Co-creation

Consumer co-creation refers to research methods that involve end users in developing ideas and concepts for the client to commercialise. These include using social media, online communities, workshops, discussion groups or in-depth interviews.

In co-creation workshops, a group of consumers or users are typically invited to participate in a collaborative workshop with researchers and client representatives. Here ideas can be bounced around quickly, generating ‘live’ insight to guide ideas and thinking, and allowing the consumer output to be generated and experienced possibly first-hand.

Co-creation can also be undertaken online via online communities. They can be a good way to encourage ongoing dialogue within your community, elicit fairly detailed responses from a fairly large number of geographically dispersed customers, and allow individuals to play off each other to generate more and better ideas.

A company can also use its existing social media platforms to gather ideas from engaged consumers about by posting questions and starting debates on topics of interest to elicit their feedback and suggestions.