Co-creation of Value - Collaborating with Customers [11]

[Co-creation is the purposeful action of partnering with strategic customers, partners or employees to ideate, problem solve, improve performance, or create a new product, service or business. Christine Crandell]

Customer focus no longer means just researching current and future needs to design expected or desire goods or service. A rising trend in business today is co-creating value with customers. Value is created when product and buyer come together within a particular use situation. Examples include retailers getting the customer involved in the shopping experience to save time (Home Depot’s self-checkout) or costs (IKEA’s assembly and delivery by customers), smart phone personalization through app selection, Dell’s online built-to-order computers, and management consultants collaborating with clients to add value in research projects. As the table below explains, co-creation of value has a dual emphasis on the customer and company as value creators. 

Value Creation and Marketing Opportunities

Marketing Strategy	Market Emphasis	Value-Creation Focus	Corporate Examples
Market driven	Established market	Customer	Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Toyota
Market driving	Emerging or imagined markets	Company	Google, IKEA, Virgin Group
Co-creation of value	Established, emerging or imagined markets	Customer and company (simultaneous)	Amazon, Apple, LinkedIn

Co-creation of value can lower costs and improve the overall service experience. A great example of the new co-creation of value model is illustrated in the case of Crushpad, a Napa-Valley based winery. Crushpad’s value proposition is “Make Your Own Wine” and has transformed their business through technology. Consumers can participate on a limited to a full scale basis depending on their interest in the wine-making process. Some activities that customers engage in include creating a wine-making plan; monitoring the grapes; picking, crushing and fermenting the grapes; and even packaging the bottles. Support services include party planning, advice on wine creation and business guidance on how customers can sell their own wine. Websites, blogs and community events help spread the word about this unique type of co-creation of value.

Here are 6 questions to address as your company ponders the idea of co-creation of value:
1. Do you strive to continually exceed customer expectations?

2. Does your view of value creation go beyond the firm (to include the customer)?

3. Do you actively seek to create an extended community of users?

4. Is personalizing the customer experience a major part of your marketing strategy?

5. Is your marketing team truly obsessed with researching and improving customer experiences?

6. Do you nurture and forge enduring business relationships with customers and collaborators?

This blog post is the 7th in a series extracted from Superior Customer Value – Finding and Keeping Customers in the Now Economy, 4^th Ed. (2019, Routledge Publishing/ Taylor & Francis). For further information contact Art Weinstein at artweinstein9@gmail.com, 954-309-0901, www.artweinstein.com 

From the New to the Now Economy ! [1]

[There are only two types of companies: the quick and the dead. Michael Dell] 

For more than 20 years, we have heard about the benefits, excitement, promise and impact of a digital revolution and a technologically-driven society. Concept albums by iconic rockers such as Radiohead (OK Computer), Rush (2112) and David Bowie (The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars) sung about the all-encompassing power of technology – for good and evil -- before the new economy was born. And, a half century ago, Rod Serling relayed ironic tech-based themes in his brilliant television series, THE TWILIGHT ZONE (e.g., Time Enough at Last, Third from the Sun, To Serve Man, and so many more spell-binding episodes).

In the 1990s, Internet pioneers such as America Online, Amazon, Cisco Systems, Dell, eBay, E-Trade, Expedia, and Yahoo! dramatically changed how consumers and businesses bought products and services in a 24/7 global market space. A seismic shift in the new economy has taken shape over the past ten years led by the FAANGs -- Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Alphabet’s Google. These digital leaders focus on speed, service, selection, sociability and solutions.

What has been the result of this 5-S transformation? Welcome to the Now Economy! Just as a toddler cannot possibly wait for a chocolate chip cookie and absolutely, positively must have it right now -- today’s consumers are equally impatient and demand immediate satisfaction. Hence, the rise of Amazon Dash, Fresh, and Prime; Apple’s iTunes; Couchsurfing; TaskRabbit; ZipCar; and a multitude of other “I gotta have it now!” business models.

Strategic differentiation combined with technology and consumers interest in choice has led to industry disruption. Marriott and Hilton have sure felt the effects of Airbnb in the lodging industry. Today, target marketing means segment-of-one personalization. Mass promotion has evolved into two-way dialogues with consumers and business users. Customer relationships lead to lifetime brand advocates. The new economy has morphed into the Now Economy!

The Now Economy is service dominant. This includes business, consumer, professional, and government services. Knowledge workers and the creative class turbocharge this economic sector. In addition, digital services (the platform economy) and consumer-to-consumer services have surged in the past 5-10 years. Realize that a strong traditional backbone of manufacturing, agri-business, construction, and infrastructure is still a key economic priority in industrialized nations. And, let’s not forget the trade segment (retail and wholesale), as well as the burgeoning e-commerce marketspace and the rise of smart products (e.g., appliances, energy regulation and the internet of things).

The 24/7 Now Economy is always-on and always open. Buyers will no longer accept shopping from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily and noon to 6 p.m. on Sundays. Online shoppers will expect their orders to be delivered immediately, within the next two hours, or overnight (not in 5-10 business days). Bricks-and-clicks business models allow consumers to pick up their purchases at a neighborhood store. Sub-par customer service will not be tolerated. Buyers expect to be wowed with amazing experiences and will not settle for yesterday’s ordinary store visits.

Here's an example of the Now Economy in action.

I recently dropped my dogs off at a neighborhood pet spa for one-hour grooming services. I visit the Target Superstore down the street to grab a cup of dark roast in the mini Starbucks. The café is sparsely populated but employees (mostly millennials) drop by to consume premium coffee and pricy pastries. Occasional shoppers, largely female, young and old of all ethnicities, stop by to get their caffeine fixes, too. The fresh produce section in the grocery department is right across from me, part of the one-stop shopping experience. A hundred or so yards away is the embedded CVS Pharmacy -- once a formidable competitor and now a strategic partner. Paralleling the unstoppable movement towards online buying, I notice very few shoppers in this cavernous establishment. Is it any wonder that H.H. Gregg, Sears, Macy’s and dozens of other retail leaders have closed stores or went out of business? (The death of retail is a very real threat in the industry). I get a text message from the groomer – it’s time to pick up Maya and Payton.    

The Now Economy is also about sharing and access. Users are bypassing traditional market structures and business channels to work directly with other consumers to solve individual problems – think about an Uber instead of a taxi. The redefinition of buyer behavior has spawned a vibrant consumer-to-consumer sector and impacts the future of work.

While most of us would love to be like Tim Ferriss, rich and only work four hours a week, such incredible wealth is unlikely. In the Now Economy, many individuals are turning to multiple entrepreneurial ventures to pay the bills to survive or thrive. Just as struggling musicians work hard and hope for that big break, many millennials (and others) are juggling multiple gigs such as driving for Lyft, creating apps, writing blogs, posting YouTube videos and starting innovative businesses as they seek the “big deal” and navigate their individual paths to success.

Consider:

 1. What impact does the Now Economy have on your personal life?
 2. What impact does the Now Economy have on your professional life?
 3. Is your company truly creating superior value in the Now Economy?
     If not, what strategic changes are called for?
 4. Identify 1-2 other companies that may ascend as a potential rival(s) to the FAANG giants.

This blog post is the 1st in a series extracted from Superior Customer Value – Finding and Keeping Customers in the Now Economy, 4th Ed. (2019, Routledge Publishing/ Taylor & Francis). For further information, contact Art Weinstein at artweinstein9@gmail.com , 954-309-0901, www.artweinstein.com .