Automotive Structures and Body Design - Coursework Example

Automotive Structures and Body design Design and Brand Identity: Design is significantly related to brand identity. In the case of Conoco, a petroleum marketer, which found itself at a disadvantage compared with other marketers, the improvement of the design of their retail stores resulted in a significant improvement in brand identity. It re-designed its stores in a way that combined traditional service aspects with a modern approach, targeting the preferences of target customers.(Love and Roberts 1997). The design of the product is thus a vital element that contributes to its brand identity. In the case of Conoco, the Company was able to revitalize its brand image through its unique design of its stores as a one place stop where the customer could not only shop for gas, but could also buy other items, enjoy the services of restaurants and coffee bars – thus catering to all customer needs in a well designed, spacious format for its stores. By changing the design of its retail outlets, the Company was able to create the memory of its product in the customer’s mind and stand out from all the other companies. Therefore brand identity may be conditioned to a considerable extent by the design of a product or service. According to Chrysler Vice Chairman, Robert Lutz, the notion that a certain brand image can be created “through advertising or through some superficial or artificial means” is a tactic that will undoubtedly fail, because the only way to produce a strong brand that will withstand the test of time is a total commitment to that particular brand, through an understanding within the entire firm on what the brand is about (Lienert, 1998). In example, he cites the case of the Jeep which has certain elements of its design that are carefully adhered to – such as a full offroad capacity, with no Subaru-like four wheel drive systems. In the case of the Dodge brand however, there is an effort to design the cars such that the Dodge stands for things like power, brute strength and an aura of superiority. The elements of design of these particular cars contribute to the images in the customers’ minds about certain qualities and features associated with the car. The brand identity of the particular car/jeep in question thus becomes associated with the features of its design that are unique and/or different. Even in instances where there may not be that much of a difference in the product, the small details and features about its structure may be the factor that creates a distinct and memorable image of the product in the customer’s mind and in this way, promotes the brand identity of the product or service. Moorthi(2002) undertakes a review of all the factors that are taken into account in branding a product or service and has highlighted the views of several researchers on the means to develop a strong brand identity. Moorti also discusses the brand identity framework as mooted by David Aaker, which builds a seven point structure that includes the product itself and the physical evidence about the product, thereby providing a clear indication that the design of the product is a vital part of the development of its brand identity. For example, the brand identification of a car is associated with the physical evidence provided in terms of the actual physical infrastructure of the car itself. The actual design of the car and its component parts, as well as the extra facilities that it affords, which contribute to the perception of value and quality of the product in the customer’s mind, all help to enhance the brand building framework. In the case of a car for example, the customer will consider not only how the car looks, but the kind of impression it conveys, its durability, sleekness, its utility and the kind of servicing the car will receive. However, the most important aspect will be the appearance of the car and the manner in which it is constructed, which contributed to the external appearance of the car and the impression of quality and style that goes along with it. Brand identification also takes time to build, since it is only after a product has been around for a little while that it generates its public impression in customers’ minds. Factors involved in building a new marque: In the case of a new or relatively unknown product that is being introduced into the marketplace, it is first necessary to build a reputation for the product by securing customer approval for the product and thereby generating customer loyalty for the same product. In achieving this end therefore, the customer needs to be provided with information about the product and its various attributes. Drobis (1993) has argued strongly for the benefit of public relations as an aspect in product marketing and brand building. The development of brand equity involves the attributes of a particular product and the extent to which of those product attributes help to fulfil the customer’s needs and therefore build customer loyalty towards the product. He states that an effective public relations program is one such means to build that kind of brand equity. Drobis suggests that there are four major rules that must be kept in mind, while considering the building of a marquee for a product: (a) everything is a brand (b) no brand is an island (c) It’s never too late to build brand equity and (d) brand building has entered a new era due to a highly competitive market that is cluttered with a variety of goods. This is a very important aspect that must be taken into consideration in building a new marquee in the new age of the Internet. King (1991) states that in an increasingly competitive environment, consumers have become more confident and they are more willing to experiment and trust their own judgment in making their purchases. He also points out that in the new age of technology, there are shorter product and service life cycles, therefore an essential part of branding is to ensure that there is constant innovation of the product in order to sustain customer interest and build brand loyalty. In establishing its brand in the tough markets in eastern Europe, Procter and Gamble established brand identity of its products through an aggressive program of product focused advertising to demonstrate the inherent superiority of their product. They also sampled heavily and allowed households to try their product as free samples, in order to encourage customers to try the product (Berndt, 1996). Therefore, in the case of a new marquee, it is necessary that the product should be an inherently superior one if it is to compete effectively with existing brands. An innovative product that is different and stands out from other similar products in the market through the possession of some special feature that can be highlighted in advertisements, is likely to achieve brand identity sooner. Developing excellent advertisements also helps to bring the product to the attention of consumers and sampling encourages them to try the product so that they may be encouraged to buy it in future.