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Recently, as a potential source of stationery products, bamboo has been continuously excavated for its commercial value in sustainable development. The research on the design of the bamboo pen holder, based on the concept of sustainable design, is not only a symbol of Chinese culture but also a reflection of perceptual factors underlying college students’ preferences. This study aims at user-centered product design by integrating Design Thinking (DT) and Kansei Engineering (KE). We proposed the KE–DT framework which allows designers to coordinate the user’s feelings as design elements. With various college student questionnaires, expert interviews, and cluster analysis, 7 Kansei words were selected to describe the sentimental value first. Using statistical analysis, the users’ emotional preference for each Kansei word was determined. Finally, the best shape of the pen holder was obtained by Sequential Quadratic Programming (SQP), and the stereoscopic product was displayed. A new round of questionnaire surveys was conducted with the optimized pen container and the previous group. The results indicated that curvature had a significant effect on the preference for bamboo stationery in terms of user and designer cognitive differences. Furthermore, the bamboo pen holder designed by the KE–DT framework proved widely popular.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of symbolic product information (symbolic product design) on consumers’ perceived brand evaluations. In an experimental setting, the authors consider as key factors the congruence between symbolic product design and product category, the level of product involvement as well as brand strength. Design/methodology/approach In an experiment of 490 participants, consumers are confronted to different symbolic product designs connotations. Based on the cognitive process model “SARA” (selective activation, reconstruction and anchoring), the authors examined how symbolic product design associations are used as heuristics in the working memory when making brand judgement. Findings The results show that product design associations are used in consumers’ information processing as anchor for brand evaluations. This effect is stronger if symbolic design associations are incongruent to the product category because of consumers’ deeper elaboration process. Furthermore, the impact of symbolic product design is higher for weak compared to strong brands. Research limitations/implications This research supports the cognitive process model “SARA” being an appropriate foundation explaining the effects of symbolic product design. Further research should extend this experiment, using a field study in a more realistic setting and/or a choice situation between different alternative product designs at the point of sale. Furthermore, the consumers’ elaboration process should be manipulated differently, e.g. in a mental load condition. Practical implications Symbolic product design is important to enhance brand association networks in the consumers’ mind, particularly if the brand is weak. Marketers should use incongruent symbolic product information to differentiate from competitors who use “stereotype” product designs. Originality/value Research about product design in the marketing discipline is still limited. The authors analyse the impact of symbolic product design on brand evaluations in an experimental setting of 490 respondents in four product categories. The findings support that consumers use product design as heuristics to evaluate brands.

This paper compares exclusive dealing and market share contracts in a model of naked exclusion. We discuss how the contracts work and identify a fundamental trade-off that arises: market share contracts are better at maximizing a seller’s benefit from foreclosure (because they allow the seller to obtain any foreclosure level it desires), whereas exclusive-dealing contracts are better at minimizing a seller’s cost of foreclosure (because, unlike with market share contracts, the seller does not have to overpay for the units it forecloses). We identify settings in which each can be more profitable and show that welfare can be worse under market share contracts.

To a layman, and a legalist in a hurry, trademarks are brand names. They are words like \"Colgate,\" \"Crest,\" and \"Coca-Cola.\" Trademarks, however, include things that are not words but nonetheless convey a brand. The subset of trademarks made up of shapes, colors, patterns, and the like are known as trade dress. An example of something protected as trade dress is the contrasting red color on the bottom of women's high fashion shoes. To aficionados, these lacquered red soles indicate that the shoes are made by Christian Louboutin, a famous French fashion designer.

[...]the authorities do not go farther than this.3 Other pre-Lanham Act Patent and Trademark Office and court decisions also shared skepticism in extending trademark protection to anything other than traditional word and design marks.4 However, the negative perception of color serving as a trademark began to change with the Lanham Act's enactment. At the outset, the Court noted that the basic underlying principles of trademark law and the language of the Lanham Act indicated that color was within the universe of designations that qualify for trademark protection.12 The Court added that like many other designations, color alone could distinguish a business's goods or services and identify their source without serving any other significant function.13 Jacobson resorted to many of the same theories on which courts before Owens-Corning relied in refusing to protect color marks, namely, that allowing protection to Qualitex's color mark would result in shade confusion and color depletion.14 The Court, however, found these concerns to be overblown and noted to the extent there were limited circumstances where color scarcity ever came into play, the utilitarian use or functionality doctrine would be available as a defense.15 Although protection of color alone has historically proven to be a challenge, business entities have had an easier time in establishing protectable rights when color is not claimed alone but, instead, is one of several elements of a claimed trade dress configuration. Bright awnings and umbrellas continue the theme.20 In 1985, Two Pesos opened its first restaurant in Houston and adopted a motif very similar to Taco Cabana's claimed trade dress.21 Two Pesos then rapidly expanded its chain to other markets in Texas.22 Once Taco Cabana entered the Texas markets in which Two Pesos operated, Taco Cabana brought an action against Two Pesos in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas for trade dress infringement.23 The parties tried the case to a jury, which was instructed to answer a series of questions the trial judge had prepared relating to Taco Cabana's trade dress claim.24 The jury responded: Two Pesos appealed to the Fifth Circuit, which affirmed the jury verdict below.26 In doing so, the Fifth Circuit followed its earlier decision in Chevron Chemical and determined that the jury instructions adequately stated the applicable law and that the evidence supported the jury's findings.27 Among other things, the Fifth Circuit rejected Two Pesos' contention that the jury's finding of no secondary meaning contradicted a finding of inherent distinctiveness.28 An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court ensued.

Following devolution, differences developed between UK countries in systems of measuring performance against a common target that ambulance services ought to respond to 75% of calls for what may be immediately life threatening emergencies (category A calls) within 8 minutes. Only in England was this target integral to a ranking system of 'star rating', which inflicted reputational damage on services that failed to hit targets, and only in England has this target been met. In other countries, the target has been missed by such large margins that services would have been publicly reported as failing, if they had been covered by the English system of star ratings. The paper argues that this case-study adds to evidence from comparisons of different systems of hospital performance measurement that, to have an effect, these systems need to be designed to inflict reputational damage on those that have performed poorly; and it explores implications of this hypothesis. The paper also asks questions about the adequacy of systems of performance measurement of ambulance services in UK countries.

Although many retailers recognize the value of managing store appearance and atmosphere to improve sales and consumer loyalty, few are aware that trade dress, a subset of trademark, may be used to protect retail environments from some forms of imitation. This article discusses the importance of trade dress protection for retailers and expands on the elements of trade dress, the parameters of trade dress protection, and the interaction of trade dress law with retail strategy. The authors also assess whether trade dress protection serves the policy goals of reducing deception and promoting fair competition for the benefit of the public as configured and interpreted under current U.S. law.