Designing Visual Recognition for the Brand Toni-Matti Karjalainen and Dirk Snelders The present paper examines how companies strategically employ design to create visual recognition of their brands’ core values. To address this question, an explorative in-depth case study was carried out concerning the strategic design efforts of two companies: Nokia (mobile phones) and Volvo (passenger cars). It was found that these two companies fostered design philosophies that lay out which approach to design and which design features are ex- pressive of the core brand values. The communication of value through design was modeled as a process of semantic transformation. This process specifies how meaning is created by design in a three-way relation among design features, brand values, and the interpretation by a potential customer. By analyzing the design effort of Nokia and Volvo with the help of this model, it is shown that control over the process of semantic transformation enabled managers in both companies to make strategic decisions over the type, strength, and generality of the relation between design features and brand values. Another result is that the embodiment of brand values in a design can be strategically organized around lead products. Such products serve as reference points for what the brand stands for and can be used as such during subsequent new product development (NPD) projects for other products in the brand portfolio. The design philosophy of Nokia was found to depart from that of Volvo. Nokia had a bigger product portfolio and served more market segments. It therefore had to apply its design features more flexibly over its product portfolio, and in many of its designs the relation between design features and brand values was more implicit. Six key drivers for the differences between the two companies were derived from the data. Two external drivers were identified that relate to the product category, and four internal drivers were found to stem from the companies’ past and present brand management strategies. These drivers show that the design of visual recognition for the brand depends on the particular circumstances of the company and that it is tightly connected to strategic decision making on branding. These results are relevant for brand, product, and design managers, because they provide two good examples of companies that have organized their design efforts in such a way that they communicate the core values of their brands. Other companies can learn from these examples by considering why these two companies acted as they did and how their communication goals of product design were aligned to those of brand management. Introduction R ecognition is key in a competitive market. In a situation of high competition, markets are often saturated by a constant flow of signs and messages from numerous brands. As a conse- quence, the creation and management of recognition for the brand becomes a major communication ob- jective. Companies have set out to achieve brand rec- ognition through various means. Product design is among these, and it has been put forward as a main ingredient in fostering a strong visual identity for a brand (Schmitt and Simonson, 1997; Stompff, 2003) and in creating brand value (Borja de Mozota, 2004). There are many examples of companies who have successfully communicated their brand values through product design. The Caterpillar brand, for example, communicates its core brand values of comfort and performance not only through its adver- tising, website, and slogan (‘‘Industry leading com- fort and performance’’) but also in the design of its products. Caterpillar has ensured that its products are comfortable to use. Just as Caterpillar shoes have warm and soft padding on the inside, so the opera- tor cabins of Caterpillar’s trucks and loaders have been fitted with soft interiors and come with noise and dust prevention features. Furthermore, the sturdy color scheme and logo signal that the products perform well in tough situations. These design aspects apply as much to the heavy machines the company produces as to its shoes, which are targeted at the consumer market. Thus, Caterpillar’s core brand values are connected to recognizable and meaningful aspects of its designs. The authors thank Oscar Person, Maria Sa¨a¨ksja¨rvi, and three anonymous reviewers for their comments on earlier versions of this paper. Address correspondence to: Toni-Matti Karjalainen, IDBM Pro- gram, Helsinki School of Economics, P.O. Box 1210 FI-00101, Helsinki, Finland. Tel.: þ 358 50 357 4047. Email: toni-matti.karjalai- nen@hse.fi. J PROD INNOV MANAG 2010;27:6–22 r 2009 Product Development & Management Association
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Designing Visual Recognition for the Brand�
Toni-Matti Karjalainen and Dirk Snelders
The present paper examines how companies strategically employ design to create visual recognition of their brands’
core values. To address this question, an explorative in-depth case study was carried out concerning the strategic
design efforts of two companies: Nokia (mobile phones) and Volvo (passenger cars). It was found that these two
companies fostered design philosophies that lay out which approach to design and which design features are ex-
pressive of the core brand values. The communication of value through design was modeled as a process of semantic
transformation. This process specifies how meaning is created by design in a three-way relation among design
features, brand values, and the interpretation by a potential customer. By analyzing the design effort of Nokia and
Volvo with the help of this model, it is shown that control over the process of semantic transformation enabled
managers in both companies to make strategic decisions over the type, strength, and generality of the relation
between design features and brand values. Another result is that the embodiment of brand values in a design can be
strategically organized around lead products. Such products serve as reference points for what the brand stands for
and can be used as such during subsequent new product development (NPD) projects for other products in the brand
portfolio. The design philosophy of Nokia was found to depart from that of Volvo. Nokia had a bigger product
portfolio and served more market segments. It therefore had to apply its design features more flexibly over its
product portfolio, and in many of its designs the relation between design features and brand values was more implicit.