(Berndt, 1996) The formulation of a strong and effective sales program is also another vital aspect of building brand identity in the case of a new product. It may be necessary to include measures, not only by offering free samples of the products but also by door to door marketing, taking advantage of the electronic medium to offer products through a well designed website where customers can directly purchase or sample the product, and by heavy advertising, A well targeted and well developed sales program is an essential part of building brand identity, which must go hand in hand with other measures such as an inherently good product that is advertised heavily. In conclusion, it may be stated that building a brand marquee requires that the new competitive environment is kept in mind and methods utilized must be able to tackle the short attention span of customers. One effective way to achieve this end is to ensure that the product is constantly innovated and that when it is presented in the market for the first time, it enjoys some innovative features that make it stand out from other similar products available in the market. If the product is an inferior one, then it will be difficult to build its image in the market. Product focused advertising, offering free samples and an aggressive customer oriented sales promotion effort may also be helpful in enhancing brand identity. Once customers have sampled the product or purchased it and like it, then the product attributes will satisfy the customer and will build customer loyalty which in turn leads to the development of brand identity and brand building. PART TWO: In making a determination about what constitutes evolutionary aspects in design, Davidson (1999) offers an analogy with the history of the automobile and aerospace industry as follows: “There was a range of different designs in the beginning, weird dirigibles or devices that flapped their wings, three-wheeled cars, steam-powered devices. Some, like the Zeppelins or Stanley Steamers, even succeeded for a while. But most of the initial range perished in evolutionary cul de sacs or dead ends.” In arriving at this determination, he highlights one important aspect that linked the earlier models of aircraft and automobiles that would be considered weird today – they all worked on some sort of engine. Therefore, evolutionary design of cars has resulted from the development of that basic engine in several different ways in order to arrive at newer and more improved models or versions of automobiles. Evolutionary design is that which builds upon an existing product, by imbuing it with additional attributes that may require special innovative measures to be introduced. The end result of such evolutionary patterns is the development of a superior product that produces additional and enhanced features. Evolutionary design must be distinguished from simple modifications and additions of component parts. For example, the development of designs which are essentially small modifications of existing designs, such as a change in the shape of a door or a chassis in a car would not quality as the development of evolutionary design. Rather the design changes in question must involve elements that involve a substantial amount of innovation, such that a fresh new attribute or property is endowed on the product. One notable example of such an evolutionary design that has developed is the case of electric cars that are still not fully competitive and are therefore being designed as hybrid engines. This development of the engine is based upon development of its eco friendly aspects by designing the engines as electric cars that can also run on batteries. Frank (2007) points out how the seeds for purely electric cars as well as hybrid cars were being developed in the early part of the 20th century. However, the developments in this area were forestalled by the development of the internal combustion engine that worked by using gas, which was available cheaply at the time. However, it is only in recent times that the power crisis has produced the acute need to examine other sources of fuel for cars and the need to re-design the engine if necessary to provide for alternative fuel options. He also points out how the only means that became feasible for the development of electric cars was through building electro chemical cells and batteries. The problem however was that the batteries needed to be large enough and have the kind of capacity needed for running a car. Furthermore, another challenge presented by the use of batteries for car designers, was how to bring down the overall price of the car endowed with such heavy duty batteries to a level that would be competitive with other cars in the market. (Frank 2007). The development of an electric car also invoked other design aspects, such as propulsion methods, controls and energy sources as well as vehicle safety and design.(Westbrook, 2001). Another aspect that has been pointed out in respect of electric cars and the development of evolutionary designs is the inherent disadvantages associated with the early development of the electric cars. Holden (1996) has mentioned several of the problems associated with these cars – (a) existing models in the late 1990s were expensive (b) they took too much time to recharge and (c) they only have about half the range of a gas guzzling model. Furthermore, a study was done on the potential impact of putting out 500,000 electric cars on the road in smog filled cities such as Los Angeles and the study reported that there would be a reduction in ozone content in the atmosphere by only about 0.5% which is almost a negligible amount (Holden, 1996). Moreover, since governmental pressure has resulted in gas burning cars being forced to clean up their act faster than was expected, the impact on the cleaning of the environment provided through the use of zero polluting electric cars would be almost a negligible amount. However, the development of electric cars may be rightly termed as the development of evolutionary design in automobiles, that are geared towards the achievement of a specific objective - that of cleaning up the environment. This is what has spurred the move towards the development of hybrid cars which can function on engine or battery and therefore afford a better alternative in terms of cost. Maximizing engine efficiency and reducing costs is the objective behind developing an electric car as a hybrid model, because this is essential to make such engines run on a basis where they can be competitive with other engines that run on gas. Several aspects need to be taken into account, for example how can the large batteries that are required in electric