Managing Innovation, Design and Creativity

Chapter 8. The value of market research

CASE STUDY 3: BLACK & DECKER'S QUATTRO^[33] (A)

If I only had time...

We need a decision soon, the trade fair in Cologne is in March next year and we need to commission tooling if we want to be ready on time. We do not have time to market test the new design. The original design had great results so we know people would like it. I know this new design is a bit different, but...

Nigel Robson, an industrial designer at Black & Decker's design centre in Spennymoor, UK, had been working furiously to produce an alternative design for a new cordless multifunctional tool that was to be introduced to the world at the trade fair in Cologne in March 1998. It was already April 1997 and a decision on the design needed to be made soon.

Due to internal resource constraints the initial design had been developed by an external consultancy with which Black & Decker had worked successfully before. The result was all right but Lawrie Cunningham, Director of Innovation and Industrial Design, thought it quite traditional and felt that this new product category could be made more exciting. Even though marketing were very happy with the original design – which had researched very well – he decided to ask Nigel Robson from his industrial design team to refine it. Nigel, who was relatively new to the company, felt very strongly about not just "rounding the corners", as he ...