The PDMA Handbook of New Product Development

24.3. Fundamental Design Strategies

NOTE

Strategy should be considered in terms of how design positions a product and how specific design executions can be used to achieve particular strategies.

A number of useful ways for considering "design strategy" have been presented by people such as Porter (1996), Borja de Mozota (1998), as well as many others. Although there are numerous approaches for characterizing strategy, there are essentially five fundamental "strategies" that may be undertaken in the execution of design in order to move a concern toward its primary mission goal(s). The five fundamental strategies are:

• Cost advantage: Designing products so as to result in a cost advantage. The emphasis is on designing the product in order to minimize component and production costs. Design impact on costs (both product/components and production processes) allows a basic strategy of cost domination to be employed.

• Design eminence: Design that establishes an identifiable and unique product image. The emphasis is on differentiating the product using primarily ergonomics, innovative concepts, and aesthetics that embody both consumers' needs and brand values. Value is added through design elements that enhance product usability as well as perception (e.g., visual, tactile, auditory senses), and evoke emotive reactions to reinforce the product's brand message (for example, high performance, power, sophistication) as well as resonate with target consumer values. A design-eminence strategy ...