Publisher Larry H. HofferIndustrial Designers Societyof America (IDSA)45195 Business Ct., 250Dulles, VA 20166P: 703.707.6000F: 703.787.8501innovation@idsa.orgwww.innovationjournal.org

Advisory CouncilChris Conley, IDSAStu Constantine, IDSAJulie Heard, IDSAErin Koch, IDSAScott Lehman, IDSAThomas Lockwood, IDSACarrie Russell, IDSACraig Vogel, FIDSAArthur Wu, IDSA

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Contributing EditorsLydia BjornlundJennifer Evans Yankopolus

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QUARTERLY OF THE INDUSTRIAL DESIGNERS SOCIETY OF AMERICA WINTER 2009

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The quarterly publication of the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA), Innovation provides in-depth coverageof design issues and long-term trends while communicating the value of design to business and society at large.

GLOBAL DESIGN

22 Global EnergiesBy Gregg Davis, IDSA

24 Going Truly LocalBrand Loyalty in a Global EconomyBy Joseph Jasinski, IDSA, and Rajib Adhikary, IDSA

29 Different Global Paths to CreativityBy Lorraine Justice, FIDSA

32 Dialogue Through DesignBy Kara Pecknold

36 Right Now!The View From ChileBy Rodrigo Alonso Schramm

40 Memo from 2015What the Future Wants from IDBy Valerie Jacobs

FEATURES

15 The Upside of DownKeeping the Spirit of Innovation Alive in a Challenging EconomyBy Verena Kloos

18 Is It Legal? Can You Stop It?Virtual Design TheftBy Robert S. Katz and Daniel G. Cardy

44 The 100% Relevant ApproachFrom Product Thinking to Experience ThinkingBy Stéphane Gauthier

48 The Form of ExpressionZoybarBy Ziv Bar Ilan

52 All’s Fair in Housewares & WarBy Marianne Grisdale, IDSA

IN EVERY ISSUE

4 From the Executive DirectorBy Clive Roux, IDSA

6 Patrons of Industrial Design Excellence

7 A Look BackBy Carroll Gantz, FIDSA

13 Book ReviewBy Mark Dziersk, FIDSA

52 Open Call: Housewares

64 This Is a Design ChallengeBy Budd Steinhilber, FIDSA

ADVERTISERS’ INDEX

Cover photo: Solus Photography/Veer.

Innovation is the quarterly journal of the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA), the profession-al organization serving the needs of US industrial designers. Reproduction in whole or in part—in anyform—without the written permission of the publisher is prohibited.

The opinions expressed in the bylined articles are those of the writers and not necessarily thoseof IDSA. IDSA reserves the right to decline any advertisement that is contrary to the mission, goals andguiding principles of the Society. The appearance of an ad does not constitute an endorsement byIDSA. All design and photo credits are listed as provided by the submitter. Innovation is printed onrecycled paper with soy-based inks. The use of IDSA and FIDSA after a name is a registered collec-tive membership mark.

Innovation (ISSN No. 0731-2334 and USPS No. 0016-067) is published quarterly by the IndustrialDesigners Society of America (IDSA)/Innovation, 45195 Business Ct., Suite 250, Dulles, VA 20166.Periodical postage at Sterling, VA 20164 and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Sendaddress changes to IDSA/Innovation, 45195 Business Ct., Suite 250, Dulles, VA 20166, USA.

©2009 Industrial Designers Society of America. Vol. 28, No. 4, 2009; Library of CongressCatalog No. 82-640971; ISSN No. 0731-2334; USPS 0016-067.

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Left: Fruit bar LOOP by SIGNCE, see Housewares Showcase starting on page 52.

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Brand Loyalty in a Global Economy

GOING TRULY LOCAL

By Joseph Jasinski, IDSA and Rajib Adhikary, IDSAJoseph_Jasinski@Dell.com n Rajib_Adhikary@Dell.com

As senior industrial design manager, Joe Jasinski leads Dell’s Experience Design Group in developing industrialdesign for Dell business desktops, notebooks and peripherals, including the color, material and finishes teamfor consumer and business client products. Rajib Adhikary is a design strategist for the Dell Experience DesignGroup in Austin, TX, where his initiatives include emerging market design, process design and green design.

© Gina Smith/iStockphoto

These women’s hands and arms, decorated as richly as a brocaded robe, offer us a metaphor of the Indian culture’s vibrant personality. Could we imag-ine this level of color and decoration in Scandinavia? Understanding the nuances of history and nature that underlie a society’s unique expression is thekey to unlocking the growth markets we need to design for. The world’s vastly different cultures are deeply rooted: It is up to us to adapt to them to catchthe opportunities they offer, not the reverse.

