How can product design improve market competitiveness?
5 min read
Product design is a very important work, and how to use design thinking to enhance the competitiveness of the product in that work is of paramount importance. In the market, we find a lot of moderately priced, good quality or even excellent quality products, but after being put on the market, but not much expected benefits, this is why? In essence, this is a result of the lack of competitiveness of the product reflects.
In the eyes of many business owners or designers, they think that improving the quality of products and reducing manufacturing costs are measures to enhance product competitiveness. These are one of the measures to enhance product competitiveness is not wrong, but it is easy for business owners and designers to enter the misunderstanding, the eyes of a certain limit. Looking around, many of our enterprises are still engaged in some of the products without much value manufacturing, product gross profit is meager, if you only expect to reduce prices or improve quality and other traditional ways to enhance competitiveness, it is likely to be handled poorly in the fierce competition in the market in a disadvantageous position. Product price war strategy is not a long-term solution, in order to make the product prosperous must be product competitiveness analysis, including the analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of competing products, as well as according to customer demand to develop product advantages.
In many materials is this description of product competitiveness: “Product competitiveness refers to the extent to which the product meets the requirements of the market, and this requirement is specifically reflected in the consideration and requirements of consumers for various competitive elements of the product.”
01 Improving product quality and market competitiveness
In today’s competitive market, the professional design of products is receiving more and more attention from enterprises. Professional product design can not only improve the quality of the product, but also greatly improve the sales of the product and customer satisfaction.
For example, for consumers, the design of “beauty” without losing practicality, and can meet the needs and tastes of consumers, such product design is more excellent. Apple’s iPhone, for example, not only has a smooth design, but also its flexible interface design attached to the efficient hardware technology. This has made the iPhone one of the most popular smartphones in the world.
Of course, beyond aesthetics and practicality, professional product design also includes material selection, production process design, and user experience. Companies should look for professional design teams with many years of design experience to provide the best solutions, optimize design solutions and bring products to market in a short time to meet competitive market needs.
Professional product design requires comprehensive consideration of several factors. The first is the aesthetic design of the product, which is part of the product’s look appeal and brand image. The design of the product is related to the shape, color, material, quality, etc., and needs to meet the actual needs of consumers while ensuring quality. Second is the functional utility of the product, mainly focusing on the product’s technical and functional capabilities, which can greatly enhance the user’s experience. There is also the ease of operation and user-friendly design of the product, which includes the layout of the product, the design of the graphical interface, the explanation of attributes, etc.
A successful product design should not only focus on “aesthetics” and “usability”, but also consider the life cycle cost (LCC) to be generated continuously and be very competitive in the sales process. Therefore, while understanding market and user needs, brand awareness and integration costs, the product design team needs to keep up with technological advances and innovations to meet market needs.
02 How does industrial product design achieve market competitiveness?
From a marketing perspective, industrial product design, based on the marketing environment, is used by a company to communicate with the market in order to meet consumer needs and achieve a competitive marketing position.
In order to achieve a competitive market position, industrial product design must be based on an organic combination of marketing and design art, and the company must analyze and identify the work in as differentiated a manner as possible, based on information about the nature and function of the design proposition it is undertaking, the characteristics of the similar competitors it faces, and the nature of the consumer needs it faces.
Industrial product design, in terms of competitive marketing environment, is an important element of a company’s marketing activities, and is a scientifically correct strategic decision based on the competitive market environment in which the company is located. For this reason, the beginning of product design competitiveness should be based on a deep exploration of the competitive market situation in which the company is located, a combination of internal and external environmental factors and forces, and a full grasp of the needs of the target audience in all aspects.
The fierce competitive market environment requires companies to deeply study and analyze the characteristics of similar industry products, and adjust their own design strategies in a timely manner according to the design strategies of their main competitors. This is because industrial product design and development, as an important part of a company’s business strategy, does not only correspond to the needs of consumers for product design and development, but also to the products of similar competitors for design and development. Therefore, the design of product function adjustment and performance improvement according to the product characteristics of competitors is an important condition to give the company market competitiveness.
As an important ability to reflect the market competitiveness of enterprises, the focus of product design competitiveness lies in establishing a clear market positioning. Market positioning is an important marketing concept, for a product design its market positioning is the enterprise according to the target market on the environmental conditions, combined with the internal business environment for the enterprise’s industrial product gui design software to create a clear market, personality, image, functional excellence, stimulate demand, leading the trend of image characteristics. Marketing believes that marketing is consumer-centric, while the foothold of product design is also people-oriented, and the two have something in common.
Therefore, the prerequisite guarantee for product design market positioning lies in in-depth market investigation and research analysis, which mainly involves the market environment, consumer demand, the competitive situation of similar enterprises and similar products in this industry field. The market positioning of industrial product design is, in essence, not only the positioning of the enterprise’s market strategy, but also should be the positioning of the enterprise itself. Only in this way can an enterprise’s product design surpass its existing competitive ability and open up a huge customer base that has not been available before.
