A presentation providing insight into how to craft user experience, thereby building brand equity and customer loyalty. Given in Dec 2010, this presentation has examples of powerhouse brands and highlights some of the secrets to their success.
2. Native of Kansas
Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh PA
Mechanical Engineering (2002)
Masters in Product Development (2009)
7 years in engineering design & analysis
4 years in consumer product development
Interested in crafting product experience
Passionate about emotion evoking design
Aaron Pavkov MPD, PE
30. P&G’s design-led recovery
- 5 year rollout plan
- Market value doubled within 3 years to $200B
- Profit doubled and growing at 15%/yr within 6 years
- R&D spending dropped from 4.8% to 3.6% of sales
- Success rate of new-product initiatives increased 5x
“The Design of Business”, Martin, pg103
41. “Rigorous explicit thinking… limits people to conscious
thinking and hence to using just a tiny proportion of the
potential in their minds - like the ice above the water.”
-Bill Moggridge, IDEO Co-Founder
Now, there are a few questions that I’ve been asking for the past three years.
What if people loved MSA SO MUCH that they wore or even made shirts like this!
Wouldn’t it be great if we had solid answers to these questions? Answers that could have a tremendous impact NOT JUST on our bottom line, but on our ability to MAKE CUSTOMERS HAPPY? [break] That was a long, but important introduction. Now let’s get to the heart of this presentation, and that is “creating products people LOVE”.
We’ll look at some examples here of companies that really DO have products people LOVE. They all have very loyal customers who are EXCITED about their brand and products. It’s examples like the ones you’re about to see that the industrial design team is really inspired by. They know the formula for success… Is it magic?
WOW! [pause] Disney captures the imagination of both children and adults like no other company.
Radio Flyer makes riding toys for kids. This photograph of their entrance really captures the essence of what they’re all about. [pause]
A little closer to home, I often drive by these vans. They sell home security products, but why put a picture of a dad and child on the side? Guardian protection services isn’t in the security products business. They’re in the business of SELLING PEACE OF MIND.
[Read quote] The products and companies in the next slides really do design for perception, because they know it resonates with something deep inside their customers.
International Truck. [pause] Amazing design on the inside as well as the outside.
And of course, Harley Davidson -- a company and following like none other. [pause]
OXO is also very inspirational. [pause] They entered a market of $1 potato peelers with one that was $10 and somehow OXO has been a runaway success. WHAT IS IT about these products? How DID they change the value proposition for kitchen tools so dramatically?
And finally, Apple. [pause] Their goal is to make technology more human, more approachable. They invented the mouse. They created the iPod. They introduced touchscreens to the masses. They are a design and innovation powerhouse because THEY GET IT. They ABSOLUTELY make products that people LOVE. And WHAT IS AT THE HEART of Apple?
To quote Steve Jobs…
Those really are great examples… Now, we really wanted to understand what makes these companies “tick”. It’s NOT magic, but what they’re doing so well CAN BE REPEATED, in order to create products that people LOVE. [pause]
[ R E A D ] [pause] But before we unpack the secrets of their success, we need to forget about logical, left-brained thinking for a minute. We are ALL humans, and our customers are ABSOLUTELY human. When talking about products, marketing, or anything for that matter, left-brained thinking only paints HALF of the picture. Really, it’s the right-brained, emotional, visceral, intuitive, gut-level thinking that paints the rest of the picture. All of these companies are inspirational because they really seem to “GET IT”. They understand that customers are looking for something more than just a functional product – they’re looking for SOMETHING DEEPER. Their customers want products that NOT ONLY make logical sense, but the products have to resonate with the OTHER HALF of their brain as well!! In fact, their customers might not even be able to explain it with words or reason, but in their gut they know they just NEED to have it. This is the deeper level. This is where they’ve satisfied both parts of the brain. And when they take it home and it also performs well, these companies have a new believer. And pretty soon they will have a lifelong customer as well. [louder] Really, THAT is what John, Nicole, and I want for MSA. And frankly, our customers deserve no less.
The product alone with some good industrial design can do this to some extent. But today, a focus on products alone is NOT good enough. What about solutions, which was mentioned a couple times in the townhall meeting a month ago? That’s getting closer… The real bullseye here is aiming for experience. It is EXPERIENCES that are [see above]. All of the companies we looked at have created EXPERIENCES surrounding their products that makes people LOVE THEIR BRAND. And you’ll see how that really is our focus in presenting here today. The REAL KEY is the crafting of experiences that not only satisfy, but DELIGHT our customers. And believe it or not, they will LOVE giving us their money in return!!
[ R E A D ] In their book “Built to Love”, Boatwright & Cagan analyzed the stock market performance of high-emotion brands over a 10-year period. These were the Business Week “Top 100 Brands” and “World’s 50 most Innovative Companies”, companies widely recognized as connecting with customers with distinct brands and products. You can see the results here. There are a number of examples of companies that do this really well, so I wanted to share one: Proctor and Gamble
[ R E A D ] In March of 2000 P&G was in trouble because of an “ill-fated” merger with drug companies Warner-Lambert and Wyeth, a friendly takeover offer for Gillette being turned down, and other factors. They warned investors that it would see its first quarterly profit decline in 8 years, and as a result their stock fell 30% in a single day. They were in trouble and knew they had to make some major changes to the way they did business.
[ R E A D ] They brought in a new CEO, A.T. Lafley. He quickly realized that the company was investing more and more money in new products, taking longer between launches, and seeing little traction with customers. The value equation, the value P&G created for customers relative to the cost of creating that value, was very unfavorable. After getting up to speed as the new CEO, he recognized that they could not survive as a premium brand in a commoditized marketplace without creating more value for customers. They had to be more innovative and connect more deeply with customers so the customers would pay a premium for products. They did this through “Design Thinking” – creating an environment of creativity and innovation within all parts of P&G. This wasn’t just in new product development, but it was in all parts of the business. It allowed P&G to restart and fuel its engines into a great recovery Really, this is just is another way to describe what we’re talking about today.
[Read quote] And THAT is the power of design.
Steve Jobs: In most people's vocabularies, design means veneer. It's interior decorating. It's the fabric of the curtains of the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.