Consumer research indicates that up to 60% of buying decisions are made at the point of purchase. In such cases, packaging design can have a critical impact. Successful designs allow customers to identify their preferred brand easily. They can also have a crucial role in building a strong identity for a new product. In both cases, the packaging designer must develop a distinctive image to ensure that the client's products stand out clearly. “Product design isn’t an add-on feature put together by the marketing department; it’s integral from concept to production,” remarked Mohammed Al Ghassani, Executive Vice President, PEIE and organizer of the Smart Manufacturing Conference, scheduled to be held 23 – 24 January 2006 at the Muscat Inter-Continental Hotel.
“The Smart Manufacturing conference will cover design issues related to manufacturing,” remarked PEIE’s Ibtisam Al Faruji. "The aim is to get manufacturers to understand that product design is something that goes on all the time; it’s an everyday process. It isn't something unusual," remarked Colum Menzies Lowe, the UK’s NHS National Patient Safety Agency’s Design Manager and Smart Manufacturing presenter. “Thinking about the end user is essential to the process. For example, the man buying a mobile phone is less likely to buy something awkward or difficult to use than a well-designed phone that has a better technical specification,” said Al Ghassani. Menzies Lowe agrees with this sentiment: “Of course, companies wouldn’t go to the trouble of employing designers if there wasn’t a profit to be made. Design isn’t about making products look pretty. It’s fundamentally about making things better."
Menzies Lowe is a graduate of Chelsea School of Art where he studied 3D Product Design. He ran his own design practice before moving on to work for BLDC Retail Design from 1990 to 1999, working with clients such as the Body Shop, Tesco, Butlers and Kilkenny. After BLDC he spent two and a half years as Head of Design at J. Sainsbury’s Homebase Ltd and just over a year as a Partner of Plan Créatif/Crabtree Hall Design Consultants before taking up his current position as the UK’s National Health Service National Patient Safety Agency’s Design Manager.
Menzies Lowe suggests that visual design can be a crucial deciding factor: “Assuming all things equal by price, colour, function and so on. What other thing differentiates Oman-made products from their competitors? What makes people buy a particular product? It's the X factor. In simple terms, it's that special something which makes you pick something up or just want it. Manufacturers need to be aware of this.”
“Product designers have a tough time in manufacturing,” Al Faruji told Al Bawaba “they challenge what people do. Indeed, product design is fundamentally fraught with difficulties and battles. People don't like being challenged. For example, if a manufacturer has been doing something a particular way for a long time, people have got used to it and the market sees it as a good product. But they’re probably not serving the market and not being outward looking enough.”
Further details on PEIE’s Smart Manufacturing Conference can be obtained from Ibtisam Al Faruji on: ibtisam@kom.om
