In the creative industry, which includes branches such as cinema and theater, fashion and art, it is clear that aesthetics are an important part of innovation - and hence also of competition. But how can one understand the aesthetic emphasis on products and services in technology-based industries?
"Traditionally, in technological industries, design has been relegated to the corner," explains Dr. Miki Eisenman from the School of Business Administration at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. "We simply do not have a benchmark for design in economic competition between technology companies. They usually talk about speed, efficiency, and of course the price of the product."
With the help of a research grant from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Eisenman, together with Prof. Tal Simmons from Erasmus University, are conducting historical research on three case studies of design as an influential factor in non-aesthetic industries: automobiles, coffee and computers.
"In the automotive industry, we recognize a dynamic that we call 'strategic aesthetic innovation,' since a significant part of the innovation in the industry is done according to design parameters," explains Dr. Eisenman. "Historically, a few years after the invention of the automobile, Henry Ford came up with the smart idea of the assembly line: Instead of producing many types of cars, Ford sold the same car to a lot of people - and thus he bought himself a large market share among the middle class and even the lower class, that suddenly they could afford to buy a car. Thanks to the efficiency of the mass production line, it was almost impossible to compete with Ford in the price category. Alfred Sloan of General Motors understood the car differently. He understood that it is a fashion accessory, like a bag or a hat, and that people see what car you drive and in this way assess your socio-economic status. Sloan introduced a dynamic of fashion into the industry, which allows for a quick change of cars - and thus we reached a situation where the strategic difference between two cars is purely design. After all, the automobile industry has been perfected to such an extent that all cars are good, without significant technological differences.
Joshua Griffith
Sloan managed to keep the mass production lines by changing only the shell - the wings, the paint - without touching the expensive technological base. Why is it strategic? Because Sloan has created lots of similar categories of cars, so the consumer will always feel like they can jump to the next category. GM increased its market share, and more importantly for our research question - the identification of a car as a status symbol was so successful that to this day all other car manufacturers, including Ford, compete according to this dynamic - and it is enough to look at the road."
A look at the cafe - research, design and photography: Guy On
The second industry that Dr. Eisenman and her colleague examined is the premium coffee industry. Here they identified "high-impact innovation", as they put it. "In the gourmet coffee industry, the design factor grew from a seed planted by an entrepreneur named Howard Schultz. Schulz recognized in the US a market for a European coffee shop, in the sense of a 'third space' - a place to chat, take a short break, and even work - that would be based on superior coffee in terms of beans and roasting. Schulz was an operational genius. He had no interest in aesthetics, but he Realized that he would have to educate the customers to consume premium coffee that costs much more than the coffee you buy at the stand for 50 cents, so he offered a total experience, which would be very different from the seller: whoever walks in A Starbucks branch immediately recognizes it as a Starbucks branch - from the smell of the coffee, through the sound of the grind to the language itself, which forces the customer to order a 'Granada Latte' for example. Since it is very easy to imitate the competitors in the coffee industry, Schultz opened branches across the US, with 'Kit': the branches look the same, the machines are in the same place, the design line is uniform, the design language is uniform. The seminal success of Starbucks determined the boundaries of the sector in the new market, and everyone who entered this market had to position themselves in relation to Starbucks. That is why it is a very influential innovation: Schultz set the rules of the game."
Dr. Eisenman's third test case is perhaps the most famous case of design innovation in the computer industry - the case of Apple. What is the question? Why should design be part of the competition in technological industries?
"The market dynamics we identified in the case of Apple is that of 'evangelical aesthetic innovation,' meaning aesthetic innovation that results from the market's interaction with 'debaters', mainly critics and journalists who stand between the manufacturer and the consumer. Unlike the automobile industry, we believe that in the computer industry there is no strategic justification for investing in design innovation , since personal computers were mainly used inside the home, but it was personally important to Steve Jobs the company's design language, and he was CEO of Celebrity. We tend to attribute more personal control over the company's results to famous CEOs, because it is easier for journalists to tell the company's story that way - without going into complex operational questions. The actions of the CEO attract a great deal of media attention, and thus a dynamic of 'aesthetic innovation' Evangelistic - perceived by everyone as significant, without reference in numbers. The truth is that Apple was a negligible company, with a small market segment, when Jobs returned to its CEO. In the end, the operating system was the deciding factor in buying personal computers, not Jobs' design, and Apple became what it is today thanks to pure technological innovation - the iPhone. However, the glorification of Jobs' decisions by the journalists meant that both the needs and the competitors follow the idea that design is important to the industry, without examining this question from the point of view of operational or strategic. The myth of Jobs continues to influence the industry."
He realized that he would have to educate the customers to consume premium coffee that costs much more than coffee you buy at a stand for 50 cents. Therefore he offered a total experience
Dr. Mickey Eisenman
Life itself:
"I am very interested in France and French culture," says Dr. Eisenman, "I think the French have an innate aesthetic sense."
For the article on the Voice of Science website
More of the topic in Hayadan:
One response
Unfortunately or situation
The planning and design of products is not done according to quality
is not adapted to a need but to one and only one purpose
attract the buyer,
That is why the design and manufacturing sciences are flocking
After the American consumer "culture",
In order to be successful, advertisements are produced that increase
on reason for enough time to allow
Selling vanity and financial gain...