Co-creation van Heineken en Krups
Co-creatie van Philips en Sara Lee
Inhoudelijk worstelen wij nog een beetje met het Co-creation fenomeen. Niet qua toepassing want dát doen we regelmatig. De vraag waar wij mee worstelen is: Waar hoort Co-creation thuis?
In onze optiek leidt Co-creation namelijk veelal tot de ontwikkeling van nieuwe óf de verbetering van bestaande producten en diensten. Dús hoort Co-creation thuis bij product-development zou je zeggen.
Het enige raakvlak dat Co-creation processen met Online Marketing hebben is de factor ‘Online’. De meeste Co-creatie processen gebruiken immers het internet als Sharing Knowledge platform… Dat is dus wél ‘online’ maar daarmee nog géén ‘marketing’.
Pas als je de consument bij de lading, de vormgeving en de ontwikkeling van je merk betrekt, ook wel ”Collaboration” genoemd, hoort het in onze optiek bij Creative of Online Marketing thuis. Maarja, dan is het dus Collaborative Marketing en géén Co-creation.
Om de verwarring compleet te maken zijn er dan ook nog stemmen die Collaborative Marketing zeggen terwijl ze Fusion Marketing bedoelen. Bent u er nog? Misschien wordt het tijd voor een jargon-woordenboek.
Voordat we de ‘wat is’ vraag beantwoorden eerst nog even onze excuses aan de auteur, Martijn Pater. We hebben namelijk nogal stevig de schaar gezet in zijn Co-creation whitepaper om dit document terug te brengen tot de volgende bulletpoints:
Co-creation, what is it?
- Co-creation is a ‘hot’ topic.
- We define co-creation as the practice of collaborative product or service development: developers and stake-holders working together.
- Co-creation is a form of Open Innovation: ideas are shared.
- Co-creation is closely connected to – and mentioned alongside – two other buzz-words: ‘user-generated content’ and ‘mass-customisation’.
Opening-up can be scary: most companies hesitate to share ideas and strategies with people that are not on their pay-roll. Quite a natural reaction, but in the end it’s the results that count: new products, new profit pools, new ways of thinking, new energy.
# Two central dimensions that define types of Co-creation:
- Open-ness: Can anyone join in or is there a selection criterion somewhere in the process?
- Ownership: Is the outcome and challenges owned by just the initiator or by the contributors as well?
# 4 Types of Co-creation
Club of experts
The ‘‘Club of Experts” style of co-creation is best suitable for very specific, time-pressured challenges that demand expertise and breakthrough ideas. Quality of input and chemistry between participants are key to success. ‘No-box’ thinkers are the ones you want to have in any project.
Note; Prospective heeft voor vrijwel iedere sector op afroep zo’n ‘Club of Experts’ beschikbaar. Prospective noemt dit overigens heel ouderwets; ‘DenkTank’.
Crowd of People
Also known as “Crowdsourcing”, this form is all about the Rule of Big Numbers: anyone can join. There often is a marketing and seeding component/objective attached to the process.
Crowdsourcing ‘unleashes the power of the masses’, but often takes longer – and you’re not sure that the best people will (want to) contribute.
Example: Nokia. Frontrunner when it comes to using lead users, experts and beta testers.
Coalition of Parties
In certain complex situations, a “Coalition” of parties team up to share ideas and investments. Each of the parties brings a specific asset or skill to the party.
Example: Heineken / Krups > ‘Beertender’. The the first true innovation in beer packaging in 10 years time.
Community of kindred spirits
The “Community” form is most relevant when developing something for the greater good. This model – so far – works mostly in software development and leverages the potential force of a large group of people with complementary areas of expertise.
Example: The Linux open source operating system software was developed by users for users. The software code is free to use and owned by nobody.
Successful co-creation initiatives tend to have a number of characteristics in common. We’ve analysed and clustered them into the following:
# 5 Guiding Principles in Co-creation
Inspire participation
Trigger people to join your challenge: open up and show what’s in it for them. People tend to be more involved than you might think. People care about the products, brands and companies around them…
Understanding why people participate is only one thing though, creating the right atmosphere to achieve results is another. It is essential to offer an open and transparent environment where people feel welcome to contribute to your challenges.
