Posts Tagged ‘co-creation’

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DeeDee Gordon on Co-Creation in Design

Thursday, June 28th, 2012

On June 24th, DeeDee spoke at the 2012 Dieline Package Design Conference about a topic near and dear to our hearts—co-creation with consumers.

What is co-creation?

We define co-creation as the process in which consumers and experts collaborate in a meaningful way with brands and product developers. At Sterling, we believe that co-creation is about establishing an open transmission of ideas, and an honest exchange between a brand, our team, category and topic experts, and consumers. The result? Big, actionable ideas that resonate with consumers and address specific needs and motivations.

Why is co-creation so important in design?

While we believe co-creation is appropriate for any branding challenge that involves a human being as the end user, we’ve seen a growing need for co-creation specifically in package and structure design. This is due to the evolution of today’s consumers to become increasingly conscious of design, and as demanding about the presentation of a product as they are about the product itself.

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Today’s consumers are inundated with beautiful design across all categories. They have come to expect nothing but the best when it comes to design.

The package is very often the first touchpoint of a brand with which a consumer interacts. To this end, it’s incredibly important that structure and package design speaks to consumers, piques their interest, and encourages trial and usage. Co-creation helps us to ensure that it does.

Co-creating with the-Collaboratory:

In almost all of our work with clients, we engage the-Collaboratory, our proprietary database of brand enthusiasts from around the world, to gather insights and to work with us to develop new products, services, and designs. We seed hypotheses into the-Collaboratory and then we receive feedback, builds, and even blue-sky ideas in response.

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Sterling’s co-creation process involves a number of unique inputs and an open feedback loop with consumers and experts.

Keeping this feedback loop open with consumers is incredibly important and a task that we put a great deal of time and energy into. To this end, DeeDee rounded out her presentation at the Dieline Conference with some design assertions that we’ve heard first-hand from members of the-Collaboratory. What entices consumers? Gets them excited to try a new product? Keeps them coming back for more?  Here are some thoughts, straight from the mouths of members of the-Collaboratory:

Refined Simplicity

“Excess is out. I want understated, clean designs that let the product shine.“

Some examples:

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Unico Musk perfume designed by Lavernia and Cienfuegos; Voda Vodka designed by Mass Design; Sifteo Cubes designed by New Deal Design

Global Influence

“I see inspiration from around the globe in everything I do. Packaging should be no different.”

Some examples:

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Taiwan Centennial Blessing Tea designed by Bonho Inc.; Brickhouse Soaps designed by The Soap and Paper Factory; Ojon Hair Oil designed by designpackaging

Craftsmanship

“Hand-crafted packaging and structure is a key indicator of a high quality product…and I’m not one to settle.”

Some examples:

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Bar Gelato by Naia, designed by Mette Hornung Rankin of Bureau of Betterment; Wahl’sche Schnapsbirne by Stahlemuhle

Tactile Curiosity

“There’s something about haptic packaging. If it makes me want to touch it, I’ll likely also want to buy it.”

Some examples:

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Coop’s Hot Fudge designed by Marc Cooper; Seedbom by Kabloom, handmade in the UK; Ten over Six Unisex Perfumes designed by Henrik Vibskov

Sustainability and Substance

“These days, I want a package that’s more than just green. It needs to stand for something.”

Some examples:

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Boxed Water designed by Kevin Hockin and Benjamin Gott; Guactruck Mobile Eatery packaging is designed by Michealle Lee (owner of the truck) and encourages consumers to bring their packaging back in order to receive a free meal; The Replenish cleaner bottle reduces materials usage by 90%, designed by Jason Foster

Display-Worthy Design Objects

“I try to surround myself with beautiful design objects. Why should packaging and structure be any different?”

Some examples:

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Evian by Jean Paul Gaultier; 21 Drops designed by Purpose-Built; Lov Organic tea

Mobile Life

“Everything in my life is mobile. I expect packaging to follow suit. I want streamlined, portable options.”

Some examples:

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Help Remedies designed by; GoGo Squeez Applesauce designed by Menage a Trios; Loffle Mich designed by Createam

What does this mean for brands?

