Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Leading Design Strategist Lunar Design and Innovator Philm Rethink USB Flash Drives

Philm Transforms a Commodity Product into a Premium B2B Solution

San Francisco, Calif. -- Lunar Design and Philm announce their collaboration in creating premium value from the conventional USB flash drive. By combining proprietary content and best-in-class partners, Philm transforms conventional USB flash drives into a premium solution for leading companies interested in connecting powerfully with their customers.

“Our B2B product is giving Ferrari, NestlĂ©, Baume & Mercier, Lindt, and organizations such as the World Economic Forum and the International Olympic Committee a unique vehicle for one-to-one engagement with their stake holders, wherever they are,” says Bernard Kuemmerli, founder of Philm. “For those firms, Philm is not a USB stick – it is a new media that allows them to stay top of mind, whether their target group is online or not.”

At first sight the Philm sticks look like USB flash drives, but they behave differently in an important way. When you plug Philm into any computer, a customized navigation screen appears that gives you high-speed access to a company’s chosen content. The content can be similar to a company website with three distinct advantages. Unlike online content, Philm’s content can be very high quality, such as high definition video, because Philm is faster than viewing at clips over the internet. Second, the content is viewable whether or not the host computer is connected to the internet. And third, different from a DVD-ROM, the content is never out of date. Philm can be configured to be updatable over the internet so that price lists, evolving product specifications or personalized offers can be downloaded automatically whenever they change; the user can even give feedback or order directly from the stick. And while a DVD-ROM can lose its value after one or two viewings, the Philm stick maintains its usefulness as a flash drive for personal data. Thanks to Philm, the USB flash drive becomes a strategic communication and sales tool, allowing highly immersive and interactive communication with stakeholders.

Combining business analysis with creativity, Lunar Design founder Jeff Smith and former Bain & Company partner Bernard Kuemmerli created the unique strategy of Philm. Together they represent a perfect balance of the left brain and right brain thinking required to successfully create these paradigm-breaking business ventures.

Lunar led the development of the stick by building an unprecedented team of designers, engineers, manufacturers and software programmers. Kuemmerli fueled the business creation, using a seasoned ability to raise capital and build a network of premium customers who are now benefiting from Philm’s unique value.

“Design creativity is the anti-commodity,” said Smith. “For clients like SanDisk, we have seen how design can be used to differentiate products from their competitors’ offering and command extra value. The SanDisk Cruzer Contour, for instance, is one of our designs that uses exquisite material choices and pays special attention to the physical behavior of the device to get a higher price at retail. In the case of Philm, our experience in design creativity meant we could build an all-star team – experts in design and engineering and manufacturing – who put together a product delivering a new media experience that increases the value of a USB stick tenfold.”

About Lunar Design

Lunar creates winning consumer, technology and medical products that make a difference to its clients’ stakeholders, brands and markets. With a portfolio of highly successful products that have generated tens of billions of dollars in sales, Lunar has consistently held a spot among the top 5 award-winning industrial design firms for the last 10 years, according to Business Week magazine. Founded in 1984, Lunar provides full-service product development with offices in California, Hong Kong, and Europe. Lunar’s current and past clients include Apple Computer, Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft Corporation, Motorola, Philips, Oral-B, Palm, Pepsi, and Sony.

About PHILM

Philm is a trademark with patents pending around the world belonging to T’emogique, Inc, a company with headquarters in Palo Alto, California, and organizational units in Switzerland and Canada. The company has the intention of adding bottom line results to their clients by improving their one-to-one communication towards stakeholders through interactive media that work online as well as off-line.


For press information contact:
Amy Cunha
amy@bigpicpr.com
415-626-3333