Polish Your Brand With Co-Creation "A revolution in both marketing thought and practice is at hand," say three researchers in an interesting new report on brand marketing.
In their research, these authors examined "consumer co-creation in an empirical context"—specifically, creative consumer behavior in nine brand communities across a wide array of products, including Apple Newton (a personal digital assistant), the BMW Mini, Jones Soda and even Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
The results? "Our findings suggest that there are specific recipes for managers to follow to foster brand community," they report. Among their tips:
Seed innovation. Marketers need to move beyond observing/rewarding consumer behavior to seeding innovation in brand communities, they advise. Example: If your fans are engaging in brand-based online activities, but not really connecting with each other, foster or sponsor more social-networking practices at your site (think image- or music-sharing) to get them thinking.
Offer customization. Encourage brand community members to "participate" in the brand. Example: "Firms could create a website that allows consumers to tweak the brand logos to suit their own color schemes or to include owner names or initials, perhaps going so far as to sell customized brand logos."
Reward creativity. As community members get more creative, companies may want to join in. "Firms might … [go] so far as to release official branded versions" of consumer-generated products, the researchers suggest. Example: A consumer finds a way to give her Mini car "the showroom shine [that] off-the-shelf options do not provide." BMW might join forces with the customer, and produce a branded version of her formula.
The Po!nt: Plant those polishing seeds. These days, brand marketing is about encouraging and benefiting from your customers' creative innovations. Let 'em loose and see what happens!
Source: "How Brand Community Practices Create Value," by Hope Jensen Schau, Albert M. Muñiz Jr. and Eric J. Arnould. Journal of Marketing, 2009.
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