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Unfortunately, while talking about the nexus between localand global—or “glocal”—imperatives, Western businesshas barely shaken off the mantle of colonial power. Westernbusinesses translate text, abide by local laws, hire trans-lators and proceed with business as usual in terms ofproduct positioning, distribution channels, marketingcampaigns and hiring practices. Some designs will adaptto size variations and color preferences. It rarely goesmuch deeper. This is a shame because delving deeper iswhere the opportunity lies.

Global business is in fact defined by cultural diversity.When businesses ignore the local context, failure follows. Ifyou peddle a product designed for North America in Indiaor Thailand or Malaysia, you might succeed briefly becauseyour product is the first to meet a need and faces no localcompetition. But to ensure enduring penetration and domi-nance in these markets, you have to adapt your approach.As indigenous competitors emerge, you have to integrateyour brand and your approach into the weft and weave of

a nation and its cultures to earn the loyalty of local con-sumers. Unless you have a unique brand whose caché is itsWestern source—like a Lamborghini or a Patek Philippewatch—you cannot succeed by simply presuming that yourproduct can be adapted for another culture.

We found the proof of this thesis when we looked atthe economic furnace for growth that is India today throughthe lens of our different experiences: one of us was raised inthe United States and the other in India. We asked our-selves, what fuel would India respond to? Were commonUS business practices aligned to deliver this fuel?

While a superficial response to foreign opportunities wasthe common route, we found a few noteworthy exceptions.In each case, success hinged on a company’s ability to adaptto the local scenario in terms of needs, desires, antipathies,politics, religion, priorities and perhaps especially, economics.Success happened when adaptation to local circumstancesran so deeply that it resulted in the local market’s adoption—a perceived or real ownership—of the brand.

How does design find the “sweet spot” for mass appeal across many cultures and subgroups?

The answer is simple: it does not, it must not, it cannot and it should not. Appealing across

cultures and subgroups—without integrating comprehensive consideration for local circum-

stances and the opportunities and challenges they offer—is like climbing Mount Everest: heavy work sur-

rounded by risk. Yet the peak beckons. Today’s major growth opportunities lie in culturally diverse regions

where more than 4,500 years of civilization underpin worldviews and expectations that are dramatically dif-

ferent from those of Western cultures.

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Lessons Learned in theAutomotive IndustryThirty years ago, to most Westernautomakers, India looked like a bigmarket with little potential for profit.There appeared to be no need ordemand for cars in India. Most ofthe population lacked the resourcesto support a car. Only a very fewelite Indians could afford to own andmaintain a car.

As Western automakers passed on the Indian market,Suzuki of Japan saw opportunity. In 1981, Suzuki trans-formed the Indian automotive industry with the Maruti.Suzuki succeeded because it was the first to provide massappeal, showing that the average Indian could afford anappealing, reliable car. With the Maruti, Suzuki demon-strated a profound respect for the Indian economy and itspopulation’s potential for upward mobility. Suzuki alsorecognized that its car could play a role in powering thatmobility. By providing access to even humble people,Suzuki won the heart of India. Suzuki’s reward? It has beena market leader in India ever since. Today, Maruti Suzuki isone of India’s leading automobile manufacturers and themarket leader in the car segment, both in terms of volumeof vehicles sold and revenue earned.

The 1984 marriage between Hero Cycles and HondaMotors was another milestone in Indian business anddesign history. Several years prior, the outsider—Honda—came in to sell two-wheelers. But Indians weren’t buyingHonda’s product, even though it was of higher quality thanlocal options. Honda lacked a deep knowledge of the Indianmarket, so it struggled to build a distribution network todisplace local suppliers. The local channels and outletswere highly personal and relationship-based. Meanwhile,Hero, an Indian manufacturer, lacked expertise in thefour-stroke engine technology that was needed for fuel effi-ciency, a highly desirable characteristic for motorcycles inthis market.

Honda and Hero both realized they could grow bymerging their capabilities, offering the benefit of foreigntechnology through established indigenous channels. Thebasis for the company’s growth lies in its commitment to thetwo advantages gained by its merger: high mileage and a

strong sales and service networkcomprised of dealerships, serviceand spare parts providers, andauthorized representatives locatedthroughout the country.

Coca-Cola and McDonald’sTranslated There may be nothing so Americanas Coca-Cola, but starting in 1949,that company translated its product

so successfully into the Indian culture that it has becomethe default preference for soft drinks among Indians. Coca-Cola’s success is due not just to the product itself. A localcompetitor could have knocked off the flavor of Coca-Colawell enough to undermine the name-brand’s advantage.Rather, Coca-Cola’s success is the result of a campaign ofcultural infiltration, as it were. In addition to unboundedadvertising campaigns reaching all strata of society, Coca-Cola invested heavily in sponsoring cricket matches, politi-cal gatherings, movies and other large events. Its campaignalso included smaller but equally powerful programs suchas painting village walls and including its logo on matchboxpackaging. By targeting its message to what Indians careabout and by helping Indians celebrate and play andstrengthen their institutions, Coca-Cola has becomeomnipresent, so much so that many Indians considerCoca-Cola to be owned by Indians!

