Interband considers 3 factors in assessing “brand value”: the brand’s financial performance, its influence on customer choice and the strength of the brand relative to competition.
With this in mind, the world’s top 10 brands may come as no surprise - Coca Cola, Apple, IBM, Google, Microsoft, GE, McDonald’s, Intel, Samsung, Toyota. Each iconic brand has carved its own distinctive path to brand differentiation.
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But did you know that 9 out of 10 of these top brands have used crowdsourcing to help them get there?
The world’s top brands use crowdsourcing to help build brand value. This age of digital technology keeps us connected to friends, families, work, and even our favorite brands and stores 24/7. It’s an age in which businesses who do not actively engage with customers are quickly forgotten.
Crowdsourcing has become one of the most effective ways of cultivating this connection between individuals and brands. Crowdsourcing not only enables individuals to actively engage with a brand, it provides businesses with an opportunity to tap into the knowledge, skills and creativity of a massive network of potential brand advocates.
Design Crowdsourcing, Can It and Has It Worked? These Big Brands Think So
The world’s top brands use crowdsourcing to collect feedback which improves their existing products and services.
How do brands collect feedback with crowdsourcing?
Microsoft has used crowdsourcing to gather feedback and A/B test changes to its Bing search product for years. Using Lionbridge, crowdsourcing has become a critical way that Microsoft collects user input for product development in a broad and scalable fashion.
Google uses crowdsourcing to help fill in the gaps left by conventional approaches in Google Maps. Currently, Google is collecting data from citizens of North Korea to increase the accuracy and completeness of its local maps.
Crowdsourcing also generates new ideas. In addition to capturing feedback on existing offers, crowdsourcing has helped the world’s leading brands drive product innovation.
How do brands use crowdsourcing in product innovation?
IBM has been using idea “Jams” since 2001 to crowdsource potential product innovations. The Innovation Jam in 2006 involved over 150,000 people from around the world. These Innovation Jams ultimately led to 10 new IBM businesses being created, for which, roughly $100 million in seed funding was raised.
Last year (in 2012), McDonald’s tapped their German customers to create new product ideas using an online burger creator. Roughly 300,000 new recipes were created and over 5 million people voted for their favourite, culminating in the launch of the Pretzelnator.
In 2010, Toyota asked the public for ideas on using Toyota auto technology to benefit society. Only this month GE announced a partnership with Quirky to crowdsource ideas for new consumer products. The deal will see GE share the revenue of any new products directly with the inventors themselves.
Crowdsourcing can turbo-charge marketing efforts, providing companies with the ability to tap the skills and creativity of people that the business might not normally reach out to.
How do brands use crowdsourcing in marketing?
When Coca-Cola wanted some fresh ways to market their products last year they turned Eyeka, a co-creation platform, to generate new advertising creative. The project yielded over 3,600 film, print and animated creatives, with the winning entry used to advertise the product throughout Asia.
Earlier this year, Samsung teamed up with top fashion designer Alexander Wang on a unique marketing collaboration to showcase their product innovation. Wang produced a new handbag design from crowdsourced images taken on Samsung’s new Galaxy Smartphone.
Similarly, Intel recently crowdsourced videos to promote their new ULV processors. Contributors created brief 30-60 second videos posted to YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Two winning videos were awarded $5000 each – a fraction of the cost of typical product launch advertising.
Crowdsourcing works. You don’t need any further proof than this.
This post was written by Chris McNamara, DesignCrowd's Chrief Operating Officer. It first appeared in Crowdsourcing.org.
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Written by Jo Sabin on Monday, December 22, 2014
Jo Sabin is Head of Designer Community at DesignCrowd. She's led the company's public relations and social media programs since 2012. With more than ten years' experience working with Australian and international tech startups in the creative industries, Jo has been instrumental in meeting DesignCrowd's objectives in Australia and abroad. Get in touch via Twitter.
