The flames of 3D marketing

Presentations and awards during the raumbrand.Forum 06 were oxygen to the fire of design and marketing ideas.

Where is 3D marketing heading - is it really changing so much?" This is the question that around 250 participants from the fields of marketing, design, architecture and trade fairs met to discuss during the raumbrand.Forum in the Wappenhalle, Munich. The conference was held on November 9 for the fourth time by WengerWittmann with media partners, including m+a report. In his opening speech, Franz P. Wenger described the overall situation in 3D marketing, with many unanswered questions: What makes people tick? Where is the purchase switch? Can we rely on our perception?
Hans-Georg Häusel, a trained psychologist and chairman of the group Nymphenburg Retail Consult AG, was the first to speak and soon dispelled the myth of the rational client with findings from modern brain research: 70 to 80 % of decisions are made unconsciously. Emotions are central to all decision-making. Marketing should therefore differentiate more according to age, gender and type of client to reach them at this level. Stefan Sielaff, head of design at Audi AG, then showed how a brand can develop over the years using the example of his own employer. The image transition from traditional to progressive also affected the design of the car dealers premises, advertising and trade fair appearances. Holger Rust, a sociologist from the University of Hanover and business journalist, rounded off the morning with a slightly satirical attack on figures-based trend and market research. Every success is individual and irreproducible. "There are no recipes" was his conclusion.
In the afternoon, the conference split into two series of specialist discussions. Under the heading "Success with fairs" Franz P. Wenger argued: "Not lack of consumption is behind Germany's economic slowdown, but lack of seduction." Trade fairs were an optimum platform to counter this dilemma and definitely had a future. Management consultant Elke Clausen concurred with the words "Trade fairs have never been as valuable as they are today". Companies only had to use them effectively, she warned.
In the concurrently held presentations "Strategic brand management" the founder of MetaDesign, Uli Mayer-Johanssen, used the examples of South Tyrol and Lufthansa to show how addressing the senses can create product awareness. Frieder C. Löhrer, chairman of Rolf Benz AG, spoke about how the "architecture of sitting" can be successfully put into practice at trade fairs, in the Internet and in commercial outlets.
There was big applause in the evening when the new German prize for three-dimensionality DP3D was awarded. With Lisa Maria Franke, managing director of Bayern Design GmbH, compering, the winners from 168 submissions in the main categories "Building", "Worlds of experience" and "Product worlds" were presented their "Golden flame '06". The DP3D makes the link between design and brand: it not only judges form, function and aesthetics but also brand transfer to the product, staging or building. This was followed by the finale of the event when three personalities were presented with special "Lifetime achievement" and "Best entrepreneur" awards: Doyen of design, Richard Sapper, and Hartmut Esslinger, founder of frog design, refused to see their life's work as completed, though. The multitalented Willy Bogner was honoured for his successful combination of brand and design.

m+a report Nr.8 / 2006 vom 08.12.2006
m+a report vom 8. Dezember 2006