By Vicki Matranga, Design Programs + Services
Learn how to develop and launch the right products for the right customer—with the right methods!
The four days of the 2014 International Home + Housewares Show will be packed with events as well as educational sessions. To help you plan your time at the Show, we’re giving you a preview of the presentations that will take place in the Innovation Theater in the Lakeside Center. Today we are speaking with Rob Wallace, an expert in creating memorable visual and emotional connections with brands. His energetic presentations are always inspiring, so be sure to mark his program on your Show schedule.
Qualifying Design’s ROI: Determining Design’s Impact on Housewares Brand Success and How to Optimize It
Date: Saturday, March 15, 1:30 – 2:20 p.m.
Location: Innovation Theater, Lakeside Center, E350
Having invested the better part of 15 years in the quest to quantify brand identity design’s specific impact on bottom-line brand profits, Rob has good news to share. Brand identity design can be quantified. The research methodology and its results are irrefutable. The results prove that for every dollar invested, design returns more than 50 times the direct profit of other marketing communications effort. And Rob Wallace can prove that.
As Managing Partner of Wallace Church & Co., a Manhattan and San Francisco-based brand identity strategy and package design consultancy, Rob has worked with some of the world’s smartest and most successful global brand builders including Procter & Gamble, Nestle, PepsiCo, Bacardi, Bayer, Target and many more.
Rob is on the board of directors of the Design Management Institute and has spoken at dozens of industry symposia across the U.S., the UK, Europe, South America and Asia. He lectures at the Columbia University Business School MBA and Executive MBA programs, Georgetown University and other leading marketing and innovation programs.
Rob, what inspires your passion in your work?
When created correctly, brand identity and package design generate a higher return on investment than any other branding effort, bar none. I am passionate about proving that to the business community and establishing best practices to achieve design’s unparalleled impact on bottom-line profit.
Why did you choose to speak at the International Home + Housewares Show?
All too often design is considered “the last decoration station” rather than the first five minutes of branding. Design best practices are often disregarded in an effort to get work done faster and cheaper. I’d like to provide the executive management of leading housewares brands with the tools to:
- quantify the value of their design efforts
- justify an appropriate investment in design and
- drive compliance with brand identity design best practices.
Tell us what you will be speaking about and how and this topic is important for Show audiences.
New research with design industry leaders across multiple disciplines and industries by the Design Management Institute complements Wallace Church & Co.’s case studies. Together they prove the best ways to quantify design’s value. Unlike the subjective measures, DMI and our firm uncovered hard outcomes such as increased sales, profits, market share growth and market valuation driven by design.
You will learn:
- how to structure the process of proving design’s ROI,
- how and when design’s specific impact can be isolated from that of all other marketing communications,
- how to “position” the results to executive management and
- how to use this info to gain compliance on design best practices.
This is your second time presenting at our Theater. What are you looking forward to most from speaking at the Innovation Theater?
I have been inspired by IHA’s audience. I most look forward to collaborating with and motivating others to adopt best practices. I look forward to sharing their results as together we build upon my now rich database on design and design thinking’s ROI.
How does the Innovation Theater help you spread your message?
IHA attracts industry mavericks from across the home goods category. It’s time that more home goods marketing teams become more courageous when it comes to developing their brand identities and use design thinking to change the game.
What kind of impact can the speakers of the Innovation Theater make at the Show?
We can build affinity among industry thought leaders and change the way the industry does business.
What do you see as consumers’ biggest concerns regarding housewares products?
Too many home goods brand identities use non-distinct / “me too” positioning strategies. As a result I see a lack of true innovation and an abundance of iteration after iteration. Too many products and not enough brands. I believe that the home goods category can transcend benefit-driven communication and begin driving a disruptive and emotionally engaging experience that defines a true brand.
What are some of today’s trends or issues that new product development professionals face in the housewares market?
Create a compelling brand message that drives consumer affinity. People define themselves by strong brands (I am an Apple advocate, I own a Dyson, I drink Grey Goose). We need that level of affinity across the hard goods category.
What is the best advice you could give someone trying to get into your area of expertise?
What you did last time is probably no longer relevant. Don’t base decisions on what worked. Base them on the ideal possible–what could happen–and then make it work.
Thank you, Rob, for giving us a preview of your design thinking. We look forward to your program Saturday, March 15 at 1:30 pm to learn more about how to apply these techniques for business success.
Contact Rob directly:
Rob Wallace
Managing Partner
Wallace Church & Co.
330 East 48th Street
New York, NY 10017
O: 212-755-2903 x121
C: 917-860-0319
Learn more at www.wallacechurch.com
http://wallacechurch.tumblr.com
http://twitter.com/WallaceChurch#
At the 2014 International Home + Housewares Show, the Innovation Theater in the Lakeside Center will present 20 educational programs, beginning Saturday morning and running through Tuesday morning. Be sure to make time in your Show schedule for FREE executive-level seminars that will help build your business—at the Innovation Theater, located in Room E350—near the entry to the Level 3 Lobby, the gateway to the Lakeside Center exhibit hall. Check www.housewares.org regularly for updates on the schedule of Show events.
