"A design-centric lifestyle brand"
Hannspree launches a "design-centric lifestyle brand" offering designer TV's in three categories, Sports, Fantasy and Style. Coming across the link in Chris Anderson's blog, I decided to dig around their website a little to see who owns them, and no surprise, it's a Taiwanese company. They had no choice but launch this product line, it seems. A clear example of transitioning from an OEM to an OBM.While each series has some fun shapes, it's a flash website with very poor navigation, so be careful as you'll be thrown back to the "intro" every so often to start browsing all over again. The launch of this line has been covered by other newsblogs and sites, but what intrigues me is the "brand positioning" being articulated on their website. It reads like someone picked up a copy of Don Norman's Emotional Design and regurgitated the concepts right back.
We all know that good design should emotionally connect with the user, but would you beat your customer over the head with that fact? Here's a snippet to give you a flavor of what I'm talking about from their section titled "Emotional Connection with You",
"Our designs will tap into your dreams and desires. Our products will form an emotional bond with your style, your identity, your spirit, and your soul."
Personally, I don't think I want any TV set to bond with my soul, there's too much of that already.