When products speak differently: Designing new languages for established products

Innovating product language has been proven to be an effective measure to change what products mean to customers and create new product categories. However, how to embed a new language into a product characterized by an established design has not been addressed in the past. Thus, we discuss a single case study of Videndum, a company producing premium branded tools and accessories for content creation (i.e., photography supports and accessories) that is redefining their product language and seeking to incorporate new narratives into their existing line-up of products. Our case study is based on 18 interviews across all levels of the organization, analysis of archival data and observations to explore the actions the company is taking to change product language for their established products. Our findings show that designers can work at the level of the design principles to inform how new meanings can be embedded into signs at the product level, to build a new coherent product language. We identify two layers of design principles, value-principles and solution-principles, and show their different impact on product language. By doing so, we contribute to understand how companies design new product languages for established products in practice, providing managers with practical knowledge on how to perform the translation from abstract values to product features.