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My Starbucks Idea
Within five years, if youre in the same business you are in now, youre going to be out of business. - Peter Drucker The My Starbucks Idea website, where Starbucks does its business crowdsourcing, has been actively engaging customers for over 3 years now. It encourages customers to submit ideas for better products, improving the customer experience, and defining new community involvement, among other categories. Clearly, Starbucks has seen and believes what Peter Drucker has to say about business adaptability. Customers can submit, view, and discuss submitted ideas along with employees from various Starbucks departments Idea Partners. The company regularly polls its customers for their favorite products and has a leaderboard to track which customers are the most active in submitting ideas, comments, and poll participation.
The site is at once a crowdsourcing tool, a market research method that brings customer priorities to light, an on-line community, and an effective internet marketing tool. Why is Starbucks business crowdsourcing so effective? because they have combined the concepts of change, experimentation, social media, customer engagement and market research and made the results key components of their dominant brand. Have you given My Starbucks Idea a try? What did you think? Lots of ideas here that can be easily replicated which ones do you feel could benefit your business? How could you improve the My Starbucks Idea concept for your business More related reading from Digital Spark Marketings blog library: The Story of Two Roads Are You Aware of These Surprising Facts on Innovation? Do You Practice These Habits of the Highly Creative Digital Spark Marketing is skillful in creative marketing and customer service/experience design. Call us today for a free consultation we do our homework prior to meeting! For more reading on creative marketing, click here.
To be upfront about where we stand, yes we are great supporters of tapping into the wisdom of the crowd for many pursuits for citizen engagement, open innovation, or crowdfunding. That said, we realize that its important to be aware of the fact that there are risks to consider. This article is a response to the concerns raised by people we meet along an organizations path of considering crowdsourcing to fulfill a particular need for their organization or their constituents.
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To start, its important to get a few definitions out of the way in case you are new to the topic. For those with experience with these concepts, please bear with us.
What is Crowdsourcing?
Crowdsourcing is one of those concepts that have competing definitions. On one hand, crowdsourcing is an engagement method whereby organizations (such as cities, brands and entrepreneurs) seek input from
communities of people. These communities can be open or closed, homogenous or diverse. Participants are invited to contribute ideas, solutions, or support in an open process whereby the elements of creativity, competition and campaigning are reinforced through social media to come up with more powerful ideas or solutions than could be obtained through other means. Ideation is also used to as a term to describe this concept or process. Citizen engagement, open innovation and ideation are terms that are also used.
Crowdsourcing can also be defined as the division of labour by a distributed, multi-dimensional workforce, (sometimes paid sometimes volunteer), motivated to accomplish a set of tasks that combined together to achieve an overall goal or solve a problem. This motivation can be financial, reputation building, or part of being a good citizen of a particular community (ie. computer programmer).
In a Bloomberg Businessweek article, Crowdsourcing: Consumers as Creators, Paul Boutin writes: Crowdsourcing is a subset of what Eric von Hippel calls user-centered innovation, in which manufacturers rely on customers not just to define their needs, but to define the products or enhancements to meet them. But unlike the bottom-up, ad-hoc communities that develop open-source software or better windsurfing gear, crowdsourced work is managed and owned by a single company that sells the results.
To paraphrase von Hippel, it relies on would-be customers willingness to hand over their ideas to the company, either cheaply or for free, in order to see them go into production for the benefit of themselves and other customers.
Participant risk
The risks participants should be aware of include:
Privacy Make sure your information is secure and used by the intended party only. This includes personal and financial information. Checking to make sure the site you are visiting has SSL certificates active, does not redirect you to unknown URLs (web addresses), and is not asking for information that you dont feel comfortable giving.
Reputation Make sure you are dealing with authentic and transparent organizations. You wouldnt want to be involved with an organization that is up to no good away from the Internet; so being aware of who is running an online engagement makes sense.
Intellectual Property If you participate in a crowdsourcing or open innovation initiative, make sure the ideas or comments you contribute are your own and not taken from someone else that might be upset you were passing them off as yours. Ideas are open for everyone to contribute but some sites allow you to contribute product ideas that might have a financial reward associated to them and misrepresentation can get you into trouble.
Organizer risk
As someone who is looking at using crowdsourcing, the first thing to keep in mind is that whether you are a brand, a city, or other organization your crowd is already talking about you. A quick search of social media properties and traditional forums will give you the sense that for good or bad, people are talking about you behind your back. The risk of providing a place for this conversation to happen where you can monitor and benefit from it outweighs the risk of not doing so.