In today’s environment, brands must do more to surprise and delight consumers. At Sterling, we believe that co-creation is one important way to do this.

As brand practitioners, we must not only listen to consumers, but also engage them in the creation process. We believe that the best packaging of the future, won’t just be designed for the consumer, it will be designed with the consumer.

DeeDee Gordon, President of Innovation at Sterling

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Check back in for Full coverage of the concurrent, HOW Design Live Conference from the expert lens of Debbie Millman-Coming Soon!

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Sterling Buzz…

Wednesday, March 28th, 2012

Our head of Innovation, DeeDee Gordon, gets profiled on GraphicDesign.com.

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“ The-Collaboratory is a key element of how we approach innovation at Sterling. 
We believe in innovating in the context of the culture. We look at each innovation challenge as it exists within todayĘĽs society and all of the things going on in the world that are impacting the specific opportunity—the brandĘĽs truths and business objectives, macro trends, category trends, marketplace dynamics, consumer expectations and needs, etc. 
We use the-Collaboratory to co-create with consumers and develop new products, services, and experiences that truly resonate with a given audience. It provides a constant feedback loop for our own work as well as for the work of our clients, and this direct link to consumers is truly priceless.”

Read on to see how Sterling’s The-Collaboratory, our unique innovation co-creation tool has been redesigned for maximum results, and to learn everything you wanted to know about DeeDee…

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Our Big Brand Questions for 2012

Friday, January 6th, 2012

As we all settle back into our work routine at the start of yet another New Year, it seemed like a really appropriate time to reflect back on the dominant themes we heard from the marketplace throughout 2011.

This is not intended to be a list of every brand question out there – more a selection of the most interesting, relevant and even provocative questions that every brand should be thinking about right now.

So in no particular order of importance, here goes:

1.) What is your point of view about the consumer’s appetite for spending in your category in 2012? Are you still in recession mode? Are you taking note of all the latest indicators? Without a point of view, there is no point.

2.) What lessons can the rest of us learn from the surging success of the leading technology brands? And can some of their success factors be applied to your brand?

3.) Given the generally stagnant overall marketplace, growth in 2012 will likely be achieved by winning share. So, if you are to win share, then who is going to lose?

4.) How much should you commit your brand to Facebook, not just in dollar terms but in overall exposure? Is Google + a better bet? Remember what happened to Myspace and they were also seen as indomitable at one time!!

5.) The innovators in the marketplace are talking about new concepts such as “brands of meaning” and “brand generosity”. Where do you stand on these and other emerging ideas? Are they a part of your brand chatter?

6.) Should your brand be doing more to help the national unemployment phenomenon (see Starbucks for inspiration)? With an election year government, shouldn’t this be a time for brands to stand up and be counted?

7.) With data equity becoming as important as brand equity, how good is the data used to make decisions on your brand? Do you really have the best data? And more importantly, do you have the best data decoders? If not, you’re missing out.

8.) What would you do with your brand if you weren’t afraid? Or put another way, If it was your company, what would you be recommending for the way forward? And what would you retain, gain and lose from your current strategy?

9.) Really, how different is your brand vs the competition, and more importantly, how relevant and meaningful is that difference to consumers? Is this the time to be finding the new white space?

10.) For the past 5 years, Steve Jobs and Apple have been the primary point of inspiration for all of us  - will that change now? And if so, which brand takes on that role for you for that daily dose of inspiration?

11.) How unadulterated is the feedback you get from your team? Is it cleansed and filtered? Do you see the whole research report or just the executive summary? And if so, is there a risk that many of your brand decisions could be sub-optimal?

12.) Are you really partnering with consumers to build your brand or is co-creation still a question mark in your mind? Are you the barrier to progress in this area? And what will it take to get you to put your toe in the water?

In summary, I suspect that these questions will resonate with some of you and for others they’ll read like gobbledygook. And that’s fine as well. But please remember that we’re out in the marketplace almost every day of the year working with clients and these twelve topics are just some of the consistent themes and discussions that we’ve heard and if nothing else, aren’t we nice people to just want to share them!

Happy new year to you all.

Simon Williams

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