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Social Co-Creation and Product Development – A Systematic View

Guest post by: MediaAgility New York

Article Overview: Social Co-creation can be seen at all the eight stages of what is popularly being referred to as the New Product Development by marketing gurus. Let us take all these stages under three broad points and see how co-creation is vital at each level.

Social Co-Creation and Product Development – A Systematic View

In one of my erstwhile blog entries, titled “Understanding “Social Co-Creation” and its Role in Business Development”, I discussed about the concept of social co-creation touching various peripheries of product development, ranging from idea generation and idea validation, to opportunities assessment, and devising business strategies. While, apparently, it shed some light on employing co-creation in general, this discussion will stride deeper into the core of product development and various processes associated with it.

Co-creation can be seen at all the eight stages of what is popularly being referred to as the New Product Development by marketing gurus. Let us take all these stages under three broad points and see how co-creation is vital at each level.

Idea Generation and Screening constitutes the preliminary step in a product development life-cycle. An idea is originated using different management tools, such as SWOT and PEST Analyses, and taking several other factors, including market trends and consumer behavior, prospects, competitors, and the likes into account. During the process, several ideas are created and scrutinized on diverse scales and tiers. These ideas are weighed and analysed on factors like product suitability, size of the targeted market, profitability, technical feasibility, etc.

Clearly, this very inception of the product holds sheer significance, and this is where businesses can leverage the power of social media and co-creation. It’s sensible to rope-in social media users at both levels, and especially on the second one. It lets businesses corroborate the idea they have reached upon by listening to the very audience that will use the product. After nabbing a handy idea, comes the stage of

Concept Testing, Business Analysis, and Beta Testing, wherein companies develop marketing and engineering details. It’s at this phase the product is tested for patent and intellectual property rights related issues, consumers’ reaction assessment, decisions over production costs, viable selling price, sales volumes, are to be made. While concept testing confines to the organizational premises, business analysis and beta testing can be done exploiting the social media. You don’t have to search out the test-groups for carrying out beta testings. Instead, you’d just need to call upon your social media fans and followers for taking the bid. You can further extend this exercise to decide selling price and have a better idea of consumers’ reaction to it. On the basis of the beta feedback, it’s time to move on to

Technical Implementation, Commercialization, and Revisiting the Product Pricing. Close liaison with your prospects makes it easier for you to introduce technical improvements and implementations, such as ensuring logistics, resource estimations, putting apt quality management systems in place, among others. However, it further gives you an extra edge at the time of product launch, and planning out brand promotion campaigns for this. Since your audience would already be aware of your offerings, you can influence their discussion and leverage word-of-mouse marketing thereof. Subsequently, it will also place you better to revise product pricing by performing a rather concrete value analysis, both internal and external, juxtapose competitive technologies, and most significantly examine the impact the new product would have on your entire product portfolio.

With the benefits of tethering your audience directly into the development of the product they want to use, you’ll save resources you’d otherwise waste in reaching out to the audience. Co-creation has become more than essential in this volatile economic environment. It lets you adopt bottom-up approach by letting you deliver the product your consumers want.

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Article Tags: Beta Testing, Brand Promotion, Business Analysis, Business Development, Business Strategies, Commercialization, Concept Testing, Concrete Value Analysis, Engineering, Idea Generation, Idea Validation, Juxtapose Competitive Technologies, Leverage, Logistics, Marketing, PEST Analysis, Product Develeopment LifeCycle, Social Cocreation, Social media, SWOT Analysis, Technical Feasiblity



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