Barack Obama’s election
victory was the outcome of a collaborative movement; a campaign
that was built around a strategy of engaging with the voters and listening
to their views and their stories; a campaign that helped build relationships
with the masses. Reaching out to five million supporters on 15 different social
networks and 50 million viewers on YouTube, his was the first political campaign
that truly harnessed the power of social media. It exemplifies co-creation, a
concept introduced by Prahalad and Ramaswamy (Prahalad, 2000) that represents
the dramatic and challenging transformation towards a two-way communication
mode with consumers.
The advent of social media marked the beginning of
the age of listening. This is not to say that marketers have not been
“listening” in the past. They have been doing so through market research, but
in a controlled question–answer or stimulus–response environment. What’s
changed is the ability to “listen” to unsolicited feedback about their
brand from hundreds or thousands or millions of consumers and “see” how they
relate to it and how they use it.
As consumers increasingly express their views and
ideas online for brands that they harbour feelings for, companies need to keep
abreast of the dialogue, and anticipate opportunities and threats. Today one
can ill afford to underestimate the power of a small minority to influence the
masses. While companies lose control, they gain a movement, one that is both an
opportunity and a threat. And whether this shift in power evolves into
something constructive or destructive, is dependent largely on how they
respond.
Co-creation is one of the most constructive
avenues of channelling consumers’ affinity for a brand and their desire to
engage with it. It is a process where brand owners collaborate with consumers
in creating brand value. To effectively co-create, marketers need to listen
emphatically to what their consumers are saying with the intent to understand.
Once they understand their consumers, brand owners should join the
conversations, learn from consumers and share their brand knowledge and
expertise; empower consumers to advocate their brands, and become empowered by
consumers to shape the future of their brands in a manner that is meaningful to
the people who matter.
Exhibit 18.4
Nike By You is a service that allows you to customize your shoes exactly how you want them.
Exhibit 18.5
Blue Nile lets you design your own diamond engagement ring.
An interesting example of co-creation is
Nike By You, Exhibit 18.4, a service that allows consumers to customize their shoes exactly how they want them.
Another exciting example is Blue Nile,
Exhibit 18.5, an online jewellery retailer that lets customers design their own diamond engagement ring.
A related concept, crowdsourcing is the process of
soliciting ideas or content from a large group of people, usually an online community.