Last year, my car completed 9 years of loyal service and so it was time to look for a replacement. Having some time on hand and a very fixed budget, I decided to research into different brands before deciding. I also enlisted the help of an automobile engineer friend. At the end of three months, the conclusion arrived at was this – that barring a few almost insignificant technical differences, and of course the shape, cars in every segment category were essentially the same. It finally boiled down to the financials and what each dealer was offering as “additional benefits”.
As more and more companies continue to standardize their offerings in the interest of costs, production and delivery efficiencies, their products and services are more and more looking and feeling the same. Take the aviation industry for example. The only differentiation between any two airlines is the the price. Even the seeming difference between a ‘budget’ and a ‘full service’ airline is fast fading. Similarly in mobile phones, the difference between competing models of rival companies is so miniscule that the purchase decision ultimately boils down to price.
Whether it is banking, or consumer durables, hospitality or food industry, products and services are becoming indistinguishable from each other. Take any e-commerce site, everything is about the discounts being offered. Earlier there used to be few shopping festivals, twice or thrice a year, like a Diwali Sale or End of Season
Sale. Now you have a “No Reason Discount Festival”.
As companies compete on financials alone, the unique competitive advantage goes for a toss. There is nothing for a consumer to excite her enough to gravitate towards a particular brand or product. Further, it is a known fact that when two companies compete primarily on pricing, at least one of the them will fold up.
In such scenario, a product or service design that is aesthetic, exciting, functional, provides value for money and has value in the eyes of the consumer will obviously stand apart from competition. Here is where Design thinking comes in. It plays a critical role as a value creator, setting a product or service apart from the rest.
There are a few companies in India who use design thinking actively to create a competitive advantage. The one that immediately comes to my mind is Tata Swach. In the last Kumbh Mela in Prayag, visitors had access to clean drinking water, thanks to this unique water purifier. Using silver nanotechnology, and a price tag of below Rs. 1,000, it provided relief to the numerous visitors to the mela. It is an excellent example of how a good design solution creates an outstanding product.
As things get more and more complex, design thinking is emerging as an important way to solve complex problems and come up with unique product and services that have real value in the eyes of consumers.
