Trip to Target
Designing has been increasingly gaining momentum over the years in the past decade.
It is associated with innovative ventures into new and untried object shapes and styles for the purpose of coming up with modern designs. Society identifies design with fashion, style, upscale lifestyle, and modernity. On the other hand, designers view their unique creations as means of societal influence and as a strategic approach towards competition that calls for creative entrepreneurial skills (Coates, 2007). Such are the thoughts I am engrossed in as I walk in my town’s newest addition of Target stores. Just as the name suggests, Target is a gold mine for home equipment and electronic collectors.
It would be insufficient to mention only the two sections since Target has numerous other sections; it is indeed a one stop shopping center. In the presence of such glitter and glam, one finds it impossible to be indifferent. Shoppers forget about crying babies, maintenance teams struggling with final touches, and section managers going around keeping stock in readiness for opening day tomorrow. I go through the finished sections touching, feeling, admiring, obsessing, and virtually buying everything. Suddenly, I am drawn to a distinct section filled with designer home furniture and kitchenware. On display are Michael Graves’ wonderfully made products, including ironing boards, colanders, hampers, mops and rugs, mop buckets, tongs, oven mitts, turners, kitchen tool sets such as bowls, iron covers, shelves, to name but a few.
True to his introductory line: “Sturdy designs should be accessible to all.” Graves’ stylish dream designs’ section at Target is filled with fairly set price tags. Why would firms such as Target contract super designers such as Michael Graves? Such designers focus on value addition through beautification of already existing structures and components in ther society. Most clients look for products that are unique and valuable in a way that adds comfort and excitement to their daily lifestyle. They are, therefore, always willing to pay more than the normal price for deserving products. Firms make their businesses recognize consumer tastes and preferences.
They would hunt for any available designers who can tailor and make the best products. In Graves, Target saw an opportunity to meet current market demands at affordable prices. By hiring him, Target attempted a lock-in strategy that maintains the loyalty of their most trusted designers (Mozota, 2003).Why also would Steve Jobs contract excellent computer ware designers for their new look Apple products? Apple operates in an environment with cutthroat competition. An ability to come up with a new look desktop and laptop computers demands that they employ only the best workforce.
Such an approach values quality electronic designs that target the working middle class population. Consequently, hiring top performers meant that Steve Jobs was already aiming towards maximum utilization of electronic resources and elimination of traditional designs. Such a strategy is concentrated on improving lives of the youth and working class through trendy products. Due to super profits, Apple has become one of the most successful computer industry manufacturers (Mozota, 2003). Will shoppers prefer well-designed products over their under designed counterparts? Designers face one of the most difficult tasks: to study the consumers and to design in accordance with consumer desires.
Shoppers’ attitude towards new designs is determined by physical appearances, prior experiences, and peer opinions on product quality. Dynamism in product design hardly goes unnoticed since most shoppers follow the trend and are always ready to buy the latest design products. Additionally, besides price, the modern society is concerned with environmentally conscious designs geared towards global greeen campaigns. Since all of the above are core objectives of tailor made designs, their designers target well designed creations, as opposed to their traditional counterparts. Such designs sale like hot cake since they are both appealing to the eye and serve as improved substitutes of usual products (Boradkar, 2010). Most car buyers select car models depending on their price and styling.
For instance, Toyota is a notable Asian automobile giant that discovered a young American target market that showed a strong preference for stylish foreign models. They went ahead and launched the designer made Scion XB, an affordable SUV with king size elegance. Within a year after its market entry, Scion XB had recorded such high sales that the designers became aware of the need for brand improvement. Their decision was to create a remarkably different model, based on consumer tastes and preferences, replacing the market dominance of Scion XB (Mozota, 2003).Interior designers have been gaining recognition in corporate America for the past decade.
Their main focus is home, office, and other structural beautification. Interior designers become responsible for superior interior designs that act as an incentive for morale and worker productivity. To most Americans, interior designers are creators of exclusive plans, furniture arrangements, proper lighting effects, and resourceful space utilization, hence taking care of crowding. From a passerby point of view, a well design room means more than just the right paint. It becomes an environment for individuals to feel at home (Boradkar, 2010).
For instance, a perfectly designed conference room takes away the nervousness of a jobseeker in the presence of their interviewers. It can be argued that designers have taken over the societal status for beauty. However, the presence of dynamism in consumption calls for designers’ capability to identify and meet client’s needs accordingly.
