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Product Shape as a Design Innovation Strategy
Author(s) -
Berkowitz Marvin
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
journal of product innovation management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.646
H-Index - 144
eISSN - 1540-5885
pISSN - 0737-6782
DOI - 10.1111/1540-5885.440274
Subject(s) - marketing , product (mathematics) , product proliferation , product design , dimension (graph theory) , computer science , market segmentation , investment (military) , new product development , competitive advantage , product innovation , business , industrial organization , product management , mathematics , geometry , politics , political science , pure mathematics , law
Product design has become an effective competitive tool in the hands of a number of companies. Marvin Berkowitz discusses the impact of design variations on a proven winner in the marketplace. This article discusses the use of product shape as an element of innovation strategy in food processing. Can this particular design dimension be used to achieve differentiation from competitive products? The article explores how one company is attempting to capitalize on consumer trends for fitness and nutrition by designing its products with natural looking shapes. The research more generally probes how easy to spot design cues, like shape, are used by consumers to infer more important, but less readily accessible attributes like taste, softness, comfort and speed. Good design not only adds sales appeal, but encourages trading up, provides a basis for market segmentation, and for building a larger line from the same engineering investment.