Product shape as a design innovation strategy
探讨产品形状如何作为创新策略，帮助食品加工企业通过自然形状设计来差异化竞争，并利用形状线索让消费者推断口味等内在属性。
Product design has become an effective competitive tool in the hands of a number of companies. Marvin Berkowitz discusses the impact of design variations on a proven winner in the marketplace. This article discusses the use of product shape as an element of innovation strategy in food processing. Can this particular design dimension be used to achieve differentiation from competitive products? The article explores how one company is attempting to capitalize on consumer trends for fitness and nutrition by designing its products with natural looking shapes. The research more generally probes how easy to spot design cues, like shape, are used by consumers to infer more important, but less readily accessible attributes like taste, softness, comfort and speed. Good design not only adds sales appeal, but encourages trading up, provides a basis for market segmentation, and for building a larger line from the same engineering investment.