What do you think of the potential for getting consumers involved in product development via the internet? Is this only an option for certain categories? Do you think that such efforts will be more about public relations than actual product development?
I recommend an article in the current issue of McKinsey Quarterly, “The Next Step In Open Innovation.” I provide a synopsis in the July issue of my newsletter Growth Strategies (contact me for a copy). The authors write that increasing numbers of organizations are now approaching innovation as a convergence of like-minded parties, or distributed co-creation, to use its technical name. LEGO, for instance, famously invited customers to suggest new models interactively and then financially rewarded the people whose ideas proved marketable. Threadless is also cited as selling merchandise online and in-store (hey, an integrated retailer!) that is designed interactively with the company’s customer base. Of course what facilitates this new approach to innovation is the rise of the Web as a participatory platform. Other examples of co-creation are cited. One of them is participatory marketing, which encourages customers to help create marketing campaigns. Approached in the right way, this is also an opportunity to start co-creating products with them. Last year, for instance, Peugeot invited people to submit car designs online and attracted four million page views on its site. The company built a demonstration model of the winning design to exhibit at automotive marketing events and partnered with software developers to get it included in a video game. Even business-to-business companies are starting to co-create with customers. http://retailwire.com/Discussions/Sngl_Discussion.cfm/13132
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