Talk about understanding the user and/or the target audience. As read in a recent article in PD&D, the heads behind the Makita circular saw redesign worked to establish a new look that would better connect with the emerging Latino consumer group. Their solution: brighter, more colorful designs with more silver metallic (read: chrome).

While more practical upgrades were also considered in terms of safety, functionality and practicality, there is something to be said about finding a way to get the saws off of the shelf and into users' hands.

It’s curb appeal baby. While safety, functionality and practicality upgrades sort their way through a given industry by word of mouth, someone has to pick it up and—while holding their new toy high above their head to brag about its aesthetic (pimpin’, cherry, money, sweet) new design—tell his associates how the new saw has a better balance and is easier to grip.

Buyer pride, with a splash of original marketing. It’s the reason I bought the iPod and not the five alternatives sitting next to it. Come to think of it, I’m not sure that I even looked at the alternatives. It’s the reason Blu-Ray is a hit and HD DVD is falling into Beta Max infamy. It’s the reason that when the Airbus A380 hit the scene, many of us sat back and said, “Let’s wait and see what Boeing has when they pull back the curtain.”

Why buy a carbon copy of old reliable, when I can roll up to the job site with old reliable’s younger, more attractive counterpart? Old reliable just doesn’t have a place in our culture of bigger, better and brighter.

The ability to pinpoint a demographic and hone a design to satisfy that group’s needs is the make-or-break variable. Understand your target market a bit better and know what target your product is supposed to hit.

Quality, of course, cannot become the sacrificial lamb on this journey to new product stardom. Because while you’re contending to have your product race off the shelves, you want to make sure they’re not back in two days piled high in a cart behind the customer service counter. While striving to become the latest and greatest, remember that you’re also striving to become the next old reliable.

Making concessions to appeal to a broader audience can also forfeit your potential success within a smaller community. One tactic that seems to work is looking for design inspiration in products and artifacts that define the niche you are looking to appease. Look at successful products, fashions, color schemes, etc. Find success in knowing whom that person will be; the one who’ll be holding up your product, and boasting of its features to his cronies. Know that the person is not just holding your product, but also using it to further define himself.