Know-How Exchange : Book Club

Yes, to all three reasons you give for inviting consumer input at the early stages. But you run the risk of having consumers tell you all these things they ideally may want in an item -- in a perfect world. And then when you take their advice and bring it to market, they say, by the actions, oh, we didn't mean that exactly, or now that we see it, it's not what we imagined. Haven't you seen that happen iwith input from focus groups?

Get the input, but weigh it very carefully.

I think the vast majority of brand work today is being done with existing organizations that have never truly discovered their brand. They have stayed on the surface, rather than digging deep enough to find the truth.

In those cases, I think it is imperative to invite the consumers in so you can find out where their heads are at. What they already think and "know" about the brand.

But, whether it is a new entity or an old one who's finally ready to do the hard work of branding -- I don't believe you let the customers dictate the brand. Instead, I think you let them help you identify language and themes that you use to wrap around the brand.

Drew

I see a picture. For a new company this may be more difficult if they don't have a well established sales network of salaried employees and manufacturer's representatives. But if they do, this is one potential scenario.

Outdoor furniture company https://www.jardindeville.com/products.html
makes umbrellas, gazebos, chairs, etc. They would like to create a new category for high class lounges/bars with terraces and patios; picture stylistic ergonomic sofas/chairs made from white plastic injection molding, with rear and bottom cushions. They begin designs and good prototypes.

Company creates an invite only website (login required) that has a Product Info section, DIY area, and a Discussion Board. Company invites sales reps, select clientèle, pr folks, writers, and some potential buyers to visit. With a flash interface, visitors can create and modify their own products by changing the plastic and fabric colors and cushion shapes. They can also save their picks and display them to others through the discussion board and on their profile. With this feedback on the first line and additional design molds, we have an interesting NPD process.

I could go on, but I think that's a great concept. Kind of like threadless.com but private and special. Ideas?

Here's my too bits:

On or about December 1910, Virginia Woolf wrote nearly 100 years ago that "human character changed".

No, I have not been walking around with that tid bit of info for the last dozen years. I just read it about 20 minutes ago in the April edition of Harper's Magazine that a friend of mine subscribes to which I swiped!

It's in an essay about what Woolf meant about modernism in society back then. To her we changed in an overt "self-consciouness that identifies and interrogates its own motions and motives".

Alright, now cut to last night. I was glued to YouTube for hours traversing this and that link, each of which was fascinating in its own way. I walked away completely buzzed, in part because I was entertained from iwhat I saw. The feeling was also due to the fact that about 80% of the videos were edited before they were were loaded up onto YT. The stuff they didn't like "said" about themselves was edited out.

I enjoyed their messages, probably because of the edits, since they kept the intended message focused. I also then reviewed the comments people wrote about what they thought about the viewed work. Which one was transparent? I vote neither. It's my belief - having spent too much time at media parties - that people don't listen in real time. ... especially when they've had a drink or two when their "supposed" guard is down (hmmm, a topic for another time).

Person/Brand A just waits until person B finishes (hopefully) what they had to say before person/Brand A continues to blob on with their thesis. A "One-up-person/brand-ship" in their own way.

I think people/marketers do listen what they heard, but later on, when they are by themselves, sifting through & digesting what they absorbed. But the editing still takes place. It's at that moment when the person/Brand decides/chooses who/what was true vs. untrue.

What happens if they are not intuitive? Even #'s lie. I know first-hand. I was in the agency business for quite some time, serving up "research" to clients :--)

Then there's the unfortunate situation where both a person or a company digests wrong info and acts on it. We are victim to this one time or another.

Social media or not, life is a crapshoot. That's what makes it both terrible and exciting.

For me, I've become very skeptical about social media (was it ever really not), which - in and of itself - is my editing what I prefer not to hear/read/say. I write that having "self-consciously identified and interrogated my own motions and motives"!

Suggestion, find yourself an evening and spend it on YT all night until you can't keep your eyes open.

Secondly, a question. No doubt you already guessed what it is, "whatever happened to Virginia Woolf"?

There are times when products were tested and the results said,"Won't work" but the believer on the inside went ahead ayway, and surprise it worked! And the opposite has also happened.

With something really new and different aka divergent, its great to test if we can and even greater to have the passion and know-how to decide to push ahead.

Should you involve consumers when developing new products? It all depends.

If the new product is something that fits in with the consumer's present life style, sure. The more feedback the better.

If the new product is truly revolutionary and its use or consumption would necessitate changes in the consumer's life style, be careful. The feedback is probably worthless.

Before Dietrich Mateschlitz introduced Red Bull, he did extensive consumer testing. The consumers didn't like the name; they didn't like the taste and they didn't like the packaging.

Mateschlitz introduced the product anyway and today Red Bull does $3.4 billion in worldwide sales.