Building a product

I recently read an article on a redesign of a car air freshner in Packworld magazine that highlighted three key steps in the design process.

Goal: Clear through the clutter

Step 1: Customer research - conduct an awareness and usage study with target customers across multiple geographies with 4 products (including your current offering) to identify needs not currently met. In this case it was an ability to smell and test the Aero Metrics product before purchase.

Step 2: Choose the most important points of differentiation and begin redesign process. The Aero Metrics team described this step as particularly challenging with the small space provided on the product for words and visual information. They chose the test and sniff function and designed a sniff hole in the product.

Step 3: Store and shelf research - Products exist in physical environments and it is important to understand their place on the shelf. Aero Metrics saw that most competitor products banged up against each other on the shelf and that store lighting reached only the first couple rows. The team shrank the size of the packaging to reduce friction and muted the grey color to bring out further visibility of products way back in the shelf.

Two thoughts regarding the above approach.
1. Solid methodoical and process driven approach to redesigning a product
2. It seems they did not have a core definition of their own brand equity from the start. Single-mindedness on what you offer and consequently what you mean to customers should be cristal clear. Re designs like this, especially with regard to new functionality, should occur rarely and executed with the utmost care.