Added Value of Design

Recently FORM + FUNCTION visited the symposium ‘Design as a Value Generator’ at the Designhuis in Eindhoven. Often overlooked, one of design’s great powers is that it adds value to a product, brand and company. This by creating a product that fulfills a user’s (latent) needs, targets business opportunity and utilizes development(s) in technology. Design is the ultimate tool to get a prospective user from – get to know about – to want – to own – and ultimately – to love – a product.

Symposium ‘Design as Value Generator’

‘Design as a Value Generator’ was hosted by red dot and Design Cooperation Brainport and featured 10 red dot award winners from both Germany and the Netherlands. There were many inspirational talks including the one from red dot design award’s founder, professor dr. Peter Zec.

Hosts and Presenters symposium “Design as a value generator” picture: Igor Vermeer | source: red-dot.de

Overall message:

People are willing to spend money on well designed products. Design is more than just a pretty shape, color and/or material. Design put to work strategically, with a well defined (and long term) vision, applied to all facets of a product (not just the product, but also interaction, experience, packaging, branding, sales, marketing, communication, social media) can drive revenues, increase profit and help improve brand love and brand recognition.

Presentations:

• Design Value by professor Dr. Peter Zec, Initiator of the red dot design award and CEO, red dot, Essen.
• High Design by Yasushi Kusume, Head of Brand Design and Creative Direction, Vice President Philips Design, Eindhoven
• Revitalizing business by design by Jos Oberdorf, Partner, npk design bv, Leiden
• Grohe In-house Design Team from “Rational to Emotional” by Marga Figge, Consultant Design Studio, GROHE AG, Düsseldorf
• RESQTEC: differentiating by design by Thomas Paulen, CEO, Van Berlo, Eindhoven
• Key factor design: Mathis Heller, Chief designer of WeLL Design, Professor at SIVA, Fundan University, Shanghai, WeLL Design, Utrecht
• Design and Functionality by Ing. Dick E. Ubbink MScBA, RowAnnex
• Synergy in motion, designing the perfect companion to ultrathin LED TVs by Pim Rosendaal, Product Manager, Vogel’s Products BV
• Design adolescence by Rui Medeiros Santos, Manager Product Development, International Innovation Company BV, Delfgauw
• DESIGNstimulation by Simone Kalz, Product Manager, FUN FACTORY GmbH
• INNOVATION AS KEY BUSINESS DRIVER by Aernout Dijkstra-Hellinga, Creative design director, Bugaboo international BV

Some quotes:

“People are willing to spend (more) money on well designed products”
Peter Zec, CEO red dot

“Companies that are design-led perform better financially”
Peter Zec, CEO red dot

“Good design is a given. Good engineering is a given. Not a lot of companies are good at defining and implementing strategy.”
Jos Oberdorf, Partner, npk design bv, Leiden

“A brand is what people think. A brand is what people find. A brand is a promise. A brand is the most valuable real-estate in the world, a cornerstone in the consumer’s mind.”
Yasushi Kusume, Head of Brand Design and Creative Direction, Vice President Philips Design, Eindhoven

“Philips wants to be a loved brand. A loved brand is all about appearance, engagement and shared values”
Yasushi Kusume, Head of Brand Design and Creative Direction, Vice President Philips Design, Eindhoven

“800% sales increase upon market introduction of redesigned product”
Thomas Paulen, CEO Van Berlo, Eindhoven

“Design is Everything. Everything is Design”
Mathis Heller, Chief designer of WeLL Design, Professor at SIVA, Fundan University, Shanghai, WeLL Design, Utrecht

Design Value: A Strategy for Business Success

Professor dr. Peter Zec, together with Burkhard Jacob, has written a book about design value: “Design Value: A Strategy for Business Success”. Examples and calculations of design value were discussed during Peter Zec’s presentation at the Designhuis in Eindhoven. For both designers and clients it is very interesting to be able to measure the financial impact of design. The book, Design Value: A Strategy for Business Success, is on order and we will write a short book review as soon as we have read it. Below is a brief introduction by the IDSA about the book:

“If you are a designer, you know intuitively that what you do adds value to a company, not cost!

However, because there is no way to quantify design’s value, it has been inaccurately lumped into the cost side of companies financial reporting.

In the 80′s in the UK, the branding consultants WPP group lead by the hard charging Marin Sorrell and Wolff Olins strated to formulate a method to quantify the value of a brand in financial terms so that it could be represented as the asset that it is on the balance sheet.

In this book, Design Value, Peter Zek and Burkhard Jacob have tried to do the same thing for Industrial Design.

This will be a long road to achieve an asset value for design and it is about time that we started doing the hard work to quanitfy it and make it happen.

Read, absorb and join the battle to get board room recognition.”