Co-Creation and Simplicity

[Kelly Mack]

Co-creation or the offer of a brand to share creating an experience with customers can offer an enticing method of involving people in their brand. It can be exciting when a brand we enjoy asks us for help or to participate in their offerings. But I find that I don’t have the spare time to create videos and enter co-creation contents presented by brands. Give me a simple way to get involved and I’ll more likely be hooked.

“Co-Creation Rules” by James Cherkoff and Johnnie Moore present some guidelines for developing successful co-creation programs by brands. Rule #12 especially appealed to me: Lower Barriers: “If the relationship is going to last, it probably needs to be low maintenance.” Basically, co-creation must be easy.

Very few people are going to spend 10 hours creating a video about how much they love a brand. Only your most ardent fans will spend more than a few minutes participating in a co-creation project.

I think the best way to start and still keep it simple is to just ask for feedback. How can the brand be better for the customer? How can we better your experience, life, product etc.?

Starbucks earned huge public relations points and honored customers when it not only asked these questions, but started implementing what the company considered to be the best ideas. Starbucks collects this feedback at My Starbucks Idea and reports back on the ideas selected for adoption. Customers are literally creating the brand with Starbucks.

The trick with co-creation is to make it simple enough for customers to participate easily, but interesting enough for it to be worth their while. Some companies offer reward for co-creation, but according to Cialdini (Influence) reward can backfire and decrease long-term involvement. Ideally, brands need the reward to be a part of the process for creating a more enduring bond, such as the enjoyment of participating in creating something new.

The bottom line with co-creation is to make it easy and valuable, just like the entire social media experience.

[Siwar Bandar]

Hi Kelly - I like how you emphasize low barriers. I've always found that people forget that technology platforms are not about the technology but rather about engaging people in some way. The technology plays 2nd fiddle to the actual questions and goals at hand. Sure some people get excited about the platforms themselves - but only as far as the services they provide them (in most cases anyway).

[Allegra Giorgia]

Good points, Kelly. I think that Cialdini may be right if the "reward" is something materialistic. Participate in this and we'll give you a free "xyz" versus participate in this and we'll consider your input, change the way we do things (like Starbucks). This makes that "reward" more personal and valuable to the participant. If the project offers a real "reward" that is of personal value, I think the program is likely to have more success in creating those deeper engagements - like the one PBS is looking for.