The Idea: You can’t ignore co-creation if you want to succeed. Research shows that 70% of companies that deliver best in class customer experience use customer feedback. When the customer is involved in the innovation process, you always create a better solution.
The co-creation philosophy works.
Over the last 10 years I have been an evangelist for the co-creation process between brands, their manufacturing partners, and their customers. I have personally experienced the benefits, the competitive advantage, and, unfortunately, the misunderstandings that accompany it. It is an art form; it is controversial; it is not going away.
We all want to be a part of the creation process. And today’s new Millennial consumer is even more invested in the process: “81% of Millennials would be interested in helping a brand or company design a new product.” Allowing others to co-develop a solution encourages commitment, and scratches the innovation itch we all possess.
Co-creation (or collaborative innovation) is when an organization carves out space to work together with their partners and customers on new innovation ideas. All co-creation experiences are built on three practices: a) transparent sharing of ideas, b) the involvement of the consumer, and c) discovering or improving on new innovations.
We see this today modeled through YouTube’s user-generated content, Wikipedia’s mass-collaboration, and Target’s exclusive, custom innovation model. In each of these trends the consumer is involved, there are limited boundaries and it’s disruptive.
The fathers of the idea of co-creation are researchers C. K. Prahalad and Venkat Ramaswamy who early on argued that the future of competition advantage will be the art of co-creation. Organizations must be more flexible, agile, collaborative, boundary less – and astute at knowledge transfer up and down the organization.
The benefits of co-creation are significant. Consumers benefit from personalized solutions; retailer’s offer brands or services that make them distinct in the eyes of the consumer; brands achieve advantage by turning new knowledge from customers into something that differentiates them from their competitors.
The co-creation mindset expands organizational boundaries and encourages a more curious, innovative culture. The process encourages loyalty, and generates more ideas than transactional engagements. It encourages deeper relationships, facilitates creativity, and truly forges larger relationships.
How do the best co-develop solutions with their customers?
- Uncommon Insights: They draw on a combination of insights, marketing ideas, emerging trends, design prototypes and thoughtful discovery questions forging deeper innovation discussions with their customers.
- Facilitated Discussions: They utilize facilitated customer discussions emphasizing discovery, curiosity, trend evaluation, uncovering future needs and aligning joint interests. They also have fun with the process – it is engaging and experiential.
- Mutual Learning: They ensure every co-creation discussion is a mutual learning experience. Knowledge is shared, ideas are discovered, expectations and follow-up meetings are agreed to upfront.
- People & Purpose: They are clear on the purpose and intent of their co-creation discussions. They invite the right people into the room, everyone has a clear role and everyone understands the rules of engagement optimizing the process.
Although internal research and marketing departments are essential to uncovering growth ideas, the impact of their ideas can be magnified once when they step out of their echo-chamber into the world where the customer lives.
Two heads are always better than one
