Worlds of design: Design culture, design orientation and problem solving

This dissertation examines how marketing organizations develop and implement a design orientation. A study consisting of 16 long interviews with designers and management representatives in 13 firms identifies design orientation as the implementation of design values in everyday business practice. Four prominent design values are customer orientation of retail buyers, originality, purity and intuition. We examine how these design values are deployed in three strategies that firms used to develop products: strategies of avoidance and absence organic design structures, and the embodiment of Modern Design. Implications for marketing, design strategy and marketing literatures are discussed.