How companies embed non-quantifiable product qualities through their product development process

摘要

Many consumer products have reached a high level of technical product quality.Rapid adoption of new technologies and access to a global market means thatmarkets are getting saturated. This means that technical differentiation is oftennot enough to sell a product and products compete more and more on intangibleproduct qualities - these are meant to delight, bring pleasure, be easy to use andto create an experience. These qualities are often difficult to measure in theproduct using scientific descriptions and numerical measures. This researchstudies these Non-Quantifiable Product Qualities and the thesis presentsresearch into how companies embed these Non-Quantifiable Product Qualitiesinto their products in an attempt to satisfy their customers.The aim of this research was to gain insight into how large manufacturingcompanies embed product qualities that are difficult to quantify, by studyingtheir product development process. This was done in two stages, firstly anexploratory study into five case organisations, secondly an in-depth study intothree of the original five companies. Fifty interviews with designers, engineersand marketers formed the main source of data, supplemented with observationsand document analysis. In the exploratory stage nine initial themes emerged outof data analysis, which then informed the data collection in the descriptive stage.The final output is seven confirmed themes, with 43 major findings and threeconceptual models, that describe how companies embed Non-QuantifiableProduct Qualities through their product development process.The research has found that the researched companies have some commonstrategies for embedding Non-Quantifiable Product Qualities. One example isthat they will typically seek to translate an emotional response in the customerinto measurable product qualities that will evoke such response. It is alsocommon to seek out customer reaction to products during development toensure successful embedding of Non-Quantifiable Product Qualities.