McDonald’s dove still deeper. In 1996, the firstMcDonald’s restaurant opened in India. McDonald’s India, ajoint-venture company managed by two Indians, adheres tothe McDonald’s brand in every detail. Rather than trying topeddle hamburgers in a vegetarian world, however,McDonald’s rewrote itself to offer McCurry Pan, Paneer-Salsawrap, McAloo Tikki Burger, McRice and the Maharaja Mac.But these are not merely culturally adapted sales techniques.India is the first country in which McDonald’s does not offerany pork or beef products. McDonald’s also reengineered itsoperations to address the special requirements of vegetari-ans, ensuring that vegetarian and non-vegetarian food prod-ucts are separated throughout the various stages of procure-ment, cooking and serving—so much so that the mayon-naise and soft-serve are also 100 percent vegetarian.

Further care is taken to build connections within India. The

GLOBAL DESIGN

Honda may have come in with a superior motorcycle, but India’s highly personal and relationship-baseddistribution channels were loyal to Honda’s Indian competitor, Hero. Yet Hero couldn’t deliver the much-prized fuel efficiency offered by Honda’s four-stroke engine technology. Solution? Merger. Honda won anew market through relevance and Hero locked in its dominance with the best value.

foodstuffs themselves are locally sourced with lettuce fromPune, cheese from Dynamix Dairies in Baramati and buns fromMrs. Bestor Foods of Phillaur. McDonald’s India also intro-duced the concept of Litter Patrols, groups of employees whopick up trash in the neighborhood of the restaurant, whether ornot the litter came from a McDonald’s customer.

Such dedication to the community has fueled Indians’loyalty to Coca-Cola and McDonald’s, spurring the compa-nies’ continued growth. Does design fit in this picture? Candesign contribute to earning this level of brand dedication?Yes and yes. Designers can express the local dimensionand its business implications, helping bring forward ele-ments that might be overlooked. By informing and shapingbrand strategy and by leveraging design empathy andproblem solving, a designer helps to interpret the localscene and express it in locally relevant services, shapes,colors, messages, scale and materials.

Learning Lessons from Challenges The history of new market penetration includes far more fail-ures than successes. In the People’s Republic of China, Coca-Cola did an excellent job of reading the tea leaves to identifysuitable markets. It recognized the value of investing in China’ssecond- and third-tier cities and health-conscious 20-to-30year olds. But when Coca-Cola sought to expand by pur-chasing the Chinese juice company Huiyuan, it ran into a wall.The cultural misstep lay in the economic outlook of govern-ment (China) versus that of a multinational company (Coca-Cola). Coca-Cola failed because it did not recognize the basisfor China’s policy regarding foreign acquisitions. According tochinalawblog.com, Chinese law allows foreign companies topurchase small or struggling companies, but only “non-major-ity interests in strong, successful Chinese companies,” and

I N N O VAT I O N W I N T E R 2 0 0 9 27

only these “if there is some added benefit, such as transfer oftechnology, advanced management or access to foreign mar-kets.” China’s commerce ministry was concerned that Coca-Cola would set up exclusive terms to restrict competition inthe juice market, drive up the consumer prices and squeezeout smaller beverage makers. In short, the deal may haveoffered a range of economic benefits to China, but not in theterms valued by the Chinese government.

As in this case, language and cultural assumptions cancloud the understanding of legal and economic principles,but sometimes the obstacles are much more straightforward.Prices that are out of line with the economic reality of con-sumers can hinder the adoption of even the most covetedbrands. Consider the iPod Mini’s introduction to India inAugust 2004. According to a February 10, 2009, report inIndia’s leading newspaper, The Hindu, the country’s per capi-ta income was Rs.18,885 in 2002–03, or roughly US$400 at2009 exchange rates. Now place the iPod in this context:According to the blog dancewithshadows.com, when it wasintroduced, the iPod Mini cost Rs.20,500 (about US$425) inIndia—a year’s average income! Roughly 40 percent of thiscost was excise tax. Dancewithshadows also reported thatiPod accessories were priced too high for the Indian market,writing that an armband used to bind the iPod to one’s wristcost Rs.2000—US$42 now. As the bloggers report, “many inIndia would go for indigenous, ingenious options,” whichwould cost far less.