Question 1: What am I trying to achieve with this initiative and what is the reward? Question 2: Is the crowd I am trying to attract external (open) or internal (closed)? Question 3: Am I able to trust a vendor to take care of this risk or does my organization prefer to manage it directly?
For many organizations, crowdsourcing may seem too risky. This perceived risk can often get in the way of open innovation and crowdsourcing. In the article 2 Ways to Reduce Open Innovation Risk: Convert the Naysayers and Bring on the Seasoned Veterans, Jackie Hutter, IP Strategist, writes: In order to be successful (and not only have a single chance to try Open Innovation), one must be able to navigate the corporate politics that would stop the process, as well being able to minimize the risk associated with going outside for new product ideas. I think I have a solution to each of these concerns.
The Risks
As we discussed, crowdsourcing risks should be looked at with perspective in mind. The following table lists risk to all parties for two types of crowdsourcing initiatives.
The first type of crowdsourcing is that focused on open innovation the aspect that is the most commonly used in industry and is the basis for the first instances of using the crowd to complete tasks and come up with solutions to problems that are technical in nature. The second type focuses on using this methodology for engaging citizens whether it be a city, a province or state or country to not only solve problems, but also gauge support and refine solutions for a particular community based challenge. This could be policies, programs, etc.
Table: The risks of Crowdsourcing Crowdsourcingfor OpenInnovation Reduced internal capacity for innovation Crowdsourcingfor CitizenEngagement Lack of resources for proper management of campaign Gamification by special interest groups or individuals trying to rig the voting Confusion by the crowd caused by lack of clarity in campaign Participation is low due to lack of awareness of the engagement initiative Distrust among community caused by past experiences lack of followthrough by those running the
Gamification by special interest groups or individuals Controversy over IP ownership after idea is submitted
Confusion by the crowd caused by lack of clarity in campaign Originality of idea (relates to ownership mentioned above)
campaign in the past. Campaign for innovation is not set-up to allow the organization to respond in a timely manner Low participation due to lack of awareness of open innovation initiative The crowd stops participating due to the perception the organization is non-responsive to their input
Opening the corporate doors to ideas and inspiration from the collective crowd holds great potential, but there are pitfalls, warns Henry Chesbrough, executive director of the Center for Open Innovation at the University of California, Berkeley. To succeed, Mr. Chesbrough said, a company must have a culture open to outside ideas and a system for vetting and acting on them.
In business, its not how many ideas you have, he observed. What matters is how many ideas you translate into products and services.
employees. In the article 2 Ways to Reduce Open Innovation Risk: Convert the Naysayers and Bring on the Seasoned Veterans, Hutter writes: Because of this extreme downsizing, however, the experienced coaches and seasoned players are not on the usual playing fields; that is, they are not in the corporations where they learned their crafts (on someone elses dime). Moreover, many of thempresumably the best and most entrepreneurial of themare not sitting on the sidelines after being cut from the corporate teams for which they have been playing for many years.
Create contest type projects that have time deadlines attached to them.
In addition to these options, youll also want to develop a plan for handling submissions so that they are all reviewed in a timely manner. If needed, set deadlines and work backwards to figure out which activities you need to complete and when. This will help you stay organized and keep the crowdsourcing project on track.
For time-sensitive projects, crowdsourcing can be used to bring large groups of people and information together in a short period of time. Using social media to leverage your crowdsourcing project allows you to cast a wide net, reaching your crowd to solve a problem/find an answer.
Crowdsourcing focuses on small asks, where people often have an easier time of relating to the project or getting their head around it in order to support it to the level they wish. Reaching a wider range of people through crowdsourcing and social media often means that projects can be funded on time.
In conclusion, asking whether crowdsourcing is right for you after evaluating the risks and benefits is the natural question. You need to think about the main objective and ask if crowdsourcing is right for your organization. Here are some questions youll want to give some thought to:
Is your organization culturally open to input from outside there is no sense going down the crowdsourcing or open innovation path if your team is closed minded or will feel threatened?
Do you have the resources to investigate the ideas and innovation that come from the crowdsourcing process?
Does the presence, or not, of a reward for the winning idea change things? What is the risk associated with this?
