EXPERIENCE BRAND LANGUAGE CONSUL
The main goal of the project was revise the whole experience of Consul products based in a process that the Whirlpool team basically created from scratch. It took between 6 months to 1 year to go all the way from verbal brand values to the physical translations into products.
At the end, we designed a conceptual product that was the reference for the next generation of products (which represents the 2015-2018 portfolio). The job impacted all product categories and required deep understanding of the restrictions and limitations of each product architecture, as well as close contact with engineers, marketing and supply chain teams.
Consul is one of the most iconic brands in Brazil.
It can be found in more than 50% of the Brazilian homes.
Near 2012 the company realized that the brand was not following the evolution of its target consumers.
Families changed, as soon as their homes and lifes, and Consul products were still too functional and tied to old market orthodoxies.
Also there was no sense of family identity and visual alignment among the products.
Whirlpool design team created a process from scratch in order to deliver the best product according to the new brand attributes.
With the support of more than 20 designers and marketing professionals, we defined the experience attributes and materialized them into the different touch points of the products on every step of the experience journey.
At the materialization phase every design field used different tools as photoshop, illustrator, keyshot and Creo to deliver shape, graphics, colors, finishes, materials, sound, textures, lighting, interaction and user experience guidelines.
We had validation meetings every week in order to align the whole experience.
We also worked into the concept product - the xball - that helped us to deliver the ideal experience without being tied to manufacturing issues and requirements.
The first product launched with the new language was the Consul Beer cooler. We sold it 5 or 6 times more than expected so the consumer feedback about the product evolution was very relevant.
The biggest learning at this project was the value of team working. Designers from different expertise areas connected and focused into the same goal: modernize the brand and design the best solutions for our consumers.
All the credit to the Whirlpool team, some of the main contributors: Renzo Menegon, Helder Filipov, Eduardo Sanches, Lie Manuela Silveira, Mabel Lazzarin, Diego Silvério, Fabiano Braga, Marcos Costa, Guilherme Nehring, Andrea Alvares, etc.
