FreshNetworks Blog

Mass customisation is at one end of the co-creation spectrum – each product is customised for the particular customer who is purchasing it. Unlike what we often think of as co-creation, the individual customer does not influence the product for others. But they co-create their own product with the brand to deliver a customised version.

There has often been an element of mass customisation in higher-value products (such as cars or houses). But the internet has allowed mass customisation on a broader scale and for a wider-range of products. Brands can work with customers to co-create certain elements of their product or sometimes more fundamental aspects of the product itself.

Dell allows customers to customise every single product it sells. This is co-creation on a very individual stage – each customer choosing from a set of options to customise and create their own perfect machine. Whilst this approach doesn’t mean that every computer is different it does dramatically increase the options and configurations open to the consumer. And it allows the consumer to work with the brand on the final design and assembly stage of the product to create something that is right for them. Levis on the other hand does allow a customisation process by which, in theory, no two pairs of jeans need ever be the same.

Mass customisation has only become a viable means of co-creating with consumers once the process can essentially become self-serve. The design of the manufacturing process is such that the customer can guide and control the final assembly stages and influence what their product looks like. They can work with the suggestions and process that the brand has laid out to achieve this.

Of course, this is really ‘co-creation lite’. Whilst it allows for customers to work with brands to tailor and refine their own product it does not input into product design of the brand experience of others. Whatever great combinations and suggestions that people have to customise their own product there is usually no overt and direct mechanism for this design to be replicated across the brand and made available to others.

There are examples of organisations that do this. Allow people to customise their own product but then work with others to decide which are appropriate for a wider production and a wider audience. This is stronger co-creation and will be the focus of our next installment in the Co-Creation Series.

Some more reading

• Guide on Niche Product Creation
• Distributed Mass Customization: Is Etsy the Next eBay?
• Guidelines: One size fits all or eventual move to mass customization?

A new study from ExpoTV shows that 55% of consumers want an ongoing dialogue with brands. The study investigates how brands and consumers interact, and in particular how consumers want brands to engage them. And the results are exciting. In addition to the 55% wanting an ongoing dialogue, 89% of respondents said they would feel more loyal to a brand if they were invited to take part in a feedback group

These results mirror our own experiences, where involving people in a true feedback process has positive impacts on loyalty and advocacy. The ExpoTV survey looks into this in more depth and shows also how consumers will spread this positive message.

Of those who have a positive experience, 92% said they would recommend the brand to somebody else. Perhaps more striking from the perspective of generating buzz, 60% of people said they would tell 10 people or more about a brand they liked and a third would tell 20 people or more. There is a lot of willingness to create buzz and word-of-mouth for a brand that you like. There is a real strengthening of positive feelings when a brand engages a consumer. And there is a real willingness on the part of the consumer to take part in such engagement.

These are the building blocks of a really successful word-of-mouth and advocacy campaign. People want to be engaged and if you do it, this will only have a positive impact on feelings towards the brand.

For every 100 consumers about 55 want to engage with you. And nine out of ten of those that you engage would feel more positive about you as a result. So from any group of 100 customers that you try to engage in a feedback group or online community, 50 would be more loyal to the brand as a result.

From these 50 people, about a third (or 16 people) would tell more than ten people about the brand (so at least 160 people from our group) and another third would tell more than 20 people (so at least 320 people from our group). So as a conservative estimate from those 100 people you try to engage:

• 50 of the original 100 become more loyal to the brand, and tell a further
• 480 other people about how positive they feel about the brand.

This survey helps us to understand motivation for taking part in an online community or feedback group, and the benefits it will cause.

As a conservative estimate, these results suggest that for every 100 people you try to engage in an online community, 50 will leave more loyal to the brand and a further 480 people will hear about this loyalty through word-of mouth. That’s a huge impact for engaging a relatively small number of people.

There is a real willingness on the part of the consumer to engage with brands, and a real and demonstrable benefit to the brand of them doing this.