In this environment of international trade barriers opening up and national companies merging or being swallowed by multinational companies, designing an appliance to sell to a wider target market has become more important than ever before. But there are many stumbling blocks that companies find when launching their best-selling U.S. product in Europe. Most of them fall disastrously short of their targeted sales figures, despite having changed the functional aspects of the product. Should a product going to multiple markets possess a single design, or have a differently tailored design to meet the local market?

Finding the sweet spot

Visual perception varies greatly between different nations and cultures, even between regions of a country. Therefore it should not be underestimated that just subtle differences in the way a product looks can greatly alter the value and appeal to customers abroad. Identifying and responding to how people perceive a product is the most difficult and important aspect of design. It is the key to opening the door for any product whether locally or internationally. An essential ability of multinational consultancies such as IDEO or TEAMS Design is to design to meet such localized visual preferences.

Certain stereotypical traits can be used as a starting point in studying a product's potential export issues, but very many products do not fall under these simple terms. The following generalized descriptions could be applied to many appliances' appearance, but should be re-evaluated for each individual product's particular context.

Typical U.S. market visual traits:

• Tough, robust.

• Powerful performance.
  
• Convenient.
  
• Clear communication of use.
  
• Features visually called out.

Typical European market visual traits:

• Compact, sleek.
  
• Elegant, clean.
  
• Lack of functional gimmick.
  
• Simpler appearance, less features/ functions.

While such stereotypical traits may be found, they can often be dangerously misleading. For instance, it could be said that European products should often be sleek and devoid of too many visible functions, but European remote controls are often preferred with more buttons not less. Also, while many U.S. products should avoid appearing technically complex in appearance, Americans are ahead of most in dealing with PC-like operations or the Internet. There are just as many contradictions to the rules as there are commonalities that can be found.

The way these issues are approached requires very good judgment. One of our European clients identified their difficulties in selling a particular product in the U.S. being attributed to its looks. Following some brief research our designs recommended that the new plastic housing should have a shut-off section in the mold which would leave a window allowing some of the internal motor to be seen into the U.S. version of the tool. This would give the product a more powerful, robust look.

The European version would have this area closed, as their users prefer a cleaner, more integrated look. However, in a cost-saving decision the European manufacturer decided to just print silver graphics over the closed plastic housing for the U.S., in an attempt at hinting at metal robustness. The U.S. market did not understand the gesture, and the product did not sell. The manufacturer later edited the molding to include the shut-off window, and the product reached better sales figures than initially projected. There's a Dickens-like moral in there somewhere.

Design development should always offer varied solutions to be used as a discussion basis to gather international feedback, which will help in finding which combination of elements can serve to increase the perceived value of a product for all sides, without having to compromise.

In a recent drill design we experienced this factor, where our German client and their U.S. counterparts each favored different designs. Through a series of drawings we managed to home in on the elements that were appealing to each side, and found that simply adding two ridges to a part of the European's favorite design hit the sweet spot for both-the new design was an apparent improvement over previous versions and not a compromise.

However, one-size-fits-all solutions rarely allow everyone's ideals to be met, and other solutions should be sought. When selling on a multi-national scale there are three categories of solutions: Globally Compatible Products, Locally Customized Products, and Format-Differentiated Products.

Globally Compatible

Some appliances naturally have the ability to be multinationally compatible; even these can be sometimes be better aligned to the particular market by a simple change of graphics, packaging or just by adjusting the type of advertising.

Locally Customized

Some products do not find foreign favor so easily and have to be customized. Visual customization is ideally achieved by including a multi-exchangeable component in the design, such as a display, keypad, housing cover, or similar visually dominant features of the particular appliance. For instance, a vacuum cleaner we designed at TEAMS Design had one upper housing for the European and Asian markets and another for the U.S.

Here, market research had shown that the target U.S. market had a preference towards designs that boasted the cleaner's particular high power, whereas the Europeans and Asians could agree on simple elegance and compactness as being a priority factor. Attempts at creating an 'elegant but powerful' aesthetic only lead to a compromise of potential sales on both sides.

The key: If the various local preferences tend to polarize, the designers should consider an intelligent modular system to allow for local styling customization. Cost/value calculations based upon local feedback should then illuminate if this leads to increasing sales or just increasing complexity.

Format-Differentiated Products

Different formats of product eventually cross borders and merge, but stubborn localized preferences often reflect traditional formats, irrelevant of what is actually better. The varied formats of traditional appliances best demonstrate this; some countries claim top-loaders to be more efficient, while others insist on front-loaders. The U.S. has a dominant market for upright vacuum cleaners, while some European countries almost exclusively buy pull-behinds.

Again, brief research into the particular market will reveal that certain products or formats of the product cannot be compromised. In a saw design, for example, we discovered uncompromising differences between the East Coast and West Coast of the U.S. Initial research revealed a strong traditional market for the powerful but heavy Wormdrive format circular saw on the West Coast, while the East Coast preferred the lighter, better balanced Sidewinder format. The Wormdrive format was considered unergonomic in the East, while Sidewinders could never provide the power that West Coast users were used to.

