Improving Product Clarity through Design
The SD Association is a global ecosystem of companies setting industry-leading memory card standards that simplify the use and extend the life of consumer electronics, including mobile phones, for millions of people every day. The Association does not manufacture, market or sell any product; it exists to create standards and then promote the adoption, advancement and use of SD standards used by competing product manufacturers that make interoperable memory cards and devices. Today, the SD Association has approximately 900 members involved in the design and development of SD standards.
As the industry standard, SD standards are used by hundreds of brands across dozens of product categories, such as digital cameras, televisions, personal navigation devices, mobile phones, smart phones, automobiles, computers of all types and video cameras, to name just a few. There are thousands of device models using SD standards today. The small memory cards developed to SD standards have become the most popular portable storage cards in the world.
“
“When the SD Association embarked upon a very challenging project that would have profound implications to the branding strategy of our new high performance SD cards, we needed an experienced consulting company to help guide and direct us through the process. K2 Brand Consulting not only had the industry knowledge and superior research methodology that made this process easy but also provided a wide range of brand creative concepts and participant lists that proved essential to the successful completion of this critical project. I’m very satisfied and extremely pleased with the outcome of this effort and would highly recommend K2 Brand for future strategy and brand related projects.”
— Jonathan Hubert, Board of Directors
SD standards continue to expand and influence memory card capacity, speed and performance, there is a critical need to communicate key performance visual indicators on host devices as well as on the front of each memory card so users can understand, and choose, the correct memory card for their needs. The SD Association retained K2 Brand to evaluate existing branding practices and to explore branding options across key target audiences – Consumers, Prosumers, Retailers and Members.
Both qualitative and quantitative research was deployed to capture target audience reactions to multiple card prototypes for clarity and understanding, communication of key information and preference. Feedback was clear and consistent across all groups, indicating a strong demand for increased clarity of memory card branding to ensure all users can easily choose the right card for their needs.