Sellion

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brand development specialists

New Product Design Strategy

The Design and Development phase is more than just a different set of likely actions that each product category carries out differently. At its core lies strategy inuencing tactics. Product Designers will examine the product concept in regards to its positioning, functionality, value proposition, and the target customers prole and how the product ts into their lifestyle. Theyll also compare the concept to competitive offerings to nd unique points of differentiation.

Design Strategies
Five primary design strategies include: 1. Cost Advantage - Minimize component, assembly and production costs 2. Design Prominence - Focus on aesthethics, ergonomics, packaging, presentation, and innovative materials and concepts to deliver consumer value. This will come in the form of enhancements to product usability and sensory perception that will stir up emotional reactions in shoppers related to their needs and desires. 3. Feature Leadership - Deliver cutting-edge and highly innovative solutions, then highlight how the features of your product deliver these benets. 4. Concentrated Application - Design the product to be tailored to the needs and wants of a particular type of customer. Make it the most appropriate option available to them in terms of t and performance. 5. Desirable Alternative - Design the products features and benets within the scope of an existing product category or an established leader therein. This strategy will often work well within sales channels with room for category growth, but will need accompanying strategies to differentiate the product when competition heats up. Selecting a particular strategy, or a combination thereof, involves looking at how you want to position the product in the marketplace and in the shoppers mind. Refer to your products denition and its marketing strategy. This is important because each strategy involves a different set of actions and mindsets. Pursuing multiple strategies isnt necessarily bad, but know that to be excellent in each position will require a considerable amount of time and effort. Just be aware of the following risks: Excessive development time increases the likelihood that the market opportunity will be diminished because of competitive offerings, shorter purchasing windows, and changes in consumer tastes and preferences. Distributing limited time, nancial and human resources to multiple product positions will diminish the overall performance on those characteristics, resulting in mediocrity.

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brand development specialists

A product that attempts multiple positions in the mind, will not effectively stand out for anything in particular and will not draw strong emotional appeal.

What tactics you should employ to meet the unique design strategy chosen, will depend on a second variable: the Design Situation. This indicates the degree of change that the product denition entails.

Design Situation
The four main design situations are: 1. Renovative - Existing products receive minor changes and updates. 2. Adaptive - Existing products are modied in response to technological improvements or changes in the marketplace affecting consumer demand or supply considerations. 3. Evolutionary - New products designed based on existing technology, that deliver similar capabilities and benets as previous or other competitive offerings. 4. Discontinuous - Breakthrough products that differentiate themselves by either applying new technology to existing commercial applications, applying existing technology to new commercial applications, or both.

The Right Strategy

To form an effective design strategy, think rst about how you want your product to be positioned, then look at the degree of change your product is going to exhibit. Each intersection of strategy and situation, calls for a different approach and a variable amount of effort expended. Determine whats best for you needs, solidify the strategy, then communicate it to your development team members and management, so they understand the priorities during the development phase and can make the most appropriate decisions based on rational intuition. This will reduce your development time and minimize any micromanagement.

About Us
Sellion is a brand development company specializing in bringing health, beauty, nutritional, and homeopathic products to market. Our multi-disciplinary team can help you investigate the merits of your concepts, build a business case, create the right design strategy based on your product goals, build a development and testing plan, and guide you through the steps for marketing and distribution across the US retail landscape.

For more information, give us a call at: (401) 294-2660