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November 20, 2003
Creating an edge with good design
For companies with massively sized competitors, incorporating good design into all aspects of the customer experience is a distinct competitive advantage. For Apple, which has to compete with Microsoft and Dell in software and hardware, Apple continually wins the niche categories by trouncing them with outstanding design.
Good design is how tiny, San Francisco-based Method is taking on the kingpins of consumer-products marketing: P&G and Unilever. Method creates cool-looking home cleaning products, plus they're using a customer evangelism approach to spread the word.
Method customer Stacey Wagoner of Chicago stumbled across Method dishwashing soap in June 2002. She loved the slick upside-down translucent bottle with the sweet smelling soap so much she wrote the company. In turn, Method sent her an enthusiastic thank you note with coupons for free bottles. It encouraged her to spread the word. She gave a bottle of Method to us.
A little more than a year later, the company is doing $10 million in sales and has Target as a channel. Is Method going to take over P&G's dominant position on store shelves? No, but P&G and Unilever have $10 million less in sales because a bottle of Dawn just isn't as cool as Method.
For marketers going up against the titans in your industry, design matters.
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