Co-creation has been an emerging theme in recent years – where customers move from being passive receivers of your product or service to actively engaging in the production and creation process. Here’s the latest example of it:
At MyJones soda, you upload your own picture to go on the label of your soft drinks bottles, suggest recipes and write your own blurb on the back of the label. Then they deliver it to you in 12-packs. In Canada, it’s now the second largest drinks company after Coke, according to marketing guru Peter Fisk.
Their most popular flavor? Turkey and gravy soda. You can order a whole Xmas or Thanksgiving meal meal in soda version, in fact, including cranberry soda to mimic the side order of cranberries with your turkey.
With MyJones soda and the growth of ‘design your own’ t-shirt websites that follow a similar pattern, plus ‘co-creation’ companies like Build-A-Bear Workshops, the customer relationship and the customer experience is now very different from what it used to be. Are you keeping up?
Phil,
I think co-creation is a terrific example of customer engagement where everyone can win. Online communities are playing a growing role in facilitating this co-creation. One of my current favorities is where a community of Nokia phone users request features and function they would like for their phones and other tech savvy phone owners provide the solution. Once you participate in this kind of community it is hard to imagine switching to another vendor.
John
John I. Todor, Ph.D.
Author of Addicted Customers: How to Get Them Hooked on Your Company