KITCHENAID OTHER — JOHN LEDINGHAM

Other KitchenAid/Whirlpool Programs

I was fortunate to have worked on a wide variety of products during my tenure as the KitchenAid Design Studio Manager. The KitchenAid brand stretched enough to encompass countertop and major appliances, cooking tools and even licensed apparel. Below, you'll find a cross-section of that work. In some cases I was the creative director and in others I was the lead designer.

KitchenAid Europe Appliance Suite

This suite of major appliances was a collaboration between our North American Design team, and the European Design Center in Cassinetta Italy. I was the creative director, coordinating both North American and Italian teams. KitchenAid electrics have been sold in Europe for years and have been extremely popular. Major appliances, on the other hand, have been a tough sell for KitchenAid. European kitchens are traditionally smaller than those in the US, and a heritage-inspired American brand isn't a natural fit with European architectural spaces. This suite successfully combines the simple geometry of contemporary European kitchens, with subtle details from KitchenAid's design language.

KitchenAid Europe Refrigerator and Wine Storage

My team’s role: We were responsible for the up-front formative research, VBL (Visual Brand Language) development, Industrial Design, UI/HMI design, usability testing, ergonomic development/testing and vendor liaising.

My role: Creative Direction / Team Leadership

KitchenAid Architect Series Major Appliances

This enormous program included multiple SKUs spanning multiple product categories. The Architect Series has always been KitchenAid's "bread and butter", so getting it wrong was not an option (the BMW 3-Series of KitchenAid’s portfolio). In addition to the original program, our team was constantly working on rolling refreshes and feature update. One of the biggest challenges was ensuring design governance across a multitude of internal and external geographically dispersed manufacturing partners.

My role: Creative Direction / Team Leadership

KitchenAid Architect Series Countertop Appliances

After the development of KitchenAid's Pro Line Countertop suite, we were asked by Macy's to create a lower-cost alternative - the Architect Series. This tiering aligned well with KitchenAid's major appliance strategy and provided Macy’s, and other retailers, with a very appealing and accessible range of products. The result was very cohesive, and is still on the market today (KitchenAid continues to expand and refresh the line).

Architect Series countertop appliance renderings

My role: Creative Direction / Team Leadership (Design Lead for the Blender and Food Processor)

KitchenAid's Product Portfolio

My team at Whirlpool/KitchenAid was responsible for the Industrial Design, HMI/UI design, and ergonomics of all KitchenAid-branded products. All of the products below were designed by my team and, in some cases, I acted as the design lead myself.

My team’s role: Various

My role: Various

KitchenAid Brand Development

In 2006, Whirlpool acquired Jenn-Air/Maytag. While this provided Whirlpool with broader distribution and two highly-successful brands, it created a real problem from a portfolio standpoint - KitchenAid and Jenn-Air sat directly on top of one another in the market. Pricing was similar, features were nearly identical and, most importantly, they were often sold to the very same target consumer. Tony Kirk, newly-appointed Design lead for Jenn-Air, and I (the KitchenAid lead), set about re-crafting both brands to have their own identities - distinct from one another and entirely complimentary.

Analogies

The most effective tool we used, to help others to understand the differences between the brands, was storytelling. We employed analogies to explain how the two brands could now cater to different audiences - even thought the products were not entirely dissimilar. The images, above, show how a KitchenAid consumer would approach sailing - they would surround themselves with their friends and family so that they could all share in the experience. Conversely, the Jenn-Air consumer would set out alone, perhaps taking one or two people along for the sole purpose of entertaining them. This turned out to be the core difference in mission between KitchenAid and Jenn-Air: Sharing vs. Entertaining.

Personae & Positioning

We developed two sets of personae - one for each brand. We took the controversial step (for Whirlpool) of using a man for the KitchenAid persona. Traditionally, KitchenAid had viewed its customers as female. Our formative research clearly showed, however, that men had a disproportionate influence on the purchase decision when it came to KitchenAid products. This helped us to further differentiate the two brands as Jenn-Air's primary persona was a woman. We also worked with the brand organization to develop a set of positioning documents, further illustrating the core user benefits of each brand, as well as the brand architecture.

KitchenAid Brand Promise

KitchenAid Brand Positioning

KitchenAid Brand Architecture

Conclusion

Thanks to actionable formative research, and the highly effective collaboration between our design team and the brand organization, we were able to very clearly define KitchenAid and Jenn-Air as separate but complimentary brands. When the marketing messaging was later developed (again, based partly on our early formative research) the values of each brand became very evident to Whirlpool, our distributors/retailers and our customers/end users.

My role: Creative Direction / Team Leadership (collaboration with Syneo Design, Milano, Italy)

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