The Challenge
Design a CMF strategy for Maytag mayor appliances to establish the brand’s position both internally (among Whirlpool’s six in-house brands), and in the market .
Design Leadership: Maytag Major Appliance CMF Strategy
The Outcome
A cross-platform and product category CMF consolidation strategy that reduced SKU complexity by 40% and defined a clear look and feel for Maytag major appliances.
My role as a member of the Whirlpool Global Enablers Color, Material, and Finish (CMF) lab focused on the strategic use and implementation of color, finish, and material as a means of updating and differentiating product categories at a lower cost. As a shared services lab within the design department, we would assist the company's in-house brands with specific projects. The Maytag major appliance product team needed to establish the brand’s position both internally - Whirlpool had recently acquired Maytag and were dealing with differentiating their six in-house brands - and in the market.
I began by investigating how consumers assigned value to the different parts of the five major appliance categories - refrigeration, cooking, dish, and microwaves. This entailed user research at various points of sale throughout the Chicago area, where through consumer intercepts and contextual interviews with store staff we were able to define CMF based consumer purchase drivers. Working closely with the brand’s design director and chief engineer, we established a framework to measured how consumers interacted with the appliances, categorizing their parts as being in front of or behind of the green line - meaning the parts with which consumers had direct interactions with (e.g., handles, doors, and windows). Then, based on our understanding of how consumers’ CMF-based purchase drivers and how they informed their concept of quality, the parts of the appliances that were in front of the green line where classified into high (A), medium (B), or low (C) value categories. Defining these categories enabled me to create a part by part CMF database across the five product categories that was used in weekly meetings with the engineering team to quickly identify opportunities for SKU consolidation and reduction. The result was a 40% reduction in the number of overall SKU’s.
In parallel, we developed brand essence posters and CMF ideation boards to inform the development of Maytag’s unique CMF palettes. In order to create prototypes that did not break the bank (a full-sized appliance prototype can cost upwards of tens of thousands of dollars), we created what we called Picasso Boards of each appliance. Informed by the previously developed CMF framework, these boards contained high fidelity prototypes of the appliances’ parts that had been classified as high value or (A) parts. By putting them together in a Picasso like composition, they managed to give a very good idea of what the whole products’ final CMF would look and feel like. The boards were also modular, allowing us to quickly test different colors, materials (e.g., plastic, metal), and finishes (e.g., brushed or knurled) for the various parts. In case questions remained, full sized individual parts would be painted in different colors, machined out of different materials and finishes and installed into existing products to confirm our choices. This approach allowed us to reach quick and low-cost consensus among the brands engineering, design, and marketing teams.
As project manager, this project was incredibly fulfilling to run, as it truly bridged the gap between design and engineering, leveraging methods form both disciplines to reduce budgets, increase efficiencies, and arrive at beautiful designs. It also allowed me to incur in the world of interior design, helping specify the design of the Maytag brand room. A physical room which embodied what a typical Maytag brand home environment could look and feel like, which showcased the newly designed appliance suite, and in which any employee could come and work while surrounded by the brand’s essence.
