In this era of globalization and the shift to the digital world, the consumers are disposed with an array of choices of products and services that they are in need of, and thus, the consumers loyalty shifts from time to time, the consumers’ requirements, necessitates that New Product Development (NPD) at an organization connects with the consumers to churn out the service and products in lieu with the needs and demands of the target segment.
One such process for NPD is called ‘Co-Creation’, and with the advent of social media channels and online services, the customers get involved by sharing ideas, opinion, and advice in relation to a new product offering and, hence, create their own product (Constantinides, 2011).
The concept had been embraced by companies globally to create a strong relationship with the customers, since the primary intent on any business is to have a loyal customer base, and what better to make the customers a party in the product development process.
The co-creation NPD process is utilized for the ideas in relation to, new products, brand development concepts (logos and other branding collaterals), service concepts and ideas for a tactical promotion.
The major benefit of the process is that since, the customers are the beneficiary of the final results in view of the aforementioned, the ideas and innovation process gets a major boost in terms of production and marketing.
The five vital steps elaborated by Sabrina Gaete (2012), are most useful to understand the process of co-creation that starts with the company determining the community to be interacted with, which is willing and enthusiastic to be a part of the process, secondly a selection of the platform is required, i.e. social media, focus groups, emails, phones, interviews, that help in the personalization of the opinions and experience most effectively.
The third step is prop the interaction mediums with tactical messages to make the customer most important in relation to the process, helping in proposing new experiences and finally the starting point of idea sharing with the customers.
Some of the major global companies that have been using co-creation as part of the NPD process to maximize the brand equity in terms of loyalty and profits are; Coco-Cola, FedEx, General Electric to name a few (Nazlioglu, 2013).
Coca-Cola has done many campaigns to connect with the Millennial segment, who are the leaders when it come to the digital population, and to create an individual customer experience, the company launched an innovative ‘FreeStyle’ machine, to make the Millennial create new flavors and combination, thus effectively enabling co-creation and customization.
The process allowed the customers to save their selected blends in a mobile app and that is then saved in all the FreeStyle machine, the ingenuous and innovative idea was the epitome of the co-creation NPD process, since it was done in real time and opened up numerous opportunities for Coca-Cola to enter new markets with new flavors to create new revenue streams (Dan, 2013).
The new age business environment necessitates the utilization of the co-creation NPD process, to be able to not only get the most relevant information from the consumer segment but also, to create new markets as able illustrated by Coca-Cola’s aforementioned campaign.
References
Constantinides, C. (2011). Co-Creation and New Product Development. One Desk.
Retrieved from http://www.onedesk.com/co-creation-and-new-product-development/
Dan, A. (2013). Just How Does Coca-Cola Reinvent Itself In A Changed World. Forbes.
Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/avidan/2013/10/07/just-how-does-coca-cola-reinvent-itself-in-a-changed-world/#69962e56896d
Gaete, S. (2012). Five Steps to Co-Creation. WOBI.
Retrieved from http://www.wobi.com/blog/co-creation/five-steps-co-creation
Nazlioglu, M. (2013). Co-Creation: 5 examples of brands driving customer-driven innovation. Vision Critical.
Retrieved from https://www.visioncritical.com/5-examples-how-brands-are-using-co-creation/
