Melodies in Marketing

ForestEthics is an organization that promotes using eco-friendly paper sources in marketing catalogs, particularly from large retailers. Their largest coup to date, was the result of protests, newspaper advertisements, a microsite and publicity against Victoria’s Secret, which ended in Dec. 06.

Now they’ve targeted a new retailer: Sears / Land’s End. I applaud their efforts, as I’ve grown to feel sad about all the wasted energy and trees cut from catalogs and direct mail I receive. Being relatively young, it seems strange to think so unsustainably about campaigns where there’s so much waste and low response rates. Yet nonetheless, if it is a viable and healthy medium for particular circumstances, then I strongly encourage that we do less harm in whatever ways we can including using eco-friendly paper and inks.

But should it stop there? How about rethinking about the entire process including mailing list acquisition, maintenance, cleanup, and user unsubscribe options. Regulation is the last thing on my mind, as in William McDonough’s opinion, it implies a failure of design.

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How do you feel about Sustainable Direct Mail? Have you seen great policies and practices in use? Many countries forbid the amount of direct mail Americans receive. What should the future hold for self-regulation? Should the EPA also act a little like the Better Business Bureau?

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A few weeks ago, I came across this traditional method of folding fabric over objects as a form of packaging / bagging known as Furoshiki. While the videos I found were removed (GoogleVideo It!), here’s a picture I’ve found (click for larger image) describing different folding methods. Enjoy!

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Only a day after covering The Hannover Principles, I came across a 2005 TED Talk with William McDonough. Here’s the YouTube video from the event. And here is the original TED page.

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I’ve seen this stubby serif growing up in dozens of places, just like you. Be it the original “Payless Shoes”, pizza parlors, TV shows, and wherever else. This Wikipedia article on the Cooper typeface tells a lot more about its history and use in popular culture. The thinner version of this font is from Bitstream.

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First developed in 1992 by architect William McDonough and German chemist Michael Braungart, the Hannover Principles set out to address our interdependence with nature, and how we can use design to better protect and improve our environment. These guidelines aren’t just meant for industrial designers, engineers, architects and others with a hand in creation or maintenance; they also include you, your organization, your suppliers and customers.

I first came across them through a 6 part audio series called the Monticello Dialogues, where William McDonough is interviewed on the topics of design and sustainability on the Monticello estate, the home of Thomas Jefferson.

Here are the Hannover Principles with additional commentary as interpreted from the interviews:

1. Insist on the Rights of Nature and Humanity to Co-Exist - The conditions for the shared environment of mankind and nature should be healthy, mutually supportive, diverse and sustainable. It is our personal responsibility to be an active participant in the process, and not simply hope someone else is doing/will do something about it. We have to insist on Design to ensure this co-existence is possible.
2. Recognize Interdependence - We are dependent on the natural world to enable our activities. How we interact with it has diverse implications at every scale that in the design process should be considered for the near and long-term.
3. Respect Relationships between Spirit and Matter - Among indigenous people across the world, this is the only principle that matters and which governs our actions. It can be a bit tricky, as certain advances in biochemistry for example have raised ethical questions on man’s meddling with nature.
4. Accept Responsibility for the Consequences of Design - Instead of paying most attention to the Rights of Man, we should be focusing on our Responsibilities. Rights are fuzzy when it comes to where we draw the line between acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Individuals, governments and corporations all interpret rights differently. As a result, laws and regulation have served as a reasonable arbiter. However, the problem of these instruments is that they don’t apply equally to all parties. Responsibility is largely diffused and diminished as we move from the individual to the larger organizational level. The solution is to fix the design so no regulation is needed. This means designing products and processes that can do no harm.
5. Create Safe Objects of Long-Term Value - Don’t burden future generations with maintenance, cleanup, and support activities for objects that present long-term liabilities. Nuclear power is one example.
6. Eliminate the Concept of Waste - We should try and reach toward zero waste, not just being more efficient. Eco-efficiency is a noble goal, sure. You recognize what’s bad, and try to be less bad. But that’s not pushing the envelope far enough. The human capacity for creativity in design has allowed us to reach some previously inconceivable accomplishments. We can do more through a mindset toward eco-effectiveness.
7. Rely on Natural Energy Flows - Like the natural world, human design should look toward the sun as a reliable source of energy. (I’ll expand on this to include the secondary effects of the sun on geophysics, namely hydro and wind energy).
8. Understand the Limitations of Design - Nature is a model and mentor for man, not a force to be sidestepped, controlled, or manipulated. Although design can do wondrous things, all human creations are impermanent, and thus design isn’t a panacea for all problems. Those of us who help develop and plan should practice humility to remind us that we are only human, and there are limitations to what we can do and the to lifespan of our creations.
9. Seek Constant Improvement by the Sharing of Knowledge -Build and encourage open dialogue between yourself and others in establishing a connection between long-term sustainable considerations with ethical responsibility, while promoting the interdependence between nature and human activity.

I really liked what McDonough had to share. If you listen to the dialogue or pick up he and his partner’s book, Cradle to Cradle, they’ll share with you their vision of a future where the byproducts of products and processes are nutritional and helpful. Before I veer into the subjective unknown, here are some links for further information:

Various Writings - Here you’ll find the original Hannover Principles and other works
Cradle to Cradle - The seminal book written six years ago and used as the basis for McDonough’s design consultancy.