Six key drivers for the differences between the two companies were derived from the data. Two external drivers were
identified that relate to the product category, and four internal drivers were found to stem from the companies’ past
and present brand management strategies. These drivers show that the design of visual recognition for the brand
depends on the particular circumstances of the company and that it is tightly connected to strategic decision making
on branding. These results are relevant for brand, product, and design managers, because they provide two good
examples of companies that have organized their design efforts in such a way that they communicate the core values
of their brands. Other companies can learn from these examples by considering why these two companies acted as
they did and how their communication goals of product design were aligned to those of brand management.
Introduction
Recognition is key in a competitive market. In
a situation of high competition, markets are
often saturated by a constant flow of signs
and messages from numerous brands. As a conse-
quence, the creation and management of recognition
for the brand becomes a major communication ob-
jective. Companies have set out to achieve brand rec-
ognition through various means. Product design is
among these, and it has been put forward as a main
ingredient in fostering a strong visual identity for a
brand (Schmitt and Simonson, 1997; Stompff, 2003)
and in creating brand value (Borja de Mozota, 2004).
There are many examples of companies who have
successfully communicated their brand values
through product design. The Caterpillar brand, for
example, communicates its core brand values of
comfort and performance not only through its adver-
tising, website, and slogan (‘‘Industry leading com-
fort and performance’’) but also in the design of its
products. Caterpillar has ensured that its products
are comfortable to use. Just as Caterpillar shoes have
warm and soft padding on the inside, so the opera-
tor cabins of Caterpillar’s trucks and loaders have
been fitted with soft interiors and come with noise
and dust prevention features. Furthermore, the sturdy
color scheme and logo signal that the products
perform well in tough situations. These design aspects
apply as much to the heavy machines the company
produces as to its shoes, which are targeted at the
consumer market. Thus, Caterpillar’s core brand
values are connected to recognizable and meaningful
aspects of its designs.
�The authors thank Oscar Person, Maria Saaksjarvi, and threeanonymous reviewers for their comments on earlier versions of thispaper.
Address correspondence to: Toni-Matti Karjalainen, IDBM Pro-gram, Helsinki School of Economics, P.O. Box 1210 FI-00101,Helsinki, Finland. Tel.: þ 358 50 357 4047. Email: [email protected].
J PROD INNOV MANAG 2010;27:6–22r 2009 Product Development & Management Association
to the design philosophy through the design features
they created. In this sense, a design philosophy is al-
ways a project under construction and never a closed
booklet with a set of examples of design features that
designers can copy and paste. As already suggested
by Ravasi and Lojacono (2005), it is important that
design is acknowledged as a driving force in itself,
contributing to strategic renewal of the brand and
corporation, driving brand repositioning and inspir-
ing strategy formulation.
Conclusion
This paper presents two cases of companies that have
strategically employed design to create visual recog-
nition for their brand values. In both cases it was
found that companies took a deliberate and planned
effort to translate the core brand values of the com-
pany to a design philosophy. This philosophy speci-
fied a number of design principles and design features
to be used in the design of the company’s products.
Both companies were found to express their core
brand values through design features, based on a pro-
cess of semantic transformation. Control over this
process enabled managers in both companies to make
strategic decisions over the type (genuine, stringed),
strength (explicit, implicit), and generality (complete,
partial) of the relation between design features and
brand values.
The influence of the design philosophy over the
design of products was found to vary over the com-
pany’s product portfolio. The influence was most
complete for the company’s lead products, which in-
corporated the design features specified in the philos-
ophy to the fullest and thus served as reference points
for what the brand stands for. The design of these lead
products received most attention from design manag-
ers, and they served as examples for later NPD pro-
jects in the company. In this way, the influence of the
design philosophy was felt throughout the company’s
product portfolio.
