NY Times has an extremely interesting article on the way companies are rejigging their business process to get more customer-centric - no, customer driven would be more precise. The article provides interesting cases of how one should get ready to recraft your marketing initiatives in the future:
Take for example open source footwear by designer, John Fluevog. Over the last few years, though, Mr. Fluevog hasn't just been presenting ideas about shoes and style to customers; he has also been soliciting ideas from them — encouraging brand enthusiasts to submit their own sketches for leather boots, high-heeled dress shoes, even sneakers with flair.
To date, the company has chosen nearly 300 finalists from the flow of sketches into Vancouver — and introduced 10 shoes based on customer designs. On the day Mr. Fluevog visited Boston, the Newbury Street store was selling five of the most popular customer-inspired models, including the Urban Angel Traffic, a walking shoe (retail price, $179) designed by a customer in Moscow, and the Fellowship Hi Merrilee, a vintage-style pump ($189) designed by a customer in Provo, Utah.
So is the case with Jones Soda. Mr. van Stolk makes his products more memorable by making their marketing more social. A key to the company's identity — what separates it from giants like Coke and Pepsi and keeps the buzz going among its 12- to 24-year-old consumer demographic — is its packaging on store shelves.Customers can even order a 12-pack featuring their own photographs — a form of Internet-enabled personalization that is the company's highest-margin business. The personalized 12-pack costs $34.95.
Jake Nickell and Jacob DeHart, co-founders of Threadless.com, based in Chicago, are developing an even more radical model of shared ownership with customers. ..designs in its huge online catalog all come from the company's customers, who submit their artwork to the site.
Visitors rate submissions on a one-to-five scale. The company selects five to seven designs a week and sells them for $15 apiece. Winners of the design competition receive $1,500 in cash and $500 worth of merchandise. Other customers earn points — good for store credit — for referring new buyers and for submitting photos of themselves wearing Threadless shirts.
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