Title: Marketing strategy and its correlation with design strategy and design characteristics: an example of consumer electronic industry

Authors: Yen Hsu

Addresses: Department of Industrial Design, College of Management and Design, Ming Chi University of Technology, 84 Gungjuan Road, Taishan, Taipei 243, Taiwan

Abstract: Marketing should closely coordinate with product design. Not only does a close connection between marketing activity and design trigger product innovation in enterprises, it is also a key factor in the success of a product in the marketplace. The practical question is selecting a product design process that achieves marketing goals during innovation procedures. Although enterprises have taken concrete action to do so, empirical studies show that correlation between marketing strategy and design strategy or even between marketing strategy and design characteristics are rarely seen. In this study, the author first synthesised perspectives from the literature on marketing strategy, design strategy, and design characteristics. Managers in the marketing divisions and B2B design departments in the Taiwan consumer electronic industry were questionnaire survey. The data fit to the theoretical models was then verified by structural equation modelling (SEM). Data from 270 effective questionnaires confirmed strong correlations with marketing strategy, design strategy, and design characteristics. In enterprises, marketing strategy affects design characteristics directly and through design strategy. Among these three variables, design strategy is an independent intervening variable in design characteristics.

Keywords: marketing strategy; design strategy; design characteristics; consumer electronics; product design; Taiwan; structural equation modelling; SEM.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBSR.2013.056748

International Journal of Business and Systems Research, 2013 Vol.7 No.4, pp.436 - 451

Received: 20 Aug 2012
Accepted: 23 Nov 2012
Published online: 28 Nov 2013 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article