cars be made to function in an economical manner and how can they be recharged quickly? One of the means by which this can be accomplished is through the combination of electric and normal engines, through the use of the gas/electric hybrid power train, which incorporates large batteries that are charged either directly by the gas engine or by regenerative braking. This kind of braking is a process whereby the kinetic energy generated while braking or slowing down is recovered and is stored as chemical potent energy in the traction battery which can then be used later and also allows for the side benefit of reducing the wear and tear on the brakes. As a result, a car’s engine can be powered both by the battery and/or by the engine, thereby maximizing engine efficiency and giving the car the standard acceleration and power of standard cars that have a much larger engine. Further developments that are taking place in car engine design for hybrid vehicles is the creation of computational models to track engine performance from one cycle to the next in order to aid in the development of a new type of engine (UPI 2007). This would be of assistance in making such vehicles much more efficient in terms of fuel use and much more environmentally friendly. In such engines, intake and exhaust valves are no longer driven by mechanisms that are connected to pistons. As a result, since valve timing is not restricted by the piston movements, therefore this would allow more efficient combustion of not only diesel and petrol but also alternative fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel (UPI, 2007). This phenomenon is known as variable value actuation and enables significant improvements to be made even to conventional gasoline and diesel engines. This may open up scope for the design of superior engines in the future, which may not necessarily need to be hybrid engines in order to function economically and efficiently. Bentley and Wakefield (No date) state that generic evolutionary design refers to the creation of a range of different designs by evolution. They point out that in recent years, researchers have been using computer algorithms that mimic the actual process of evolution, in order to create optimum designs by using genetic algorithms. This can also be applied in the case of car design, wherein evolutionary patterns can be estimated and replicated through optimization and development of designs. Bentley and Wakefield (no date) describe five steps in the development of a generic evolutionary design using a computer. The first step is the optimization of the existing design. Computers may be used to optimize the design of oil pump pipelines, hydraulic networks and even to optimize the design of jet engine turbines. The next stage represents the generic optimization of the design, through the use of optimization algorithms which help to optimize a range of different applications. This can be used to optimize the functioning of turbine blades, cooling fans and D.C. motors. The third stage is the creation of new designs, using software that is geared towards making the computer think in the same way as humans. The computer system divides the application into various parts and then visualizes different combinations of the various parts to fulfil the required design specification. (Bentley and Wakefield, No Date). Although this still an aspect that is evolving through research, there have been some advances that have been made, such as the development of the Transmission designer system, which when provided the kind of input (eg. Rotary motion) and the kind of output ( eg. Perpendicular linear motion) is able to develop a suitable transmission system in order to convert the input into the output.(Bentley and Wakefield, No Date) Computers can also be used to create art by using computers. This is used for the creation of three dimensional images, using evolutionary strategies modifying the shapes that are found in real life. However, the generic algorithm is the main kind of highly flexible algorithm which is being used to a large extent in developing solutions to problems along patterns that replicate the evolutionary patterns in nature. In the actual process of evolution, natural selection ensures that the weaker creatures die while the strongest survive (Bentley and Wakefield, No Date). A similar solution is developed using generic algorithms in computers. The phenotypes must be specified, the allowable solutions to the problem are spelt out, the right kind of generic algorithm is selected and then the fitness function is created in order to evaluate potential solutions for the problems posed for solution using the generic algorithm.(Bentley and Wakefield). On this basis therefore, evolutionary designs are such that they mimic the natural process of evolution in developing a range of solutions of which the weaker ones which may not bear the test of time are eliminated, in favor of the stronger, more viable solutions that are likely to work. In the development of car engines to the stage of electric engines and hybrid engines to generate more environmentally effective solutions, to the potential inherent in further re-design of engines to provide more effective solutions to problems that are presented, are all indications of evolutionary design. References: * Berndt, Wolfgang C, 1996. “A clean slate: Lessons about branding from the world’s newest markets.” * Bentley, P.J. and Wakefield, J.P., No Date. “Generic Evolutionary design.” [online] available at: http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/P.Bentley/BEWAC5.pdf * Davidson, Carl, 1999. “Carl Davidson and Bertell Ollman: An exchange; anti market mystifications; a response to Bertell Ollman.” Socialism and Democracy, 13(1): 92 * Drobis, David, 1993. “Building Brand Equity with public relations.” Management Review, 82 (5): 52-56 * Frank, Andrew A, 2007. “Plug in hybrid vehicles for a sustainable future.” American Scientist, 95(2): 158-166 * Holden, Constance, 1996. “Downer for electric cars.” Science, 274 (5286) : 183-185 * King, Stephen, 1991. “Brand Building in the 1990s.” The Journal of Consumer Marketing, 8(4): 43 * Lienert, Paul, 1998. “Chrysler’s take on brand management” Management review, 87(5): 56 * Love, Kenneth D and Roberts, Kenneth, J, 1997. “Conoco ‘Breakplace’: A study in retail identity creation.” Management Review, 86(9) : 58 * Moorthi, Y.L.R., 2002. “An approach to branding services” The Journal of Services Marketing, 16 (2/3) : 259-275 * United Press International, 2007. “Engineers work on car engine re-design.” [online] available at: http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed= Science&article=UPI-1-20070531-10513500-bc-us-newengine.xml * Westbrook, M.H., 2001. “The Electric Car: Development and future of Battery, Hybrid and Fuel-Cell cars.” London: Institution of Electrical Engineers. Read More