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Master thesis Business Administration, Specialization: Strategy & Organization Supervisor: Prof. Dr. T. Elfring Joost de Boer Student number 1517597 preserved to customers only. For one, this involves the organization of castings where customers can become ‘the face of Company B’ in national ad campaigns. Further, customers are offered access to sneak previews of new advertisement campaigns and asked for their opinion. As the communications manager recalls: “At the moment that our audience really does not like a concept or commercial, it’s off the table and we design a new one. That has happened before’. Regarding the feedback that is provided to the participants of co-‐creation sessions, Company B’s employees indicate that they do not directly involve the participants in the entire process. “Most of the time we thank them, and go on. Sometimes they are rewarded by tickets for a launch party or something, but that is dependent on the content they provided us with.” However, participants are paid for their time if they participate in for example a ‘Club of Experts’. “But we do not pay people who provide us with feedback online – and we don’t have to. Most of our customers just think it is cool to provide us with their feedback, and do not directly expect something in return”. Table 4.4 illustrates how Company B involved their customers through co-‐creation during the phases of the NPD process. Figure 4.4 | Company B: types of co-creation and purpose in the NPD-process Idea Selection: Predefined benchmarks/ OGSMT Crowd of People: Testing/evaluation Market research Club of Experts: Idea Generation Internal development No co-creation used Crowd of People: Testing campaigns Idea generation Idea development Idea diffusion Results and measurement Dependent on the type and scope of co-‐creation that was used, participants contributed in introducing completely new ideas – some of the online services Company B offers its clients were the direct result of co-creation – but also in finding (critical) feedback and insights on both new and existing services and propositions. This is probably the result of having realistic expectations, and providing a clear focus and scope to the participants. However, the communications manager admits there is a need to be more consequent in the use of co-‐creation. “We have had co-‐creation sessions where we came up with good results, but then we failed to apply them in our business. Now, two years later, we see that these ideas have been lying around, without anyone picking them up. So we should be more consequent in using the results.” The measurement of results is not done by directly attempting to build a business case around ideas: “Co-creation is our way of working; we get targets and objectives, and we measure them by using KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators). Co-‐creation is our way to get there, and as long as it helps us in reaching our goal of becoming a more social brand, we will use it in our strategy” the brand manager explains. This especially counts for positioning of services or strategic plans, according to the manager acquisition, “But we of course also still have to earn money”. 41
Master thesis Business Administration, Specialization: Strategy & Organization Supervisor: Prof. Dr. T. Elfring Joost de Boer Student number 1517597 Encountered difficulties using co-‐creation Not everything is always co-‐created in Company B. During the interviews done for this research, it appeared that in some situations, customers are more or less explicitly not involved in decision-‐making processes. For one, this is due to the fact that the mobile operator market is heavy competitive. Therefore, not everything can be shared with customers. Using non-‐disclosure agreements can sometimes solve this, but that is not always sufficient. The brand manager explains: “In the past year, we have been copied multiple times, within the period of a couple of weeks after the launch of a new product or service. The market is watching us, and competitors are jealous about the freedom we have within this brand. […] So that is why we cannot be completely open, yet”. Second, it appeared that when sales tend to decline and/or Company B has to respond quickly to environmental developments, there is few to no time to consult customers. When business is declining, tough decisions will have to be made in order to survive. Despite the fact that customers normally are involved in multiple processes, it is a time consuming process. This also does not hold on when Company A has to respond to actions of competitors. A manager explains: “I think you can say that the more time pressure there is, the less time there is to co-‐create”. She continues: “I think that we are doing co-‐creation 0.1. When considering the way we collect insights from our customers, what should be the basis of marketing, we are now at co-‐creation 1.0 or perhaps co-‐creation 1.5. Beyond this marketing scope, we also still involve our customers in the things we do, but not on a day-‐to-‐day basis. That is why I say we are doing co-‐creation 0.1. It’s our challenge to become more proactive in order to reach co-‐creation the level of 1.0.” § 4.1.2 | Case Analysis: Company C Purpose of co-‐creation As a result of its B2B nature, Company C has always been working closely together with its clients, offering customized ICT-‐solutions that meet the diverse criteria that differ per client. However, the interviewees indicated that Company C has explicitly started using co-‐creation about two years ago. Its reasons to start with co-‐creation were (1) increasing their innovation speed, (2) creating new ideas and getting a broader perspective by involving other people and (3) creating a more innovative image towards their customers. Company C has organized three co-‐creation projects, each spread out over a period of a few months. These projects started with an internal session, where employees that were descended from different departments of the organization were brought together to identify a number of themes. These themes were concretized, and – dependent on its context – experts from inside and outside the organization were involved to co-‐create the themes into useful concepts. 42
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