design strategy that paid off.
The packaging of a product can play a big role in the success or failure of a product. It’s one of the very last sales points for a business. Having well-designed packaging can play a big role in the overall success of a product and brand.
As you can tell, product design can be the differentiating factor that sells a specific product to a target market.
You need to look at various things including the total investment and potential return when you are looking at the design of a product. For instance, Sony ended up launching a “VILLA” appliance that acted like WiFi to give homeowners a chance to get internet while they were in their house. However, they manufactured it to the point where it wasn’t accessible due to the heft of it. Also, it didn’t have a user-friendly approach making it extremely difficult for someone to integrate into their lives. Needless to say, the product didn’t last more than a couple of months. If you would like information on digital product design then see here.
Influence Of Product Design On The Behaviour Of The Consumer
There is no doubt that product design plays a big role in consumer behaviour. You will find a lot of premium brands like Louis Vuitton and many others are all playing on the idea of building their brand around design.
They tend to offer different features that you cannot get anywhere else. Because of this, they can charge a premium for their products. Any brand that invests more time, energy, and resources into the design of its product is likely going to generate a higher return on investment with its products. Likewise, they will tend to have higher conversions because of it. Their products are built with the customer in mind and they utilise a product design that enhances the customer’s experience.