As I am writting my thesis I found this nice video from the comScore Media Metrix, which is a global leader in measuring the digital world and the preferred source of digital marketing intelligence.
comScore provides syndicated and custom solutions in online audience measurement, e-commerce, advertising, search, video and mobile and offers dedicated analysts with digital marketing and vertical-specific industry expertise. Advertising agencies, publishers, marketers and financial analysts turn to comScore for the industry-leading solutions needed to craft successful digital, marketing, sales, product development and trading strategies.
The last guest lecture was really interesting and informative. She talked about the evolution in the means of advertisement and the value of co-creation. When I asked her to answer my question “Is co-creation a trend or a new standard” without a second thought she replied “Definitely, a new standard”. However, among the examples that she present from companies that successfully use co-creation, like Nike and Fiat there were examples of companies with great success which they scorn this new trend, like Apple (!) and Ford.
So if co-creation is a new standard how these companies manage not only to survive but also to be at the top without using it????
The words of Steve Jobs “You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new” and also Henry Ford who said “If I had asked my customers what they wanted they would have said a faster horse” puzzled me a lot. The truth must be somewhere in the middle I thought.
After having read the article Co-creation: a new source of value, by Ajit Kambil, G.Bruce Friesen and Arul Sundaram I realized that co-creation will be a new standard if it used properly so as to increase profits and loyalty.
Inspired by Harrah’s case I realized that what makes leader companies to be at the top except of the products quality is customer satisfaction. Sometimes satisfaction may be more important than product’s quality. Employees should also be satisfied in order to attribute in their best way. If employees and customers are satisfied then this will reflect to company’s outcomes as well. That is the reason that some companies stand out while others don’t. The combination of quality and satisfaction can be highly promising for a company’s future…
Social Media like You Tube, Facebook, Twitter etc have undoubtedly a huge impact on the consumers, either positive or negative. Inspired by the discussion that we have in the class about UnME Jeans case, I remembered a representative example of negative effect of Social Media. Musician Dave Carroll was travelling with United Airlines when he and other passengers saw baggage-handling crew throwing guitars on the tarmac in Chicago O’Hare on his flight from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Omaha, Nebraska. He arrived at his destination to discover that his $3,500 Taylor guitar had indeed suffered a broken neck. He tried to communicate with the Airlines but to no avail. He talked with three different employees who showed completely indifference towards him. Carroll says that his fruitless negotiations with the airline for compensation lasted nine months. Then, Carroll wrote a song and created a music video about his experience. The lyrics include the verse “I should have flown with someone else, or gone by car, ’cause United breaks guitars.” The song “United Breaks Guitar” became an immediate YouTube and iTunes hit upon its release in July 2009. It amassed 150,000 views within one day, prompting United to contact Carroll saying it hoped to right the wrong. The video garnered over half a million hits by July 9, 5 million by mid-August 2009, and 10 million by February 2011. Media reported the story of the song’s instant success and the public relations humiliation for United Airlines. The Times newspaper reportedthat within 4 days of the video being posted online, United Airline’s stock price fell 10%, costing stockholders about $180 million in value. What is for sure is that United Airlines lost a lot from this reaction.
I was searching to find examples of mass customization and as I am addicted to chocolate I found this “tasteful” example. This chocolate company gives you the opportunity to:
Now that we have accomplished our presentation (on Monday’s 16th lecture)…it is time to share with you our worthwhile experience to get there!
To begin with, we would like to share with you the most important points that we gained from studying the relevant articles and searching through different sources!
Mass customization refers to a customer co-design process of products and services which meet the needs of each individual customer with regard to certain product features.
Based on the problems that can occur when applying mass customization and the principles that should be followed in order to avoid them, we found two real-life examples of mass customization from two specific companies from different industries. We chose these totally different examples to show that mass customization can be implemented everywhere. Both Mini Cooper and m&m’s apply mass customization giving customers the opportunity to design the overall product based on their individual needs and preferences.
Consumer Value Creation 