Make your costumers become your friends! / Students-generated content
Did you know that the most valuable idea of your business could be created by a costumer? It is possible thanks to the strategy of co-creation. It is the process where brands and customers work together to create better ideas, products and services. Companies use this strategy to foster the discovery of customer interest and value, which they can turn into innovation and competitive advantage. The process starts with setting objectives and proceeds through four additional steps: selection of arenas, engagement with collaborators, choice of project tools and processes and defining contracts with stakeholders.
One of the most popular strategies for co-creating is crowdsourcing. It is a model that companies use to reduce costs, increase their options and scope for creativity, save money and to get your consumers involved and your target audience invested. The most important thing about this model is that you can create a relationship with your consumers and obtain a valuable feedback from them. Making them feel like they are part of your company and creators of your content will create a bond that will be unbreakable.
There are some companies that know how to take advantage of this strategy. One of them is McDonald’s, which created a contest that gave the costumers the chance to create their own perfect burger. That also created free content for McDonald’s, because the creators had to do their own campaigns, creating valuable content marketing for them. The burger that won the contest was released every week, along with the picture and short bio of the creator. Here you have a video of the contest:
Another good example is the case of Adidas. They let their followers of Twitter decide all the elements that the Fashion Week of New York would include. They created a votation method in Twitter, where people could show their preferences for things like music, lights, scenography, clothes, etc. This gave Adidas an image of closeness between brand and consumers and the loyalty of their consumers increased.
Starbucks used a similar strategy to get feedback from their most loyal costumers. They created a website where people could send suggestions not only about the food and drink but all that involved the brand itself. For example, some of the innovations that came from the costumes were an app for Android, new products, a Loyalty Card called My Starbucks Rewards, etc.
As we have seen with this example (and many more), this strategy of creating content with the help of your audience is a perfect method to create a relationship with your consumers, as well as increasing notably the creativity and innovation capacity of your company.
Do you want to create a co-creation strategy? Click here and discover how!
References:
- http://tweakyourbiz.com/marketing/2015/07/10/9-great-examples-crowdsourcing-age-empowered-consumers/
- http://www.youngmarketing.co/proyectos-de-marcas-via-crowdsourcing/
- http://www.marketingjournal.org/collaboration-and-co-creation-the-road-to-creating-value/
The content was generated by students: Andrea Pino, Andrea Rubio i Clàudia Nuñez