Martin Ondra, David Škaroupka and Jan Rajlich
This paper aims to study the appearance of drills from one brand by using currently available design tools. It aims to find and discuss the relationship between appearance…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to study the appearance of drills from one brand by using currently available design tools. It aims to find and discuss the relationship between appearance innovation and maintaining key design features.
Design/methodology/approach
The innovation process is studied on drills of a Czech power tool maker and a previously created concept of a new drill. First, the authors explore the similarities between the designed concept and previous models of the brand by calculating the degree of similarity of given shape features. Second, they capture the drills simple shape grammar and strive to generate a sketch of the concept.
Findings
Results show the use of several similar shape features from previous models in the innovated design. Shape grammar can create a principally similar concept, but some innovations cannot be achieved this way. A description of appearance innovation within brand identity in terms of shape grammar is given.
Research limitations/implications
The research is limited mainly to a small group of previous products that can be analyzed. It is done only for one particular brand identity. When used with the shape grammars, design generation is limited.
Practical implications
Better understanding of the innovative process aids designers in working with designs for brand identity and may serve to shape grammar enhancement.
Originality/value
The paper describes what happens during the innovation of product appearance and implicates enhancement and meaning of design analysis done by shape grammars and exploring similarities.
Details
Keywords
Davide Settembre-Blundo, Alfonso Pedro Fernández del Hoyo and Fernando Enrique García-Muiña
The purpose of this paper is to develop an innovative branding method based on the hermeneutical approach and interpretive theory, to respond to the need of a simple and effective…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop an innovative branding method based on the hermeneutical approach and interpretive theory, to respond to the need of a simple and effective tool to build corporate identity through an industrial brand identity design and, being a new business, has been considered the brand perception of their stakeholders as the main input to analyze.
Design/methodology/approach
The case study of a small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME), that produces nanomaterials for the business-to-business (B2B) industrial market, is used to design the new hermeneutic branding method. The methodology process has been structured in four phases that have marked the investigation and that correspond to four different levels of knowledge that, in succession, between them, constituted the so-called hermeneutic circle.
Findings
This new approach allowed us to understand the social phenomenon related to the brand: its characteristic, context and the brand itself. Though hermeneutic analysis has confirmed that business strategy is only part of a more complex system of brand management, it must also consider the competitive environment and the views of the stakeholders.
Practical implications
This paper contributes to research on industrial branding by adopting the hermeneutical approach in managerial practice. This paper is the first of its kind in detail modelling the design phases of a B2B brand, providing an operational tool for marketing specialists.
Originality/value
There is a lack of research studies in the methods for designing industrial brands. The contribution of this paper lies in proposing a new interpretative approach that, acknowledging the different expectations of the stakeholder in the supply chain, allows to draw a B2B brand that communicates the system values of the product and company.