Our initial design used the Wormdrive internals, but placed the handle above the center of gravity to balance the tool similar to a Sidewinder. East Coast Users loved it, but West coast users would not look at it. The only solution was to launch two products; one a balanced version of the Wormdrive saw for the East Coast, the other offered a traditional format of the Wormdrive, but with improved ergonomic grip-zones, both of which are booming.

Typical issues that motivate functional adaptation are as follows:

Technical Differences: Power supply, plugs, adapters.

Legal Requirements: UL, CE, etc.

Environmental/ Social Impact: Use of local materials, recycling, etc.

Packaging / Shipment Requirements: Pallet size, condition of roads /rail, etc.

Ergonomic Differences: Size of hands/reach in Asia/U.S., etc.

Functional Requirements: Which particular features each market values

Styling differences

Because TEAMS Design works very often with cross-Atlantic products, I am often asked why products look so different in Europe. As well as the functional factors listed above; there is also a major decision-making difference between European and U.S. new-product developments. In Europe it is typical for the impetus for a new product to come from upper management, who will also stipulate the product's requirements, or at least be active in choosing the final design. The product should show the essence of the company and is therefore a company statement. While designed with the user in mind, little or no research is made into the user's opinion who "doesn't yet know what he needs."

U.S. marketing departments are generally stronger in the navigation of the product design, and therefore rely more upon research of user opinion to find the more sellable design. In such research users often tend to prefer versions more like what is already known, (and not what could be) and therefore more conservative (or safe) designs tend to gravitate to the top of the possible versions.

This leads to the impression that European products are often more daring and possibly provocative, and U.S. products are better market-targeted but conservative. However, the poles are converging. In the U.S. the success of daringly designed products such as the I-Mac proved there is a big potential in standing out from the crowd, while Europe is recognizing the benefits of focus groups and more accurately researching their products' user preferences.

When crossing national borders the key is to do both. Companies such as Phillips, Samsung, Nike, Volkswagen and Apple have all recognized the power of multinationally focused design to do just this, and have managed to dominate globally.

Another common question is when to call out that the product is "Made In USA" or a "Product of Germany." This feature can be in the form of a mere label, or ideally it should be identifiable in the overall appearance of the products, to reaffirm its claim. Appliances fall into three categories when dealing with this issue: National Specialty, Patriotic, or Perceived Lifestyle.

National Specialty products are those that hinge upon a foregoing reputation in a particular field. For instance, associating German origins with an Automobile, motor part, or sophisticated precision engineering would be appropriate, but would not necessarily help computers, garden equipment or most kitchen appliances. Showing a product's American origins could, for instance be suitable for computers, professional lawn mowers, and fitness equipment.

Patriotic products are those that won't benefit from using a national stereotype, but use the target country's own patriotism to increase sales. Our German-based client K?her produces a number of machines in the US, and has gained considerable sales in the U.S. since they began calling out this fact. A U.S. exporter could well consider assembling or sourcing their parts locally to the target market, just to be able to create this patriotism aspect.

U.S. Perceived Lifestyle products are those that sell abroad because they are clearly stereotypical American, and sell the lifestyle and image associated with the American Dream. This goes beyond popcorn and jeans though, and can be applied to a riding lawn mower, barbecue equipment, and even certain kitchen equipment. The styling of such a product can deliberately ignore the target market's typical visual attributes, and make a subtle exaggeration of the 'American-ness' of the product, without hindering sales here.

Semantics

The product semantics are the pieces of visual communication of the functions, which can often be overlooked. A good example of product semantic issues came up in two recently completed water dispensers for our Chinese client JFC. Protruding out of the right side of the product was a lever that the user pushed downwards to dispense the water. We were surprised to hear our client comment he would have expected that the lever should be actuated upwards to dispense the water. We immediately arranged to test the lever issue on some of his Chinese staff that weren't familiar with the product, and to our surprise they all tried to lift the lever.

The one thing to learn from this that it is important to know that you don't know anything. All assumptions should be double-checked by field exposure when dealing with foreign semantics.

Conclusions

It is essential to understand that a top U.S. product will not necessarily sell itself abroad using the same criteria as at home. A singular global product design can exist, but better rewards usually lie in locally targeted customization. Finding the correct aesthetics, ergonomics, semantics and final detailing of the product's design is mandatory in the localization of any product, additionally to the adaptation of the functional and technical requirements.

Undertaking pre-research, getting local feedback on designs, and avoiding compromising all parties' requirements are all essential steps towards creating a successful product. Multi-national Industrial Design firms such as IDEO and TEAMS Design deal with such work on a daily basis, and have the experience and breadth to turn a potential export flop into a segment leader.

The most important piece of knowledge to make your product internationally successful is to know that you know nothing, and then the rest should follow.