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Susan Perkins, a speaker at the marcus evans Industrial Design Summit 2010, discusses her strategies for designing products that are culturally sensitive and successful.

Interview with: Susan Perkins, Vice President – Global Design, Tupperware

Cannes, France, September 27, 2010- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Loyalty can be achieved if you care about the people who buy your products and strive to make their life a little bit easier, says Susan Perkins, Vice President – Global Design at Tupperware. Products that are relevant, serviceable and lasting are able to cross borders, but to ensure global success, cultural awareness needs to be injected into the product design process. The recipient of the 2009 Design Team of the Year Award and a speaker at the marcus evans Industrial Design Summit 2010, taking place in Cannes, France, 22 – 24 November, Perkins shares her vision of culturally sensitive and diverse teams who create products that serve a purpose, have an emotional impact on people and create brand loyalty.

Why is cultural awareness in the design process important and how can it be incorporated?

Susan Perkins: Cultural awareness is required to create products that solve real problems and add value to people’s lives. Different cultures share different values, behaviors and approaches to life. It is not a world where one size fits all. Designers who are culturally sensitive to these differences will be able to create solutions to problems. At Tupperware we have offices in almost 100 different countries, with food customs and cultures varying within their borders.M

To incorporate cultural awareness into the design process, first you have to realize or believe that it is important. We continue to focus on building a design team with diverse backgrounds, and see value in designers experiencing different cultures through regular travel, thus getting exposed to the real differences in the way people live. It is one thing to talk or read about it, but the real way to understand it is to be immersed in it.

What makes a product a global phenomenon?

Susan Perkins: For Tupperware, a product that is a global phenomenon is relevant, serviceable and lasting. Relevant products affect people; they have an emotional or cognitive impact on them. A serviceable product is able to serve a purpose. Finally a lasting product should do just that last without change; it should have the ability to stand up to the test of time. If you can do all three consecutively and successfully, the product will be able to cross borders.

How can one achieve product or brand loyalty?

Susan Perkins: A brand needs to engage people, not just sell to them. Loyalty comes when you really care about the people that buy your products and you strive to create something that makes their life a little bit better. People are loyal to brands that are loyal to them.

What are some of the upcoming developments that product design and development executives should prepare for?

Susan Perkins: The world, how we view one another and the perception of what really defines happiness are shifting. Humanity has long viewed the pursuit of progress as going hand in hand with the pursuit of happiness, but people are now beginning to question this connection. Bhutan does not measure GNP but rather gross national happiness. Positive psychology is the most popular course at Harvard. As people explore the pursuit of happiness they will look to build relationships with brands that connect, engage and care about them and the planet.

People will look for those corporations that are interested in providing goods and services that truly do assist them. They want people to really understand who they are, how they live, what they need and what makes them happy, and integrate what they are offering into their lives. I think this is a different way of approaching product development.

Contact: Sarin Kouyoumdjian-Gurunlian, Press Manager, marcus evans, Summits Division

Tel: + 357 22 849 313
Email: news@marcusevanscy.com

About the Industrial Design Summit 2010

This unique forum will take place at the Majestic Barri̬re Hotel, Cannes, France, 22 Р24 November 2010. Offering much more than any conference, exhibition or trade show, this exclusive meeting will bring together esteemed industry thought leaders and solution providers to a highly focused and interactive networking event. The summit includes presentations on engineering consumer experiences, successful product development, the eco-design revolution and heightening brand loyalty.

For more information please send an email to info@marcusevanscy.com or visit the event website at www.industrialdesign.com/media_GTM_sp

Please note that the summit is a closed business event and the number of participants strictly limited.

About marcus evans Summits

marcus evans Summits are high level business forums for the world’s leading decision-makers to meet, learn and discuss strategies and solutions. Held at exclusive locations around the world, these events provide attendees with a unique opportunity to individually tailor their schedules of keynote presentations, think tanks, seminars and one-to-one business meetings. For more information, please visit www.marcusevans.com

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Cutting-edge topics, luminary speakers, over 3200 talented delegates, leading IT brands as sponsors and the biggest summit for software developers in this part of the world - Great Indian Developer Summit (GIDS) Season II concluded on 25th April with a spectacular awards ceremony. The 2009 edition of Saltmarch Media‘s annual Great Indian Developer Summit, centered around the theme of Tools, Tips, Technologies and Tomfoolery to Beat the Downturn, featured a convergence of three on-the-radar co-located conferences that dealt with relevant and timely technical information for India’s IT developer ecosystem. For both veterans and newcomers to the world of .NET, Java, Rich Web and COBOL, the Great Indian Developer Summit provided participants with a well-balanced learning experience that guaranteed they went back with a richer understanding of the technologies that make a difference to their careers.

The shifting economic landscape is creating brand new opportunities for the software developer ecosystem. This is the time to learn something new, to rebuild your learning of technologies and regroup with your peer network. Simply put, this is the time to stay competitive and to make the downturn work for you,” said Dilip Thomas, Program Chair and CEO of Saltmarch Media.

The summit featured well over 120 incisive sessions that addressed topical and timely technology issues. The sessions were presented by over 75 speakers who shared their experiences, technical & market knowledge, and innovations, through keynotes, focused sessions, chalk talks and hands-on workshops. Speakers included visionaries, creators, luminaries and authorities from the world of software development and information technology.

Most organization’s start tightening their purse strings during challenging economic cycles and IT investments are most usually the first casualty. “When your organization goes into IT spend hibernation mode, your choices are to focus on saving money through reducing inefficiencies or creating money by harnessing innovative technologies, or both,” said Indu Britto, SVP & Group Publisher, Saltmarch Media. “Software implemented smartly can help organisations survive difficult times, but the approach should perhaps be altered. In tough economic times, I believe that in addition to smart approaches to software development the most important decision occurs before the first line of code is written. For this to happen, it is simply important for you to rebuild and re-educate yourself to new and innovative tools, tips and technologies,” she added.

Great Indian Developer Summit 2009 was chaired by Shri. M N Vidyshankar, Chief Election Officer & Former Principal IT Secretary, Government of Karnataka and supported by some of the world’s largest IT companies including Micro Focus, Adobe, Microsoft, Sony Ericsson Developer World, SAP BusinessObjects, Intel and RedHat among others.

Download all the available GIDS 09 presentation decks. Look up the gallery to view the moments, the wins, and the rapt attention, replete with stills and videos. The awards pages provide a window to the 2009 finalists and winners who emerged after three rigorous stages of evaluation. The blogs capture the brickbats and bouquets GIDS 2009 received from stakeholders. The press section houses a choice collection of the media reports written around GIDS 2009. Wrap up the GIDS 2009 tour by watching a video (coming soon) of Cyrus Broacha go berserk at the fun-filled Great Indian Developer Awards evening. If you have not, you should also watch Motherjane, India’s leading rock band, performing the Developer Anthem “Your Epitaph”, specially commissioned by Saltmarch Media as an ode to India’s developer ecosystem.