FOR RELEASE: IMMEDIATE Jan. 28, 2000
CONTACT:
Megan Galbraith
(518) 276-6050
[email protected]
Got Soul? Rensselaer Marketing Professor Offers Tips for Designing "Soulful" Products
TROY, N.Y. -- More and more companies are embracing "soulful" themes. Volkswagen, for instance, uses the slogan "If you were really good in a past life, you come back as something better" to link its New Beetle to the traditional "Bug."
But how do you design a soulful product? And what constitutes a soulful experience from a consumer's point of view?
"Soulfulness is experienced in terms of warm, meaningful connections," says Jeffrey Durgee, professor of marketing at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
"Soul brands" are those that communicate a set of ideals and try to operate based on those ideals, such as The Body Shop, which advocates non-animal testing and recycling. Or Nike, which uses the slogan "straight from the soul of sports."
To understand what makes a product "soulful," Durgee conducted studies with more than 40 people and found several ways a product can be designed to have the qualities of "soul."
-- Tap into the past: Soulful products allow consumers to reconnect with childhood memories.
-- Get in touch with the "self": Consumers want products that keep them in touch with themselves and make them feel more "alive." Durgee says a mountain bike, a teddy bear, and hiking gear have this quality.
-- Facilitate connections: There's soul in products that draw people together, such as tandem bicycles, wedding rings, or hot tubs. "So much of our culture today is about pulling people apart," Durgee says. "We've gone from pan pizza to personal pizza--from stereo systems to personal CD players."
-- Get the consumer into the production experience of the product: For instance, brew your own beer, or design your own custom-fit jeans (Levis).
# # #
RSS