Design can help to launch a new brand
If you are late into the market like Swatch, you can use a distinctive design as design can help to launch a new brand with help of design differentiation. Swatch was not the first watch in the world. Nether was it the first fashion watch – Fossil and Guess? Got there before it. If you are not first, you had better be different, and that was what Swatch did. It came up with unique and colorful designs, and that set the Swatch brand apart. There was nothing else that looked like a swatch. That’s power of Design as differentiator and that is the mark of a successful differentiating design – take away the name and the logo and you can still tell what it is, and the same is true for Rolex. Swatch is a brand that was differentiated by design, which helped it to become powerful.
Take a look at Dyson vacuum cleaner if you have not seen one. It can take your breadth away. It looks like one of those killer machines from the closing scenes of the movie Terminator 3. The out of the world design differentiates Dyson. Design made Dyson strong even though Hoover and Electrolux were before it in the vacuum cleaner market. Of course, Dyson’s design extends beyond looks to the way it works. This is another brand that subscribes to the idea that design is not just about how things look but also about the way they work. That’s how design can help to launch a new brand even though you have stiff competition and not new in the business / market.
Hyflux is a water-treatment specialist from Singapore, well known for it’s reclamation and desalination technology. When it ventured into the consumer market with products like the Dragonfly and Gurgle it turned to design to help these brands stand out in a crowded market. The Dragonfly machine draws moisture from the air, then condenses and purifies it to clean drinking water. As this is the next generation product, Hyflux turned to design to make sure that the Dragonfly looked like a next generation product.
Brands that use design as differentiator – A Brand Building Strategy