A between-company analysis of design and brand
portfolio management led to the identification of a
number of factors that drive a company’s strategy for
establishing visual recognition for the brand. The ex-
istence of these drivers implies that there is no simple
recipe for creating visual recognition of the brand.
Instead, the design effort of the two companies for the
creation of visual recognition was based on a contin-
uous renewal of the connection between brand value
and design features. This renewal can sometimes be
revolutionary and highly consistent and sometimes
evolutionary and multifaceted, depending on the type
of company and the market it is serving.
The insights resulting from this analysis can be
used as a basis for further research on the strategic
role that design can play in innovation processes and
NPD. New studies could, for instance, look at com-
panies that do not have such a strong focus on design
as a strategic instrument as Nokia and Volvo. Both
companies originate from the Nordic countries, where
a strong focus of design in industry has a long and
established tradition. Thus, it would be good to con-
sider cases from other regions where a company focus
on design has been lacking or where the role of design
in industry has a different tradition. Additional stud-
ies could also delve more deeply into the precise na-
ture of some of the drivers of design philosophies
discussed here. For example, the driver brand position
describes the relative size of the company in the mar-
ket, which has implications for its leadership in setting
market standards but also for its organizational com-
plexity. These two aspects of brand position could not
be disentangled in the present study: Compared with
Volvo, Nokia was more of a standard setter as well as
a more complex organization. As a result, the effect of
these two factors on the design philosophies of the
companies could be described only in combination
under the more abstract notion of brand position. The
drivers may also be interrelated. For example, the im-
20 J PROD INNOV MANAG2010;27:6–22
T.-M. KARJALAINEN AND D. SNELDERS
portance of brand heritage seemed typical for com-
panies in mature industries. A better understanding of
such relations may lead to a prioritized and more
structured view of the drivers of design philosophies.
Given the limited number of cases in this study, these
issues have not been addressed here.
The focus in this study on the company intended
effects of design on visual recognition has led to three
limitations. First, this study has looked at the inten-
tions of companies to create visual recognition,
whereas, ultimately, recognition of the brand is cre-
ated in the market. The focus in this study has been on
the company, and the assumption has been that the
companies had extensive market data on the basis of
which they formulated their design philosophies.
However, it would be interesting to further explore
the relation between the symbolic meanings that com-
panies bestow on their products through design, and
the meaning that the market attributes to products,
based on the same design. Second, the study looked
only at the visual qualities of design and by doing so
disregarded the other senses. The visual may be dom-
inant in customer recognition, but information from
the other senses (e.g., auditory, tactile, olfactory) may
also play an important role. For example, the atten-
tion Nokia paid to its characteristic ring tone led it to
produce one of the first friendly, nontechnical-sound-
ing ring tones, and as such it is a good example of
Nokia’s human approach to technology. This sug-
gests that semantic transformation of brand values
into design features into brand values might be ex-
tended to other modes of perception. Third, the in-
tended communication of brand value through design
has been studied only with the goal of recognition in
mind. Other goals for design, such as exploration of
and reliance on the product (Krippendorff, 2005)
have been left aside. For example, BMW’s position
as the ultimate driving machine is underscored by its
cars, whose road-handling qualities can be explored
extensively. Such exploration of the product can be
another goal of design through which brand values
can be communicated. A complication arises here,
because it becomes difficult to disentangle the sym-
bolic qualities of design (that communicate brand
value) from the functional qualities (that deliver the
benefits related to the brand value). However, for ex-
actly that reason the communicative role of design at
the stages of exploration and reliance is worth further
investigation.
It should be noted that these conclusions run some-
what counter to the idea of ‘‘design DNA’’ that prac-
titioners in many companies are talking about. The
analogy with DNA suggests that the visual identity of
companies and their brands is inherited and develops
as a matter of course, and it implies that change in the
visual identity comes slowly and over many genera-
tions. The relationship between design and brand
identity that has been found here is one that can be
planned, has to be internalized, and is open to radical
change. The notion of design DNA may also point to
design as an inner strength of the company that keeps
it fit for the market. It was found that design can
sometimes be such a driver, but it is also driven itself
by a host of internal and external factors. It is thus
recommended that design becomes a less primal and
more self-reflective strategic force in a company,
working together with corporate, technological, and
commercial strategic forces.
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