Don’t discount material choice in product development.
Brand
Oxo products are a great example of material choice building brand equity. Oxo came out with a line of kitchen utensils using TPR overmold as a design element. Oxo became known for ‘black handles’ along with clear, user-based forms.
Product
Choosing the right material can make or break a product. It is worth defining form, function and size to accommodate material properties in product design. Target has chosen bright red plastic shopping carts that function well, build brand equity and quite possibly are reducing the number of carts taken for repurposing.
Innovation
Hydration packs have been around for a couple decades and only one brand has solved the ‘not taste like plastic’ issue. Mazama chose to change the hydration bag material and use a different material process to fabricate their bags. The new material, slightly more expensive than the standard PU, greatly reduces the plastic taste when drinking from a hydration pack on the trail.