Concept of Design-Thinking for Coca-Cola Company - Essay Example

Lecturer: Introduction Design thinking is the strategic approach applied by businesses to encourage innovativeness through the effective utilization of human resources. This is accomplished by evaluating and combining people’s needs, innovation opportunities and the necessities for business success (Brian, 2010). Managers who reason like designers have the capacity to transform the manner in which objectives are accomplished in an organization. It is a significant approach used by successful organizations to combine of technologically realistic and economically feasible ideas with whatever is desired from a human viewpoint. The combination allows individuals who may not be trained as designers to apply ingenious tools to deal with a wide range of challenges. It allows the management to take advantage of individual competences that go unnoticed in the traditional problem solving strategies. This paper presents an analysis the concept of design-thinking. It also describes the application of design thinking criteria in Coca-Cola Company. It highlights the benefits identified by embedding design-thinking opportunities through design. The concept of Design-Thinking in Coca-Cola Company The Coca-Cola Company has maintained a significant market share globally for many years, which can be attributed to the company’s competitive strategy of design thinking. Diet Coke is a brand that was developed through design thinking with the intention of offering a new drink targeted at consumers who are gradually moving away from high calorie drinks and also to lessen the company’s carbon foot print emanating from the carbon based preservative ejected in to the atmosphere globally when every carbonated drink is opened (Boutzikas, 2000). The product was also focused on increasing the variety of Coca-Cola products as well as getting precise and instantaneous response with regards to customer preferences. It came in to the US market in 1982 as the first soft drink to use the Coca-Cola trademark since 1886 (Vrontis & Sharp, 2003). In the design thinking for the development of Diet Coke, everyone was considered as part of the whole process. According to (Brian, 2010), success is not only accomplished through combining the managers and the subordinates together, also requires people who are creative and good designers who are motivated by business matters. The Diet Coke project focused on promoting a common attitude with regards to inventiveness in the factory and to bring in external desires such as taste, fashion, music, photography and other things that could help in promoting creativity in the workplace. Design thinking requires a conducive environment for people to feel free to think and utilize their full potential, which results in an amalgamation of different characteristics that the new product will serve (Badke-Schaub et al. 2010). Free collaboration between the various departments in the company enhanced the development and marketing of Diet Coke in 1982 emerging as the bestselling low calorie beverage in the US within a very short period. According to Vrontis & Sharp (2003), free collaboration between the skill sets in the development of Diet Coke was enhanced by allowing each player in the project team to act out of free will to accomplish a common objective. The skill sets involved included strategy and design. Despite being in a different career path, Diet Coke project team participated equally in the project. Each of the components meant a lot in the success of product competitiveness (Boutzikas, 2000). Research and development have significantly contributed to innovativeness that has helped Coca-Cola to maintain global competitiveness. Diet Coke was developed in a design thinking approach that linked the global research and development centers to the company’s External Technology Assessment and Acquisition hubs that play an important role of enhancing the link between the company, its associates, industrialists, technological innovators and academics (Isdell & Beasley, 2011). This is a competitive design thinking approach whereby new product development is viewed as a multi-stakeholder invention whereby each of the parties involved contributes an important aspect of the product. It allows the company to take advantage of the global linkage that has been facilitated by information and communication technology (Boutzikas, 2000). Design thinking requires concerted efforts in the analysis of consumer lifestyles, preferences as well as purchasing habits. Brand innovations and design requires consideration of the present and long term consumer needs, tendencies and events as well as leveraging of organizational resources to enhance development and scrutinizing long-term innovation models (Brian, 2010). Through applying technology and understanding consumer needs, the project team of Diet Coke was able to identify a market segment that is sensitive about their calorie intake owing to health concerns. The research and development team engages in consumer research and also identifies problems to be addressed by the new product. The development of Diet Coke involved a research and development approach referred to as the DCS model, which is an acronym for three words including; (D) Distributed, whereby the research and development team is widely distributed globally focusing on new innovations that can help maintain the company’s competitiveness, (C) Connected, whereby the research and development teams are effectively inter-linked on a global platform to enhance consistency in the new innovations, and (S) Shared, meaning that innovations are pooled to come up with superior products that address the well-being of the company, the public as well as the environment, which form the company’s sustainability framework (Isdell & Beasley, 2011). The DCS model was therefore a significant design thinking strategy to ensure the company maintained its competitiveness in the global market through manufacturing a product that could be effectively marketed. Diet Coke entered the American market with robustness, becoming the fastest selling low calorie beverage, which has now been replicated in the global market (Boutzikas, 2000). Consumers are motivated by innovative products that they consider being developed to solve their problems, especially health matters and hence the high acceptance of the new product. On the other hand, environmental engagements by the company enhanced global reception of the brand through addressing environmental concerns of global warming and water scarcity (Lester & Tice, 2012). In the design thinking model applied for Coke, innovativeness was accomplished through combining individual competences of the organization’s human resources in various fields which include; health science and nutrition professionals who focused their innovativeness on scheming the formula for the low calorie beverage, which became the key marketing concept for Diet Coke (Isdell & Beasley, 2011). The graphic designers were engaged in developing the most captivating looks for the new brand, which made it stand out among similar products, especially those of competitors. Moreover, the graphic design had a duty of ensuring that Diet Coke could be distinguished from other Coca-Cola brands especially due to the fact that it was the first time for the Coca-Cola brand name extension (Webb, 2006). This was intended to ensure that the original brand is not overshadowed by brand extension thereby affecting its market. According to Boutzikas (2000), regional Diet Coke marketing crew work hand in hand with the research and development centers to identify and handle the pertinent needs identified in the local market. This is a consumer approach strategy aimed at understanding and satisfying consumer needs. The linkage between research and development centers and the regional marketing teams facilitate the application of a lead market model to promote new inventions, such that a product can be launched in any of the foreign subsidiaries that is linked to a research and development center. Technical competence is considered as a single component of successful product development. Creativity and global mindedness has been emphasized so as to inspire, develop business relationships and linkages thereby getting things done (Cross, 2010). Flexibility in design thinking is necessary to ensure open mindedness and the capacity to integrate ideas from external sources in to the business process for greater productivity and there after influence the company’s composite system to launch the new innovation (Badke-Schaub et al. 2010). Effective identification of innovation opportunities is important for successful design thinking. Colas were the leading soft drinks controlling a market share of 60% of the soft beverage market in the US (Lester & Tice, 2012). However, diet drinks also indicated a higher upward trend compared to other beverages. These trends positioned Diet Coke as the precise product for the right time. However, design thinking came in to play once again to protect Coke’s trademark through its lawyers. They contended that the lower case ‘d’ would be used to market the new brand so as not to erode Cokes trademark with the application of a noun with the capitalization of the first letter ‘D’. Rather, the lawyers suggested the use of a small letter ‘d’ made the word an adjective that had no harm on the trademark (Isdell & Beasley, 2011). This is an indicator of how design thinking takes in to account of miniature details as long as they contribute to the overall goal. Nevertheless, the company has succeeded in maintaining competitiveness for the two brands up to the present time both with capitalized letter ‘D’. On matters of environmental concern, Corporate Social Responsibility has catapulted the marketing strategy of Diet Coke globally. There is increasing awareness worldwide regarding the need for environmental conservation. The public has realized the impact of environmental degradation on their health as well as the need to maintain a balance of nature. This realization the basis for awareness creation regarding Coca-Cola’s CSR in the promotion of Diet Coke. CSR activities involve tree planting to conserve degraded environments as well as giving back to the public through supplying water to water strained areas (Allen, 2010). The organization further engaged engineers to develop low energy coolers in its efforts towards environmental conservation. The bottle used to pack Diet Coke was also developed in a re-usable and recyclable manner to make it environmental friendly. Coke has severally participated in the efforts to conserve polar bear spearheaded by WWF whereby the packaging cans are designed in white color during holiday seasons. This has been a successful partnership that has helped in awareness creation among consumers and the general public regarding polar bear conservation (Isdell & Beasley, 2011). The company’s marketing strategy for Diet Coke also reflects design thinking whereby marketers, software engineers and creative artists were pooled together to work as a team to promote the new brand. The Diet Coke was presented to the public as a break from the normal lives and as a change of routine envisioned to become a genuine lifestyle brand. It involves getting in to meaningful partnerships to achieve a collective marketing goal. Lagerfeld and Goultier are among the prominent designers that facilitate the marketing of Diet Coke as partners through their creative design (Allen, 2010). To strengthen competitiveness in the market, the company partners with would be competitors such as House of Fraser and Asos thereby significantly reducing competition. Marc Jacobs is a renowned designer who has all along partnered with Diet Coke in the designing of packaging containers (Brown, 2009). The development of packaging containers has to maintain uniqueness that is not likely to be imitated by competitors. This includes the graphic designing of labels and the corporate color. Conclusion Design thinking is a significant strategy for organizations to develop innovative products through the application of human resource competences in various fields. Diet Coke is a brand that reflects a Design thinking model of Coca-Cola Company to enhance its competitiveness in the beverage market. In design thinking, project team players need to be facilitated to accomplish their full potential for innovations to be successful. Linkage between the different departments and effective collaboration are necessary to enhance design thinking. Research and development are significant in design thinking, as portrayed by the Coca-Cola Company’s DCS model in developing Diet Coke. While applying design thinking, it is important to put customer needs in to consideration first. Customer focused innovations are significant in maintaining market competitiveness. Diet Coke was focused on solving the problem identified in part of the market segment, which presented the company with a perfect opportunity for innovation. Identification of innovation opportunities increases the effectiveness of design thinking, which not only focuses on the product development, but also the factors that influence product consumption such as serving public interests through corporate social responsibility. References Allen, F.L. 2010, Secret Formula: How Brilliant Marketing and Relentless Salesmanship Made Coca-Cola the Best-Known Product in the World, Harper Paperbacks Badke-Schaub, P., N. Roozenburg, and C. Cardoso. 2010. “Design Thinking: A Paradigm on Its Way from Dilution to Meaninglessness?” Proceedings of the 8th Design Thinking Research Symposium (DTRS8) Sydney, October 19-20: 39-49 Boutzikas, J. 2000, “Coca-Cola: A Standardized Brand?”, Management Case Quarterly, Vol. 4(2) pp. 9-15 Brian L. 2010, Design thinking – a new mental model of value innovation, Emerald Group Publishing Limited Brown. T. 2009. Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organization and Inspires Innovation. New York: Harper Collins. Cross, N. 2010. “Design Thinking as a Form of Intelligence.” Proceedings of the 8th Design Thinking Research Symposium (DTRS8) Sydney, October 19-20, 99-105 Isdell, N. & Beasley, D. 2011, Inside Coca-Cola: A CEO's Life Story of Building the World's Most Popular Brand, Pan Macmillan-St. Martins Press Lester, D. & Tice, C. 2012, How they Started: How 25 Good Ideas Became Great Companies, Crimson Publishing Vrontis, D. & Sharp, I. 2003, “The Strategic Positioning of Coca-Cola in their Global Marketing Operation”, The Marketing Review, Vol. 3 pp. 289-309 Webb, C. 2006. “Avoiding ageism at Coca-Cola: Company initiatives earn Employer Champion status”, Human Resource Management International, Vol. 14,7, pp. 9 - 11 Read More