Traditional Lightbulb Shapes Were Used Except for Decorative Bulbs

During the development stages of this marketing plan, Philips discovered that the design of a lightbulb (the shape of the bulb) is very important to consumers. Research was done with different shapes, and consumers said that they wanted their lightbulbs to have a traditional shape, except when they were using them for decorative purposes. This became the basis for the design of Philipss lines of long-life lightbulbs.

Marathon was the most difficult. From a design standpoint, Philips had to make a fluorescent lightbulb look like an incandescent lightbulb. In the past that had always been one of the barriers to fluorescent technology.

People were used to the shape of an incandescent lightbulb. When Philips had come out with bulbs that looked like little fluorescent bulbs, it had had difficulty selling them. Because of this, many of the Marathon lightbulbs were designed to hide the fluorescent tubing and to look exactly like an incandescent lightbulb.

DuraMax lightbulbs were based on traditional incandescent technology and had the traditional lightbulb shape. Halogena, however, departed somewhat from tradition. Because of the beauty of the light from a Halogena lightbulb, many consumers wanted to use these bulbs for decorative purposes. Therefore, the shape of these lightbulbs was designed to be more artistic, so that they would be appropriate in a fixture that showed the lightbulb.