Design - an underleveraged tool to influence the shopper

Even though design is the backbone in building brand loyalty and growth, many large brands fail to take full advantage of its potential, Per Holmen, FMCG Director at Kontrapunkt, told a group of senior executives of global product brand companies at a conference in Barcelona recently.

The strength of design is that it can be used to communicate the brand values not only on the product itself, but also at the point of sale and point of consumption. Thereby design contributes to delivering the final push in converting the consumer into a shopper, and finally into a repeat-purchaser. Therefore design is often the most effective brand building tool, Mr Holmen pointed out.

Mr. Holmen emphasized the need to use design as an integrative element when building strong, credible, consumer product brands. "Consumers experience a brand across a number of touch points during a product's life cycle - be it on TV, in magazines, in-store promotions or even on distributors' delivery vehicles. It is essential for consumers to perceive a brand as being consistent across all these touch points, in order for them to trust it and actually choose it at the moment of purchase", said Mr. Holmen drawing on his experience as a former global brand identity manager at Carlsberg, the world's fastest growing beer brand.

Other speakers at the conference included design leaders from Sony Ericsson, Procter & Gamble, Benetton, Phillips Design, and Mercedes among others.

For an abstract of Mr. Holmens presentation on how to leverage the power of design as a consumer brand, please send an email to:   ///

June 2007