Spring Fair 2008: Sebastian Conran reveals the value in product design
Iconic UK designer Sebastian Conran entertained visitors at the Future Trends stage today as he quipped his way through why he believes good product design is essential.
Talking to a packed audience, he said that constant innovation is essential to keep customers coming back. "There is nothing manmade that can't be made better," he said. He also explained that as well as looking for innovative products in terms of performance, aesthetics is also important. "Form does follow fashion, however unfunctional it that may be, and sales follow fashion," he said.
Conran also explained the importance of perceived value and conveyed to the audience his equation for a successful product. The designer said that by adding the brand, design and quality together and then dividing this by the cost, you can work out the true value of a product.
Although retailers may be facing a tough time over the next year, Conran believes that quality design-led products will become more important in a cash-strapped consumer climate rather than less important.
"There is a perfect French saying to explain this," Conran told Springfair.com Marketplace after his presentation. "It translates as the better the quality, the less expensive. Bad design is expensive." He said that if a consumer is faced with an uncertain economic climate, a good sales technique can be to encourage them to spend a little bit more for a product that will last for a lifetime, compared with a product that will need to be replaced every few years.
Conran also made frequent reference to his favourite brand of the moment, Apple. As well as creating functional, good-looking products, he said that what set the retailer apart from competitors was its attention to detail in areas such as packaging. He said that this is essential to providing an overall quality customer experience.