Crowdsourcing determines likeability… not profitability
Ever heard of crowdsourcing? It’s when a company leaves it up to you, the consumer, to decide on something. A new feature. A new product line. Or even an entire business model. (Bonus points since it’s a brewing company.)
Here are some more examples:
Crowdsourcing has proven to be an extremely successful technique in some cases… Crowd sourcing gets your customers to experience your brand. Not only experience, but take ownership in it. When they take ownership, they become ambassadors for your brand… and those people can become invaluable. (Like the LEGO Ambassaors.)
But crowdsourcing can also backfire.
Think about it in terms of women… Ask a girl what they want in a guy, and I bet the description includes something like, “I want a guy who is smart, down to earth, and makes me laugh.”
Before you criticize me for not understanding what women want (which is totally true), think of your customers. If you’re crowdsourcing, you have a crowd of people making a decision based off of what? Based off of what they THINK they want… Unfortunately, what they want and what they THINK they want can be two very different things.
Check out this excerpt from Malcolm Gladwell’s TED Talk:
If I asked you what you want in a coffee, do you know what you’d say? Every one of you would say “I want a dark, rich, hearty roast.” That’s what people always say when you ask them what they want in a coffee. “I want a dark rich hearty roast.”
What percent of you actually want a dark rich hearty roast…? According to Howard, around 20-25%.
Most of you like milky wheat coffee.
Having people choose the next American Idol is much different than letting them pick the next product you release… Like the Mt. Dew example. On August 18th Dew will release which flavor won their crowdsourcing competition… SuperNova, Revolution, or Voltage.
I’m guessing that, no matter which product wins, the product is going to flop. People may vote and “love your product”… that doesn’t mean they will buy it.
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3 Responses
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Tom Humes
Thanks Tom!
LOL. I want a guy who doesn’t scream when he sees me covered in blood and manure from pulling a calf at two am!
But seriously so few people know what they really want either in the products they buy or the things that make up their life it is disturbing. A lot of consumers seem to have become a bunch of parrots that just repeat what they hear about the products and services available on the market. And you are so right that while they may say that it is what they want, it doesn’t mean that that service or commodity is going to be what they actually purchase.