Tag Archives: cross-category

Cases

Curating taste in Santa Barbara

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When I stayed at the Simpson House Inn in Santa Barbara, the staff told me to visit the Santa Barbara Company for gifts. They said it is the best place. I went there and saw why.

The store does not only sell items one by one. It makes gift boxes with many different things.

One basket had bath salts, white sage soap, a candle, and a seaside mist. These items are chosen for a calming ritual.

Another box had honey, tea bags, postcards, and a candle, showing the taste of Santa Ynez Valley.

A third box had cookies, a honey lollipop, dried flowers, and a small owl-shaped soap. Each box gave a different feeling.

Making these combinations is not simple. It is difficult to choose across categories and still make the gift feel right. But when it works, it matches well with the personal taste of the receiver. One good example is the wine display by the Inglenook winery.

I do not believe AI could easily perform this task. AI can recommend based on past data, but true curation requires subjectivity. To make new and surprising combinations, human taste and imagination are needed. In that sense, curated gift boxes remind me that human taste is still a unique form of intelligence

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Reference

Hwang, S., Park, H., Sohn, M., Yoo, D., Han, C., & Joo, J. (2022). Goal based bundling: A behaviorally informed strategy to combine multiple smart products. In G. Bruyns & H. Wei (Eds.), [ _ ] With Design: Reinventing Design Modes (pp. 2888–2901). Singapore: Springer.

Contemporary electronic manufacturers struggle with how to develop attractive bundles by combining their existing smart products. In the present work, we propose Goal Based Bundling (GBB) by drawing on the academic research of goal systems theory (Kruglanski et al., 2018) and shed light on two previously ignored aspects of bundling strategy: service and glue product. We applied our GBB to a collaborative project with Samsung Electronics, whose goal was to develop new product bundles for kids by combining multiple smart home products. We constructed a framework of Samsung Electronics’ smart products and then visualized it on its sales website. A UI design conveying the value of smart products bundle was developed based on GBB structure. We discuss the process and the result of our project to provide insights into the product managers who combine existing smart products to develop a bundle.

Cases

Displaying lifestyle: Inglenook winery and Tsutaya bookstore

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Inglenook winery, owned by filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, is famous for its fine wines and cinematic heritage. Its castle-like architecture is also impressive. However, beyond these attractions, Inglenook’s wine displays are unique.

Rather than presenting bottles in isolation, Inglenook pairs them with lifestyle products such as artisan candles, gourmet pasta, sketchbooks, and sun hats.

These combinations are not decorative. They suggest how wine is consumed and experienced in real life: during intimate dinners, relaxing moments, creative reflection, or outdoor leisure. The display turns wine into a lifestyle choice.

Likewise, Tsutaya bookstore pairs books with music, stationery, and home goods, helping visitors envision these products as part of their lifestyle.

At both the Napa winery and the Tokyo bookstore, lifestyle-oriented displays enable consumers to see how the products integrate into their daily lives, thereby increasing their perceived value.

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Reference

Stokburger-Sauer, N. E., & Teichmann, K. (2016). The effect of context attractiveness on product attractiveness and product quality: The moderating role of product familiarity. Marketing Letters, 27(4), 675–686.

Bundling is pervasive in today’s markets. However, the bundling literature contains inconsistencies in the use of terms and ambiguity about basic principles underlying the phenomenon. The literature also lacks an encompassing classification of the various strategies, clear rules to evaluate the legality of each strategy, and a unifying framework to indicate when each is optimal. Based on a review of the marketing, economics, and law literature, this article develops a new synthesis of the field of bundling, which provides three important benefits. First, the article clearly and consistently defines bundling terms and identifies two key dimensions that enable a comprehensive classification of bundling strategies. Second, it formulates clear rules for evaluating the legality of each of these strategies. Third, it proposes a framework of 12 propositions that suggest which bundling strategy is optimal in various contexts. The synthesis provides managers with a framework with which to understand and choose bundling strategies. It also provides researchers with promising avenues for further research.