Project Introduction

With the advent of modern technologies, consumer expectations for the innovative easy-to-use appliances that can improve the quality of life have dramatically increased. To win in today’s ever-changing market, product innovation have become crucial for appliances manufacturers to gain competitive advantages. With enormous demand for innovative smart appliances, it is essential for Hong Kong appliances SMEs to enhance their product innovation capability and capture the new smart appliances market.

Product innovation refers to the process of developing and releasing a new or intrinsically altered version of a product into a market. It can include anything from how the product is designed and manufactured (for example, materials used and assembly method). Hong Kong electrical appliance industry is a traditional industry. Most of the manufacturers are SMEs, they used to focus on OEM business, recent years, some of them started to expand ODM and OBM business. However, many of them are facing difficulties as the product lifecycle is getting shorter because of increased competition. With suitable product innovation strategies, SMEs can effectively differentiate their product in the market by developing brand new products or modifying existing products, by then increase their competitiveness.

This project will focus on the investigation of 4 innovative appliances companies and study their key success factors. Ultimately, product innovation strategies and techniques will be composed into a guidebook for HK home appliances SMEs to gain knowledge of developing innovative products. Also, a full-day symposium and four half-day product innovation workshops will also be organized to equip our appliances designers with latest technique in product innovation development.

Disclaimer:
Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material/event (or by members of the Project team) do not reflect the views of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Trade and Industry Department or the Vetting Committee of the SME Development Fund and the Dedicated Fund on Branding, Upgrading and Domestic Sales (Organisation Support Programme).