Customer focus no longer means just researching current and future needs in order to design expected or desired goods and services. Instead, a rising trend in business today is co-creating value with customers.
Value is created when a product and buyer come together within a particular use situation. Some 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), smartphone personalization through app selection and Dell’s online built-to-order computers are others.
Another is utilizing management consultants who collaborate with clients to add value in research projects.
Co-creation of value can lower costs, increase benefits and improve the overall service experience for both the organization and the user. As the table below explains, co-creation of value has a dual emphasis on the customer and company as value creators and is an applicable business strategy in a wide variety of market contexts. Airlines, supermarkets, supply chains, theaters, theme parks and retailers have all embraced co-creation of service opportunities through self-serve initiatives such as check-in, checkout, price checks, information/purchase kiosks and other technology enhancements.
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 |
A great example of the new co-creation of value model is illustrated in the case of Crushpad, a Sonoma, Calif., winery. Crushpad is a state-of-the-art winery where customers choose their level of involvement for small lot wine-making — typically 25 to 100 cases — based on their interest in the production process.
The company allows customers to develop wine-making plans, engage in hands-on activities, such as sorting, de-stemming, crushing, fermenting, pressing into barrels, labeling and packaging bottles, and even distributing and marketing the products. Wine enthusiasts, restaurants and retailers have co-created value with Crushpad, and as a result, the business has launched more than 150 world-class brands.
The rock music industry has also experimented with co-creation of value. Radiohead’s “In Rainbows” album was sold directly to more than 2 million consumers who paid what they felt the music was worth. The symphonic band Renaissance also raised more than $92,000 from 860 loyal fans to record a new CD called “Grandine il Vento.”
Innovation and creative collaboration allow the smartest — not necessarily the biggest — companies to win in the marketplace.
Here are six questions to think about 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?
Art Weinstein, Ph.D., is a professor of marketing at Nova Southeastern University and author of “Superior Customer Value: Strategies for Winning and Retaining Customers.” Visit his website www.artweinstein.com or reach him at [email protected] or (954) 262-5097.