Clearly, iPods have overcome the economic obstaclebut only with the help of India’s growing economy. Apple’scompelling design story still needed to become available toIndia’s growing consumer base through price reductions,substantial annual income increases and a gray market thateliminates the effect of the excise tax.

When McDonald’s opened in India as a joint venture managed byIndians, it understood the religious and cultural values of the countryand fully committed itself to participating in that community. TheIndian menu isn’t just cute MickeyD branding, but truly vegetarian,offering no pork or beef and completely segregating vegetarian andnon-vegetarian products during food preparation. In fact, the com-pany sources all foodstuffs locally, even enhancing the neighbor-hoods of the restaurants by cleaning up litter.

Building Brand Loyalty from the Ground UpFor glocal businesses, enduring success comes from usinglocal employees and suppliers, respecting local mores,understanding local politics and hierarchies, and approach-ing the nation’s people and institutions as partners. Many ofthe hurdles facing businesses breaking into new marketsdo not traditionally reside in the design brief, but designclearly needs to play a more critical role if these busi-nesses are to succeed.

At a time when growth no longer lies in Westerneconomies, designers have an opportunity to grow in lead-ership and value by using tools to access and appeal todiverse cultures. And that’s the elephant in the room:designers—from both the East and the West—continue tobe rooted in and inspired by the Modernists’ view of theperfect object. We do not propose that Modernist principlesare wrong, but their precepts—which grew out of three cen-turies of Western civilization—are shaping design educationaround the world, with immense and lasting impact.Industrial designers of today are perpetuating the syndromeof designing to Western standards even as the future ofbusiness success lies in non-Western markets.

We have the basis of a toolkit. Designers can leverage thetools that we have fine-tuned to extract the not-so-obviouslocal information that is needed to make the product designobvious in its relevance to individual pockets of the globe. Wecan use what we have learned about market research and tai-loring products to desired consumers to engage deeply themarkets we want to serve, removing barriers and avoiding pre-assumed inhibitors. We have to erase the tapes runningthrough our heads that tell us what to expect. We have toopen our minds and extract the rich findings that need toinfuse our products for a specific audience.

Designers can help our brands integrate with the weftand weave of a nation and its people. The outcome is cus-tomer loyalty. We succeed when this loyalty is strong enoughto fight off the competitors that follow us into the market,indigenous and otherwise. But to build design’s capacity asan engine of relevant experiences that enhance the nationswe enter, both companies and the designers they employneed to respect, adopt and celebrate local ways. n

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Keys to SuccessAs businesses move into the local context, successdepends on keeping the following premises in mind.

n Assumptions and generalizations are dangerous.Business success requires removing the specta-cles of Western law, business, relationships, eco-nomic priorities and culture.

n Design is about differentiation. Ignoring the powerof the local context to inspire value-added differen-tiation denies the essence of the design profes-sion’s contribution.

n It may be cheaper in the short term to take a “massappeal” approach, but this is poison over the longterm. A company that simply exports what worksin the US will lose to a local company that can offeran option better tailored to the market’s culture andvalues.

n Designers are the voice of cultural diversity. We arethe link between business and consumers. To ful-fill this role, we have to present product manifesta-tions—not features—and ensure that these mani-festations link to dinner-table conversations.

n Observations from one or two trips to somewhereare not enough to inform product adaptations. Agroup of designers visiting a country for a week ortwo will not have profound insights. Just becausedesigners are amazed at what they learned abouta culture doesn’t mean those are the things thatwill make or break lasting penetration of a market.We have to dig deep into the cultures of a poten-tial market—to smell, taste, listen, look and feel.

n Regardless of the potential market, we have todesign within the global contexts of finance, trade,diplomacy and demographics.

GLOBAL DESIGN

Web Sites and References“An Average Indian’s Income Moves Up,” The Hindu, Feb. 19, 2009, www.thehindu.com/2009/02/10/stories/2009021060451600.htm.David Barboza, “China Blocks Coke’s Bid for Juice Maker,” The New York Times, Mar. 18, 2009, www.nytimes.com/2009/03/19/business/worldbusiness/19coke.html?scp=6&sq=

david%20barboza%20march%202009&st=cse.Coca-Cola India, www.coca-colaindia.com.Dancewithshadows.com, “Let’s Get Rocked!” www.dancewithshadows.com/ipod_mini_india.asp.Hero Honda Motors Ltd., www.iloveindia.com/bikes/hero-honda/index.html.Maruti Suzuki, www.marutisuzuki.com.McDonald’s India, www.mcdonaldsindia.com/McDonaldsinIndia.pdf.Shaun Rein, “What Coca-Cola Did Wrong, And Right, in China,” Forbes.com, March 24, 2009, www.forbes.com/2009/03/24/coca-cola-china-leadership-citizenship-huiyuan.html.