Example: Alessi has a long-standing history of working with designers. Next to working with acclaimed ones (e.g. Philippe Starck) it also invites groups (200+) of pre-selected designers to be working with them on the next generation products.
Select the very best
You need the best ideas and the best people to deal with today’s complex issues. In crowd-sourcing you want the best ideas to surface & survive: screening is key.
How do you decide who belongs to the 1% you want as participants? What makes them special? What makes them a team? Since Team chemistry is essential and diversity is key.
Example: Innocentive is a platform where scientists and other experts are gathered to solve tough scientific challenges. The track record is impressive: 30% of all problems posed are solve by the 100.000 or so scientists who signed up to be part of it.
Connect creative minds
Enable bright people to work together and find that ‘spark’. Co-creation only works when the ‘Co’ is very well executed and you capitalise on the talent that is gathered. Synchronicity (all participants resonating at the same wave-length) within a structured, constructive dialogue is what you need.
Drop the ‘Us vs. Them’ approach. Holding back information, covert research attempts and hidden agendas are forbidden. Co-creation needs the best environment to create, share, respond to and improve on ideas. Clear rules and guidelines are needed in this process.
Share results
‘Giving back’ is crucial… There should always be something ‘in it’ for the contributors too. Money, status and recognition are examples of ways to reward valuable contribution. And: keeping participants informed of progress and developments!
Example: The Apple iPhone App store is a platform on which 3rd parties can develop user applications and set their own price. The profits are shared, 70% is for the developer, 30% for Apple. 1 billion downloads so far, and counting. Co-creation was part of all Apple’s latest successes (iTunes, iPod) and now also drives the iPhone App store success.
Continue development
Co-creation only delivers when it is a longer-term engagement. The link made with the outside world should be leveraged in all steps of the process.
From a contributors point of view, when you have created something, you want to see what happens to it.
Example: P&G started a company-wide initiative in 2002 called Connect & Develop: it invites people and companies from outside P&G to innovate with them: P&G offering the scale and expertise, outsiders offering great ideas. “Proudly Developed Elsewhere” is one of their new claims. 50% of new products should come from outside the company.
# 4 Areas of Value in Co-creation
Direct results
The direct result of a cocreation is the economic value generated by these new introductions.
Example: Marktplaats.nl. One of the products developed in the co-creation project was a new feature that allowed people to put an ad for their product into an ‘other category’. This relatively simple product has so far generated revenues 10 times the investment that went into it.
Direct spinoffs
Some results cannot be measured in terms of profit, but create enormous value. Co-creation can trigger a lot of other things that one would not have imagined – or dreamt of.
Example: Amazon has become the largest book review site. The value of the reviews is hard to express in profit (you don’t earn money through it) but they are seen by Amazon as a corner stone to its success.
Future results
A successful new product introduction can generate a snowball effect within a category.
Example: The Senseo coffee machine collaboration by Philips and DE has created a revolution in the coffee category: easy individual home use of coffee. Since its launch in 2001, 25 million Senseo coffee makers have been sold worldwide. It has also resulted in pads being the main coffee packaging on shelf in some countries and it has also smoothened the path for Nespresso as the more premium system. Philips is now venturing out into adding more features (fresh milk) and Sara Lee adds tea and other drinks to its pads portfolio.
Future spinoffs
Some future spin-off effects are not so cut and dried. Who can predict what the side-effects will be of certain actions?
Example: Internet has had direct results in terms of content sharing and consumption. A spinoff of this change was the way we share, buy and experience music.
Amazon: Readers have turned the largest bookstore into the largest review database in the world
Philips and Sara Lee Senseo: it has changed the way we drink and buy coffee.
Tot zover deze samenvatting uit het white paper van Fronteer Strategy, Martijn Pater. Het complete paper vindt u op www.fronteerstrategy.com
Van harte aanbevolen
Voor actuele co-creation activiteiten van Sara Lee, Mora, Vodafone, ABN-AMRO en anderen… een aanrader: www.ReDesignMe.com
“No matter who you are, most of the smartest people work for someone else” (Joy’s law). Rooftop is an expert co-creation tool. www.welcometorooftop.com
The 4 Areas of Value in Co-creation model is part of the impact mapping method ™ of Butterfly Works, an inspiration-driven social solution and design agency: www.butterflyworks.org
