This picture of a balsa wood mock-up reminded me about some of aspects that influence brand image. What you can see on the left is a picture from the Design Hall of the Canon Camera Museum where the company describes the design process for new cameras.

Now, most people don’t care about Canon’s camera design process, but some customers do - the passionate customers. These passionate customers are the ones that go around and tell everyone about the latest products they bought. They are the enthusiasts that are counting the days until a new product is released. They are the ones that want to know that Canon is using balsa wood mock-ups to ensure that their cameras have a good grip.

The information that Canon published about the Camera Design Process, is the information that passionate users "need" to feed their information lust. (see Trendwatching.com’s trendreport on "INFOLUST"). Feeding your customers’ infolust (maybe one can even design services that feed this infolust) is an essential building block to deliver extra value that customers get when they "engage" with your products and brand.

While clicking through the short articles and images that describe Canon’s design process I was wondering if the brand image that I have about Canon has changed as well. Although I am not a Canon customer, I think that my Canon brand image and the relationship with the company changes if I understand how a product has come to life. I wonder what impact the pictures of the balsa wood mock-ups have on me next time I am holding a Canon camera in my hands. I guess it will be positive, cause I can tell others how the camera came to life (balsa wood, clay and plastic mock-ups).

What does that mean for your business? I am convinced that most companies have a story to tell - the story of a product’s genesis. Instead of spending money to make your brand more "authentic", why don’t you launch a website that tells your customers how your product or service comes to life? What are the stages between the initial idea and the final product? Summarize them, make them available, invite your customers and give them a story they can tell. The Canon Camera Museum is a great case study for that.

As a Sidenote: If you are a product designer or plan to build a product prototype make sure to check out Canon’s Balsa Wood Mock-Up Modeling Tutorial.

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