In 2009 Rodd Design completed a project for Kenwood, the manufacturer of small domestic appliances and creators of the legendary Kenwood CHEF food mixer.
From its beginnings Kenwood has always maintained a strong design ethos, which is now managed by its own internal design team, KDO, run by Johan Santer.
By their own admission internal groups can often need reassurance that their own strategy is the right one, the pressures on these groups from other internal and external pressures mean the old adage ‘can’t see the wood for the trees’ often is the case. Johan and his team faced a similar issue with Kenwood¹s breakfast category.
Rodd was selected above other groups as it offered a fresh and independent view of the issues tempered with our own in-house knowledge of Kenwood. Rodd¹s Senior designer, Mark Morgan worked alongside Johan in the early 2000’s designing the latest CHEF model and the award winning EON range of breakfast products.
Rodd were selected above other groups as it offered a fresh and independent view of the issues tempered with our own in-house knowledge of Kenwood. Rodd¹s Senior designer, Mark Morgan worked alongside Johan in the early noughties designing the classically modern CHEF model and the award winning EON range of breakfast products.
Background
During early discussions we linked up with James Surridge and his team at Idealogy who had already created a brandprint booklet that described Kenwood brand aspirations and ‘Kenwoodness’, the consumer touchpoints that make Kenwood different and unique.
Whilst these design values are clearly obvious in the CHEF and K-Mix range they are less evident in the current breakfast category.
Early effort was directed into understanding buyer groups and the needs and aspirations of the user. These needs were translated into product values, values about quality and ‘look and feel’ that these consumers would expect from their products. Finally a complete range of products were designed showing how these values would manifest themselves in real products, building on kenwood’s core values and elevating their position in the breakfast category.
Results
Many of our suggestions for the future strategy for the breakfast category matched the conclusions of the internal group whilst other recommendations breathed a fresh approach to how design was communicated internally and externally at Kenwood.
“From the outset Rodd had all the right credentials and experience we were looking for to provide the insight and independent thinking essential to this project “
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