Design Thinking
Critically Exploring the Development of a Conceptual Framework for Building Innovative Brands
Xinya You, David Hands
Lancaster University (2)
youxy429@hotmail.com
Keywords: branding; innovation; design thinking; strategic management
Abstract
The success of today's brands increasingly relies on consumer-centred co- innovation. In this context, brands must play a role that is more proactive than their traditional one of serving as a communication tool. Based on an extensive review of the literature, this paper defines the new role of brands as a driving force for innovation and, to illustrate the potential of that new role, proposes a conceptual framework for building innovative brands that comprises the following five dimensions: (1) the command centre—the brand management team; (2) the strategic vision—the context of building innovative brands; (3) the organisational foundation—the organisation's innovation capability; (4) the cross-cultural perspective—driving innovation cross-culturally; and (5) the human-centred innovation approach—design thinking. It is hoped that the comprehensive, interdisciplinary, and strategic outcomes will inspire researchers and marketing professionals to apply the findings described here and to conduct further study on this topic.
This paper is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence.
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Cite this paper: You, X., Hands, D. (2016). Critically Exploring the Development of a Conceptual Framework for Building Innovative Brands. Proceedings of DRS 2016, Design Research Society 50th Anniversary Conference. Brighton, UK, 27–30 June 2016.
This paper will be presented at DRS2016, find it in the conference programme