Design innovation and marketing strategy in successful product competition

Purpose Taiwanese computer and electronic products possess advantages in design, innovation, rapid response, and global market flexibility. This study aims to examine Taiwanese computer and electronics firms to explore the product marketing strategies they adopted to deal with global competition. Furthermore, it is intended to analyze firms in different marketing strategic groups in terms of their product design strategies and how they incorporated design and marketing strategies into design innovation. This analysis is applied as an integrated innovation model for allocating design and marketing strategies. Design/methodology/approach Based on a questionnaire survey and case studies, the marketing strategies adopted by the Taiwanese computer and electronics industry can be classified into the categories of “market leader”, “market focus”, “market challenge” and “market niche”. Findings Firms employing different marketing strategies employed different design innovation strategies in product design. The design strategies adopted by enterprises in the market leader group incorporated aggressive innovation; those in the market focus group were characterized by focus innovation in product design; those in the market challenge group exhibited strong innovation integration in product design; and those in the market niche group exhibited flexible innovation in product design. Originality/value The innovation models adopted by the Taiwanese computer and electronics industry were related to enterprise scale, business type, and product development category. Results of this study provide a valuable reference for enterprises with regard to R&D and marketing in relation to product innovation.