Improving brand outcomes through consumer co-creation: An agile formula for success

Abstract

This paper analyses how consumer perception makes and breaks brands. Historically, brand owners have sought feedback from their audience to mitigate the risks of failure and improve the ways in which they develop and market their products and services. The collection of such feedback has assumed many forms over the past 60 years, from door-to-door interviews to direct mail surveys and from customer service hotlines to chatbots driven by artificial intelligence. Nevertheless, the utility of such exercises remains limited. How might the dynamic change if consumers assumed a more active role in guiding solution development through an agile and iterative creative process? Once radical and still underutilised, consumer co-creation initiatives have demonstrated the power and potential to challenge entrenched marketing behaviours and reshape conventional wisdom around how brands view, engage and activate their audiences. Moreover, co-creation offers marketers an opportunity to meaningfully increase speed to market and improve their odds of commercial success when compared with traditional customer feedback implementation methodologies.