LOL. A little stale in the job perhaps? Can you imagine being the poor sod to have to follow him!
Another one along the same lines is Under Armour. They have found a market in the sports world that never truly existed before. Great branding, great product and great ethos.
Le Creuset: classic cookware
Bell & Ross: totally invented brand that has lead to some great premium product
Ikea
Target
Fender: There is something to be said for a brand that just knows what it is, who buys them, and why, and just sticks to that. I think you can out a lot of audio equipment corporations into this bucket. Peavy, Gibson, Numark…
Jeep: I think the new CJ really hits the brand feel, and the new Liberty and Grand Cherokee are very good (the rest, I’ll ignore)
I believe MUJI has been doing the Apple thing since the early before Apple became hip. At least, I remember seeing MUJI stuff during my early teens, the iMacs only came out much later.
Another I can think of is Alessi.
Agreed on the MUJI suggestion. If they couldnt be a design-lead-business exemplar, i’d be worried.
To answer the original question, here is a list I’ve kept over at my blog. It’s based on “strategic aesthetics” which considers things like usability and functionality but mostly focuses on companies using aesthetics as a clear differentiator. If you’re interested in reading the whole thing, you can check it out here: http://www.michaelroller.com/?page_id=385
Apple
BMW
Crown
IKEA
Method
Muji
Oakley
Skull Candy
Target
I actually want to update the list from time to time, because I’m sure there are some other good ones out there. I’m looking forward to the rest of this discussion!
I think a trend I’m beginning to see, in particular in fashion, is the “best cost” strategy. It’s an interesting one for sure, where lots of businesses are starting to offer consistently good design at affordable costs: Target, H&M, Ikea, Forever21. Even some product brands do this to a certain extent - Muji, Scion. I’m sure there are others that I can’t even think of right now. Any others jump out?
The trickiest part of best cost is that you have to be a “master of two.” Wal-Mart, for example, can focus on squeezing pennies out of anything and everything around their office and let design suffer a bit. On the other hand, Target has to balance cost and design. It sounds simple for a designer, but the real challenge for all of these brands is to create a *culture of people that know which ideas, forms, materials, and textures can be executed elegantly without a lot of cost.
Anyway, aside from my previous list, I feel like “best cost is so hot right now, best cost.” I’m not sure if it’s been pumped up by the recession or something else. Any thoughts on whether this is a good thing or not?
Michael, I got to call you out on those two!
Here are a couple more:
WESC
Nixon
It certainly seems to be the case in the UK at the moment, with stores such as Asda (part of WalMart), Aldi and Lidl apparently being a few of the only ones bucking the trend and actually seeing growth during the recession. Is it a good thing or not? I’m not sure. I think that it certainly means that the balance of design/cost has been tilted towards cost in a general sense (maybe you wont buy a pack of pasta because it has great packaging but because it is cheap), but then again I suspect that this makes the design of ‘big’ products more important (when money is so tight, if you are going to buy a new TV you are going to make sure that it is the best one you can get for your cash) and from the manufacturers point of view it is more vital than ever to make sure that it is your product that stand out, and design is one of the most cost-effective ways of doing this.
I definitely reckon that Muji is hot right now. And IKEA certainly seems to have hit the market right - though I can’t think of the last time I thought, ‘I REALLY want that IKEA table over any other table I have seen’ - I guess the point that I am making is that most people don’t aspire to own IKEA furniture, whereas people do aspire to own a MacBook or iPhone, in the same way that people aspire to own a Ferrari (maybe 
).
Yo - I knew someone would take issue with a few of those. But then again, that’s what makes it an interesting list, right?
Oakley sunglasses are eyewear that I will never own. And they keep it uglier in my opinion. But you have to hand it to them that they are strongly differentiated (because of design) from anything else out there. Eyewear relies heavily on design, and despite everyone trying to put their stamp on what an original pair of sunglasses looks like, Oakley seems to get it right for some part of the market. A super quick search about their financials yielded this article: http://www.shop-eat-surf.com/news-item/1060/oakley-ray-ban-growing-sales-in
On the other hand, I think Skull Candy is doing some cool things. I wouldn’t wear all of it, and I don’t expect it to be everyone’s style, but that’s often the case with strongly differentiated design. If you go to Best Buy or another electronics store and look for low-priced earbuds - the best ones will be Skull Candy. We did an earbud project last year and the project engineers were impressed with the sound quality too. Basically, no one was doing anything cool at the bottom of the market and Skull Candy came in and said “we can win here.” If you boil it down to it’s core, I think they were the only player at the low end brave enough to use bold colorways. They treated it more like fashion than CE, and the business is doing well: http://old.skullcandy.com/skullcandy-ceo-Entrepreneur-2008
Good points Michael. I still wouldn’t put them in my book of doing it right though because they both use design as a sales gimmick in my opinion. It is something to slather on top. Nothing against styling, and I think that their form work is making a cultural connection, but I think they could do more to appeal to the highest common denominator in their market.
Some more :
Cars :
Audi and Alfa-Romeo are doing a great job. 20 years ago Alfas were just a different kind of Fiats and no longer the icons from the past. And Audi was clearly behind the two upmarket leaders Mercedes and BMW. Now Alfas and Audis have gained or regained a consistent design language. Quality as greatly improved too from poor to ok for Alfas and from ok to role-model for Audi.
Watches :
Yes, Bell&Ross, definitely.
CkWatches too. Great design at cheap prices
Home retailers :
I agree with Ikea and Muji too. Ikea somewhat “semi-disposable” tho. And Muji : they stalled didn’t they ? I have the impression they have been selling the same (nice) things since they arrived.
Sports gear :
Decathlon as been doing a very deep and wide job with innovation driven design like the self opening tent, and plenty of others. Not the greatest stylists, but very strong innovators.
Electronics :
Samsung also greatly improved. Their products are consistent, they work on interfaces too. Only 10 years ago LG (formerly Goldstar) and Samsung, both koreans, were just me-too makers.
I really like the IBM / Lenovo Thinkpads consistency. They managed to keep alive the squarrish matt black designs of the eighties through all these years, keeping it in good shape. Not the slickest, sure, but those are some mean business machines. International business machines should I say ?
Small company LaCie outputs very nice products in their electronic storage niche.
The big ones Sony, Philips have had big design teams for a long time. Maybe they have too many products to consistently perform, but Philips was clearly a leader for the raise of the japanese electronics industry, and now the japaneses are the leaders for the koreans.
Haven’t spotted chineses doing it right yet.
I’m glad no one mentioned Dyson yet. He’s seen as a design icon in the UK. I just can’t stand seeing those products. A mix of parts from under the hood of a car with Fisher-Price colors. Yuk.
Well, that’s what on top of my mind.
Not that much aren’t they ?!
It strikes me how few of them we are finding.
going to stoke the coals a bit here, and take the liberty to elaborate on the OP’s initial post.
Apple, as was mentioned, is recognized for not only a consistent design philosophy, but also a cohesive and matching brand position. I’d also like to add into the mix the packaging, marketing end of things.
given that, I’m not sure if a lot of what has been posted would qualify as “doing it right”. Sure some of the brands mentioned have one or two good examples of design, but I think we can agree that Apple is in another class because of the overall cohesiveness of all the factors mentioned above and consistency in approach.
My vote for “doing it right” in response to some previous comments-
R
I doubt he’s bored. He’s been making hundreds of form iterations for every project he’s worked on since he was in school. He’s the ultimate design nerd.