“Do consumers want to design unique products on the internet? A ...

manufacturer handles the mass. If it is <strong>to</strong> be believed that <strong>consumers</strong> don’t <strong>want</strong> choice,
they <strong>want</strong> exactly what they <strong>want</strong> (Pine 1994) then they would have little reason <strong>to</strong> use
Threadless. There are a large number of make-your-own t-shirt providers such as
“Spreadshirt” (www.spreadshirt.com) or “t-shirt.com” (www.t-shirt.com) allowing the
users <strong>to</strong> upload their <strong>design</strong> and specify shirt colour, size etc. These cost the same or
fractionally more than Threadless t-shirts and in the case of Spreadshirt are dispatched
within 48hrs. The majority of barriers <strong>to</strong> pure MC identified in the literature or
conceptual framework have minimal impact in the t-shirt market, so why is Threadless
able <strong>to</strong> operate profitably and successfully? This its is suggested makes it an ideal case
study for what might happen when future technology removes the barriers <strong>to</strong> using close
<strong>to</strong> “pure” MC (see Lampel & Mintzberg 1996) in more complex <strong>products</strong>/services.
3.2 Research Approach
To research Threadless a case study approach was adopted. While only focusing and
researching one community a case study approach offers an opportunity <strong>to</strong> gain a deeper
insight in<strong>to</strong> a relatively unexplored phenomenon (Jeppesen & Frederiksen 2004). The
research uses different research methods <strong>to</strong> enhance the precision of conclusions by using
different data, but data related <strong>to</strong> the same phenomenon (Jick 1979). The research
comprised a questionnaire completed online amongst community members and two
different participant observations of the community.
A questionnaire was used as it allowed for further exploration of the emergent themes of
the action research but allows for drawing a broader consensus from the community in
Adam Fletcher – Do <strong>consumers</strong> <strong>want</strong> <strong>to</strong> <strong>design</strong> <strong>unique</strong> product on the internet.
2006
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