1. MKTG 6450: Design Thinking in Innovative Branding
Individual Final Paper: 50 Points
Due: Tuesday June 9 by 6:30PM* via Email
For the 4 questions below, answer in the clearest way possible. This is not a team exercise.
Please be specific and deep and provide examples where possible.
1. What did you learn from the Design Thinking principles & process that you feel
be can applied to either your further studies or your workplace or personal life?
(15 pts)
Design thinking has five stages. The five stages are Empathize, Define, Ideate,
Prototype and Testing. The stages can be entered in various ways when being used,
but they are generally presented in this order. The design thinking process is something
that I can apply to further studies, the workplace or personal life.
From the Empathize stage, I gained a new appreciation for using empathy to
generate a lot of feedback for a product idea. I had never considered before that there
was a link between excellent genuine feedback and empathy—it had never crossed my
mind before this class. Now whenever I have a product idea I will use empathy to get
more feedback, and will receive more genuine on-target feedback through this empathy.
I can use the empathy map to aid me in this process.
Having others ideate along with me helps make brainstorming less stressful. This
important finding will make me try to do brainstorming in a group setting rather than
alone whether at work, in further studies, or in my personal life. Having done ideating a
couple of times in the class also helped minimize frustration and nervousness.
I usually define the problem by sorting through the results of the ideation. This is
a process where there is grouping of ideas and looking over the results to see if an idea
emerges from these groups. From doing this in class, I saw that the efforts of my group
mates and myself helped to find the emergent idea. This gave me a feeling of respect to
my group since the emergent idea was not just mine, it was ours. This gives me a lot of
respect for the group process and taught me the value of teamwork that I will carry with
me into the workplace.
The Prototype phase gave me a chance to make something with my hands. In
the past, I have dreaded this because I felt I wasn’t very good at it. For the wallet activity
I did initially have trouble making Jasmine’s wallet, but I took it in stride and
reattempted. I did better than I thought the second time I had a go at the wallet. And I
was impressed! Through the experience of making Jasmine’s wallet, I learned that I
should just take things that are hard for me in stride, no panic, just do the task
thoughtfully and with focus, and that after this I could even be surprised at the results.
This positive attitude is another thing that I will take into the workplace and personal life.
The Testing phase reconnected me to my previous respondents. I felt this phase
not only made me go full circle but was a great way to be more thorough and emphatic
to the needs of the people who I was making a product for. The thorough nature of

2. making sure we get what our audience wants “right” pushed me to do the job with
excellence. This is a good trait to have in the workplace.
The design thinking process has a tight timeframe which pushed me to do work
fast. Working fast is necessary in the workplace at times. The design thinking process
helped me to be more spontaneous also, perhaps linked to the tight timeframe. I need
to be more spontaneous in my personal life because thinking through everything the
way I do can make me do things slower. The design thinking process also allowed me
to be more comfortable with ambiguity, since we were unsure of what we were doing or
what our idea would be yet we didn’t give up. Being more comfortable with ambiguity
and perseverance despite ambiguity is an important quality to have in my personal life
overall, as well as in further studies, workplace etc.
2. What links to innovative branding could you see with the DT process? How
specifically did you apply the principles of branding to help your Container
Project and team? (10 pts)
For our brand name for the container project we used a name that was not
generic-it was catchy and memorable (SmartCase was a name I came up with that won
through team vote). This goes along with the wisdom of The Law of the Name. The
SmartCase also did not have extensions that would cause confusion about our brand as
recommended by The Law of Extensions. Our product idea was narrow in focus
because of the define stage as The Law of Contraction and The Law of Expansion
would recommend. We want to own the word “smart” in the mind of the consumer as
the Law of the Word says and our brand name helps with that. We had a lot of
interesting features and did not just rely on quality alone (the feedback capture grid
helps develop ideas besides quality for the product to be known for) as The Law of
Quality would concur. We did not promote the company name for our product, which
goes along the Law of the Company that company names don’t have to be with the
brand name on the product.
3. What was your unique contribution to your team for the Container Project? (10
pts)
For the container project, we brainstormed several names for our suitcase idea, and the
name I came up with, SmartCase, got chosen. I chose the word smart because that we
had some really innovative features including the capability to charge your laptop or
cellphone in the suitcase. The name SmartCase fit conceptually and also had a nice
ring to it, so it was chosen.
For the container project, I also made some slides on the design thinking process we
underwent for our suitcase/container idea, and presented them. Some of my slides were
also used for other team member’s parts.
I also ideated for the suitcase/container idea, and I participated actively on both of the
two days we had in class for the project, and showed up to an extra team meeting. I
was fully present throughout the process.

3. 4. Applying the Design Thinking process to this course itself…how would you
structure a DT process that could improve and/or alter this course if it were to be
taught again? (15 pts)
The five stages of the design thinking process are to empathize, define, ideate,
prototype and test. I would undergo all of these stages in applying the design thinking
process to the course itself.
For the empathy stage, I would elicit feedback from everyone who took the class by
interviewing them and using empathy to get the best feedback possible (questions
would include how to improve/alter course if it were to be taught again). I would use the
empathy map (which has quadrants for quotes, what I think they’re thinking, what they
do (gestures), and the emotions they have). I would also use the teaching evaluations.
For ideating my team members and I would then use our smaller empathy maps to put
on one big empathy map. Then we would group similar items together. We will find a
commonality between the ideas or layer ideas to make a better idea. We would use this
to define the problem of how to improve the class. We can use the defining statement
that you provided for the container project to do this.
We can also use the feedback capture grid with the quadrants what worked, what didn’t
work, questions and ideas to sort through all the feedback.
For the define stage we can use the defining statement you gave us.
For the prototype stage we can use the feedback we have to design an improved
course.
For the testing stage we can gather feedback from the hopefully improved course and
redo the empathy stage. Then we can repeat the design process again and again for
every time that the course is offered.
*Any paper received after 6:30pm on June 9 but before 12pm on June 10 will be only eligible
for 40 pts total. Papers received after 12pm on June 10 will receive zero grade points.