Nivel de abstracción

‘In too many instances, I’ve seen a corporate executive abandon

strategy and research because they just didn’t like a colour, or a

shape, or a material, or a typeface. They just don’t like what the

thing looks like, or behaves like, regardless of the process and

research that helped achieve it.’

Paula Scher, Pentagram, New York

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Conducting primary market research

Conducting primary market research can be an effective way of gathering intelligence about the likes and dislikes of the target market. Care needs to be taken when creating a questionnaire so as not to introduce biases or lead the respondents into giving particular answers. Here are some tips on how to do it:

1 The resulting information is only as good as the market research sample. Select a sample group that is representative of your core target population. 2 Design the questionnaire carefully to ensure that it is particularly focused on the

information that you need to know, and that the questions do not offend anyone or make them feel uncomfortable.

3 Keep your questionnaire fairly short, as people may not be willing to spend time on completing long forms.

4 Provide some opportunity for detailed answers to be provided so that those people who want to elaborate can do so. Written comments can prove to be some of the most valuable information of all.

5 Determine what your market research recording techniques are. The purpose of market research is to gather and analyse the data, so an appropriate system of recording the data obtained needs to be worked out in advance.

6 Set the criteria for the target consumer beforehand, so that the researcher knows when to stop or redirect the process when it becomes clear that the interviewee may not be a suitable candidate. For research to be meaningful, you will need to determine how many respondents are required for this to be the case.

7 Do not write leading questions, as this will introduce bias into the results by pushing a respondent to answer in a certain way.

8 Use a mixture of open and closed questions. Closed questions are better for fi nding out quantitative information. For example, the question ‘Was the last holiday you took abroad?’ is closed, as it can only be responded to with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer. Open questions, on the other hand, can obtain more qualitative information; for example, ‘Where did you last go on holiday?’.

9 Make sure that the questions make sense. For example, asking ‘Was the last holiday you took abroad or within your home country?’ as a closed question with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer is confusing, as it will not be immediately clear what a respondent will be answering ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to.

10 Ask existing customers for their thoughts by providing them with a suggestion card or feedback form.

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< The design process Market research Concept generation >

The fi nal designs for the three fl avours are packaged in bespoke natural glass bottles, aimed at the female health-conscious market. The graphic device on the front is evocative of Eastern notions of balance and conveys a sense of health.

Koji

Shown on this spread is design development for a new brand of soft drink to be launched in the UK by Reach Design. An important part of the market research involved asking a series of questions to establish the positioning of the brand. These questions, shown opposite, establish a series of key infl uencers that can be used in the design process. These questions not only place the new brand in a tangible position, but they also act as a reference point to its competitors. It is equally useful and valid to have a clear understanding of what the brand isn’t, as well as of what the brand is. The information gathered here can be used to start initial creative concepts (three routes are shown on the facing page) developed in response to the brief.

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What kind of look and feel should it have? The position selected was for calm, fresh, balanced, and old but new, on a scale of traditional versus contemporary. Traditional Novice Fragrance Contemporary Expert

Pure and natural

What is likely to be most engaging to our target audience? Naturally elegant and healthy on a scale of novice versus expert.

Who will be its main competition? Water, fl avoured water and diet coke on a scale of fragrance versus pure and natural.

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A starting point

Designers will draw from several different references as they start to generate design concepts. These can range from a typical consumer profi le that may have been developed during the research stage, to a mood board that is a collection of stimuli such as images, phrases, colours and other visual devices that convey a particular mood, to historical and cultural references.

This is the part of the design process where creativity is unleashed as the designer seeks to generate concepts that will subsequently be worked up and resolved during later stages of the process. This stage concerns the potential ideas rather than the vocabulary of the design. The creative effort of the concept generation stage is directed towards the specifi c end that is established in the design brief, and is informed by the qualitative and quantitative information produced during the research stage. As such, a designer needs to refer back to the brief and the ‘four Ws’ of who, what, why and where (which were discussed on page 56).

The concept should provide a solution that covers each of these rather than getting bogged down in the detail of graphic tinkering. Ideas need to be tested against the criteria established in the brief to see whether they are relevant and to ensure that they answer all aspects of the problem. Idea generation by its very nature often results from being inspired by something that pops up unexpectedly. This chimerical aspect of the design process is often called the ‘creative spark’.

While such spontaneous inspiration undoubtedly plays a role, it is not the overriding aspect, as the design process is typically a formal one within which ideas are often born from progressing through a series of steps or a methodology that has been proven to generate results. Researching a problem, sketching ideas, the use of lateral thinking and the application of different problem- solving techniques can all be used to generate potentially workable solutions to the design brief.

In order to be inspired to produce great work, some designers seek to immerse themselves in the world of the product they are creating for. For example, in order to design packaging for coffee, a designer could visit a coffee house and be a coffee barrister for a day, or visit a coffee roaster or even a coffee plantation in order to get a deeper understanding and better conception of all aspects of the brand and its production. The sounds, smells, feelings and other intangible aspects that surround a product can be as important as the more formal aspects when generating a design solution.