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Have you come across any other similar guidelines for sustainable design and development from other individuals or organizations? Please share!

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Continuing on the subject of new product development, today I’ll discuss “Design Strategy”.
This follows the previous phase: “Building the Business Case & Plan”. However, applying these principles can be done anytime during concept development. Ultimately, these design strategies help you build a solid product definition and guide you to focus on what’s important during the development phase.

The Design and Development phase is more than just a different set of likely actions that each product category does differently. At its core lies strategy influencing tactics.

Five primary design strategies include:

1. Cost Advantage - Minimize your component, assembly and production costs.
2. Design Prominence - Focus on aesthetics, ergonomics, packaging, presentation, and innovative materials and concepts to deliver consumer value. This will come in the form of enhancements to product usability and sensory perception that will stir up emotional reactions in shoppers related to their needs and desires.
3. Feature Leadership - Deliver cutting-edge and highly innovative solutions, then highlight how the features of your product deliver these benefits.
4. Concentrated Application - Design the product to be tailored to the needs and wants of a particular type of customer. Make it the most appropriate option available to them in terms of fit and performance.
5. Desirable Alternative - Design the product’s features and benefits within the scope of an existing product category or an established leader therein. This strategy will often work well within sales channels with room for category growth, but will need accompanying strategies to differentiate the product when competition heats up.

Selecting a particular strategy, or a combination thereof, involves looking at how you want to position the product in the marketplace and in the shopper’s mind. Refer to your product’s definition and its marketing strategy. This is important because each strategy involves a different set of actions and mindsets. Pursuing multiple strategies isn’t necessarily bad, but know that to be excellent in each position will require a considerable amount of time and effort. Just be aware of the following risks:

• Excessive development time increases the likelihood that the market opportunity will be diminished because of competitive offerings, shorter purchasing windows, and changes in consumer tastes and preferences.
• Distributing limited time, financial and human resources to multiple product positions will diminish the overall performance on those characteristics, resulting in mediocrity.
• A product that attempts multiple positions in the mind, will not effectively stand out for anything in particular and will not draw strong emotional appeal.

What tactics you should employ to meet the unique design strategy chosen, will depend on a second variable: the Design Situation. This indicates the degree of change that the product definition entails.

The four main design situations are:

1. Renovative - Existing products receive minor changes and updates.
2. Adaptive - Existing products are modified in response to technological improvements or changes in the marketplace affecting consumer demand or supply considerations.
3. Evolutionary - New products designed based on existing technology, that deliver similar capabilities and benefits as previous or other competitive offerings.
4. Discontinuous - Breakthrough products that differentiate themselves by either applying new technology to existing commercial applications, applying existing technology to new commercial applications, or both.

To form an effective design strategy, think first about how you want your product to be positioned, then look at the degree of change your product is going to exhibit. Each intersection of strategy and situation calls for a different approach and a variable amount of effort expended. Determine what’s best for your needs, solidify the strategy, then communicate it to your development team members and management, so they understand the priorities during the development phase and can make the most appropriate decisions based on rational intuition. This will reduce your development time and minimize any micro-management.

For more information on the various phases in NPD, visit the master page on The Stage-Gate Model of New Product Development

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Have you seen alternative principles or approaches to design strategy for product development? Please share!

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[From another blog I write, comes a bit of bit of personal enlightenment I'd like to share]

To truly enjoy the sweetness of life,
Appreciate our true nature:
that we all desire and pursue happiness
while seeking to avoid suffering.
When our minds grasp that reality
in little glimpses or as part of a habit
that we cultivate through practice and awareness,
we’ll recognize the full capacity
of an Open Heart.

One that we can use to express compassion:
for ourselves because this is our life to live and enjoy,
and for others since giving can be fun and
seeing others happy gives great pleasure.

An Open Heart knows no boundaries
it just acts without exception to time, place, or object.
Its strength may be variable
but its intent is unchanging.

To truly love responsibly,
we must be willing to give and receive
without expectation nor envy; like Life,
Love has a fluid state of being.
It is never the same, one moment to the next.
When we recognize this impermanence,
we are able to give more to others and
realize fuller happiness in Life, in addition to
being able to freeing ourselves of any
sadness or discontent when it seems to fade,
or we don’t sense a receipt in kind.

Voltaire once wrote:
“Love is a canvas furnished by nature
and embroidered by imagination” .

Let it be free and enjoy its presence…
in the past,
this living moment,
and what time may come

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Well, just a few days after covering Amazon’s CreateSpace in a previous article, I come to learn about HP’s Print 2.0 strategy first from Drew McLellan’s post. I was pleasantly surprised to see Eric Kintz himself (Vice President of Marketing, Digital Photography and Entertainment for HP), reply to my pondering on fulfillment and channel strategy.
Monsieur Eric, etes vous Francais?

So I did a Google blog search of course to find out more. Here is some additional links for your delightful reading pleasure:
Digital Printing - Basic article from Wikipedia
EWeek article on Print 2.0
Partner Reactions from ChannelWeb
A Perspective from Patrick Scaglia - HP’s CTO for Imaging and Printing

Okay, so printing options are exploding…that’s a given. I see 3 enablers are making this happen: software, lean digital-publishing, and a tight logistics/distribution system.

The big question is on how VARs (value-added resellers) and retailers are going to be reacting in their own regard. Partner with HP, make your own model, or a combination of both? That will depend on the unique business opportunity presented and what other options are available. Wal-Mart i