Do you want to use internal development resources to create something from scatch or use an existing platform? If you choose to use a platform that exists, have you considered the criteria you might use to evaluate crowdsourcing platforms to make sure they contain the functionality you require?
Crowdsourcing risks shouldnt get in the way of enabling open innovation or citizen engagement at your organization. Using your crowd to solve problems is a great way to make your crowd feel included and empowered, helping boost brand loyalty. Crowdsourcing risks cannot go ignored, as wrong turns can have a negative impact on the success of your crowdsourcing or crowdfunding project.
By Paul Dombowsky
[1] Lohr, Steve New York Times 07/19/2007 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/technology/internet/19unboxed.html/ [2] Hutter, 2 Ways to Reduce Open Innovation http://ipassetmaximizerblog.com/?p=1092 [3] Boutin, Paul Bloomberg Businessweek Crowdsourcing: Consumers as Creators http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/jul2006/id20060713_755844.htm [4] Jackie Hutter, IP Strategist 2 Ways to Reduce Open Innovation Risk: Convert the Naysayers and Bring on the Seasoned Veterans http://ipassetmaximizerblog.com/?p=1092
Paul Dombowsky is the founder and CEO ofIdeavibes and the charity crowdfunding initiative Fundchange. Paul started Ideavibes after over fifteen years in marketing roles at various technology or related firms. His expertise with web marketing, social media, and marketing automation, as well as keen interest in how social networks are now influencing all aspects of product development and marketing, laid the foundation for building a lean web app company. Paul developed a particular interest in open innovation and crowdsourcing through his work with TELUS Communications and his experience supporting various nonprofits since graduating from Acadia University in 1990. Ideavibes as a company, and the platform, have been built though Pauls intent on collaborating with the best and brightest from all aspects of business, government, and the non-profit sector.
Lets talk crowdsourcing for a minute. In very generic terms, crowdsourcing describes work or funding thats gathered from a network of connected online participants. Think Wikipedia or Kickstarter. When applied specifically to marketing, crowdsourcing can evolve in any number of ways. It has the power to turn traditional product development and marketing concept development methods on their heads. Crowdsourcing lets consumers and aspiring ideators assume the role of the R&D expert. It even empowers brand fans to develop a products identity and marketing message. Crowdsourcing is a dynamic tactic for tapping into the strength of the masses. While generally used for consumer goods and rolled out to younger demographics, crowdsourcing is being leveraged by more emerging businesses and enterprises to tackle marketplace challenges. Organizations riding the wave of crowdsourcing are seeing shortened product and strategy development cycles, while spending less on traditional R&D and marketing resources. As case studies are analyzed and best practices continue to develop, Trellist has discovered a common misconceptionthat crowdsourced ideas are a last resort, culled only when theres a problem the insiders cant solve. Because we believe in the vast potential of crowdsourcing, we think its best used in the best of times. Rather than falling into the trap of reactive crowdsourcing, consider crowdsourced ideas as key elements of your overall communications and marketing strategy. Unleash crowdsourcing challenges when youre experiencing unprecedented sales or growth. Let crowdsourcing follow your brand or products aggressive growth arc and soon
youll see a bump in your social clout. After all, crowdsourcing participants are social influencers with large networks. The more ownership theyre extended in a crowdsourced action, the more likely theyll be to rapidly spread the good word about what youre up to. For a practical example of proactive crowdsourcing, take a look at Starbucks. Theyve created a crowdsourced community appropriately named My Starbucks Idea. To date, Starbucks has collected 85,184 product ideas and 30,776 experience ideas. Over 500 have been put into action. My Starbucks Idea is a caffeine-fueled think tank where like-minded members submit their thoughts, gain points for participating and use their status to influence others. By involving the crowd, the Starbucks brand grows even stronger and is positioned for long-term success. My Starbucks Idea is just one of many examples of enterprise crowdsourcing at work. Major players like General Electric, Amazon, EBay, Xerox and Panasonic are all experiencing success through crowdsourcing. Before jumping into the crowdsourcing pool, remember that consumers are savvier than ever these days. Theyre aware and theyre seriously connected. They know the difference between the spirit of collaboration and the scent of desperation. Whether youre trying to increase general brand engagement or fine tune a product or service offering, involve the crowd early, often and under sunny skies for ideal participation and results. In the end, knowing when to launch a crowdsourced action is only part of the success equation. Knowing what to ask your crowd for is just as important. Ill discuss that in my next blog post.